Election Day is here.

“How’s your anxiety?” has replaced “How are you?” in my circles.

Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash

Friends,

We are here. It’s Election Day and hopefully soon we can all be together being calmala in our pajamalas with our Kamala mamala. Granted, we may know nothing for days, or weeks, but the day has come. Some of us have canvassed, called, knocked doors. Others have taken up meditation due to doom-scrolling. I have done a bit of both. But know this — we are in this together, and we will get through — by voting and some combination of praying, running, meditating, canvassing, or hiding out in a small dark closet until the last votes are counted. We will get through and find our way to a future where we are still free to be you and me.

I deal with anxiety in a few ways; I try to slow down my thoughts and breath deeply. I go for a run. I hug my kids and my mom (who is in a bit of a kidney crisis but hopefully those suckers will start working right soon!). I try to laugh. I loved this from “unregistered huperkate 2”

kate

on X.

Another way I deal with anxiety is to look for the good in the world. So, I wanted to share some inspiration and that comes from The Migrant Kitchen and its charitable arm, The Migrant Kitchen Initiative which launched the nonprofit nonpartisan Feed the Polls back in 2020 in partnership with Zagat and The Infatuation.

Access to food continues to be a challenge for over 42 million Americans and there has been a concerted effort by local and state officials to reinforce food insecurity as a barrier to voting. That’s where Feed the Polls comes in. It works to ensure that food insecurity does not prevent anyone from voting. Feed the Polls will be out there today, feeding folks in food insecure neighborhoods across the country – serving free, nutritious meals at polling sites across the country in partnership with some of the country’s most exciting restaurants.

In 2020, Feed the Polls — led by Daniel Dorado and Jaclinn Tanney — was able to provide meals in 18 cities across 9 states: rallying 350+ volunteers, to provide 40,000+ meals. This year, the team hopes to feed nearly 100,000 voters nationally, with more than 500 volunteers expected to help it all happen.

"Since 2020, The Migrant Kitchen has worked tirelessly to ensure that anyone who needs a meal can get one— providing nearly four million meals in four years," said Daniel Dorado, co-founder, The Migrant Kitchen. "However, election day is special for us. Our team is made of migrant chefs from around the world, and this gives us a unique perspective on the right to vote— knowing that this effort will help tens of thousands of people exercise that right for themselves, is something we're extremely proud of.”

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The menu for today’s Feed the Polls roll-out  includes meals from some amazing restaurant  partners. For instance, in Michigan, expect meals from Miss Kim and Zingerman's; in NYC there’s food The Migrant Kitchen (NYC), William Greenberg (NYC) — created a specialty voting cookie, Westville (NYC), Carmines (NYC) and Eli Zabar (NYC); Ugly Apple is serving in Wisconsin,  Naya Middle Eastern in NY and PA, Esme in Chicago, Strip Cheeze in Las Vegas, Javi's Tacos in Omaha, and nationally beverages will be provided by Edenesque Plant Milks and Arizona Iced Tea!

Here’s to democracy. See you on the other side. (Anthem below, credit to Maddy.)