Unbelievably it’s been nearly 80 days since we launched Cupburger Mutual Aid. Who could forget that hot summer night in mid July when B.Dolan announced the news to the community – Cupburger was real, and not just the name of a restaurant we made in Minecraft and Fast Food Simulator. We had created a mutual aid fund and a cause for the community to rally behind. We’re very proud of it.
For the rest of July and the whole of August our focus was on fundraising and goodness me did the community come through. The word of Cupburger was spread throughout the extended Twitch community, as special streams took place in order to generate awareness and raise funds. Games were played. Merchandise was released. Some people even watched variations of Terminator 2 for 12 hours straight.
The response we’ve received has been nothing short of magical. At the time of writing we have received financial contributions from 91 different people. That’s a lot. Not only that, 52 of those people have chosen to set up a recurring monthly contribution. We’ve raised over £6000 and we cannot thank you all enough. Knowing that so many of you are invested in this project for the foreseeable future brings us enormous joy.
We’re delighted to have been able to pay out 19 entry level grants so far. These have varied from £50-200 and have covered things such as travel expenses, rent assistance, car repairs, vet bills and covering of lost wages. If you are reading this and could do with help in any of these areas or others then please consider applying yourself. Please also remember that in alignment with our ‘bread and roses’ ethos, we also encourage people to apply for grants that would improve their quality of life more generally. Always wanted to try out watercolour painting but haven’t had the spare cash for brushes and paints? Use Cupburger. Fancy a nice meal out with your partner but things are tight and your budget can’t stretch to it? Use Cupburger. Want to see your favourite band play live but can’t justify the exorbitant prices? Use Cupburger!
So what’s next?
Lots! First off we have a big community art project stream that I am hosting on Sunday 12th October at 6.30pm. I’ve asked people to make their own version of Cuppy the Cupburger mascot in any medium they like. I’ve had some INCREDIBLE entries and cannot wait to show them all off. During the stream we’ll also be discussing mutual aid and raising money for the fund. You won’t want to miss it.
We also have a brand new bookclub in the Cupburger discord where we plan to read useful books, articles and essays. We’re going to keep it accessible and cheap so everyone can take part, so get involved if you fancy it!
Most importantly though, we will soon be introducing larger scale funding projects for members of the community who have a big financial need that cannot be covered by the current entry level grants. Some of you may have spotted that we have plenty of money coming into the fund and not as much going out. That build up of funds is going to be much needed and there’s a good chance we will need to drum up a lot more support very soon. Keep an eye out for updates on this imminently!
Finally, on behalf of everyone involved in Cupburger, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has donated, helped spread the word or even just been receptive to the idea of mutual aid in general. The world is a shit show right now and I hope that, like me, knowing that this kind of community project exists, and is thriving, is giving you some hope and making you smile.