BRATTLEBORO-On a blistering hot Tuesday afternoon recently, the denizens of Brattleboro’s streets found a welcome at one of the town’s lesser-known eateries.
On Flat Street, in the meager shade of the Brattleboro Transportation Center’s parking garage, two people, Fiver and Less, had set up their weekly mission to the streets — a free-food table and, beside it, an array of free clothing and even camping paraphernalia for those in need to take from.
For two hours, the giveaways drew a varied succession of patrons out of their accustomed daytime haunts to enjoy the generosity of the couple, who declined to give their full names, citing possible harassment from persons unsympathetic to the homeless.
The patronage included unhoused people, individuals living in insecure housing, and a smattering of securely housed, or “homed,” persons.
“We do get questions about who qualifies,” Fiver said. “If you’re not super-rich, then that’s you!”
“It’s mostly food-insecure people,” Less said. “There is a prevailing spirit of generosity among participants. The community shares with each other and brings away food and clothing for those who can’t attend.”
Fiver, who uses the pronoun they, holds a part-time job, as does Less. Fiver described themself and Less as “housing insecure,” referring to the couple’s current accommodations, an off-grid cabin owned by friends.
“Access to a spring in winter, and a camp sink with running water in summer,” Less said in describing their plumbing arrangement. “We’re very lucky — we lost our housing in February.”
While the couple’s housing is thus very modest by most Americans’ standards, Less and Fiver’s resources suffice to foot the bill for the Tuesday “distro” — the term the couple uses for the distribution of free food and clothing.
Expenses for each week’s distro total between $30 and $100. The event’s entrées are cooked on a hot plate. The clothes and camping gear are discards from a thrift store.
“Three people have offered donations, and we’ve accepted them, but we have never solicited,” Fiver said.
On the occasion of the reporter’s visit, the couple’s efforts had produced sweetened iced tea with lemon, and two large pots of pork-fried rice, alongside other beverages donated by a private individual and salads contributed by a local food pantry.
In addition to the nutritional sustenance, the offerings included an array of trousers, shirts, footwear, and camping supplies spread along the wide sidewalk — as well as the social sustenance.
The couple are acting purely as private citizens, with no organizational affiliation.
“We see a need and we’re filling it,” Fiver said simply. “We want people to know they can just do this for each other.”
The obvious issue
Fiver and Less were not the only ones on hand saying that the primary supporters of the community’s unhoused were either other people or individuals who are also in the same situation or who had recently endured the same experience.
“People are doing mutual aid all the time,” said a patron who identified herself only as Jane. “And the people who are doing the most mutual aid are the people on the street.“
The impromptu atmosphere of the distro lent itself to discussion of the obvious issue: the status of Brattleboro’s homelessness situation.
Asked if that situation was better or worse than, or about the same as, it was a year ago, patron Amanda Moore said, “It’s drastically worse. Everywhere anybody sleeps, they kick you out.”
Fiver and Less gave equally unambiguous opinions.
“When we say worse,” Fiver explained, “it means that due to rising rents, a lot of people have lost their housing.”
They added that several ordinances have meanwhile been passed “that make things difficult or impossible for unhomed people. […] If you’re lying down with a blanket over you, the police can be called to ask you to go somewhere else. There is nowhere to shower or sleep. The shelters and the hotel program can offer help but do not have the resources to provide for everyone.”
Sometimes, “people are no-trespassed from one place or another, and our distro is a venue where they can still access resources if they have nowhere else to go,” said Less.
As an ultra-low-budget, private-sector initiative to help people on the street, the effort embodies the social motives celebrated in prince-turned-anarchist-philosopher Peter Kropotkin’s 1902 book Mutual Aid, which proclaimed the virtues of mutual assistance as a natural instinct — as a factor in evolution.
Less and Fiver’s weekly event is not Brattleboro’s sole manifestation of those motives.
Ian Earle, a formerly unhoused person who stopped by the free-food table, said that in his experience, “there’s very little actual help [from social service agencies]. You get more help from people.”
“We got our idea for what we’re hosting on Tuesday from people who were doing a distro previously, beginning in 2023,” Less recalled.
That effort started in front of the Brattleboro Food Co-op, then shifted to Sundays at the Transportation Center site, and recently moved to the Community Hope Center (formerly known as 69A) on Elliot Street, where the Sunday meals continue.
‘No interference’
While the Brattleboro Police Department maintains a substation at the Transportation Center, Less and Fiver have had no problems with the enforcers of the law.
“We have been left alone so far,” Less said simply. “There has been no interference.”
Nor have the two of them had any issues with the people they serve.
“We have never needed any kind of intervention,” Fiver said. “I’ve never even been yelled at. I know I am safe.”
Reached for comment, Adam Petlock, assistant chief of the Brattleboro Police Department, concurred.
“I have not been aware of any problems there,” he said, adding that “as a police department we continue to police [so as] to have an enjoyable environment for everybody downtown.”
Indeed, the mood at the Flat Street event was far from dour. “It’s supposed to be like a block party,” Less said. “A venue to enjoy each other and pass along things which would otherwise go in a landfill.”
Opportunities for relaxed socializing abounded, as did opportunities for interviews with those enjoying the food and drink or sifting through the free clothes.
Although six individuals said the overall situation had worsened, one participant said it was about the same. Another, Jacob Banis, said it had actually improved.
“It seems […] that there’s more community support,” he said.
“It got to the point that it was so bad in the town that people had some compassion,” Banis said. “You couldn’t turn a blind eye to it.”
This News item by C.B. Hall was written for The Commons.