Mutual Aid

Interview with Spring Council

  • Excerpt from Interview with Spring Council

    Q: Tell us about how the Mildred Council Community Dinners started.

    A: They started with Nerys Levy, a customer of Mama Dip's. And we met her through the restaurant. She got together with my mama (Mildred Council). They decided it would be great to do this community dinner to bring the diverse people in the community together over a meal. And the idea was to make it affordable so everyone could come. The ticket started at $5 for adults and then $2 or $3 for kids. I think now it's up to about $7.50. And we, Mama Dip's, usually make the main courses of that meal, and then the Carolina Inn helps with that main course. And then other restaurants help too. A group of Jewish ladies got together to make kugel from the church. Other restaurants, such as Chinese restaurants, Mexican restaurants, and different ethnic restaurants, will bring food to whatever school or cafeteria has an auditorium. We have volunteers to serve the food. I was always responsible for most of the food brought in, making sure we kept it at the right temperature, setting up the buffet line outside the cafeteria, and making sure the volunteers knew when to ask for what they needed. We have someone in place to take all the food out, who is pretty much responsible for the production of the community dinner. They also gather together different musicians from different ethnic backgrounds to do the performances. And so, it's all about coming together as a stranger and leaving with a friend. And it's still going on after 23 years. So, it's great! Last year, they changed it from the Community Dinner to the Mildred Council Community Dinner to honor my mom. But this year, it started last year.

    Q: That's really beautiful. I mean, part of me is thinking about what it takes for a tradition like that to last 23 years. So would I say I feel like the way Black people gather, there's something in it that we can learn from. This is what I mean, so when you think about this tradition that's lasted for so long, why do you think it worked? Or why do you think it works and why do you think it’s still going?

    A: The commitment to it. And I know Nerys every year, she always comes to us because we're an important part because we make the main food and so our commitment, and we'd be at the meeting. And then, Nerys may say, Spring, are we gonna do it again this year? Y’all gonna participate this year? Whatever Mama wants and we're gonna get it done. And so, I think it's a very important part of the community to do this community dinner. That's why I participate every year. It's really hard work, because every year, it’s oh gosh, the community dinner is coming around again. But I just go in and get the job done. And it's fun because you get to meet different volunteers and people coming to the dinner, and just see people come together and work really hard to put together such a great and social event.

    Q: What kinds of things do people like when you get feedback about it? What do you hear like? What kinds of things do people tell you about it?

    A: The food was delicious. That's the main thing and they love the fact that they can get so many different types of cuisines at the event, and then the music. They love the music from the Mexican music to jazz and gospel singing. So, they include it all in that.

    Q: How many people actually come? What's the range of guest attendees over the years?

    A: At the height of it, 750.

    Q: Oh my gosh.

    A: And this year we took it down to… I think she took it down to 500 because of Covid things, and making sure people are ready to come out. But yeah, 750 is at the height of it.

    Q: And is all the food donated? Are you having to basically, do you all have to fundraise for this?

    A: She gets some funding from the county. Far as the food goes, pretty much, she’ll pay the restaurant the cost, maybe $2,000, for what we make. Of course, there's a couple of costs, and then we ask our vendors to donate for that. And then the only people that we pay, sometimes, we have to pay some staff to come in to help out in the kitchen. But pretty much is all volunteer, it's all volunteering people donating the food.

Interview with Sarah Davenport

  • Excerpt from Interview with Sarah Davenport

    Q: Tell us about the mutual aid arm of the work you do.

    A: The organization I work with is Blue Trunk Community Network. They were Blue Trunk Garden Network, but they changed the Community Network to encompass the mutual aid aspect and like disaster, recovery and things like that. So that's one of the things that we do is disaster recovery. When last year we had Hurricane Ian, we just throughout the year, just have stockpiles of things, or whenever the organization gets grants, we'll purchase like stockpiles of diapers and food and all those kinds of things. The organization has a storage unit. So, if people are you know, in a situation. They can just email, or they can write on Facebook or Instagram or go through an anonymous form and just say, hey, like, I need this and this and this, this month, and we can get that to them. But the biggest thing is, we are partnered with Central Florida Mutual Aid, which is like a broader, like mutual aid group that was started by just like regular folks. Nobody's paid to do it. It's not like a formal group, but it's a huge mutual aid group that started on Facebook and has grown like pretty big now. 

    So, we work through them, too. So, like sometimes if somebody contacts Central Florida Mutual Aid and we're able to help them. We'll do that, or we’ll cross post information like that on social media. They rely on like, you know, social media donations and things like that as well. But the biggest thing is just like securing grant funding to have stockpiles of things. So even, you know, every year we do the food drives, like the big food drives. We get a grant for that and then throughout the year, just anybody who needs something. It’s led by folks that, you know, also are benefiting from these services as well, too.