July 2nd Waukesha Mutual Aid Network Community Meeting Notes

• Brant got access to the website from Fen and will be setting up a contact list. Amethyst will transfer the old list from Proton mail.
• The t-shirts are here! (And they’re great.) Brant will bring them to the next event for distribution.
• Amethyst is working on the newsletter/zine and people are welcome to contribute. We’ll be working on it at the Type In on July 25.
• Type In July 25, big library room reserved from 9:30-2. Amethyst got a message from a high school English teacher who wants to do a writing workshop at the event. We are also working on writing prompts – suggestions welcome!
• The July food share will be at the same time as the Type In, but outside again. We’ll need enough volunteers to support both the inside and outside events, so please come if you can!
• Future of food shares: We agreed the outdoor location at Cutler Park  location wasn’t great – not high traffic, but there was for the bike repair event, so maybe it’s a matter of promoting it. There were a few people who came and mentioned seeing the event on Facebook. While there weren’t a lot of people at the last event, Brant noted that the people who did come were those in need. Ashley suggested we pick a park pavilion we could do the same all the time, year-round (harder on us but could be easier to reach people who need it). Amethyst talked with the library community coordinator, Andrea, who was willing to book us out well in advance (more than we can currently) and set up a standing day/time – Amethyst will ask about the second Saturday of the month because we like alliteration. We would have to change our time for actual library events. Amethyst will also ask about whether we could set up tables in the parking lot for food shares, like the Girl Scouts do for cookies. We still can’t use the kitchen but can serve food as long as we clean up well. We also talked about pop-up events, like Maureen does with Stone Soup.
• Marketing/promotions: We still need to schedule a marketing team meeting, please join the marketing group on Discord if you want to join. Facebook posting is doing well, but flyers seemed to help a lot with the bike repair event. We should also work with other groups to promote our events. Mary Jo will reach out to some of the groups we met with at the library’s community resource fair earlier this year. We could also offer to share flyers or promote events for other groups. Olive noted we had events coming we wanted to partner on with other groups, like the raffle. We can also share flyers at community boards at Kwik Trips, Woodmans, St. Vinnies, the Hope Center, the food pantry and churches (more ideas welcome). Amethyst can make more flyers that we can share – online versions are always on the Discord.
• Amanda from Healing Hearts of SE Wisconsin came and is interested in working with us. Healing Hearts is a grief support group; they offer a free dinner then support groups (kids by age, adults based on type of loss). They meet at the First United Methodist Church. They have lost a lot of families who are scared about ICE and they are trying to find ways to get back into that community. Healing Hands is having a family event with NAMI at the end of July, an ice cream social with reptiles. Healing Hearts would also like to have a table at our upcoming events.
• Amanda suggested doing outreach with churches and possibly doing a table at Friday Night Live (though unsure about costs). We could just pass out flyers but might seem like a cult. We talked about doing other things downtown and Olive noted that the Downtown Business Association has asked in the past not to give out things to the unhoused community, so that’s not a great option (but Plowshare has the food pantry).
• Add community resources to the website – Ashley pointed out 211 isn’t great, and we had previously talked about putting together a resource list.
• Mike suggested we create a volunteer list that we can reach out to when we need volunteers. We could also build a volunteer database, we’d talked at one point about creating a google form where people could write in what they need help with and/or what they could help with.
• Lauree brought up trying to get the Farmer’s Market to take EBT, the Brookfield one does and Waukesha does accept senior vouchers and WIC checks. She met with people at the market and they said they are trying, but she asked that people contact them to request it/see if they need help. Abby Gallamore (marketmanager@waukeshadba.com) and Kristy Janet (marketadmin@waukeshadba.com)
• Amethyst wanted people to know about the Waukesha Maker Space, which has 3D printers, laser cutters and other materials. We could partner with them on skill shares.
• Anti-ICE: Olive suggested we could deliver food to families if Helping Hearts knows families who need that support. Ashley is working with Voces de la Frontera and is on the dispatch list for verification – at the moment that’s the main activity. She can reach out to Voces but it would be good to have a specific thing we could offer. Grocery shopping or food drip off, maybe rent assistance. People don’t necessarily want strangers coming to their houses so maybe distribute through churches.
  New ideas & upcoming events
• Brant noted more people have asked for hygiene items at the food shares, so please bring those if you can, and we’ll feature hygiene items (soap, toothpaste/toothbrushes, feminine hygiene, etc) at the next food share. Sunscreen and bug spray.
• Ashley suggested we have information on voting at the next food share, and will reach out to Susan who is part of the League of Women Voters.
• For August food share, Brant suggested we focus on back to school items.
• For September, we’d previously discussed doing a zucchini-themed event, 20 things to make, with samples and recipe cards.
• There had been a request for a camping gear swap (at the bike repair event) and we thought September could be a good month for that.
• Winter clothing in October (not general clothes – coats, mittens, etc.)
• Brant would also like to do disaster prep lists before winter.