1.5: Mutual Aid with Andrea Schrimp
CW: References to child sexual abuse, religious abuse, and death due to systemic vulnerability.
Podcast cover image by Dave Lowenstein [https://www.daveloewenstein.com/], used under Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs CC BY-NC-ND Creative Commons License via Justseeds [https://justseeds.org/graphic/arise-together/]. Modified with podcast text.
Dandelion Seeds: https://sacdandelion.org [https://sacdandelion.org/]
3:05 Andrea’s childhood catching lizards and being a good mormon
10:33 Why she was invested in Mormonism, and what made her leave
26:19 What is Mutual Aid and Dandelion Seeds’ work
37:35 Advice for getting involved and finding community
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Help for survivors of sexual assault
https://www.childhelphotline.org/ [https://www.childhelphotline.org/]
https://protecteverychild.com/ [https://protecteverychild.com/]
https://rainn.org/ [https://rainn.org/]
https://snapnetwork.org/resources-for-survivors/ [https://snapnetwork.org/resources-for-survivors/]
https://www.revitalizewellnesscounseling.com/blog/csa-in-the-church [https://www.revitalizewellnesscounseling.com/blog/csa-in-the-church]
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For leaving high control religion
Steve Hassan’s “BITE model” https://freedomofmind.com/cult-mind-control/bite-model-pdf-download/ [https://freedomofmind.com/cult-mind-control/bite-model-pdf-download/]
National Domestic Violence hotline https://www.thehotline.org/ [https://www.thehotline.org/]
Also see notes on Ep. 1 with Delia
Other mutual aid resources:
https://sacramentohomelessunion.org/ [https://sacramentohomelessunion.org/]
https://foodnotbombs.net/new_site/ [https://foodnotbombs.net/new_site/]
https://www.radical-guide.com/listing/punks-with-lunch-sacramento-chapter/ [https://www.radical-guide.com/listing/punks-with-lunch-sacramento-chapter/]
https://www.sac-soup.org/ [https://www.sac-soup.org/]
https://www.facebook.com/SactoPPC/ [https://www.facebook.com/SactoPPC/]
https://www.norcalresist.org/index.html [https://www.norcalresist.org/index.html]
https://www.deanspade.net/mutual-aid-building-solidarity-during-this-crisis-and-the-next/ [https://www.deanspade.net/mutual-aid-building-solidarity-during-this-crisis-and-the-next/]
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More about Dandelion Seeds
https://linktr.ee/dandelionseeds916 [https://linktr.ee/dandelionseeds916]
Dandelion Seeds is a grassroots mutual aid group working to provide food, water, survival gear, harm reduction, first aid supplies, and other small comforts to our unhoused neighbors in South Sacramento.
We (Dandelion Seeds) do street meals on average twice a month, with supplementary runs in extreme weather conditions and for special occasions. We hand out home cooked meals, water, blankets and sleeping bags, Narcan, baby wipes and other hygiene supplies, tents, tarps, socks, hats, gloves, flashlights, first aid, condoms, harm reduction kits, books, reading glasses, pet food, firewood, and more.
In addition to material needs, we make an effort to connect with the communities we serve. We spend time getting to know people, their families, their pets. We help with some basic veterinary triage and first aid, give basic general advice on pet and personal care. We listen.
In 2025, Dandelion seeds handed out 2,571 meals, 4,258 bottles of water, 790 electrolyte or hot drinks, 95 tarps, 34 tents, 485 packs of wipes, 64 blankets or sleeping bags, 1,020 doses of Narcan, 1,529 harm reduction kits, 311 first aid packs, 11,129 condoms, 1,248 maxi pads, 2,236 tampons, 4,575 pairs of socks, 1,054 hygiene packs, 100 storm kits, 75 emergency food bags, and 50 hot weather comfort kits.
We did 38 street outreach days in 2025, with 8 street team volunteers backed by a team of support from volunteers at home, cooking, sewing, knitting, building outreach kits, sourcing supplies, and, of course, making our work possible with money and supply donations.
We’re back at it already this year, with 6 street meals scheduled in the first 3 months of 2026. If you want to get involved, send us a message! Or if you want to help with funding, there’s two ways to get money to us. The fast way is to send PayPal as a “friends and family” transaction. That puts money directly into our working account.
https://www.paypal.me/DandelionSeeds916?locale.x=en_US [https://www.paypal.me/DandelionSeeds916?locale.x=en_US]
Alternately, if you’d like to make a tax deductible donation, and/or set up a recurring donation, you can use this link to the donation page set up by our fiscal sponsor, A Radical Guide. All of those funds, less the credit card processing fees, go to us. It’s a little bit slower, but it’s tax deductable, AND when you set up a recurring donation, it helps us even more because it allows us to make plans for ongoing expenses
https://www.radical-guide.com/dandelion-seeds/ [https://www.radical-guide.com/dandelion-seeds/]
And we’ve recently updated our wishlist. (We hate Amazon too, alas, they have the most functional wishlist feature for our needs. If you want to buy stuff for us from someplace else, get in touch and we’ll figure out the best way to make that work.)
https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/2261OGZ8J8LBA?ref_=wl_share [https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/2261OGZ8J8LBA?ref_=wl_share]
Let it begin with each step we take,
and let it begin with each change we make,
and let it begin with each chain we break,
and let it begin every time we awake.
