During the summer of 2021, organizers with Bed-Stuy Strong, a Brooklyn-based mutual aid collective, realized that many of their neighbors were desperately in need of air conditioners. Mentions of hot apartments kept popping up in conversations at community events they hosted.
“One of our organizers was talking to a bunch of people who needed ACs and it kind of dawned on them that a bunch of other people in the neighborhood [were] really trying to get rid of their ACs,” says Bridget Johnson, a Bed-Stuy Strong organizer. That first summer, Bed-Stuy Strong redistributed about 60 air conditioners.
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When the summer heat hit in 2021, Bed-Stuy Strong had already built a robust food distribution system to assist neighbors dealing with food insecurity. It tweaked that model to create an air conditioner collection and distribution strategy. Bed-Stuy Strong finds donors and recipients through neighborhood flyers, social media, Google Forms, and community events. Most of the group’s donations come from people who are moving or upgrading to a larger AC unit. ACs are housed in a storage unit with the rest of the group’s mutual aid supplies.
Bed-Stuy Strong asks all donors, recipients, and redistribution volunteers if they’re able to carry the units themselves—if not, they’ll send a member who can lift ACs. Sometimes donors drop off ACs or recipients pick them up directly, but volunteers often use their own vehicles to help. One volunteer even has a rig on his bike to transport ACs.
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