On Thursday, October 28th, Student Solidarity at The Ohio State University announced a new mutual aid effort on their Instagram. The goal of the effort is to help OSU students and community members in a myriad of ways, including providing access to free food, textbooks, or tutoring; providing money for rent, medicine, or tuition; giving rides to help people access needs; and more. This comes after a history of Student Solidarity and Students for a Democratic Society members coming together to raise thousands for Hunter Mattin, a former member of Student Solidarity who was unjustly arrested at a Black Lives Matter protest last April.

According to the announcement, students and community members should DM the Student Solidarity Instagram to make requests. Aaron Reilman, Treasurer of Student Solidarity, shared that this process will be more streamlined soon, which will allow for further anonymity for those requesting aid and make it possible for those without Instagram accounts to request aid. 

Sierra Haurani, a general body member of Student Solidarity, explained that this project is inspired by other college’s mutual aid initiatives, particularly Barnard College’s @barnardmutualaid. Haurani said “I watched Barnard Mutual Aid go from 100 to 1.2K followers… I feel like [that growth] will be easier somewhere like OSU where the student body isn’t [very small].”

Student Solidarity has launched a Cash App account to fund this new initiative. You can find and donate to this account on the app by searching for $OSUStudentSolidarity. All money given will go directly into helping the OSU community.