Through community engagement and leadership, research, and advocacy, the Young Women’s Freedom Center works to break down the structures that lead to intergenerational cycles of violence, incarceration, and poverty of cis and trans women and gender-nonconforming people of color. The Center’s programming provides both support and respite, allowing these women to partake in community, skills-training and food on a break from otherwise busy lives. We spoke to their Administrative Assistant, Storm Green-Loe, about how Replate’s food donations of hearty meals bolster their programs.

What is the Young Women’s Freedom Center and how did you get involved?
I’m an administrative assistant and the reason I started working here was the whole concept of how the Young Women’s Freedom Center is all about trying to decriminalize women of color and break down the systems that were built to keep us under.

How long have you worked with Replate? How did you get connected?
Someone on your team heard our Executive Director speak at a conference and the connection was instant. [It] was in November when we started getting donations.  

Why are food donations important to the people in your community?
The food donations are super important, especially for our programs, Young Women United, Freedom Circles, and Healing and Arts. For a lot of the women it means a lot to have that little extra because [we usually] just have snacks. It’s always good to have that cooked meal, because you guys always bring hot food which is always a plus. People want that and not just snacks all the time.

How are the food donations supporting your internal operations?
Because we’re a nonprofit we do need the donations to keep key programs going. It is hard to have a food budget and we never know how many folks are going to come in. We have programs every week, a couple of times a week, so [the donations] always help girls be able to participate.

Do you have any stories of how consistent donations have impacted your organization or people in the community?
I think it was last month, we had gotten all set up for a group super early and I went into the kitchen to go get snacks or something for them and I realized “oh no we’re out for today.” So we were kind of on our own and then Replate showed up and we said, “You literally saved our lives!”

Support and Follow the Young Women’s Freedom Center through Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. If you’d like to start donating your company’s surplus food or receive food, go to replate.org to sign up!