Antifascists & Mutual Aid Groups Form Coalition to Mass Produce and Distribute Free Hand Sanitizer in Portland

Report from PopMob on growing efforts by a coalition of groups to mass produce and distribute free hand sanitizer in the Portland, Oregon area.

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Portland, OR – A new coalition composed of antifascist action/event planners PopMob, LGBTQ nonprofit the Q Center, and mutual aid organizations Rosehip Medic Collective, and Portland Action Medics (PAM), have come together to produce and distribute thousands of bottles of hand sanitizer to the greater Portland community.

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FILL YOUR OWN HAND SANITIZER BOTTLES TOMORROW (4/2) from.1-5pm at the Q Center!! 4115 N Mississippi Ave Bring your own and fill 'em up!!! #communitymedicine #qlab #rosehipmediccollective #portlandactionmedics #mutualaid #handsanitizerproject #givecaretakecare #wetakecareofus #wegotthisPDX

A post shared by PAM (Portland Action Medics) (@portlandactionmedics) on Apr 1, 2020 at 2:22pm PDT

“No one else is handing out supplies like this for free,” said Jesse, a member of Rosehip Medic Collective.  “The government and the market are failing us, and they are especially failing the people they so regularly ignore, neglect, and oppress.”

The coalition is prioritizing bulk orders, a couple hundred bottles at a time, for direct service organizations such as Sisters of the Road, Portland People’s Outreach Project (PPOP), and Outside In, among others. Those organizations then distribute supplies to the populations most at risk, such as people living outside. They’ve also provided hand sanitizer to domestic violence shelters, transitional housing, Trimet drivers, Meals on Wheels, and even a local firehouse.

Organizations distribute supplies to the populations most at risk, such as people living outside. They’ve also provided hand sanitizer to domestic violence shelters, transitional housing, Trimet drivers, Meals on Wheels, and even a local firehouse. 

Additionally, the coalition has supplied materials and information to satellite operations in other cities; organizations in places as far as Pittsburgh are also emulating this model to meet the needs of their own communities.

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Hey friends, as you know the Rosehip Medic Collective and the @portlandactionmedics have been busting our butts daily sourcing supplies, and mixing and bottling hand sanitizer (5,776 bottles so far!) for distribution to -multiple local health clinics -hospitals systems -mutual aid hubs -direct service organizations -domestic violence shelters We’ve put in countless hours and some of our personal resources to keep the #communitylab up and running but without further financial assistance and donations our production will grind to a halt by next week. In response to the continuing requests for life-saving hand sanitizer we have raised the limit of our GoFundMe (link in bio) and are asking our communities to PLEASE SHARE WIDELY, donate what you can,($, bottles, alcohol, glycerin, xanthum) help boost our signal with followers, and the request for mutual aid groups across the country to start their own #handsanitizerproject. Help us help the people!! WE TAKE CARE OF US! . #communitymedicine #rosehipmediccollective #portlandactionmedics #mutualaid #givecaretakecare #wetakecareofus #wegotthisPDX

A post shared by PAM (Portland Action Medics) (@portlandactionmedics) on Apr 2, 2020 at 4:31pm PDT

The coalition will be giving tours of their production facility to members of the media Tuesday, April 7th from 2-5 pm. To make arrangements to visit or set up a virtual tour, email: [email protected]. In the interest of social distancing, only one media outlet can tour at a time, and only two representatives of that outlet will be admitted.

Nearly 7,000 bottles of hand sanitizer have been distributed…demand has only increased and there is still no other resource filling this critical need.

Thus far, nearly 7,000 bottles of hand sanitizer have been distributed. The coalition is running a GoFundMe campaign to produce approximately 5,000 more. They planned to stop last week, but demand has only increased and there is still no other resource filling this critical need.

Organizations can arrange to pick up supplies Sunday-Friday, noon-8pm. Individual walk-up hours are posted on the Rosehip Medics website, where the recipe being used is also available. Regular updates about the project can also be found on the Portland Action Medics Instagram page.