welcome

about lsma

Logan Square Mutual Aid is a group of neighbors helping neighbors. In the midst of global pandemics, recessions, and mass migration, we are keenly aware that the most effective thing we can do is to be there for each other.

Logan Square Mutual Aid is part of a city-wide mutual aid effort, organized neighborhood by neighborhood. We live in Logan Square (and beyond), and when the coronavirus broke out in Chicago, we began to look for ways to contribute what we could to our neighbors. We have worked together to support each other through economic, health, and other hardships. We have been organizing in our community for 5 years as of spring 2025.

what we do

1. free store

We support a free food and clothing store in collaboration with other mutual aid groups on Chicago’s Northwest Side. Our free store is open Thursdays from 5-7 pm and Saturdays from 10:30 am-12 pm. Email us at [email protected] for the free store address.

2. weekly food delivery

We deliver food to over 150 Logan Square neighbors per week. Our food is a combination of food donations and rescued food - perfectly good food that we pick up from neighboring grocery stores and restaurants that would otherwise be thrown away. We offer weekly or every other week food delivery. Email us at [email protected] to sign up to receive food delivery.

3. essential needs expense reimbursement

If you are seeking financial support, LSMA can help by reimbursing expenses up to $75 once a month. Submit a copy of a recent receipt to us and we will “refund” the money you spent to you. We cannot reimburse any request without a receipt or other associated documentation (such as a gas bill, rent bill, or grocery receipt). See detailed instructions here.

get involved

Looking to help your neighbors? Love the idea of mutual aid, but feeling intimidated and unsure where to start? Been following LSMA on instagram, but still not sure what “distro” means (and at this point are too afraid to ask)? We got you. Here is a beginners guide to getting involved with us at LSMA.

volunteer with us

join our communication channels

• Fill out the Chicagoland Food Sovereignty Coalition (CFSC) Volunteer Form, which will tell us how you want to support and get you added to our Slack

• Join our instagram and/or Google Group to stay up to date

look for our weekly call for volunteers

Every week, we’ll put out a call for volunteers on all communication platforms. Simply reply to the call to get plugged in.

volunteer your time

• Outreach: Every week, we call and text families to see if they’re interested in a food delivery. By Wednesday evening, you’ll get a list of families to contact and will need to have all their responses in by Friday at 12:50pm. This is a great way to get involved if you’re not able to come in person. 

• Free store: On Thursdays from 3-7pm you can come to the warehouse (the “warehouse” will be the location for all weekly volunteer efforts, and the address will be given to you when you sign up for any of these shifts) and help out at our Free Store. Our Free Store is just what it sounds like. On those days, we need people to come restock shelves, sort clothes, clean the warehouse, sort food for composting and just generally be there to connect with our neighbors. 

• Bag build: On Fridays from 2-5pm you can come to the warehouse to help with Bag Build. Every Saturday, LSMA and other Northwest side mutual aid groups in Chicago distribute food (that’s where distro comes from!) to over 200 families. On Fridays, we put those bags together with food that has been rescued throughout the week. 

• Delivery driver: Saturdays are when the food actually gets distributed, aka “distro.” If you have a car (or one of those really cool bikes like my cousin in Amsterdam has), you can come to the warehouse between 11-12:30pm to pick up previously mentioned bags and deliver them to the corresponding families! 

• Free store/delivery load up: If you don’t have a car, you can come to the warehouse from 10-12:30pm and help with loading bags into cars and whatever else needs to get done for distro. The Free Store will also be up and running, so similar to Thursdays you can help with restocking shelves, cleaning, sorting clothes, etc.

Now, before you sign up for any of these shifts, you’ll need to make peace with the fact that you’ll need to ask questions. Nobody knows what they’re doing the first time they do something, and that includes working with an established mutual aid group! All the googling in the world cannot prepare you to have every answer. Hell, things come up all the time that none of us have dealt with! So walk in with confidence, love, and a willingness to connect and learn. Say, “This is my first time–how can I help?” Don’t feel guilty when there’s nothing for you to do (we aren’t trying to recreate capitalism). Mutual aid is about building sustainable networks of care, not about burning you out. At its core, mutual aid is a group effort, and we’ll be thrilled to welcome you into the group!

redistribute your wealth one-time or on an ongoing basis

We are 100% community and volunteer funded. Redistribute your wealth here - any amount helps!

Have things to redistribute instead of money? We redistribute clothing, household items, toys, and food to our neighbors in need. Please make sure you are passing along things you would want to receive. Email us at [email protected] to coordinate a drop off at our warehouse!

attend one of our fundraisers or events

We host fundraisers and events throughout the year to raise funds, collect items to redistribute to neighbors, and build community. Follow up Google Calendar to stay up to date on upcoming events.

volunteer dispatch

saturdays as a delivery driver volunteer

Ever wonder what it’s like to do deliveries for Logan Square Mutual Aid (LSMA)? It’s a great way to spend a Saturday morning, and easier than you may think! Plus, when all the news feels really bleak, it can help to focus on what you can do to help out in your community.

The process begins mid-week when the call for volunteers goes out via email and our Slack channel. I usually wait until Thursday to opt-in (for example, to make sure that I don’t have a communicable cold) with a quick reply saying “I can drive.”

During the week, other volunteers are busy doing outreach: they text people on our list to see if they want groceries. If we have enough funds, neighbors can request additional items such as diapers, cleaning supplies, and specific foods. We refer to these items as “supplementals,” and a volunteer picks up the order on Saturday mornings and brings it to the warehouse.

Friday afternoon is bag build, when volunteers arrive at our shared warehouse space to pack delivery bags. The space is shared with other Northwest Side Mutual Aid Networks that are part of the Chicagoland Food Sovereignty Coalition. Back in 2020, we received a weekly refrigerated semi delivery from the USDA, but those stopped sometime in 2021. Since then, we rely on regularly scheduled food rescues from places like Aldi, farmers markets, urban gardens, and supportive restaurants around town. 

The food must then be divided up into as many bags as there are requesting households for the week, ready for Saturday morning deliveries. For holidays, we try to do a little extra if there are funds for it: bags of candy for Halloween, a whole chicken for Thanksgiving, flowers for Mother’s Day.

We usually get the delivery driver list on Friday evenings. It’s a shared spreadsheet with names, preferred language and communication method (text vs. calling), contact information, delivery instructions, and any supplementals for neighbors receiving food delivery.

On Saturday morning it’s time to rock. Drivers arrive at the warehouse between 11am-12:30pm, though I find it’s usually best to wait till at least 11:30 to ensure that everything is in motion. Remember: LSMA is just people who want to support their community through solidarity not charity, and sometimes we move slowly on Saturday mornings!

Before I leave my house Saturday, I save a copy of the driver list and adjust the formatting to suit my preferences (cut other drivers’ info, remove shading, hide unnecessary columns). Whoever makes the list usually puts the homes in a delivery order that makes sense, but I still plug all addresses into the Circuit app. Circuit uses real-time traffic conditions, along with beginning and end points, to create the most efficient driving route. As long as you have 10 or fewer stops, it’s free to use.

In almost five years of driving for LSMA, only twice have I had more than 10 households to deliver to. Whoever makes the routes usually does a great job of grouping households, though occasionally we have a far-flung house, usually because someone in our network moved but we still want to support them. 

Lately I’ve had around eight or nine stops per week. If I see a driver on the list with four or five stops, it’s either because they requested a short route that week, or because the houses they’re delivering to are a much further drive from the warehouse.

Once I have my stops plugged into Circuit I’m ready to go! When I pull into the warehouse loading area, someone greets me and yells “Jes, Logan!” so that the volunteers can look me up on the whiteboard to see how many grocery bags I get, plus supplementals. Then our volunteers load up my car with the goods, though I usually help them carry some bags, especially if people are busy doing other things.

Did I mention the free store? LSMA and other Northwest Side Mutual Aid groups run a free store on Thursday evenings from 5-7 pm and Saturday mornings from 10 am-12:30 pm at the warehouse, where our community can pick up clothes, toys, blankets, whatever people have donated. Please get in touch if you want to donate household items.

When my car is loaded and I’ve said hello to some of the awesome LSMA community members, it’s time to drive. I start the Circuit app, which hooks into Google maps and tells me where to go. I always check the spreadsheet on my phone for specific instructions, such as needing to call or text when I’m heading towards someone’s residence.

When I arrive, I send a text saying “Hi, I’m here from LSMA with your food delivery” or “Hola, su entrega de comida de la red de ayuda de Logan Square está aquí” or whatever language they specify. Google Translate is your friend here. The contact list has phone numbers on it, so when I open the spreadsheet on my phone it’s easy to click the number for a quick call or text.

Then I follow the instructions (like “leave at the top of the stairs” and “please don’t ring the buzzer”) and take a photo of the delivery, which I then text to the recipient. If there are no instructions, I try to leave the food in a discreet place where it’s less likely to be seen from the street. If someone has mobility issues, I’ll bring it up to their apartment and do a handoff; I always keep a mask on hand for that, just in case. 

Everyone is always very nice. We intentionally don’t send drivers to the same households every week, but over time you see the same people and can get to know them a little.

Each stop takes under five minutes, then I’m off to the next place. That’s it! Depending on the households, the whole process is usually under two hours, sometimes even just an hour. In the summer occasionally there’s a cookout at the warehouse for volunteers, so I’ll head back there if I’m feeling up for it. Then I go about my day with a full afternoon open, glad that I’ve supported my community. 

If this sounds like something you might want to do, please reach out. We tend to run low on drivers, especially on beautiful days, so even if you just want a short route, every participant helps. It’s a great way to get involved in your community and meet like-minded people!

organizing a clothing swap for LSMA

Last week Logan Square Mutual Aid hosted a lovely clothing and stuff swap at Palmer Square Park. Neighbors were encouraged to bring clothing items, shoes, jewelry, and other household items that they were no longer using and find some new treasures to take home. There was a great turnout and lots of people went home with whole new wardrobes, books, games, artwork, and gadgets. Two car loads of clothes and other items that were left over after the swap were brought to the Keystone warehouse for distribution through the free store. Thanks to everyone who came out to support and stay tuned for another swap in the fall!

celebrate 5 years of LSMA with us!

This spring we are grateful to be celebrating 5 years of mutual aid work together as Logan Square Mutual Aid. Formed as COVID-19 broke out in Chicago, LSMA has united Chicagoans looking to support their neighbors through the pandemic, recession, and all ongoing hardships caused by injustice. We are devoted to the principles of mutual aid and organize to meet each other’s needs, from an awareness that the systems we have in place are not going to meet them.

Over the years, many of us have supported and benefited from LSMA. We've delivered groceries, reached out to neighbors to ask their needs, rescued food, coordinated online, worked in the warehouse, supported the free store... and so much more. We've enjoyed lots of rescued food, summer barbecues, brisk winter days loading cars, kind texts from neighbors, a caring community, and supportive friendships. All of us are part of a larger change that must happen: We need each other badly to share what is hard about the overwhelming suffering in the world and the challenge of doing work for change in dangerous conditions. Even in the face of the pain that being awakened to contemporary conditions causes, all of our work for change can be rooted in the comfort and joy of being connected to one another, accompanying one another, and sometimes being inspired by each other. (Dean Spade, Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next))

upcoming events

diaper drive + fundraiser

Code Pink and Palestinian Feminist Collective are hosing a diaper drive and fundraiser benefiting LSMA and the Northwest Mutual Aid Network on Saturday, May 10th at 2 pm in Wicker Park (1425 N Damen Ave.). Add the event to your calendar here.

summer supply drives

As you walk around the city, you have likely noticed more green around you as spring flowers have emerged from the ground and leaves and flowers have formed on trees. Spring marks the start of the food growing season in Midwestern climates like Chicago. As we move into this season of abundance of locally cultivated food, LSMA is collaborating with Paradise Garden Logan Square to host three basic needs supply drives benefitting LSMA.

Please consider stopping by to donate items and connect with your LSMA community. Share the flyer with your network to raise awareness. You can add the events to your calendar here.

community meals

In collaboration with Paradise Garden Logan Square, LSMA will be hosting a series of free community meals this summer. The meals are intended to foster community and share food resources. Consider stopping by to chat with neighbors and/or bring some food and drinks to share. You can add the events to your calendar here.

authorship statement

Like all LSMA efforts, this newsletter was a collaborative effort. Thank you to Jes, Charlie, Helen and Marjorie for writing content for this quarter’s newsletter.

thank you for your continued engagement with and support of LSMA!