Food and shelter. “Where do you get your oil and rice and corn meal and beans?”
She described the camp’s “free” store system, run by resident asylum seekers called “store managers.” Cooking utensils and food stuffs; tents, sleeping bags, jackets, and mats; diapers, feminine hygiene products, and toilet paper — all these things can be obtained at the tiendas, kept stocked by Team Brownsville and the Angry Tías.
Before the tienda system, necessities were distributed from the backs of trucks. But when the camp population exploded with the onset of MPP, lines became too long, it was impossible to know who got what, and frustration mounted when needs could not be met. A Team Brownsville volunteer came up with the idea of buying a large tent and some storage containers and identifying a resident couple to keep track of what came and went. Yami and Josue, who then lived on the plaza, were the first “store managers.” Their tent became Tienda #1.
The system worked so well, three more tiendas had been added by the time of my visit. The managers worked so hard, the Tías and Team Brownsville raised money to pay them. This kicked off a culture of building capacity within the camp.
Team Brownsville and the Tías store donations and purchased items in the tiendas, which managers distribute on demand. All residents have to do is ask. When an item is given out, it’s added to a list and replenished. That way, when a new family shows up, the store managers are ready and equipped to support them.