The People's Pantry: An Update
Hello internet friends! I have some fun news about The People’s Pantry Project, its impact, and its future.
The first series of People’s Pantry prints sold out in four days – a fact that still feels unfathomable! A grand total of 200 prints were sold – 50 of each – resulting in $1,000 donations to each the Coalition of Asian-American Leaders, Vietnamese Association of Illinois, Chinese-American Planning Council of NYC, and Asian Americans for Advancing Justice LA. I am so grateful that this project has already raised $4,000 for local organizations that are doing incredible work for their communities – and even more grateful for my collaborators for donating their time and energy to help make this all happen.
Many have asked when I’ll be restocking prints, and I have an answer! Prints will be restocked on Saturday, April 10th at 10AM CST. There will only be 40 copies of each print available for grabs in this print run, so get them while you can! In the event that the remaining stock sells out as quickly as the first, I am planning on printing another run. That said, timing is nebulous on that front, so better to get them while you can!
This leads me to my third update: the future of the People’s Pantry Project. Ultimately my dream is to continue to expand the project and work with more collaborators so we can continue to tell food stories through art while also doing some good in the world.
The criteria to participate is as follows:
Collaborators must self-identify as being part of a diaspora that landed in the United States – either they immigrated themselves or has immediate family who immigrated and helped shape their world view.
Collaborators ideally have a strong connection to food and use it to celebrate their own cultural heritage.
Collaborators will be asked for 5-7 hours of time total over the course of the project – collaborators will provide a list of pantry items and reference images, select a non-profit or mutual fund to donate print proceeds to, review illustrations for accuracy, take part in a small interview, and then review the written profile for accuracy. Collaborators will be paid a $100 stipend and a full set of People’s Pantry prints in exchange for their time.
If the above description sounds like you and you’re interested in helping me tell food stories, follow this link to fill out the interest form and I’ll get back to you.
Finally, I want to say one last thank you to anyone reading this – for your interest, for support, and for your encouragement. While there weren’t many good things stealing the headlines this last year, I do feel like this project has given me a little bit of light through all of the dark, and I appreciate all of the love that it has gotten in the last 6 months. I look forward to continuing to tell stories through food and art, so stay tuned – more to come.
– Lora
