Southwest Missouri Solidarity Network

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Southwest Missouri Solidarity Network

The SWMO Solidarity Network is a working class project building community infrastructure and providing mutual aid in Springfield through direct action.

https://linktr.ee/swmosolidaritynetwork

https://swmosolidaritynetwork.substack.com/

05/26/2026

Please note the location of our Mutual Aid Fair on Sunday May 31 from 2-6 PM has changed. It will now be held in The Gallery of National Avenue Christian Church at 1515 S National Ave.

Since we have so many new followers, we’d like to talk a little bit about what to expect at Mutual Aid Fair.

What is mutual aid?

Mutual aid is an exchange of goods, services, and skills between neighbors. Instead of a top-down approach found in traditional nonprofits and charities, mutual aid focuses on a lateral approach where each community member can give and take freely without having to show proof of need.

We believe that decentralized community-based direct action is an essential step in our collective liberation from the capitalist hierarchy.

Southwest Missouri Solidarity Network has hosted a Mutual Aid Fair on the last Sunday of each month for the past year. We invite our neighbors to bring a dish to share, a skill to teach, household items to give, or to simply bring themselves.

Here’s what you can expect at this month’s Mutual Aid Fair:

🪢 Knot Tying Lessons
🛍️ No-Sew Bag Making (bring a t-shirt!)
🥖 Sourdough Making
📖 The People’s Library
🚨 Brake Light Clinic
🚲 Bike Tuneups
📲 Tech Troubleshooting
🪡 Clothes Mending
💊 Harm Reduction Education & Supplies
🐝 STUN Letter Writing Campaign
🍲 Community Meal
🎨 Open Craft Table
🆓 Goods Exchange

If you’d like to share a skill, please send us a message so we can make sure to have a place for you!

05/25/2026

From one of our members to our distro chat this week:

“I used to be better about saying this more often, but thank you all for putting the work in and making it out whenever you do. Y'all come from out of town, get up early to cook, and do this work for not even a 'thank you' sometimes. Let me say it now for all you who attend, or put in the work behind the scenes. You all are awesome and this program would not still be around if it weren't for people like you who give a damn. You're all a credit to the team.”

There are lots of ways to get involved in the collective work of liberation in our org. Cooking, sourcing donations, fundraising, writing, art, building community, education, and more!

If you’d like to get involved, please join us!

05/19/2026

Each person who comes to distro has different preferences, needs, desires, skills, and dreams.

Some people need toiletries, some want a conversation and a place to relax.

Some are looking for nutritious veggies, some want a comfort meal. Some are vegetarian, some have trouble chewing crunchy peanut butter, some don’t like onions.

We offer a variety of foods, labeled and individually portioned, so that everyone has a choice.

We served famous bowls with mashed potatoes or polenta, a hearty salad, and PB&Js to 70 neighbors this weekend.

We had requests for deodorant, combs, pain medicine, tums, conditioner, and razors. If you’d like to donate, please drop off items at Liberation Tattoo on Commercial Street!

05/12/2026

Our cooking crew is great at doing a lot with a little. They get produce donated on Friday evenings, then meal plan, prep, and distribute by Saturday afternoons. This week we served fried rice and distributed needed goods to 73 neighbors.

If you want to learn how we do it, stay tuned for news about our cooking crew cookbook!

05/03/2026

We are happy to provide a free and open service to the folks in need around our community. With rising prices everywhere, every week it gets harder to do so, but that means every week it becomes harder for them to survive. So we will keep on cooking, we will keep on serving and we will keep showing up because every day we do means a bus ride to a job interview, a free easy meal to get through the day, or a tarp to keep the rain off. And enough of that means housing found by a person who only needed to be given a chance.

http://www.venmo.com/u/swmo_solidarity_network

04/27/2026

EDIT: The Mutual Aid Fair on Sunday 5/31 2-6 PM will be held at National Avenue Christian Church 1515 S National Ave

49 neighbors came out to Mutual Aid Fair this weekend for free haircuts, clothing mending, brake light repair, crafts, food, zines, and good times.

Next MAF is May 31 from 2-6 PM at the UU Church.

Comment below with a skill you’d like to share or learn!

04/26/2026

“People really like a big greasy slice of pizza!”
This week when we were discussing how many pizzas to buy and how many slices we should cut them into, we decided in favor of abundance. People deserve a big slice of pizza. People on SNAP deserve to buy their kids a birthday cake or a warm rotisserie chicken. When we share, there is enough for everyone.

04/23/2026

Mutual Aid Fair is this Sunday April 26! Join your neighbors in this free, people-powered event!

Learn a skill! ⚒️
Bring a dish! 🥙
Make a screenprint! 👕
And so much more!

We’ll be inside at the First Unitarian Universalist Church 2434 E Battlefield from 2-6 PM.

If you’d like to share a skill, let us know, so we can spread the word!

Here’s what you can expect this month:

💇 Haircuts 2-4
📖 The People’s Library
🚨 Brake Light Clinic
🚲 Bike Tuneups
📲 Tech Troubleshooting
🪡 Clothes Mending
💊 Harm Reduction Education & Supplies
🐝 STUN Letter Writing Campaign
🍲 Community Meal
🎨 Open Craft Table
🆓 Goods Exchange

04/20/2026

This week, one of our neighbors finally secured housing and we celebrate with them. However, we believe housing is a basic human right, and it serves no one to keep people unhoused. Until everyone has their basic needs met, we will continue to do our small part to feed people and share necessities to add some safety and comfort to our neighbor’s lives.

04/12/2026

✨Skill Spotlight✨

Every month, neighbors offer skills and services at the Mutual Aid Fair. Today, we are highlighting the people who mend our clothes and soft items, sew patches on shirts, hem our pants, fix jackets, sheets, and quilts. They help us minimize the effects of fast fashion, be comfortable, keep and use what we have, make a statement, and create community along the way.

Bring your fabric items in need of a little attention to the next Mutual Aid Fair, Sunday, April 26, between 2:00-6:00.

Have sewing skills and want to help? Bring your sewing machine and we’ll get you set up.

Address

Springfield, MO

Website

https://swmosolidaritynetwork.substack.com/, https://linktr.ee/swmosolidaritynetwork

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