Last Call: What Can You Do In The Aftermath Of A Violent Weekend?

The aftermath of the protests this weekend against police brutality and the death murder of George Floyd has been horrible to watch. Let me be clear: not the protests. The violent aftermath, which in many cases was not initiated by the protesters.

Most of us don't have the agency to do much to fix the long history of racism and abuse of power in this country that got us here. We can help with the cleanup, though. We can check in on our friends and neighbors. If we're white, we can shut up and listen. And we can open our wallets. Here's a very incomplete list of restaurants and organizations, both food-related and not, that can use your dollars. Please feel free to add more suggestions in the comments.

Many protesters are still being held in jail. Here's a list of community bail funds in cities across the U.S. that are working to get them released. (Some of these organizations also work to release people who are being detained by the immigration system.)

You can help rebuild. Eater Twin Cities has coverage of which restaurants have been damaged and fundraisers to repair them.

You can support Black-owned restaurants. This Google Doc compiled by food writer and Takeout contributor Eileen W. Cho links to lists of Black-owned food businesses in many states and also other countries. City Pages, the alt-weekly in the Twin Cities, has its own list.

Here's a list of organizations that work for food justice, mostly in the U.S. but also abroad.

Here in Chicago, home of Takeout world HQ, the Chicago Community Bond Fund tweeted a long list of POC- and multiracial-led organizations here that could use donations. Eater Chicago has published a list of restaurants that are donating food to replace the public school lunch programs that were shut down today. The north side mutual aid networks have started a GoFundMe to raise money for the south side neighborhoods and south suburbs that have most been damaged by the looters.

Who's helping in your city?