District 6 City Councilor Ben Weber talks with Jamaica Plain community members at an event distributing nearly $5,000 in community-raised funds to local food justice initiatives, Jan. 22. The funds were raised through an effort by JP Fights Back, a social justice advocacy coalition, in a push in November that was focused on education around immigrant rights and raising support for food access.
Community members, elected officials and organizers from a local social justice advocacy and mutual aid coalition assembled Jan. 22 at Jamaica Plain’s Heal the Hood People’s Free Store. People filled the long, narrow shop, packing in between stacked cardboard boxes, bottles of Powerade, and cartons full of carrots that matched the store’s orange walls.
They were gathered to see the coalition, called JP Fights Back, present nearly $5,000 in community-raised donations to support four local food justice efforts, and Heal the Hood, a “free store” in Jamaica Plain where community members can get food, clothes and other essential items like diapers at no cost, was one of the recipients.
Such support “means everything,” said Derrel “Slim” Weathers, Heal the Hood’s executive director.
“Thank you for eliminating suffering in our community,” Weathers said. “Like I always say with JP, when all of us come together, can’t nobody mess with us around the world.”
The other three organizations receiving an equal share of the funds were South Street Tenant Task Force, Southern JP Health Center Food Pantry and the Food Justice Program at the Center for Faith, Art, & Justice. The funds came out of an effort in the fall, when the Trump administration attempted to withhold dollars through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
“In the face of uncertainty, we chose prioritizing unity over chaos,” said Annie Rouseau, cofounder of the political advocacy group JP Progressives and a member of JP Fights Back, which was previously known as JP Organizing. “Our aim was clear; to build a community response through engagement and education.”
The community push generated $4,976 in donations. Representatives of the organizations that received the donations say the funds will support access to mobile food markets, like the one through the YMCA of Greater Boston, the operation of local services for food pantries and providing meals to community members.
“We recognize that what we do in the community … feels like a lot when you’re in the middle of it, but it’s really just one piece of what everybody is trying to do to alleviate food insecurity in the city of Boston,” said Rev. Daryn Stylianopolis, board chair of the Center for Faith Art and Justice, which is run by the First Baptist Church in Jamaica Plain.
The effort was supported by District 6 City Councilor Ben Weber, who represents Jamaica Plain, at-large Councilors Ruthzee Louijeune and Julia Mejia, and the neighborhood’s state representative, Sam Montaño. They hailed the effort as a demonstration of what a community can do for its members.
“This work is about community care, and there is no greater calling in this work — in this life — than for us to be each other’s keeper,” Louijeune said. “It’s always about people.”
Organizers said this round of financial support was just the beginning, with more funds set to be distributed as more donations come in and JP Fights Back works on other new initiatives, including those focused on supporting immigrant communities.
Enid Eckstein, a local community organizer and one of the organizers of JP Fights Back, said they were looking to build a coalition, not just bring together individuals, after seeing surges of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents last year in cities like Los Angeles and Chicago and after the Trump administration brought 2,500 National Guard troops to Washington, D.C. The group has already brought together 25 organizations — from immigration-focused groups like JP Immigrant Rights Action Group and the Brazilian Women’s Organization to others including the Hyde Square Task Force and the Boston Teachers Union — to join in its efforts.
In November, the coalition led a community education and fundraising push to distribute 10,000 flyers to nearby homes. The handouts had information about what to do if ICE showed up in the neighborhood and included a QR code to donate money for food access efforts. Community members at the Jan. 22 event also pointed to the local effort as an example of a spirit of communal support they said is patent to Jamaica Plain.
“Here in JP, we have a long history of organizing and doing something about it,” said Weber. “I don’t think anyone can watch the reckless violence and hate we’ve seen from ICE and the Trump administration in our immigrant communities and against observers and protesters all across the country without wanting to do something.”
And it could serve as an example elsewhere.
“We’re still locking arms with each other and standing up for one another, and it is a model that every neighborhood needs to grapple with and embrace,” Mejia said.
