Desiree Joy Frias has been on both sides of food distribution for people facing food insecurity. When she gave birth in March 2020, South Bronx Mutual Aid helped her stay safe as the pandemic spread. “I was trapped in my house with my newborn, husband, 84-year-old grandmother on immunosuppressant drugs and I had just had a C-section,” Frias says. “Strangers brought me groceries, my grandmother’s medication, baby items when we couldn’t go out safely.”

But Frias, a queer Afro-Latinx organizer, also works as a campaign director of The People’s Bailout, a Bronx-based organization advocating for housing, health care and food needs. Every day, she sees the stigma around food insecurity. “Everyone feels hunger, so why do we shame people for asking for food?” she asks. “Make them wait in line for four hours, show an ID card, meet criteria?”

Frias’ work challenges the current “charity models” of food distribution, including canned food drives, soup kitchens and food pantries. “There’s enough food for everyone,” she says. “Why do we need to give people a bag of food without letting them choose what goes in it?”

According to Frias, food insecurity is a community problem that disproportionately affects LGBTQ2S+ people. Among queer and trans adults in the United States, about 27 percent have experienced some form of food insecurity, according to a 2017 Gallup Daily Tracking Survey; that’s 10 percent higher than the general population. Read more Xtra