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Update: The number of members in the Sunset Neighborhood Help Group, which has grown quickly, was updated to reflect the number cited at the time this episode was recorded.

Now more than 1,000 members strong, the Sunset Neighborhood Help Group is made entirely of volunteers and was sparked by just one person’s post offering to pick up groceries for those unable to leave their homes. In this recording of a live webinar organized by the Public Press, full-time artist and Sunset District resident Bianca Nandzik, former printing industry worker Frank Plughoff and Bianca’s husband, Stefan, share their experience building a mutual-aid society from the ground up to support vulnerable neighbors during the coronavirus pandemic.

“What I hope for our community is that these relationships that we’re building between the volunteers and the neighbors that these can last beyond the pandemic.” — Bianca Nandzik

Mel Baker is the producer and a contributor to The San Francisco Public Press radio program/podcast Civic. He has worked as a national network and Bay Area broadcaster for many decades. From early training in National Public Radio’s newscast unit, to stints in the newsrooms of KGO radio and KTVU-TV, and as a news anchor and reporter at KALW and other Bay Area stations, he has embraced the responsibility of broadcast media to “enlighten and inform” the community.