It’s a wrap: July Supply was a success!
Throughout the month, we organized 4 events that served 5,248 individuals and 1,422 families with 28,470 pounds of food and a variety of hurricane preparedness and relief supplies and information.
If you’ve been following our work over the years, you know that we choose what, where, and how we distribute our resources with great intention. July Supply was no different.
We are proud to have worked with Culture Aid NOLA to distribute, over time, intentional and informed Hurricane Kits to predominantly BIPOC families who are already food insecure.
Doing it this way increased support for some of our neighbors who need it most – while decreasing the neighborhood disruption that larger one-time distributions can often create.
By the end of July, each family who stopped by every week had ultimately received a well-rounded Hurricane Kit that included:
- Weekly fresh food and dry goods, including snacks and fun treats for kids
- High quality power banks to charge phones and USB devices like fans, emergency radios, and flashlights
- Cool Kits, including a reusable thermal bag, instant ice packs, and instructions on how to keep medicine and breastmilk cold through a power outage or while evacuating (in Vietnamese, Spanish, English)
- Waterproof Kits, including boot covers and heavy duty waterproof envelopes with a checklist of important documents/items to keep safe (in Spanish, English)
- COVID-19 supplies, including masks, face shields, at-home tests, and hand sanitizer
- Additional items to boost their Hurricane Kits, including 7-day candles, buckets, drawstring bags, bug spray, flashlights, whistles, water bottles, ponchos, liquid soap, first aid supplies, and more
- Fact-checked information, including IWW’s Hurricane Season Checklist and New Orleans Community Resource Guide, NOLA Ready’s hurricane guides (in English and Spanish), and Imagine Mutual Aid flyers to get folks plugged in before a storm hits
No barrier to access. No signups or IDs required.
Thank you, Culture Aid NOLA for the opportunity to pair IWW’s lived and trained experience in disaster preparedness with CAN’s experience in food operations and distribution.
This is what’s possible when we move with trust and act in solidarity.
*We are seeking funding for this event, and others like it, in 2024. Please email klie@imaginewaterworks.org if you or someone you know may be interested in supporting.
Additional resources by IWW for Hurricane Season:
- 2021 Hurricane Season Guide
- Imagine Mutual Aid (New Orleans) Facebook Group
- COVID-19 Guide to Hurricane Season
- Storm Prep Q&A (on Instagram, activated during named storms)
Learn more about our work via WWL, NOLA Eater, and more:
- “NOLA Community Organizations Focus on Hurricane Relief as Power Outages from Hurricane Zeta Continue” [NOLA Eater]
- ‘It gives me hope’ | New Orleanians help Hurricane Laura evacuees in the Crescent City [WWL]
- Hairstylist forced from home by Laura offers free cuts to evacuees in New Orleans hotel [WWL]
- For Hurricane Laura Evacuees, Food Is Often Served Cold. This Mutual Aid Group Delivers Appliances to Help. [NOLA Eater]
See our Imagine Mutual Aid group in action via WWL’s Devin Bartolotta: