Ear­ly on in the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, a group of com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers formed the Win­nipeg MAS, which came togeth­er with the aim of help­ing those in need that were strug­gling amidst the chaos, based on the time hon­oured prin­ci­ples of mutu­al aid. Mutu­al aid projects are a form of polit­i­cal par­tic­i­pa­tion in which peo­ple take respon­si­bil­i­ty for car­ing for one anoth­er and chang­ing polit­i­cal con­di­tions. The group has grown rapid­ly and now counts more than 11, 000 mem­bers.

Over the last 20 months, the Win­nipeg MAS has run a num­ber of suc­cess­ful pro­grams, includ­ing the Serve the Peo­ple Ini­tia­tive, a pro­gram start­ed to help get food to homes expe­ri­enc­ing food inse­cu­ri­ty or to assist peo­ple who strug­gled to get them­selves to oth­er pro­grams pro­vid­ing food because of trans­porta­tion bar­ri­ers. Over the sum­mer, they also ran a mas­sive dona­tion effort to pro­vide air con­di­tion­ers and fans to those try­ing to stay cool!

If you’re look­ing for food assis­tance or able to offer some­thing you no longer need to some­one else con­sid­er post­ing in the MAS Win­nipeg Face­book Group.