Windham County Action Network (WeCAN)

     This week's Weekly Email Update includes new events focused on observing Disability Awareness Day 2021, discussing Parenting 4 Social Justice, orienting new members at The Vermont Workers' Center, talking about healthcare with Ady Barkin and Becca Balint, meeting Delegate Lashrecse Aird from Virginia, and speaking up against anti-Asian violence in our communities, amongst others.
     Please take a moment to scroll through to the end of this newsletter and make a plan get involved this week: your talents and time are desperately needed. We look forward to seeing you at an event, in person or virtually, soon!

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HAPPENING TODAY, SUNDAY, MAY 9th, 2021

Abenaki Recognition and Heritage Week
presented by the Ethan Allen Homestead Museum
Saturday, May 1st, 2021 at 12am-Sunday, May 9th, 2021 at 11:30pm
For tickets, please click HERE.
The Vermont Indigenous Heritage Center (VIHC)  presents an all-encompassing online film festival during Abenaki Recognition and Heritage Week; May 1st-9th, 2021.  They will take you on a startling journey through 12,000 years -- of old, new, mundane and extravagant stories and realities of the ancient, historical and modern Abenakis and their Neighbors.  Our settler partner, the Ethan Allen Homestead Museum is helping the VIHC to make the festival available to the Public.
This event will provide 20+ hours of instruction in Abenaki History, culture, and ecology.
You will be sent a link via email the day before the festival begins. The Link will take you to a private website which will contain all of the videos, watch some, watch them all! The site will be taken down on May 9th.

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Weekly Community Conversation with Rep. Emilie Kornheiser
Sunday, May 9th, 2021, Online. 11am.
Please sign up in advance for this meeting and we’ll send you an email with the zoom link. https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEtce-grD4rGNxo9FEE3R8zKpRSj_qBTz03
Emilie Kornheiser, State Representative for Windham 2-1, invites you to join her weekly community conversations: every Sunday at 11am. We’ll talk about what’s happening in the legislature and in our town. Open conversation format-- come for the full hour or just stop by for a few minutes to share a particular concern or question.

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HAPPENING THIS WEEK, MONDAY, MAY 10th, 2021-SUNDAY, MAY 16th, 2021

Everyone Eats! 
Monday, May 10th, 2021-Thursday, May 13th, 2021 at the C.F Building (80 Flat Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 4pm-6pm. Masks required. PLEASE DO NOT ARRIVE EARLY.  If you have any questions visit https://www.brattleboro.com/everyoneeats/ or contact Frances Huntley [email protected]. Organizational ordering information is listed under our Free and Nutritious Food in Windham County section further along in this email. 
Everyone Eats! is a program which will distribute meals from Brattleboro restaurants to anyone in need who lives in Brattleboro, Dummerston, Guilford, Putney, or Vernon, free of charge, through December 11th. There will be 850+ meals/day available Monday through Thursday to serve our community during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pick up for individuals will be at the C.F. Church Building at 80 Flat St in Brattleboro and group/institution orders can be picked up at Mama Sezz in West Brattleboro. All meals are available Monday-Thursday between 4pm and 6pm until supplies run out.
If you have extra produce from your garden, there will be a wheelbarrow you can drop it off in on your way out of the pickup site. Participating restaurants will use the donated produce in making more meals.
The meals are free, but if you would like to make a monetary contribution to help make more meals possible for others, it will be gratefully received. The base cost of each meal is $10 but any amount will be appreciated.
Each restaurant will contribute meals two or more days a week. You will receive one individually packaged cold ready-to-eat or heat & serve dinner for each person you request a meal for. Meals will be distributed cold, so if you are driving a distance, delivering to other households, or distributing through your organization, consider bringing a cooler if you can.

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Outside Windham County
Black is the Body: Book Club
presented by The Rutland Area NAACP and Emily Bernard
Wednesday, May 12th, 2021, Online. 6:30pm.
To register, please click HERE.
We are relaunching our book club with UVM professor Emily Bernard’s wonderful book Black is the Body. This series of interconnected essays follow Dr. Bernard’s life, from growing up in the South to adopting her daughters in Ethiopia to teaching at majority-white schools like UVM. With insights on American culture, parenthood, marriage, and—of course—race, the book is an engrossing memoir and meditation on the world we live in.
Emily Bernard is the author of Black is the Body: Stories from My Mother’s Time and Mine, which was named one of the best books of 2019 by Kirkus Reviews and National Public Radio. Black is the Body won the 2020 Los Angeles Times Christopher Isherwood Prize for autobiographical prose. Emily’s previous works include: Remember Me to Harlem: The Letters of Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year; and Some of My Best Friends: Writings on Interracial Friendship, which was chosen by the New York Public Library as a Book for the Teen Age; and, with Deborah Willis, Michelle Obama: The First Lady in Photographs, which received a 2010 NAACP Image Award. Her work has appeared in: O the Oprah Magazine, Harper’s, The New Republic, newyorker.com, Best American Essays, Best African American Essays, and Best of Creative Nonfiction. She has received fellowships from the Alphonse A. Fletcher Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the MacDowell Colony, the Vermont Arts Council, and the W. E. B. DuBois Institute at Harvard University. Emily was the James Weldon Johnson Senior Research Fellow in African American Studies at Yale University. She is the Julian Lindsay Green and Gold Professor of English at the University of Vermont, and a 2020 Andrew Carnegie Fellow. Emily lives in South Burlington, Vermont with her husband and twin daughters.

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Marlboro Community Food Share
hosted by the Marlboro Community Center
Thursday, May 13th, 2021, and every Thursday, at the Marlboro Community Center (524 South Road, Marlboro, VT, 05344). 4:30pm-5:30pm.
Every Thursday from 4:30pm-5:30pm the Marlboro Community Center invites you to fill a grocery bag with non-perishables and fresh local produce. No registration or eligibility required. This weekly opportunity is available for anyone who could use an extra bag of groceries or knows someone who does.
Food will be set up in the entry-way to the Marlboro Community Center. For proper social distancing, please enter one person at a time. Bring a grocery bag or use ours. Masks are required. Deliveries will be made through Marlboro Cares for those needing assistance. Please call Marlboro Cares at 802-258-3030 in advance to arrange a delivery.
To donate food:
Leave non-perishable food in the donation box at the Marlboro Post Office. It will be collected on a weekly-basis. (Please note that this box previously supplied the Deerfield Valley Food Pantry, which is now distributing food exclusively from VT Food Pantry) 
Gardeners and farmers are welcome to donate produce. Wear masks and wash hands when harvesting and handling food. Fresh produce can be dropped off at the Community Center on Thursday between 1pm and 4pm. (Any leftover produce will be taken to FoodWorks the following morning)

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Guilford Cares Food Pantry
Thursday, May 13th, 2021 (and every Thursday) at the Guilford Fairgrounds (163 Fairground Rd, Guilford, VT 05301). 5pm-6pm. If you have questions, concerns or would like to donate groceries or monetary gifts please contact Pat Haine 802-257-0626. For additional questions or more information call 802 579 1350 or email [email protected].
Guilford Cares Food Pantry has moved! The Pantry has moved to the First Aid building at the Guilford Fairgrounds. We will be fully stocked with all our usual grocery items.
The Fairgrounds are on Fairground Road, just off Weatherhead Hollow Road. From Guilford Center Road turn onto Weatherhead Hollow Road. Travel 1.7 miles down the road. The Fairgrounds are on the left and there will be a sign directing you up the hill for about .2 miles. The red building is on the left with a sign out in front. Please remain in your car; we’ll greet you,  and give you a shopping list as we have been doing for the past year.
If the Pantry will be closed for any unexpected reason, the closure will be announced on WKVT, WTSA, and Front Porch Forum.
If you cannot come to the Pantry due to illness or high risk, you can call also call Pat to arrange for food delivery by a volunteer.
We know that supplemental food can make such a big difference in one's budget. That is why we are stocking our shelves for our neighbors. All are welcome to come and take home fresh produce, staples, meat, dairy.
Guilford Cares welcomes anyone in need of supplemental food for themselves or their families.

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Virtual Book Talk with Authors of Parenting 4 Social Justice: Tips, Tools, and Inspiration for Conversation and Action with Kids
hosted by Next Stage Arts and Parenting 4 Social Justice
Saturday, May 15th, 2021, Online. 10:30am-12pm.
Please reserve tickets here: www.flipcause.com/secure/cause_pdetails/MTEwNzkw. Free to attend, must register to get the link. Learn more at www.parenting4socialjustice.com.
Join us for an engaging virtual book talk with the authors of Parenting 4 Social Justice: Tips, Tools, and Inspiration for Conversation and Action with Kids.
Meet the authors and join other readers to share your own successes and challenges around parenting (caregiving kids) for social justice.
Co-written by Angela Berkfield, Jaimie Lynn Kessell, Leila Raven, Chrissy Colón-Bradt, Rowan Parker, and Abigail Healey; the authors have a diversity of race, class, gender, ability, and nationality identities.
The book features contributions from parents around the US and Brittney Washington has beautifully illustrated conversations between caregivers and children. The forward is written by Autumn Brown and Chris Crass.
The book includes an extensive resource list and kids book list. Published by Green Writers Press.

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Watch Party: “Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street”
hosted by Windham County Democrats
Sunday, May 16th, 2021, Online. 7:30pm-10pm.
Registration for this event is at https://events.democrats.org/event/386698/?force_banner=true&share_context=event_details&share_medium=copy_link
Join the Windham County Democrats at Building Bridges for America as we explore the urgent issues in our world through watching a documentary and having a great discussion afterwards. Our discussions are lead by a guest and our volunteers. 
May’s viewing is "Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street", a documentary that explores issues of race and equality and how PBS and Sesame Street played a role in the growing discussion and how it continues to open conversations with parents and children today.

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UPCOMING EVENTS

Vermont Food Bank’s Veggie Van Go Upcoming Schedule
The First and Third Mondays of Every Month in the parking lot across the street from the main entrance to Brattleboro Union High School (131 Fairground Road, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 10am-11:30am. 
Veggie Van Go is a program through the Vermont Foodbank that gives out free produce and local food for people to take home.
Monday, May 17th, 2021
Monday, June 7th, 2021
Monday, June 21st, 2021

Important information:

• Drive through model- please stay in your vehicles
• If you are walking there: see a Vermont Foodbank associate but please make sure to stay 6 feet back.
• There are no income requirements, registration or paperwork to participate
• You do not need to be present to get food: you may ask someone to pick up on your family's behalf.

For questions, please contact the WSESU VVG Program Coordinator:
Kira Sawyer-Hartigan, WSESU
53 Green Street
Brattleboro, VT 
[email protected]
(802)254-3730

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The Traverse: Healthcare Justice with Ady Barkan and Becca Balint
hosted by Rights and Democracy Institute
Tuesday, May 18th, 2021, Online. 6pm-7pm.
Online, with Facebook Live. More information can be found HERE.
Our healthcare system is an ongoing crisis. This is nothing new or even surprising, but healthcare is a critical area that was put to the test during the pandemic and it failed us profoundly.
Public health is not a business. It is clear we need a single payer healthcare program, but how do we get there? Where do we begin?
In this month's Traverse, we will look at healthcare in two parts: the fight for Medicare for All at the federal level, its history and what lies ahead, and then we will turn closer to home to discuss what is happening in Vermont and New Hampshire to build support for and expand healthcare, and how you can get involved.
Join host James Haslam in conversation with healthcare activists, political leaders, and organizers including Ady Barkan, Founder of Be A Hero, Becca Balint, Vermont State Senator, and more!
The Traverse is Rights & Democracy Institute’s live conversation series where we explore everything from navigating the daily peaks and valleys of the movement to how we think about liberation.

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You Belong: Speaking Out Against Anti-Asian Violence
Tuesday, May 18th, 2021 at Plaza Park (1 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 7pm-8pm.
For more information contact Tracy Donahue at [email protected] or Eesha Williams at [email protected] or (802) 254-2531. This phone is a landline so no text messages please. If you have the opportunity to make and bring a sign, please bring one or multiple extra signs with the phrase "YOU BELONG". The sign(s) can be small or medium size.
On May 6, the New York Times published an article headlined, “Daylight Attack on 2 Asian Women in San Francisco Increases Fears.” The article began, “A stabbing this week and other attacks have caused some older Asian-American residents in the
Bay Area to fear going outdoors, community leaders said.”
In the past few months, there has been a spate of assaults on Asian Americans across the USA. The response by local, state, and federal politicians has been inadequate.
Join us in Brattleboro in speaking out against the anti-Asian violence that has impacted Asian Americans since the start of the pandemic, creating great fear and anxiety in the community. There will be a rally on Tuesday, May 18 at 7 p.m. at Plaza Park. That's the park between the Brattleboro Food Co-op and the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center.
We are joining the Asian American Federation (www.aafederation.org) to urge stronger action rooted in community to address the anti-Asian racism and ensure greater, more immediate safety for all Asian Americans.
Emma Allen, a University of Vermont student from the Brattleboro area, will speak. More speakers are to-be-announced. 

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Meet Delegate Lashrecse Aird
hosted by Lean Left Vermont
Wednesday, May 19th, 2021, Online. 6pm-7pm.
To access the Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89665083579
VA is the model for why states matter, regardless of who is in charge in DC. VA became a blue trifecta in 2019. As a result, VA has created generational change in 18 months.
Join Lean Left VT and Southern VT Sister District on May 19th, to meet Del. Lashrecse Aird who has been part of this sea change in VA. We will also talk about Lean Left's effort to keep VA blue and how you can help!

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A Silent Vigil of Loving Kindness
Wednesday, May 19th, 2021 at Wells Fountain (298-250 VT-30, Brattleboro, VT 05301). 4:30pm-5:30pm. Please mask and observe social distancing. For further information and to be on the mailing list for future Loving Kindness vigils, please contact Tim Stevenson [email protected].
For a few minutes or the entire hour, we welcome everyone to join us in extending loving kindness to family and friends, neighbors and strangers, kindred spirits and adversaries, human and non-human beings, alike. And to ourselves, as well.
Standing, kneeling, or sitting in a chair that you bring, we are a silent, meditative presence under a banner that reads “Holding a Space of Loving Kindness for All Living Beings” 

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Vermont Workers’ Center New Member Orientation!
Thursday, May 20th, 2021, Online. 6pm-7:30pm.
Click on this link to register. Registration is required to get the Zoom link and member handbook. Questions? Contact [email protected].
This orientation is for people who are interested in finding out more about who the VT Workers’ Center is, what it does, and what it means to be a member. 
We’ll dig into things like our current campaign (Healthcare Is A Human Right), our human rights principles, and how we are involved in building a people-centered movement for the rights of poor and working people and a more just society.

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Camp for a Cause with Groundworks Collaborative
Friday, May 21st, 2021, Online. 7pm. Contact Julianne Mills, Development Coordinator, with any questions or for offline registration: 802.257.5415 x1002 or [email protected].
Groundworks Collaborative's Our 9th annual Camp for a Cause will be a virtual event (again) this year.
Register here: https://groundworks.rallybound.org/camp2021
Camp out in a location of your choice, send us an update and/or a photo of your campsite, and we’ll post it along with our fundraising progress.
Ready to get outside?
Sleep out on a porch, in your garage, in your front or backyard, in your car, on a couch, or wherever makes the most sense to you and your teammates.
There is no fundraising minimum. ANY AMOUNT YOU RAISE IS HUGELY APPRECIATED and will go directly to work supporting Groundworks’ housing and shelter programming. All contributions are tax deductible.
REGISTER at the link above and make your own fundraising page to help Groundworks raise critical funds we need to continue working to end homelessness in our community.
CLICK THE LINK ABOVE TO DONATE—make a tax deductible contribution to support the fundraising efforts of a participating camper.

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Red Cross Blood Drive at the Winston Prouty Campus
Saturday, May 22nd, 2021
Saturday, June 26th, 2021
Saturday, July 24th, 2021
Saturday, August 28th, 2021
Saturday, September 25th, 2021
Saturday, October 23rd, 2021
Saturday, November 27th, 2021
Saturday, December 18th, 2021 at the Winston Prouty Center for Child and Family Development (Austine Drive, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 9am-3pm. To help make these events possible by volunteering, please contact Lisa Whitney at [email protected].
Winston Prouty and the American Red Cross are hosting monthly blood drives throughout 2021.The Red Cross has over 135 years of experience providing humanitarian aid including more than 75 years of supplying blood to those in need. Each pint of blood we collect can help save up to three lives and will touch the lives of so many more. What a great way to pay it forward and make an impact on people in our community and across the country.
You can participate by donating blood or by volunteering to help support the event (set-up/clean-up, registration, parking, etc).
Sign up to DONATE blood here:
https://www.redcrossblood.org/give.html/drive-results?zipSponsor=

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Eyes Wide Open: Readings and Book Signings
hosted by Everyone’s Books
Saturday, May 22nd, 2021 at Retreat Farm (45 Farmhouse Square, Brattleboro, VT 05301). 3:30pm-5:30pm.
Masks required. Free. Bring a lawn chair. 
Everyone’s Books is thrilled to host “Eyes Wide Open,” our first in-person event in a year, to be held for free, outside at the Retreat Farm. In celebration, Eyes Wide Open offers the reading public not just one, but four local authors: Ann Braden, Angela Berkfield, Shanta Lee Gander, and Diana Whitney.

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Putney Anti-Racism Book Group: White Rage
hosted by the Putney Central School Leadership Council and the Putney Public Library
Sunday, May 23rd, 2021, Online. 7pm-9pm.
For Zoom info to join or for more information, contact [email protected] or 603.504.2906 -- you can also send a message through FB messenger.
Please join the Putney Central School Leadership Council and the Putney Public Library for a continuation of an anti-racism book group for all Putney families and community members.
Join us for a discussion of White Rage-The unspoken truth of our racial divide, written by Carol Anderson.

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Monthly Seeing and Disrupting Racism
hosted by Peace & Justice Center
Monday, May 24th, 2021, Online. 6pm-8pm.
Registration is limited and required: https://secure.lglforms.com/form.../s/dkee0d8YakSfqh3KrjVFKw. Suggested donation $25 for residents of Vermont, $30 for those outside of Vermont, no one turned away for lack of funds. Not sure if you should pay less, nothing, or more? Check our Sliding Scale document for guidance. If you cannot donate, put 0. If you have any questions please contact [email protected].
Seeing & Disrupting Racism: This introductory-level workshop defines racism and white fragility, explores how white fragility perpetuates racism and its harmful impacts on Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, and challenges participants to consider what steps they can take to disrupt racism at every level. This workshop was developed for predominantly white audiences, but all are welcome and encouraged to attend. Space is limited, registration is required.

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Black is the Body: Author Q&A
presented by The Rutland Area NAACP and Emily Bernard
Wednesday, May 26th, 2021, Online. 6:30pm.
To register, please click HERE.
We are delighted to be bringing Dr. Bernard to a virtual Q&A to wrap up our book club discussion! Please join us! All are welcome, but preregistration is required.
Emily Bernard is the author of Black is the Body: Stories from My Mother’s Time and Mine, which was named one of the best books of 2019 by Kirkus Reviews and National Public Radio. Black is the Body won the 2020 Los Angeles Times Christopher Isherwood Prize for autobiographical prose. 

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Vermont Food Bank Food Drop
hosted by the Putney Foodshelf
Thursday, May 27th, 2021
Thursday, June 24th, 2021 at Putney Meadows (17 Carol Brown Way, Putney, VT 05346). 9:30am-10:15am. Everyone is welcome. No questions asked!
The Vermont Foodbank will be bringing food to Putney. There will be lots of produce along with other nonperishable food. The Vermont Foodbank truck will park on the side of the road in the big U (Alice Holway Drive).
Drivers: Shoppers will stay in their cars until called. Until further notice, shoppers can pick up for no more than two households.
Walkers: Stay tuned for instructions.
If you have never participated in this before, volunteers will be available to explain how it works!

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Outside Windham County
Vermont Indigenous Heritage Center Post-Covid Reopening
Starting on Saturday, June 5th, 2021, at the Vermont Indigenous Heritage Center (180 Intervale Rd, Burlington, VT 05401). 12pm.
Covid Protocols will be followed, to include social distancing and masking indoors and out, and we will take guests' temperature before groups of ten people enter the building to view the Heritage Center exhibits.  
The Vermont Indigenous Heritage Center will celebrate its "Post-Covid Reopening" at noon on June 5th, with three new museum exhibits, two new experimental horticulture plots and the first Botanical Garden plantings. Thanks to donations by the City of Burlington, the Seeds of Renewal Project and the Wôbanakik Heritage Center, many new natural and cultural materials have been distilled from modern Indigenous life and archaeological and documentary evidence for the 12,000 BP to 1970 period. We now have an assembly of Abenaki architecture, clothing, accessories, subsistence tools, transplants and seeds, cooking equipment and other arts and technologies to help the Abenaki community understand its ancestral and contemporary experience. This completes Phase One of a multi-year museum and research facility expansion that will eventually include a 42' X 120' exhibit and gathering space, and an outdoor ritual landscape enclosing craft and ceremonial areas, horticultural fields and a garden forest.
The museum exhibits opening in June include
1.) a new résumé of Vermont Prehistory, including fossils of Ice Age mammals and a comprehensive display of ancestral Vermont projectile points and pottery types,
2.) a new exhibit of historic artifacts, images and newspaper articles of the little known 1800-1970 Abenaki experience,
3.) a completely renovated "Abenaki Year" exhibit incorporating new information and photography of contemporary Abenaki ceremonies, 4.) a new exhibit focusing on experiential teaching of the Abenaki ancestral, and an updated "Abenaki Recognition and Heritage Week" display. 
New additions to the outdoor Heritage Center campus consist of the "Sagakwa Farm" and "Curtis Family" Gardens and newly planted seedlings including the fiber producing basswood and ash trees, blight resistant chestnuts and delicious plums, hazelnuts and blueberries.  These young plants are the first tentative stirrings of the long planned Olakwika Alnôbaiwi Botanical Garden.
We hope that you will be able to join us to celebrate the next stage in the evolution of Vermont's Premiere Indigenous Cultural Center.  The festivities will begin at noon with an informal outdoor welcome gathering followed by the opening of the museum exhibits, outdoor ceremonial grounds, gardens and garden forest plantings. 

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Abenaki Heritage Weekend
co-hosted by Vermont Abenaki Artists Association and Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, with support from: New England Foundation for the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts Vermont Humanities Council
Wednesday, June 16th, 2021-Sunday, June 20th, 2021, Online. 7pm-8:30pm.
More details coming soon. We invite you to contact us with specific questions and comments. Email [email protected] or call 802-579-0049 after 5pm.
A 5-day FREE virtual celebration of Abenaki heritage. Meet Abenaki culture bearers and gain a richer experience and understanding of the Abenaki contribution to life in the Champlain Valley. Enjoy conversations and demonstrations with artists from participating tribes who invite you to share their indigenous arts, traditions, stories, language, and more.
Register in advance for Zoom sessions that will be announced shortly.
Sessions themed for all ages, with special programs for young audiences Pre-K to Grade 2, Grades 4 and up.
June 16, 7 pm - Wampum Reading
June 17, 7 pm - Abenaki Pottery
June 18, 7 pm - TBA
June 19, 1 pm- Abenaki Games
June 20, 1 pm - Abenaki Music and Crafts

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Putney Anti-Racism Book Group: Caste
hosted by the Putney Central School Leadership Council and the Putney Public Library
Sunday, June 20th, 2021, Online. 7pm-9pm.
For Zoom info to join or for more information, contact [email protected] or 603.504.2906 -- you can also send a message through FB messenger.
Please join the Putney Central School Leadership Council and the Putney Public Library for a continuation of an anti-racism book group for all Putney families and community members.
Join us for a discussion of Caste-The Origins of Our Discontents, written by Isabel Wilkerson.

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COMMUNITY SUPPORT OPPORTUNITIES

(Summer) Soup's On!
Southern Vermont Sister District's largest (and most delicious) fundraiser, our Soup Subscription Project, has raised over $40,000 to support strategic, state-level, progressive Democratic campaigns. It's a simple model.  You buy a soup subscription (the summer cycle runs from June-September) and get monthly, seasonal soup made by our volunteer chefs. Pick up your soup at the Putney General Store, in Brattleboro OR donate your soup to the Putney Food Shelf/Groundworks. That's a BIG BANG for your buck! More details and sign up here. 

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Vermont Prison System Vaccinations
1 minute action to make a difference: Please call Governor Scott at (802) 828 3333 and ask that Prisoners in Vermont's system get vaccinated NOW. These folks are in a congregate system, many have underlying conditions with little to no control over their environment. Save a life today and make the call please. You can also email him HERE. 

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Covid 19 Pop-Up Testing

Testing is available for all. 
If you need testing, there are a variety of options available to you: your primary care provider, pop-up test sites and pharmacies. The Test Site Finder below can help you find other testing near you.
HEALTH DEPARTMENT POP-UP TESTING LOCATIONS
Here are the steps to set up a testing appointment at a pop-up testing site:

• Register to get an account
• Receive an email with your patient ID and use that to confirm your account (check your spam folder if you don't see the email)
• Log in with your patient ID
• Set up an appointment

Register for Pop-Up Testing Here

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FREE HEALTHY AND NUTRITIOUS FOOD IN WINDHAM COUNTY

Brigid’s Kitchen, St. Michael’s Church, 47 Walnut Street, Brattleboro 802-254-6800 or 802-558-6072 
Grab-and-go lunches and fruit/nuts on Mon, Weds, Thus, and Sat, 11:30am-12:20pm.

Loaves and Fishes, Centre Congregational Church 193 Main Street, Brattleboro (802) 254-4730
Grab-and-go lunches on Tuesdays and Fridays at 12pm.

VT Foodbank and Veggie Van Go will be at Brattleboro Union High School (Fairground Ave, Brattleboro, VT, 05301), in the parking lot, on the 1st and 3rd Monday of the month, from 10am-11:30am. Drive up, touchless pickup. Walkers welcome, too. Call VT 211 for more information. 

Foodworks, the food shelf program of the Groundworks Collaborative https://groundworksvt.org (802) 490-2412, [email protected] 
Households in need of food are asked to call or email to coordinate delivery. There is an urgent need for volunteers, and Foodworks has set up protocols to keep staff, volunteers, and clients as safe as possible. Please email us at [email protected] if you are able to help.

Guilford Food Pantry 
Every Thursday at the Guilford Fairgrounds. 5pm-6pm.
We know that supplemental food can make such a big difference in one's budget. That is why we are stocking our shelves for our neighbors. All are welcome to come and take home fresh produce, staples, meat, dairy. Guilford Cares welcomes anyone in need of supplemental food for themselves or their families.

Everyone Eats! at the C.F Building (80 Flat Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 4pm-6pm. Masks required. PLEASE DO NOT ARRIVE EARLY.  If you have any questions visit https://www.brattleboro.com/everyoneeats/ or contact Frances Huntley [email protected]. Organizational ordering information is listed under our Free and Nutritious Food in Windham County section further along in this email. 
Everyone Eats! is a program which will distribute meals from Brattleboro restaurants to anyone in need who lives in Brattleboro, Dummerston, Guilford, Putney, or Vernon, free of charge, Monday-Thursday through June 2021. 
Pick up for individuals will be at the C.F. Church Building at 80 Flat St in Brattleboro and group/institution orders can be picked up at Mama Sezz in West Brattleboro. All meals are available Monday-Thursday between 4pm and 6pm until supplies run out.
If you have extra produce from your garden, there will be a wheelbarrow you can drop it off in on your way out of the pickup site. Participating restaurants will use the donated produce in making more meals.
The meals are free, but if you would like to make a monetary contribution to help make more meals possible for others, it will be gratefully received. The base cost of each meal is $10 but any amount will be appreciated.
Each restaurant will contribute meals two or more days a week. You will receive one individually packaged cold ready-to-eat or heat & serve dinner for each person you request a meal for. Meals will be distributed cold, so if you are driving a distance, delivering to other households, or distributing through your organization, consider bringing a cooler if you can.

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ADDITIONAL COVID 19 RESOURCES CAN BE FOUND AT THEIR PERMANENT HOME ON OUR WEBSITE, HERE: https://www.wecantogether.net/covid19_resources

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RESOURCE FOR WeCAN

Rapid Response Text Alert System

When WeCAN began, Song & Solidarity set up a Rapid Response Text Alert System for WeCAN Groups. Directions for signing up are on WeCAN's website, here: https://www.wecantogether.net/rapid_response. We are grateful to Song and Solidarity for providing this service.

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ONGOING EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMING 

Indigo Radio
Sundays at 12pm on Brattleboro Community Radio 107.7FM. To stream live, visit: www.wvew.org 
Indigo Radio, deepening understanding and making connections! IndigoRadio is a group of area educators seeking to learn through engaging with others in our community and throughout the world. We will be talking about educational and social issues both globally and locally and connecting them to our lives and Brattleboro community. Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/indigoradiowvew/. For archive recordings of past shows: https://soundcloud.com/user-654648353. 

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     With many of our community's events now in-person, we just want to take a moment to remind you to be aware of the masking policy the event has in place and to please observe it. Sanitize your hands often, keep your distance from others, and stay home if you are feeling unwell or have been around those who have Covid19. Please get tested upon returning to Vermont if you have traveled. Until next week, friends...

Your Friendly WeCAN Admins,

Joanna and Sam