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Like other COVID response efforts, Mudrick’s started small: one sunny Saturday, she and her husband, Ross, posted flyers around their block, inviting any neighbors who needed groceries to call Ross’ personal cell. Then, they took to Instagram, and translated the flyer to other languages. Other neighbors soon started posting flyers, too, and some added other offers, like to pick up a prescription, or give a ride to a doctor’s appointment, or lend a friendly ear to anyone feeling lonely.
A few weeks later, the Mudrick husband-and-wife duo “operationalized” those small gestures into the now two-thousand-plus-strong Astoria Mutual Aid Network (AMAN), a community best described by its simple slogan: “Neighbors give help. Neighbors get help.” What was once a pop-up grocery-delivery-service has become a wraparound community safety net to make sure everyone in Astoria has access to food, friendship, clothes, toys, tablets, translations, hygiene supplies, and other essential
Hiram Alejandro Durán/THE CITY
When the Astoria Mutual Aid Network began in March, volunteers focused on making sure homebound or down-on-their-luck neighbors had groceries.
Getting food to people still represents the bulk of the group’s duties, said Maryam Mudrick, a former event planner who co-founded the organization with her partner. But requests for help have shifted. For example, the group has recently fielded queries from young mothers struggling to buy an essential: diapers.
“We get the call a lot,” she said. “Diapers are f -ing expensive.”
To cope with the demand, the group has used cash donations to buy diapers in bulk, and is working to open a permanent “diaper bank,” Mudrick said a type of facility found in each borough except Queens and Staten Island.