Summer of Solutions Hartford is a youth leadership nonprofit organization in Hartford run by Black, queer, disabled and nonbinary femmes. As the children of formally incarcerated people, we have built an analysis on the needs of marginalized communities by addressing those affected by intergenerational oppression due to food apartheid, policing, and anti-Black racism.
Our goal is to address these issues through radical love, our community garden, food pantries, and through social justice initiatives that include abolition, antiracism, and using our platform to educate the people about Black empowerment and identifying abusive power structures.
In short, we’re just gangstas feeding the little homies!
In this COVID-19 pandemic we have seen a spark in a modern day civil rights movement. On the front lines Black, brown, and indigenous people of color (BIPOC) are dying at a disproportionate rate due to coronavirus and at the same time still experiencing state sanctioned violence that is police brutality. In these times it is important to change policy that creates barriers for Black people through systemic racism, protest the legalized murder of Black bodies, and to sustain Black life.
We know that through food, education, protecting water and the environment, and protecting our young, disabled, elderly, and marginalized we can work toward liberation and Black empowerment. It is our goal as a radical, intergenerational, Black-led organization to follow in the footsteps of people like Georgia Gilmore, Fred Hampton, and Assata Shakur to create real, lasting change in our city.
In addition to providing employment to young people through our internship program we have provided hundreds of meals for low-income families that include prepared meals, groceries, and food from our Pink Pantry located at 566-576 Zion Street in Hartford. We have started a Feeding The Hood Mutual Aid initiative to provide additional aid to BIPOC families for food and other expenses and are now looking to expand our pantries to neighborhoods beyond Frog Hollow all across Hartford.
The movement cannot move without food and people power, so please help us spread the word and give what you can!
Black Lives Matter. Mutual aid is a continuous effort. It requires regularly scheduled donations to keep it running. We expect to reach our goal not through one-time donations but by receiving an ongoing redistribution of resources that folks continually have coming in.
A donation to Mutual Aid goes directly to our community. For additional information please contact Tenaya Taylor hartfordetc@gmail.com.
Tenaya Taylor is an organizer for Summer of Solutions Hartford.