Tucked in the corner of The Body Electric Yoga Studio is one such bin, but this collection spot? It has an unusual list. Alongside the more common items donated to agencies assisting with hurricane relief — think batteries, diapers and non-perishable food items (get the full list of common goods needed below) — the list here includes some "angel" items — items that cost more than a few packs of batteries.
One of the students at The BE — Ellen Zitani — volunteers with a Tampa-based national organization, Mutual Aid Disaster Relief, a grassroots organization that helps underserved areas in the wake of a disaster. MADR co-founder Jimmu Dunson explains how the organization works — and why it's seeking respirators and Tyvek suits.
"There's this term, unnatural disaster," he says. "It represents how, due to social, economic and political disparities that exist, prior to the storm or the fire, they're [underserved communities] an ongoing disaster. With that added vulnerability [of Hurricane Florence or another natural disaster], they struggle to survive."
MADR seeks to help the financially poorest members of disaster ravaged communities. In eastern North Carolina, that means they're offering assistance to migrant farmworkers and other poverty-stricken victims of Hurricane Florence.
"We don't claim impartiality or neutrality," Dunson says. "We know that there are historically marginalized communities; they've been neglected and ignored, time and time again, after disasters. So we connect with locals on the ground and help facilitate people's ability to meet their own needs."
Indeed, MADR's home page has the tag line "Solidarity Not Charity" emblazoned on it.
Right now, Dunson tells Creative Loafing, MADR is distributing water, food and other supplies to migrant farmworkers from a base of operations in Wilmington.
"There's a number of larger farmworker camps in eastern North Carolina," he says, "We've been going to them. Some of their [the migrant farmworkers] employers left, but the farmworkers were at the camps without food and water. So we organize [getting] food and water to those folks."
That's what the items on the common list are for. But what about that higher-price-point list, called the Angel list?
The angel list is for cleaning flooded homes after the floodwaters recede," Dunson says. "There's a lot of safety concerns."
Without the proper safety gear to clean a water damaged home, workers — in this instance, those underserved communities — can come in contact with bacteria, mold and other byproducts of storm damage that can make them ill or kill them. Often, migrant farmworkers may not be able to rely on insurance money to hire properly trained contractors to make repairs and must make the repairs themselves — and take the risks.
In addition to a local collection spot — more on that in a bit — anyone can purchase items from MADR's Amazon wish list for North Carolina; Amazon will ship the items to MADR volunteers in North Carolina. Locally, St. Petersburg's The Body Electric will accept donations off either list until 5 p.m. Wednesday, when Zitani will drive the donations to MADR in Tampa. Thursday morning, a truck will leave MADR headquarters for North Carolina, where volunteers will get the supplies to those who need them the most.
"Floridians, we know what storms can do," Zitani says. "We have to help each other."
Here are both lists of what MADR needs for migrant farmworkers and underserved Hurricane Florence victims in North Carolina:
Batteries
Flashlights
Lanterns
Water
Pedialyte
Gatorade
Non-perishable food
Diapers
Baby wipes
Cleaning supplies
N-95 respirator
P-100 respirator
Tyvek suit
Mold-resistant goggles
Tools (all kinds needed, and used is more than OK)
Generators
Drop off items before 5 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 19 at The Body Electric, 3015 7th St. N., St. Petersburg
This article appears in Sep 13-20, 2018.