Connecting during COVID

Greetings,

We hope you are as safe and secure as possible during this time of crisis. If you have any needs that we might help with, please visit the Cooperation Humboldt COVID-19 Community Response Needs Request page.

For those of you in a position to volunteer during this time, we have several specific invitations to collaborate and/or engage with Cooperation Humboldt and our COVID response activities.

Mini Gardens

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 Our food team’s primary focus this season is installing as many mini-gardens as possible for low income residents of Humboldt County. This project is just ramping up, and we’ve installed 18 so far, with almost a hundred more households requesting this service to date. We have a great need for garden installation volunteers – folks who have at least some gardening experience, and who can work semi-independently to deliver and install small (3′ square) garden beds and fill them with soil and plants. Volunteers can take on as few or as many gardens as they like, and of course Cooperation Humboldt will cover all costs. 

If you’d like to help, but are unable to be an installer, we also welcome help in any of the following ways:

  • Donate plant starts (we’re focusing on crops that are easy for beginners to grow, including lettuce, kale, strawberries, snap peas, cherry tomatoes, etc.)
  • Build planter boxes
  • Loan a truck for an installation volunteer who doesn’t have one

To learn more about how you can get involved with this effort, contact Tamara at tamara.mcfarland@cooperationhumboldt.com

Little Free Pantries

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During this pandemic, our Little Free Pantries are being utilized like never before. If you want to help with that project, contact Casey Jo at pheonyx31@gmail.com. And of course, you’re invited to donate non-perishable food and personal care items to any pantry, any time.

COVID Response – Eureka

We are also looking for someone able to take an active role in assisting our COVID response in Eureka. This involves helping to match needs requests with volunteers. If you are interested in learning more, contact David at david.cobb@cooperationhumboldt.com.

Mask Making

Want to join our mask-making team? Have materials to donate? You can sew from home, or come to our physically distanced office space in Bayside (which is sanitized before/after each use) and use a donated sewing machine. Contact Kait at kaitangus@gmail.com.

Learn/Engage

Curious about Solidarity, but isolated? Join us for a video conversation about the concept of Solidarity Economics generally, how Cooperation Humboldt applies those concepts in tangible ways locally, and how you can get involved – next Wednesday, May 6th at 2:00 pm on Zoom. Advance registration is required  click here to register. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

#ShareYourCheck to Ensure Food Security for Our Community

We hope this finds you, your family, and your loved ones as safe and secure as possible during this historic crossroads. We are grateful to live in a community that has come together in this time of crisis to help one another. If you believe that:

      • Food is a Human Right…

      • Housing is a Human Right…

      • We can build a just, equitable, and compassionate society on the principles of solidarity and mutual aid…

      • Each of us can contribute to our community according to our abilities, and receive based on our needs…

Then we invite you to donate part or all of your $1200 stimulus check to ensure food security for all members of our community.

Join the growing movement to #ShareMyCheck
to support Cooperation Humboldt’s Food Programs 

Your donation will:

    • Aid in the cost of 3′ ready to plant mini gardens
    • Provide fresh and healthy food to low income community members
    • Provide educational materials and ongoing garden mentorship to impart life-long food cultivation skills
    • Ensure both short and long-term food autonomy

We are grateful for your continued support and encourage you to reach out if you have skills or goods to share, or are in need of assistance through our Covid-19 Response team.

In Solidarity,

The Cooperation Humboldt Team
Cooperation Humboldt
707.273.1146

Join us on Sunday, February 23

Thank you for your help and participation as we build a solidarity economy in our local community. This week we extend two invitations, both happening next Sunday, Feb 23rd.Cooperation Humboldt co-founder David Cobb is delivering two “lay sermons” at the Humboldt Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, located at 24 Fellowship Way in Bayside. The first will be at 9:00 am, and the second will be at 11:00 am. A lay sermon is defined as “an address on moral and religious questions by a layperson.”

David’s address is titled “Calling all Visionaries.” He will make the case for peaceful revolution, and outline Cooperation Humboldt’s vision, plan and our efforts to implement it.

Later that afternoon from 2:00-4:00 pm we will host a monthly potluck at The Purple Palace (aka David and Ruthi’s home) located at 1402 M Street in Eureka. This is an informal gathering where we can get to know each other better and support and care for one another as we engage in the difficult work of trying to change our society. All are welcome to join us to connect, deepen relationships, and grow our community.

Please be conscious of dietary restrictions and choices (vegan, vegetarian, gluten free, etc.) in the food you choose to bring so everyone has something to eat, and please label your dishes clearly if they contain meat/dairy/eggs/gluten/sugar/etc.As always, please reach out to us with your own dreams, ideas, and plans. Please be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram to stay up to date on how Cooperation Humboldt empowers our community to build a brighter future!

With hope for a collaborative future for all,

The Cooperation Humboldt Team

A Movement of Movements

At Cooperation Humboldt, we are committed to supporting grassroots social movements, building alternative institutions, and engaging in electoral work within the legal constraints of our 501(c)3 designation. Contrary to common assumptions, nonprofits can host candidate forums, circulate candidate questionnaires, and endorse legislation – we just aren’t allowed to endorse candidates.

Last week we helped to organize an impressive coalition of 15 local organizations that collaborated in a candidate forum that helped to develop a “movement of movements” approach to the upcoming local election. The event was held at College of the Redwoods, and simulcast on KMUD radio and broadcast on a large screen at the Mateel Community Center in Redway. All seven candidates running for County Supervisor in Districts 1 and 2 participated. (District 3 is also on the ballot this year, but is an uncontested race).

You can watch the entire forum by clicking here.

In Humboldt we vote for County Supervisors in the primaries, which will be held on March 3rd. If any candidate earns 50% +1 of the vote, they win the election. But if no candidate passes the 50% threshold, the top two vote earners go on to a run-off in the November election.

If you need to register to vote, or update your registration, please do so now!

Please be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram to stay up to date on how Cooperation Humboldt empowers our community to build a brighter future!

With hope for a collaborative future for all,

The Cooperation Humboldt Team
Cooperation Humboldt
707.273.1146

Upcoming February Events!

Thank you for your continued support and participation with Cooperation Humboldt. Together, we are proving that we can build a local economy that puts people and planet before profit.Today we are thinking about the powerful words of African-American author, film-maker, and college professor Toni Cade Bambara who famously said, “The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible.”

It is in that spirt that we invite you to attend the 3rd annual Artists Dismantling Capitalism Symposium happening on Saturday, February 29 from 9:00am – 5:30pm at the Arcata Playhouse, located at 1251 9th St in Arcata (The Creamery Building).

This event is highly participatory and brings together artists, culture workers, and anyone who knows that we can collectively create a society that is loving, compassionate, inclusive and beautiful.


The day will begin with an Opening Session that includes an interactive performance that imagines shifting from an extractive economy to a regenerative one. Throughout the day 16 participatory workshops will be facilitated by artists, community members and others.

Vegan lunch is included.

Childcare will be provided on request with at least 5 days notice prior to event. Please note in your registration form if you will be needing childcare.

To register, please click here.

Donations to help us cover the costs of the conference are appreciated, but not required.



We also want to invite you another upcoming workshop:

The Whiteness Within: Challenging White Supremacy Culture, which will be offered on Saturday, February 15 from 1:00pm – 3:00pm at The Labor Temple, located at 840 E Street in Eureka.This theatre-based workshop is inspired by “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism” by Robin DiAngelo and will give participants a chance to recognize how white supremacy culture shows up in their own lives, and provide an opportunity to practice confronting and challenging those behaviors.

Please be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram to stay up to date on how Cooperation Humboldt empowers our community to build a brighter future!

With hope for a collaborative future for all,

The Cooperation Humboldt Team
Cooperation Humboldt
707.273.1146

Tell the City of Eureka – We Need Clean Solutions!

According to an article in the Tululwat Examiner, Eureka city staff plans to apply for grant funding to purchase a generator for use at a warming center that can accommodate up to 2,400 people during future blackouts.

While we wholeheartedly support the desire to create centers to care for our community members during future outages, we know that investing in more generators – which are huge consumers of fossil fuels, as well as terribly noisy/smelly/polluting, and a fire risk – is not the solution.* City of Eureka, please consider alternatives before you proceed. We at Cooperation Humboldt would love to work with you on grant applications for solar panel systems for more city buildings and community spaces that can provide power/warmth in a much more responsible way, and lead us as a community in the direction we need to go, not backwards.

We advocate for pursuing a Resilient Hubs model, and hope to engage with local governments and community groups to make plans in alignment with values of resilience, regeneration, and community wellness.

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Dirty power is what got us into this mess in the first place – investing in more isn’t going to get us out.

Call to Action

Eureka residents, please call your city representatives and demand that the city’s planning for disaster preparedness be done responsibly (bonus points if you offer to serve on a committee to support this goal!) –

  • Greg Sparks, City Manager – (707) 441-4144
  • Susan Seaman, Mayor – (707) 441-4200
  • Leslie Castellano, Councilmember, Ward 1 – (707) 441-4169
  • Heidi Messner, Councilmember, Ward 2 – (707) 441-4168
  • Natalie Arroyo, Councilmember, Ward 3 – (707) 441-4171
  • Austin Allison, Councilmember, Ward 4 – (707) 441-4167
  • Kim Bergel, Councilmember, Ward 5 – (707) 441-4170

* We understand that for those of us with extreme needs (medical, etc.), generators may be the only affordable solution at the moment at a personal/household level during crisis. We aren’t seeking to shame anyone who uses one for legitimate need. But we believe the City has an opportunity here to lead by example and show a better way forward.