Tending Futures

11/20/2025

What You Can Do Instead:

1. Attend a Day of Mourning or Solidarity Gathering
Many cities now host their own events, teach-ins or community circles that center Indigenous voices.

2. Visit Local Native Communities
If you are in the Gulf South or within driving distance, come join us in Poarch for the annual powwow on Thursday and Friday. It is a vibrant reminder that Native peoples are alive, connected, joyful and still practicing all that was meant to be taken from us. Bring your family. Bring your heart. Show your children what living Indigenous culture looks like.

3. Redirect Your Resources
If you were preparing to spend money on a lavish meal, decor or travel, consider donating that instead to the Earth and Sky Collective Fund. Your contribution supports Black and Indigenous Women and Two Spirit peoples with care and dignity, rooted in community reciprocity. Give where it grows.

4. Create New Family Traditions
Make this the year you shift the story. Some ideas:
• Create an altar to honor ancestors and the Indigenous peoples of the land you live on
• Cook a meal featuring ingredients native to this region while learning their history
• Spend the day in service, mutual aid or ceremony
• Teach your children the real history in age appropriate ways
• Go outside and talk about land, stewardship and belonging

Gratitude is beautiful. But gratitude grounded in truth is transformative.

FULL BLOG: tendingfutures.org/blog

11/11/2025

The inclement weather shelter at Central Midtown () will be open tonight and tomorrow. Guests will stay in the Sanctuary, with shelter staff present and available at all times to ensure safety and comfort.

If you or someone you know needs shelter, please go to Waterfront Rescue Mission for intake FIRST and transportation to other sites will be provided. Regular shelter fees are suspended and shelter is open to EVERYONE WHO NEEDS IT, including those who have previously been banned from Waterfront.

We’re deeply grateful to be part of the Central Midtown community and this life-saving network of care. At Tending Futures, we believe that safety, warmth and belonging are basic rights not privileges. This shelter effort reflects our shared commitment to collective care and mutual aid, ensuring that no one is left out in the cold. Every act of tending, from opening a door to sharing a meal, is a reminder that community care is how we survive and how we build the world we deserve.

11/09/2025

If you’ve received funding from the Earth and Sky Collective Fund and feel comfortable/safe doing so, could you please email a short testimonial to hello@tendingfutures.org? Your name will never be shared and please use discretion in sharing any identifiable information. We would like to share these in our newsletter and on social media so that others can see who their contributions support.

➡️

The Earth & Sky Collective Fund is a grassroots mutual aid fund dedicated to empowering Black and Indigenous Women and Two-Spirit peoples. We are committed to creating a community-based network that supports our most vulnerable members, recognizing that our liberation and well-being are essential to...

11/08/2025

We know your inbox is full of donation requests. Every organization, every campaign, every cause asking for help and we understand that it can be overwhelming.

But we need you to know: this is the most important work we do.

The Earth & Sky Collective Fund was created because the need in our communities has always been urgent and now, it’s more urgent than we ever could have imagined. With SNAP benefits cut, so many of our Black and Indigenous Women and Two-Spirit caregivers are facing impossible choices: paying for food they already can’t afford at the expense of rent, medicine or childcare.

This is what happens when systems built on extraction and abandonment collapse. But our people have always had another way.

We call it mutual aid: the practice of showing up for one another, of remembering that survival has never come from the state but from the hands of our own people.

The Earth & Sky Collective Fund was created for moments like this.

When the system fails us, we turn to each other.
When safety nets disappear, we weave new ones.

Your contribution directly feeds, heals and sustains families who are holding entire communities together through love and survival.

Please give what you’re able and if you can, consider making your donation recurring. Sustained giving helps us continue to show up not just in moments of crisis but for the long haul.

🩵 donate.tendingfutures.org
Because when we tend to each other, we all rise.

11/05/2025

The following links are for registration and online coursework for the lifetime hunter safety card:

https://www.hunter-ed.com/louisiana/

https://louisianaoutdoors.com/events/194509?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQKNjYyODU2ODM3OQABHi2Dwovx2wjqKx4iX0dXliV3vB2PcNzxI5UEB_4CKcfBsDAJlkkR_BTZCsjW_aem_OKeRyJcE3mX09yU8GD3Y5A

11/05/2025

11/03/2025

🛒 ESCAMBIA FOOD RESOURCES — UPDATED NOVEMBER 2025

No one in Escambia County should go hungry. Whether someone needs a one-time meal, weekly groceries, or holiday help, this guide connects our neighbors with real, local support. 💙

Please share this post far and wide — with friends, family, coworkers, churches, schools, and community groups.
Every share helps this information reach someone who might not know where to turn.

📲 Full resource list available here: linktr.ee/IfNotUs
or at this link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yApCe-K8cvCun718Bxi8ooLVTGLsLTcBuylNtxNNbeI/edit?usp=sharing

🍁 What’s Inside the Resource List

📅 November 2025 Food Distributions — One-Day Events Only
Single-date food pickup and distribution events.

🛒 Grocery Pantries
Recurring or scheduled pantry services throughout the county.

🧺 Blessing Boxes & Free Pantries
24/7 accessible mini-pantries and community boxes.

🚚 Mobile Food Pantries & Distribution
Mobile or rotating food distribution programs.

🍽️ Hot Meals
Programs offering prepared meals on specific days or times.

👥 Mixed Services (Food + Other Assistance)
Programs combining food aid with other supports like clothing, hygiene, or housing help.

🦃 Thanksgiving Meal Giveaways & Food Distributions — 2025
Holiday-specific meal drives across Escambia & Santa Rosa Counties.

💛 Together, we can make sure no one goes without the basics.
Help us spread the word — share, tag local organizations, and keep this resource circulating throughout the community.

10/25/2025

⚠️ SNAP benefits will be suspended due to the government shutdown and our communities are the first to feel it.

Black and Indigenous Women and Two-Spirit caregivers are already carrying the weight of food insecurity, low wages and disappearing safety nets. Now, with SNAP being halted nationwide, too many families will be forced to choose between feeding their children or paying rent.

When the system shuts down, we take care of each other.

Donate today to the Earth & Sky Collective Fund to help provide grocery cards, herbal medicine, diapers and emergency support to families in crisis.

🍞 Because food is not charity. It’s a birthright.
🩵 donate.tendingfutures.org

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Spanish:
⚠️ Los beneficios de SNAP serán suspendidos debido al cierre del gobierno y nuestras comunidades somos los primeros en sentirlo.

Las mujeres negras e indígenas y las cuidadoras Dos-Espíritu ya están cargando con el peso de la inseguridad alimentaria, los salarios bajos y la desaparición de las redes de seguridad. Ahora, con SNAP detenidos a nivel nacional, muchas familias se verán obligadas a elegir entre alimentar a sus hijos o pagar la renta.

Cuando el sistema se detiene, nos cuidamos unos a otros.

Dona hoy al Earth & Sky Collective Fund para ayudar a proporcionar tarjetas de supermercado, medicina de herbolario, pañales y apoyo de emergencia a familias en crisis.

🍞 Porque la comida no es caridad. Es un derecho de nacimiento.
🩵 donate.tendingfutures.org

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chahta Anumpa:
⚠️ SNAP isht ia apela tok minti oklah, miko is hullo achi hoke.
Il hash Chahta ak ikhana oklah, iksho nita isht ishko na oklah, ash nashoba anoli is oba hoke.
Okla ish ima isht ia im issuba minti oklah, many families ish iti iksho hoke katos ishi foha oshi vlla ilia ona hoke.

Ihumpa osht issi ash okla iyok oba hoke.
Okla apela toba is ikhvna hoke.

Donate ichi li Earth achi Sky Collective Fund atok ma isht ia minti achvffa tobv ia grocery cards, halito pim holisso, diapers achi emergency support families atok ma.

🍞 Nukshopa ishko minti ia holisso oklah. Chahta ia oklah vpi minti ia holisso ashke.
🩵 donate.tendingfutures.org

10/16/2025

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10/16/2025

The empire doesn’t fear your marches.
It fears your withdrawal.

Millions can flood the streets but if the systems of power lose nothing (no labor, no money, no control), nothing changes.

The first No Kings protest taught us that visibility without consequence is vanity. And yet, here we are again: new posters, same politics. The refusal to listen to Black and Indigenous frontline organizers is how white liberalism keeps killing movements before they bloom.

Liberation isn’t a one-day event.
It’s a lifelong practice rooted in land, labor, and love for our people.

We don’t need another march.
We need a plan.

✊🏾 Read the full piece → https://www.tendingfutures.org/blog/no-kings-no-lessons-learned-when-white-liberalism-mistakes-marching-for-movement
🪶 From Africatown to Borikén, from the bayous to the mountains, we’re tending a future they can’t ignore.

10/14/2025

There’s a reason our elders kept camphor close.
A tree that holds both medicine and mystery, Cinnamomum camphora teaches us how to breathe again even after the air has been heavy for too long.

In traditional medicine, camphor cools what burns. It clears congestion from the chest and spirit alike, offering relief to the body’s grief. In our homes, it’s burned to drive away what lingers.. illness, sorrow, stagnant energy or unseen harm. Its smoke purifies, its scent awakens.

Spiritually, camphor is a guardian. It stands between worlds.. protecting, cleansing, reminding us that even the air around us can hold prayer. Across Asia, Africa and the Caribbean, it’s used to honor ancestors and cleanse altars, its rising smoke carrying remembrance to those who came before.

Here in the Gulf South, camphor trees stretch high and wide, sometimes invasive but always resilient. Much like us, rooted in foreign soil yet thriving with purpose. They remind me that healing isn’t always gentle. Sometimes it spreads wild, cracks concrete and makes space for breath again.

Camphor teaches us that healing is not a return, it’s a clearing. A clearing of what no longer serves so that what’s sacred can finally find its way home.

09/24/2025

🍂🌙 The Fall Equinox reminds us of balance between day and night, giving and receiving, Earth and Sky.

Across Black and Indigenous traditions, this season has always been a time to renew, give thanks and recommit to each other’s care.

That is the spirit of the Earth & Sky Collective Fund 🌍 a grassroots mutual aid fund led by and for Black & Indigenous Women and Two-Spirit peoples. We provide direct, no-strings-attached support to families in crisis, land-based healing work and organizers building liberation.

✨ This Equinox, we invite you to plant seeds of balance and liberation by becoming a monthly donor. Your steady gift sustains our communities with dignity, care and love.

💚 Donate today → [https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/earth-sky-collective-uplifting-black-and-indigenous-women-two-spirit-communities?source=direct_link&]
🌱 Share this post & help us grow

Together, we honor Earth & Sky: our roots, our resilience and our limitless potential.