LOCAL STORY MUTUAL AID MONDAY BY PAULA BARD Vans pull up to the far southwest corner of Civic Center Park on Mondays around 3 p.m. Volunteers begin unloading big pots and pans brimming with home-cooked ribs and slow-cooked chicken, mac and cheese, ham, rice and beans, sandwiches, cakes, cookies, and fruit. Folding tables are unfolded, and boxes of clothing and multiple water containers are set up. This is the scene of Mutual Aid Monday: home-cooked meals, lifesustaining supplies, and services for up to 200 people. IT ALL STARTED WITH WALL OF MOMS Last summer Jess Wiederholt, a mother of seven, came out to protest racism and police brutality. She joined the Black Lives Matter protests after George Floyd and Elijah McClain died at the hands of the police. She joined thousands of other outraged citizens all over the country, hitting the streets in the summer of 2020. Wiederholt joined the Wall of Moms, a group seeking to protect the protestors. Out on Denver’s streets, the Moms came face-to-face with what she referred to as the city’s “ugly treatment of the unhoused.” Together, they discovered a world in crisis and found a new community in the protests. They began offering support to the folks living in the tent encampments that were being decimated by the City’s early morning displacements, euphemistically called by the City “cleanups” or “sweeps.” They brought coffee at 5 a.m., as the police threw up chain link fences in the dark. The Moms then helped move unhoused folks when the dump trucks threatened to scoop up all of their worldly belongings. Wiederholt’s stereotypes quickly fell away, as she discovered that everybody has a story. CREDIT: PAULA BARD CREDIT: PAULA BARD 8 DENVER VOICE October 2021
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