Rising Stars: Meet Victoria Flores of Las Vegas

Today we’d like to introduce you to Victoria Flores.

Hi Victoria, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
When I think of how we started it was accumulation of things. all of them wanting better for our children, for our community. One instance comes to mind, I remember vividly my 7 year old son made the comment that he didn’t know if he would go to college and when I asked him why he said everything is so expensive and didn’t know if he would get the opportunity. I felt a horrible ache in the pit of my stomach of the enormity that my son who was in elementary school, was bearing the weight of the social impacts and it was enough to stop me dead in my tracks. The next day I decided that I would stop resharing political things online and instead get outside and volunteer, anything else would have to be better than waiting for a savior. Fast forward to 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, doing food shares in underserved communities working directly with impacted families, handing out food to my neighbors, not because they were “in need” but because we had extra and it just made sense to share what would otherwise be wasted. Doing mutual aid work, exposes your mind and heart to different ways of being, realizing that we each have ways to help each other, that this current landscape does not support. We worked together with other orgs such as FifthSun Project and opened our doors to the Solidarity Fridge, on Mayday 2021 to pay homage to our working class community. Starting off with a fridge that my mother, Consuelo, donated and that is from the 2000’s and still going strong to this day. We are a year round free community fridge and garden. Anyone can pick up or drop off meals and food 24/7. No paperwork or questions asked. People deserve to have their basic needs met with dignity. Folks tend to think that mutual aid is a new concept but it existed long before us and it’s actually been a way that our indigenous and marginalized communities have flourished, people taking care of each other. Based on indigenous principles of communal care, where community led networks cooperate to meet shared needs with reciprocal exchange but not an exchange that’s transactional, one that is in connection. I think about the uncles and tias in my neighborhood as a child who gave out burritos to kids on their way to school or the aunites who watched children so the parents in my neighborhood who couldn’t afford childcare could work. The payback is building strong communities, where the balance may be received in a different form, from a different person or even a later time. This work has changed and challenged me in ways that I could have never imagined, for the better, in thinking and dreaming beyond myself and my family bubble. In 2022, I met a Farmer by the named of Peter Thomas on our 1 year anniversary of our pantry being open, where we planted fruits. The idea was our neighbors can harvest fruit when they visited the pantry. It was there that Farmer Pete planted the idea of us starting a garden to grow our food instead of just asking for food donations for the pantry but really moving towards food justice and sovereignty. That’s how the The Giving Garden started. Two garden beds, a dream and soil. While our grassroots work started as a need for justice and to share resources, has now grown to us collaborating with other orgs and community members to have a seed library, period pantry, monthly educational workshops, land based learning, food and knowledge shares on a regular basis. While I am a steward of the pantry and garden, it is my community who sustains us, and my family that has made adjustments of opening our home that has now become a hub for others. The Solidarity Fridge and Giving Garden would not exist without them.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Being in community comes with it’s challenges because society does not prioritize or teach us how to be in relationship with each other, how to repair, how to work outside of a system that is meant to keep you distracted and exhausted. Keeping the fridge full has been the most challenging part of it because we don’t receive regular funding, we are not a non profit so that requires people to get out of their comfort and be a part of each others lives and that can be hard. We are not only dismantling structures but building new ones in the process. We have to decolonize our minds. Many people were not raised to value life, the earth, the water outside of consumption. We all come with our own hurts, survival mechanisms and beliefs that we have to sometimes question and unlearn as we build up networks of support

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a Full Spectrum Doula. Master Gardener, Community Organizer, Mother. Steward. I am known for feeding and nourishing my community, sharing seeds and memory, helping mothers during one of the most vulnerable transitions of their life. My garden is a refuge and I’m known as the lady with all the roosters and chickens in my hood. I specialize in traditional, holistic forms for care in birthwork. I am the steward of Solidarity Fridge, a mutual aid community pantry and garden located in East Las Vegas, Nuwuvi Lands. I cultivate spaces that challenge food apartheid and environmental inequity. The Solidarity Fridge is an initiative that grew out of my home and is deeply rooted in Indigenous principles of reciprocity and collective care. I am inspired by my children and the love of my people, and hope that my time here honors the deep connection of rematriation, agriculture and traditional birthwork. I am most grateful for all of my teachers, love, life and having matriarchal values instilled in me to care for the people and land.

What does success mean to you?
My definition of success is action and trust. Taking steps to create or do what’s been placed on your heart even when you don’t have all the answers or know how it will turn out. Actions that we must take to create support, abundance, reciprocity, healing and nourishment. Success in my opinion is living in right relationship, reclaiming and remembering that we all are really meant to care for the earth and it’s inhabitants.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thesolidarityfridge.org
• Instagram: @thesolidarityfridge
• Other: https://semillasyflores.org