It's Pretty simple really
It is Free BBQ on Mondays, Thats it! Well, and also so much more.
Who this distro is
This disto is a community of friends and neighbors who believe that everyone should have access to fresh, nutritious, and delicious food. In order to be a part of the solution, this distro has provided a hot meal every Monday night at 6:30 for the past 3 years. In the beginning this distro was just dinner but, as the community grew, the distro also started distributing harm reduction and self care items. This is very much a pot luck style distro, so the resources that this distro has is what folks bring to share. This can include clothes, snacks, camping gear, hand warmers, or so much more. This distro is made up of people just like you, who care about the community around us and decided to take action, direct action!
Who This Distro is Not!
This distro is not a group, organization, affiliation, charity, or any other amalgamation that could be categorized as an association. This distro is not politically, religiously, or ideologically aligned. This distro doesn’t believe in hijacking radical language in order to gain clout, using the folks that come to this distro as a marketing ploy, or that feeding your neighbors should be anything more than common practice.
A comment on Mutual Aid:
Mutual aid is the community wide effort and goal of meeting of each others needs through collectivism and sharing. It can be lateral within a community or utilized horizontally in order to help break down power structures. While Mutual Aid is vital for a strong healthy community, it predicates the need for an existing community and a multi-directional path of sharing. Mutual aid is not uni-directional, although the beginning foundation often looks that way. Within the communities we (larger society) find ourselves, we all practice the concepts of mutual aid. Our Monday BBQ, however, is not mutual aid; it is horizontal wealth redistribution and survival resource sharing. This is the intersection of community building and mutual-aid. While our BBQ serves a wide selection of the larger Denver population, those individuals are each members of discreet, micro communities that they most likely participate in mutual-aid with. As a BBQ, we don’t specifically have our needs met by the individuals who eat at this dinner.
So how do we work?
Simply put, this distro is supported solely off of donations from the community. When we started, the majority of the cost came out of our pockets. As time went on and people became involved, the share of the cost has been spread out across the community. 100% of the donations that are received are put right back out into the community. This distro prioritizes purchases based on the amount of donations or resources that are available. With food as a constant need, any extra is allocated fo purchase harm reduction, toiletries, self-care, and seasonal survival items (i.e. hand warmers, ponchos, electrolytes) as needed. The current weekly grocery bill for dinner is roughly 360.00 a week to feed 225, including utensils and to-go packaging. That’s $1.50 a person! Outside of the main dinner items, folks will bring sides, desserts, or other items to share. In the end, it is one amazing feast and community share, open to all and barrier free!
So how do we work?
The best way to stay updated to what the BBQ is up to is to follow us on Instagram or just come down and have dinner. Free BBQ Mondays is always on the corner of Colfax, Park, and Franklin at 6:30ish on Mondays no matter the weather. You can also reach out via email, although it may take longer than a week to respond, because of life, you know.
Contact
Email: free_bbq_mondays@proton.me
Instagram: @fqmondays