We all have those meals - there’s nothing like my momma’s cooking - and we want to recreate that feeling as much as possible. We want to feed them food that they recognize and that makes them think of home. We don’t want to feed people any old thing. The okra was used as sustenance as a way to feed ourselves and our community. The okra seed would be woven into our hair when we were abducted and taken to this continent during the transatlantic slave trade. The okra has long represented solidarity within the Black community. Why is it important to have culturally specific meals in terms of what you provide? ![]() This is sort of a further endeavor: While we are not able to go to homes, we can bring them some peace of mind, bring our people peace of mind. Part of that work has always been to make sure that our people feel comfortable with who is working with them, who is serving them and making sure that all those folks are Black and trans. We’re not just feeding bellies we’re about feeding souls. Our work in many ways has always been about mental health. So we switched our focus to the Nina Pop and Tony McDade mental health recovery funds, which hooks Black trans folks up with one-time, 100 percent free mental health therapy sessions with Black therapists. With COVID, we were no longer able to do that work. Our original founding was on the principle of hiring black trans chefs to go into the homes of Black trans people and cook healthy, home-cooked, culturally specific meals. Anyone who is Black and trans has a right to ask for what’s theirs.Ĭan you tell me about the programming? It started with providing meals, but it’s grown. We’ve always said the money of the Okra Project is the money of the community. We are redistributing into the community. We’ve wanted to have as much control to determine how this goes and how this money is used. While changing what our outside looks like, we have intentionally avoided seeking 501 c3 status because we recognize that the nonprofit industrial complex comes with many twists and turns. ![]() As an organizer, how is it operating on the local level when the narrative is often these big nonprofits?Ĭertainly, we have grown over the past month in a very real and tangible way that’s required us to figure out how best to maintain who we are at our core. It just turned into something much larger than that.ĭevin Michael Lowe of the Black Trans Travel Fund also told me his individual goal grew into this large project. I was searching for a way to give back from a place of love and kindness. I was recognizing my own privilege to be able to go home to a family that largely supports me as me. What spurred you to start the Okra Project collective in 2018?
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