Minnesota-based group sends humanitarian aid to Gaza

A third convoy of humanitarian aid crossed the border into Gaza yesterday — creating an opening for more aid organizations to step up their efforts.

Alight in Minneapolis hopes to get its first batch of supplies and food into Gaza soon. The organization already has staff on the ground working to distribute basic necessities such as food, water and fuel.

Alight CEO Jocelyn Wyatt shared more about the work with MPR host Tom Crann.

For the full conversation, click play on the audio player above or read the transcript below. The transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

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We've been hearing a lot of news coverage of aid trucks making it in at this point. Are you supplying anything on those trucks or will you be soon?

We hope to soon. At this point, the latest that we’ve heard from our partners on the ground is that 54 trucks have made it across the border. There’s at least 150 waiting in a queue, which includes some of ours.

Right now, we are continuing to distribute goods locally that were in Gaza previously, and are just waiting for the humanitarian crossing to open up to more trucks to be able to allow in more supplies.

What sort of aid will you be supplying when those trucks get through?

We’ve already been providing food baskets to about 2,000 families. We’ve set up community street kitchens and distributed fuel to hospitals in the southern region of Gaza. We’ve been distributing medical supplies [and] solar lighting. We hope to continue those efforts — bringing in more food, medical supplies and fuel into Gaza.

What are the limitations on a group like yours compared to, for example, federal USAID and aid from other nations?

I think for so many countries right now, [they’re] just so stretched in terms of the humanitarian crises that they are working to address. Just in recent years, we’ve had the humanitarian response for Ukraine, we’ve had the floods in Pakistan, massive food insecurity, years of drought in the Horn of Africa. We’ve had the earthquakes in Syria and Turkey. We’re dealing with massive conflict in Sudan.

Everyone’s resources are so stretched at this point and so when another crisis comes up like that, we’re trying to garner new resources to be able to provide that support.

If listeners want to get involved, tell us what specifically their support goes toward.

Support will go toward us being able to purchase more food, purchase more fuel, purchase more medical supplies as well as to deliver those services. [It also goes toward] the humanitarians on the ground who are actually putting together those baskets of food, delivering that medical care, [and] bringing that fuel to the hospitals.

Any support really goes directly to those families to allow us to purchase those goods and provide those services.

What would you want us to know from your vantage point that we're not hearing about in the news?

I’d encourage others to really see the humanity and the humanitarian need in this situation, and regardless of the political situation to really see that there are so many civilians who desperately need this food, fuel and medical supplies, and encourage people to be really generous in providing that support.