Janice Gassam Asare, an author and organizational diversity, equity, and inclusion consultant explained; “The idea of mutual aid is built on this idea that all of us at some point in our lives will need help,”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Charity, however, was fundamentally created to rely on a hierarchy. People in the organization are above and the people in need are below. Creating a distinct social gap, and could be seen as people pitying others. Saying that there is no way that the people “above” could ever go through what the people “below” are going through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mutual aid could be compared to, a friend having your back. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Charity could be compared to, Jeff Bezos donating money to hungry kids in Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Real Simple Magazine notes; “Mutual aid has emerged as a counter to this dynamic; it’s assistance that highlights dignity, swapping out a top-down mentality for a shoulder-to-shoulder approach that also acknowledges our collective vulnerabilities in our current systems”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Sad Reality<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Cortland County is the poorest county in New York, and one of the poorest in the whole country. 3.61 thousand out of 15.6 thousand people live below the poverty line, which is 23.2% of the population of Cortland. That number is higher than the national average of 12.8%. The largest demographic living in poverty are Females 18 – 24, followed by Males 18 – 24 and then Females 25 – 34.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n As a student, you may feel like there is little you can do to help. Having your own shortage of snacks in your dorm, however, even one bag of chips could help someone from starving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Food Cabinets can be found at these locations!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Screenshot provided by cortlandmutualaid.org<\/em><\/sub><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n Along with Food Cabinets, Cortland County Mutual Aid runs the “Really Free Market”, they describe it as, “… a free bi-monthly distribution of food, personal care items, and household supplies. You can take as much as you want and we will never ask you to “prove” your need”<\/em>. The market is held on 181 S Main Street<\/strong> from May to October<\/strong>, and on 32 Church Street<\/strong> from November to April<\/strong>. They are open on every 2nd and 4th Tuesdays, from 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm. There are no sign-ups required, so it is open for everybody. However, masks are mandatory!<\/strong><\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Stay safe Red Dragons, someone will always be there to help you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The picture is from https:\/\/www.cortlandmutualaid.org\/really-free-market.html <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":277,"featured_media":1751,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","entry"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2023\/02\/ccmafreemarket12_orig.jpeg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2023\/02\/ccmafreemarket12_orig.jpeg","author_info":{"display_name":"Anna Corbo","author_link":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/author\/anna-corbo\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/277"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2023\/02\/Poverty-amp-Diversity-1024x462.png\")
How You Can Help as a College Student<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2023\/02\/Screen-Shot-2023-02-25-at-6.27.40-PM.png\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n