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May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and we’re going to be celebrating with essays, product recommendations, guides to the Bay Area’s best Chinatown bakeries, Burmese restaurants, soondubu, and much more. But first, we want to talk about how you can support the Bay Area’s AAPI community right now.
Since the onset of the Covid outbreak in early 2020, hate crimes and violence towards our country’s AAPI communities have devastatingly spiked. According to NBC, a recent report released by the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino found that San Francisco saw a 140% increase in racially motivated attacks against Asian folks in 2021.
Since then, local and national organizations have stepped up, and been supporting the AAPI community through fundraisers, outreach, education, and mutual aid. Consider donating to or amplifying the organizations below, and supporting local Asian-owned businesses and restaurants.
Bay Area-Based Organizations Supporting Asian, South Asian, and Pacific Islander Communities
Cut Fruit Collective (formerly Save Our Chinatowns) originally started as a fundraiser in early 2020. The grassroots collective now works to support local businesses in SF and Oakland Chinatowns, and AAPI artists and activists - check out their fundraising campaigns here.
Good Good Eatz is an Oakland-based organization that offers financial relief to food businesses in need, and also provides social media and marketing expertise.
The Chinatown Community Development Center, which offers housing, workshops, and events for the SF Chinatown community, is currently accepting donations for their Feed + Fuel Chinatown campaign. In partnership with SF New Deal, donated funds will help provide hundreds of thousands of meals (from local restaurants) to Chinatown residents living in Single Room Occupancy housing.
The Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce supports and promotes businesses in Oakland Chinatown.
The Southeast Asian Development Center is a Tenderloin-based organization that provides housing support, food drives, translation services, and more to low-income Southeast Asian families in SF.
Stop AAPI Hate is a reporting center founded by SF-based advocacy organization Chinese for Affirmative Action as a response to rising racism and xenophobia during the COVID-19 pandemic. The center tracks and responds to hate crimes and incidents of discrimination, harassment, and violence.
Berkeley-based Third Culture Bakery is accepting donations for their community safety kits, which include a keychain alarm, pepper spray, and lanyards. They’re distributing the kits at local community centers and prioritizing BIPOC and LGBTQ+ folks, as well as those over 40 years old.
Other Ways to Help
Donate to the Oakland Chinatown Ambassador Program & Victims Fund, which is raising money for individuals and families affected by the recent increase in crime and assaults.
Donate to Red Canary Song, a grassroots collective of Asian and migrant sex workers that organizes in the US and transnationally.
Donate to AAPI Women Lead, an organization working to end racial and gender violence, with a focus on AAPI women and girls.
Continue to support Asian-owned restaurants by ordering takeout (directly from the restaurant when you can), being kind, and tipping well.
Follow Asians 4 Black Lives to hear about upcoming rallies, marches, and vigils, more ways to donate, and how to stand in solidarity with both the Asian and Black communities.
Report any hate crimes you might witness to Stop AAPI Hate using this link.
Whether you want to buy durian stickers for a friend or a print whose proceeds go to Stop AAPI Hate, check out Senior Art Director Emily Ng’s 16 picks.
Many Asian American food and kitchen companies are also donating sales to charities as well. Here’s a list of national brands to support now and always.
Find more ways to support in NYC, LA, Chicago, and London here.