Thirteen months ago, when event planner Maryam Mudrick realized she wouldn’t be working anytime soon, the Queens-based busybody channeled her organizational prowess elsewhere: making sure her Astoria neighbors could get their groceries.
Like other COVID response efforts, Mudrick’s started small: one sunny Saturday, she and her husband, Ross, posted flyers around their block, inviting any neighbors who needed groceries to call Ross’ personal cell. Then, they took to Instagram, and translated the flyer to other languages. Other neighbors soon started posting flyers, too, and some added other offers, like to pick up a prescription, or give a ride to a doctor’s appointment, or lend a friendly ear to anyone feeling lonely.
A few weeks later, the Mudrick husband-and-wife duo “operationalized” those small gestures into the now two-thousand-plus-strong Astoria Mutual Aid Network (AMAN), a community best described by its simple slogan: “Neighbors give help. Neighbors get help.” What was once a pop-up grocery-delivery-service has become a wraparound community safety net to make sure everyone in Astoria has access to food, friendship, clothes, toys, tablets, translations, hygiene supplies, and other essential needs.
