They asked for firewood, food, even medication, and strangers across Maine delivered


New and existing community response and mutual aid networks, such as the Maine Coronavirus Community Assistance Facebook page, serve as stopgap measures so people struggling with the economic costs of the Covid-19 pandemic can get more immediate aid than from state bureaucracies. The crowd-sourced format also allows for more targeted aid, like when one of Maine’s 20,000 members received firewood, food, and even over-the-counter medication. The Maryland page has marked over 200 posts as having received assistance. To run smoothly, the pages need volunteer moderators to fact-check and maintain civility.

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