We’re fundraising $3000 for Donor Diapers before their next diaper giveaway on May 17. My former student Marissa Turner-Harris is the founder and driving force behind Donor Diapers. The mission of Donor Diapers is to supply families with free diapering supplies. Each month they distribute free diaper kits to families in the Charlottesville area. Each kit has 45 age/size appropriate diapers and wipes. Each kit can last about 2-3 weeks, greatly relieving the financial strain for the family. Each family can get a kit for each child in their household; other services will only supply one child per family. Donor Diapers serves 75 families each month– about 100 children. The support that they provide make a huge difference in the financial and health prospects of each family.

Venmo: Tzars_Mommy
Cashapp: $TzarsMommy
Zelle: mtharris434@GMAIL.COM
paypal:mzrizz434
Mail Check to Marissa Turner-Harris 402F Garrett St Cville VA 22902 — Make check to Virginia Organizing with “Donor Diapers” in the memo line.
Donor Diapers also accepts diapering supplies. Call 434-214-0345 or email donordiapers@gmail.com to arrange pick up/delivery.
On Facebook: facebook.com/donordiaperscville

Marissa and I met almost 12 years ago when she was in high school. Marissa is a funny, smart, driven young woman. Marissa joined CLAW and wrestled as “Handy Mandy” and the “Diaper Lady” with a natural stage presence and ribald, naught humor. Marissa is always juggling, always hustling. As I was thinking about the past few months and what’s she’s being doing– she’s been doing Donor Diapers, taking the CIC class, had fundraised for her trip to Winneba with our sister-city program, parenting Tzar, and partnering with Tevin. Then I remembered!! Marissa had heart surgery this spring!! She’s crazy busy, crazy inspiring, crazy excellent. Please support this amazing specimen of humanity.

March 24 Leni Sorensen Food Historian Leni Sorensen talks about home provisioning– especially during a pandemic!

April 7 Leni Sorensen Leni talks about supply chain and meat production

April 14 Haiku Slam Password to view b3&2**E@ The first zoom haiku slam!!

• Supporting and Building Community– This came from a conversation from Michele at Bellair, just checking in how she was doing and what needs she and the farm had during this challenging year. I’ve known Michelle for a while at a distance– now she joins the growing list of people with whom I work with. Each of you have built community with me by trusting that I will be a responsible steward of your financial gift. I am excited by the further building of community that will happen as I and others coordinate and distribute the weekly share. Working outside of a nonprofit structure (mostly– see more below)– we can work without titles or tax status. We can see a need, and work toward a solution. Nonprofit structures require boards for governance and accountability. I rely on you and our community to hold me honest and accountable. Anti-Racist Principles of Reparations and Redistribution of Wealth– While not all of our donors are white, the majority of resources (land, formalized power, housing, money, food access, transportation access) in Central Virginia remain held and controlled by white people. The families that receive the weekly shares will be Black and Brown people for the purpose of sharing the wealth that many of us enjoy in local, organic food from CSAs. This work was not insignificant, but we have much, much further to go in assessing and redistributing the wealth we have access to in equitable ways. I hope that this will be but one step for each of us in investigating the resources that we have access to, and how we might do more to share them recognizing our privileges. Minimizing fees and overhead– By using Venmo and PayPal, we collectively avoided the fees that GoFundMe and other platforms use. Individuals can give up to $10,000 as a gift to another individual annually without the recipient having to pay taxes on the gift. So thank you for contributing to the community gift of produce to families. Mindful use of resources– I believe in seeing and appreciating all resources that our community has. Mindful, generous, and equitable application and management of financial resources is a critical (albeit, but one) part of resource redistribution.  If you are able to file taxes in such a way to itemize charitable deductions, and would therefore like a tax receipt letter of your financial donation, please let me know by responding to this email. I am fortunate to have an Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which allows me to accept charitable donations. This terms of this MOU include a 5% administrative fee. Additional funds were raised to cover this anticipated fee, so PLEASE do ask to give through this model if you will likely itemize deductions, but if you won’t itemize deductibles, you don’t need this letter. If you are not sure, wait– we have until the end of the calendar year. 

Hi friends, 

There is a real need to make sure that our local farmers are able to adjust to these new market conditions so that we can ensure that we continue to have local produce and meat available in our region. 

I am fundraising $7000 to have 20 shares available to local families. Bellair Farm is generously providing these shares at a 50% rate– so we are able to feed one family with local produce for 20 weeks at $344.

This solves an administrative problem for Bellair. I (and some yet to be identified teammates) will distribute the food to the 20 families for the summer, reducing Michelle’s and team’s load as they transition to the new distribution model the coronavirus outbreak requires. 

Within 2 hours of launching of this, enough money has been raised to support one family for the summer. This is a reminder that we do not need committees, or nonprofit status, or bureaucracies to keep our community safe. We simply need trust, a will to action, and a willingness to share our resources. Instead of, or in addition to, please contact me with:

• Other farms/farmers that have identified needs to be satisfied
• Suggestions for families that could use and benefit from this produce
• Questions about how I am selecting families

Thank you very much. Thank you for all that you are doing to keep community safe.