Stock Thugs and Palette Jacks
I know it's been awhile since my last update...so much has happened over the past 2 weeks...more stories, much sadness, joy, laughter and discussion in this small community that has formed on a piece of pavement below sea level.
I've hit day 23 of my time here and am feeling pretty burnt out. Part of that has to do with my role as Inventory Girl a.k.a. Stock Thug, which involves stacking, restacking, unstacking and taking inventory of everything that comes into the organization in the form of donations and procurement. So I spend my days moving palettes of food around, making sure the cooks know where everything is and counting....lots of counting. Much of our food is still being donated by such relief organizations as Islamic Relief, United Methodist Committee on Relief and various local food banks, companies etc. We have 2 refrigerator trucks, 2 freezer trucks and various tents storing all sorts of food. This is a big operation and considering we are up to serving roughly 1500 meals/day, all of this is needed.
Emergency Communities is also in the business of supplying smaller relief organizations in the area that don't have access to as much food. This is either because they have taken a political stance in the community and therefore receive less support or because they are not a big enough organization to procure large quantities of food(check out www.commongroundrelief.org).
It has been especially important to procure as much food now as supply lines are drying up and we'll need to start buying most of our food in the next couple months. In fact, Red Cross is pulling out of the area because the disaster is apparently over and New Orleans is rebuilding. Needless to say, that really isn't the case in St. Bernard Parish and the Ninth Ward. There are now 8,000 people returned to this parish out of 65,000 but darkness on the streets still prevails and the likelihood of a grocery store in the area any time soon is a distant reality. I just spoke to a woman this evening that has to drive 20 miles to the nearest Walmart in order to get milk. In addition, numerous residents are still waiting for their FEMA trailers and every day we get requests from residents in the area to camp on our site because they have nowhere else to stay. Unfortunately, we can't help them as our tent space needs to be reserved for on site volunteers as our numbers keep growing.
The government response has been a source of frustration and anger. The other day I went to an event hosted by FEMA entitled "Louisiana Speaks". It was an attempt to obtain opinions from the residents on how they want to rebuild their community. I walked into a clean, shiny modular trailer located in the parking lot of an abandoned Walmart and was directed to listen to a 3-minute long talk by the Louisiana Governor about how my opinion mattered and that New Orleans was rebuilding. I was then instructed to prioritize on post-it notes what I thought were the most important aspects of the reconstruction effort. Of course, I was more of an observer than a participant but it was interesting to see the responses: "higher levees", "close MrGO (Mississippi River Gulf Outlet)", "better schools", "safer communities". My skeptical self had a hard time imagining that a bunch of post-it notes on a wall would evolve into some concrete project or action, considering at least 6,500 FEMA trailers have yet to be set up for residents on a waiting list.
I miss the woods and beautiful places...not to say that what is being built here isn't beautiful. The coming together of activists, rainbow kids, and anarchists with mostly conservative, Christian residents is definitely an opportunity to create a community space that is unlike any other. It is a chance to come together not based on politics and lifestyle but based on what is necessary and important to all of us - food. However, it's hard to have as your view every day the destruction of houses and the toxic debris littering the field in the back of my tent. Yesterday morning I was given a reprieve when a friend of mine and I went to the French Quarter for hot chocolate, coffee and beignets at Cafe Du Monde. There are parts of New Orleans that remain the same, a history that didn't get flooded and remade....and there is still so much beauty, in the people, the music, the landscape...
Enough for now, I hope all is well. Abrazos, Kareen
I've hit day 23 of my time here and am feeling pretty burnt out. Part of that has to do with my role as Inventory Girl a.k.a. Stock Thug, which involves stacking, restacking, unstacking and taking inventory of everything that comes into the organization in the form of donations and procurement. So I spend my days moving palettes of food around, making sure the cooks know where everything is and counting....lots of counting. Much of our food is still being donated by such relief organizations as Islamic Relief, United Methodist Committee on Relief and various local food banks, companies etc. We have 2 refrigerator trucks, 2 freezer trucks and various tents storing all sorts of food. This is a big operation and considering we are up to serving roughly 1500 meals/day, all of this is needed.
Emergency Communities is also in the business of supplying smaller relief organizations in the area that don't have access to as much food. This is either because they have taken a political stance in the community and therefore receive less support or because they are not a big enough organization to procure large quantities of food(check out www.commongroundrelief.org).
It has been especially important to procure as much food now as supply lines are drying up and we'll need to start buying most of our food in the next couple months. In fact, Red Cross is pulling out of the area because the disaster is apparently over and New Orleans is rebuilding. Needless to say, that really isn't the case in St. Bernard Parish and the Ninth Ward. There are now 8,000 people returned to this parish out of 65,000 but darkness on the streets still prevails and the likelihood of a grocery store in the area any time soon is a distant reality. I just spoke to a woman this evening that has to drive 20 miles to the nearest Walmart in order to get milk. In addition, numerous residents are still waiting for their FEMA trailers and every day we get requests from residents in the area to camp on our site because they have nowhere else to stay. Unfortunately, we can't help them as our tent space needs to be reserved for on site volunteers as our numbers keep growing.
The government response has been a source of frustration and anger. The other day I went to an event hosted by FEMA entitled "Louisiana Speaks". It was an attempt to obtain opinions from the residents on how they want to rebuild their community. I walked into a clean, shiny modular trailer located in the parking lot of an abandoned Walmart and was directed to listen to a 3-minute long talk by the Louisiana Governor about how my opinion mattered and that New Orleans was rebuilding. I was then instructed to prioritize on post-it notes what I thought were the most important aspects of the reconstruction effort. Of course, I was more of an observer than a participant but it was interesting to see the responses: "higher levees", "close MrGO (Mississippi River Gulf Outlet)", "better schools", "safer communities". My skeptical self had a hard time imagining that a bunch of post-it notes on a wall would evolve into some concrete project or action, considering at least 6,500 FEMA trailers have yet to be set up for residents on a waiting list.
I miss the woods and beautiful places...not to say that what is being built here isn't beautiful. The coming together of activists, rainbow kids, and anarchists with mostly conservative, Christian residents is definitely an opportunity to create a community space that is unlike any other. It is a chance to come together not based on politics and lifestyle but based on what is necessary and important to all of us - food. However, it's hard to have as your view every day the destruction of houses and the toxic debris littering the field in the back of my tent. Yesterday morning I was given a reprieve when a friend of mine and I went to the French Quarter for hot chocolate, coffee and beignets at Cafe Du Monde. There are parts of New Orleans that remain the same, a history that didn't get flooded and remade....and there is still so much beauty, in the people, the music, the landscape...
Enough for now, I hope all is well. Abrazos, Kareen
posted by Kareen at
7:20 PM
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