At 9 p.m. on a Thursday, community members line up for groceries and dinner under the dim park lights. Volunteers move quickly, preparing food for their neighbors before calling out, ‘The Davis Night Market is officially open!
The high costs of food, housing, healthcare, utilities, and child care strain budgets, making access difficult. Discrimination and unfair policies create disparities, creating generational hardship and perpetuating poverty and hunger.
Feeding America says people who experience food insecurity are more likely to experience malnutrition and chronic conditions like heart disease and diabetes. Food shortage can also damage mental health, resulting in depression, anxiety, and stress.
Not meeting basic needs like food and shelter can lead to social isolation, stigma, and shame. Without enough food, people who experience food insecurity may have difficulty concentrating, have low energy, or miss school and work due to illness.
According to Solid Ground, an organization devoted to helping end poverty, mutual aid is where people in a community come together to support one another, without the help of official bodies like the state or Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs).
The idea of solidarity, rather than charity, underpins mutual aid. Resources are unconditionally shared, as opposed to charity, which is often conditional and means-tested.
Food insecurity is an official term from the USDA, defined as when people don’t have enough to eat and don’t know where their next meal will come from. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), 8.4 percent (11.2 million) of U.S. households had low food security, and 5.1 percent (6.8 million) of U.S. households had very low food security at some time during 2023.
With Davis’s cost of living among the highest in the Central Valley, even working residents and students struggle to afford essentials. Residents have turned toward one another rather than waiting for top-down solutions.
In a college town like Davis, there is a mix of students, long-term residents, and community nonprofits, creating fertile ground for mutual aid.
Volunteer networks, student-led initiatives, and grassroots groups can react more flexibly than large institutions.
The Pantry is a student-run, student-led organization that provides food and other basic essentials to UC Davis students and staff who would like support in acquiring food and other basic necessities.
Specifically for UCD students and faculty, they can go to the store once a day to gather any foods or essential items they need but might not have enough to pay for at the moment.
“I know there’s actually a pretty huge issue with food insecurity regarding students,” Casey Cabugao, the food recovery manager, said. She recalls the statistics to be around 30% of students worried about food insecurity.
The Pantry gets its goods from donations through the Davis Farmers’ Market, Yolo Food Bank, and DC’s (Dining Commons).
“The Pantry in the food ecosystem is pretty important. It creates a community where you know these people outside, they’re willing to go, and we’re really thankful for them,” Cabugao said.
Another local volunteer-based mutual aid is the Davis Night Market.
Nathan Orr is a volunteer at the Night Market. “It plays an important role in giving out the kinds of support that folks need to get day by day,” Orr said.
The Night Market recovers food that would otherwise go to waste from Davis restaurants, bakeries, and grocery stores, then redistributes it to the community.
“Everyone comes together for this singular purpose… It’s just people hanging out, and who all agree that helping folks is a good thing,” Orr said.
STEAC provides financial and material support for low income individuals and families in Yolo County facing a financial emergency. Those supports include rent payment, utilities and bill payments, clothing gift cards, groceries, and others.
“We believe in the importance of building a community that cares for one another and embed that belief in all of our programs,” Liane Moody, a STEAC volunteer said.
Moody believes that because of the “current political climate,” it has made life even harder for those already struggling.
“This is not something that we should be okay with,” Moody said. “Our community has always been generous and come together in emergencies but we need to act together in small and large ways to really prioritize those who have the least.”
As Orr put it, “The fact that we needed Davis Night Market is a problem in the first place.” That sentiment echoes across other community efforts, from the UC Davis Pantry to local housing nonprofits, where volunteers provide what the city and state cannot. In Davis, mutual aid is both an act of compassion and a quiet critique of the systems that let people fall through the cracks.
In Davis, community isn’t just something the city provides, it’s something its people build, one meal, one shelf, one act of care at a time.
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