Three worthy causes and a delicious beverage
Monday reading #6
Monday Reading is my weekly recommendation of something I’ve found thought-provoking or fascinating. Please share with anyone who might like the vibes!!
Refreshment
Everyone knows a delicious beverage is not a reading recommendation. What my newsletter presupposes is maybe it is.
I need you to know about the best iced coffee product money can buy: Cool Brew, a coffee concentrate made in New Orleans that I have been drinking for years. I am not a paid Cool Brew influencer, but I absolutely would be if they ever asked. It’s delicious—the regular flavor, anyway, has chicory in it, as all delicious New Orleans coffee should—and a bottle makes 16 SERVINGS. It is vastly, vastly cheaper than making iced coffee from beans is. It’s carried nationally, including at the Fresh Market chain. In Chicago, I get it at the Foodsmart on Armitage. But you can also order directly from the company, which ships M-W.
Because New Orleans is entirely too small, I once turned the bottle over to read on the back that they donate their grounds to a local ecologically friendly landscaping company that … got started with a loan from my little brother.
Go forth and drink Cool Brew! Thank me later.
Three worthy causes
The demise of Twitter is a big problem for a lot of grassroots organizations that rely on the site for fundraising. I wanted to highlight three that you might consider supporting.
Survived & Punished NY commissary fund
Survived & Punished is a network of survivor-centered organizing groups that support criminalized survivors of violence. The New York chapter is raising money for its mutual aid programs, which “suppor[t] incarcerated survivors of gender-based violence through sustained commissary support, care packages, visitation, and communication.” They are $30,000 away from their summer fundraising goal.
Mississippi Reproductive Freedom Fund
MRFF is a Jackson, MS-based a reproductive justice group that funds abortions. Right now, they have to close the fund for August because they don’t have funds to disburse to applicants.
Based in Western Mass, WCIIA is a “mutual aid, harm reduction, political education, and organizing group led by stimulant- and opioid-using low-income, survival, or street-based sex workers.” They have just gotten back to their pre-COVID programming and are always in need of your donations. As you can see from the GoFundMe, the group has raised nearly half a million dollars since 2017, but it’s all gone to month-to-month expenses.
Which grassroots orgs are you supporting these days? And where do you get your iced coffee??
See you next week!
P.S. if you’re not a “paid subscriber” kinda guy but maybe a “lil tip once in a while” guy, I got u. Or u got me, I guess. Whichever!