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During the winter storm, students in the �԰����� Mutual Aid organization stepped up to help South Texans, as many struggled with power, water, and heat outages. �԰����� Mutual Aid, a collective founded in October 2020, is dedicated to helping the San Antonio community by connecting families in need with resources, services, and supplies. With the money and materials they collect, �԰����� Mutual Aid fills food pantries in the community, provides rent relief, helps cover costly medical expenses, and more.

“The ability to provide temporary relief for those disadvantaged by our current social systems is a crucial aspect of grassroots change needed to remedy institutional inequality,” says Rachel Kaufman ’22, one of �԰����� Mutual Aid’s organizers.

During the winter storm, the organization’s Venmo handle appeared in an infographic that reached millions of people after being shared by several celebrities, including Anne Hathaway and Chrissy Tiegen. In just that week alone, �԰����� Mutual Aid raised more than $110,000 from people across the world. In turn, they distributed everything they collected during the storm to about 700 families who requested aid.

Kaufman is thankful for the bond she has made with her fellow organizers. “The way we all put our whole hearts into this project reminds me why I chose to go to �԰�����,” she says. “It is the immense passion to provide aid to a community we love, the incredible use of knowledge and scholarship in our meetings, and the never-ending learning of how to be better and how to better serve those in need.”