With the COVID-19 pandemic-induced Stay at Home orders, we hosted a virtual edition of Wine for Change on Sunday. Our goal was simple: to maintain personal connections and continue to inspire positive social change. In turn over Zoom, we each shared what has brought us joy and how we are creating positive change while staying home and staying safe.

First we began with a moment of gratitude. We recognize what a privilege it is to have the opportunity to stay home and stay safe. We have our health, homes, means to pay our bills, and access to an abundance of fresh, healthy food. We can work from home. A few of our participants are on the front-lines of this battle as restaurant and winery owners - staying open to feed and supply others and sustain their business. We are so grateful to them and the others on the frontlines.

We also reflected on the ways we are maintaining personal connections while staying apart. From virtual happy hours and dinner parties; increased frequency of FaceTime calls to loved ones; online group fitness classes; friendly greetings with neighbors on walks; swapping hard to find ingredients with friends and family; and sharing home baked goods with neighbors - all while maintaining social distancing and safety precautions. Because this is the time to Love Now More Than Ever.

The Change

Then we discussed ways to support those suffering most from the current crisis such as:

Supporting small, local businesses
- Buy from your local grocery store or hardware store (instead of Amazon or big box retailers). If they are low or out of flour and other grains, consider buying freshly milled grains direct from a small mill. See this article.
- Order take-out or gift cards from your favorite local restaurants.
- Send money to your own personal services providers (hair stylist, clearing service, etc.) who are unable to work right now if you are able,
Donating to charitable causes
- Alameda County Food Bank and other local food banks provide increased demand from those long suffering from food insecurity and those among the mililions of newly unemployed workers who need assistance.
- Frontline Foods and World Central Kitchen is a collaboration of a Bay Area venture capitalist and Jose Andres’ WCK to employ local restaurant workers and provide food for healthcare workers and first responders. This is such a worthy cause from a well run and highly effective charity (WKC) that has provided food to victims of natural disasters since Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2013.
- The Life You Can Save COVID-19 Fund provides urgently needed financial support to charitable organizations and aid in Africa, where models predict a devastating loss of life due to COVID 19 — between 300,000 and 3.3 million lives. Simply staggering.
Calling and writing elected officials to increase aid to small businesses and restaurants.
- Save Restaurants - the Independent Restaurant Coalition generates a letter for you to co-sign and sends it to your elected officials in Congress in seconds.

And of course we are laser focused on the November election. It’s time to ramp up efforts, especially now that we’ve got some time on our hands. So let’s all commit to:

Send postcards to voters focusing on voter registration campaigns, targeted information about the Republican Senators and the Democratic candidates, and Get Out The Vote drives. Flip the West has mailed over a quarter million postcards so far and aspires to send over a million.
- As a group, Wine for Change has already sent 500 postcards to Colorado and Arizona voters.
- Last night we committed to sending 750 more by May 7 to voters in California (to keep TJ Cox’s 21st Congressional Seat) and Arizona (to help Mark Kelly flip Martha McSally’s Senate seat).
Make calls to Register Voters in Georgia. Sign up to make calls this week via the Indivisible site.
Make calls to encourage vote-by-mail by reaching out to Arizona Democrats via Flip the West,
Talk to friends and family to ensure they are registered to vote and have a plan to vote in November. Democrats are united in support of Biden. Voter turnout is critical to victory. We need to send a clear mandate to evict the current occupant of The White House.
Support legislation to expand vote-by-mail and election protection, such as Kamala Harris’ VoteSafe Act of 2020 and Elizabeth Warren’s plan for protecting elections in the time of COVID-19.
- Take the When We All Vote Pledge to help make voting safer, easier, and accessible to all Americans.
- Contact your Senators and Members of Congress
Learn more about the importance of joining the fight now:
- Join: When We All Vote + Michelle Obama host a couch party with DJ Nice Monday April 20 at 4:15 pm Pacific
- Join: at 5:00 p.m. Pacific on Tuesday, April 21, Flip the West is hosting a webinar on Colorado
- Recording of the Flip the West webinar with Barney Frank
- Recording of the Flip the West Webinar with Ian Danley from Arizona Wins

The Wine

As always, our events are enjoyed with wine. Although we could not share the wine tasting with each other, we each revealed what we were drinking, including the Talisman North Coast Rose of Pinot Noir ($24) included in my latest shipment form the Woman-Owned Wineries wine club; the Carpenter 2014 Pinot Noir ($40 retail but $38 from Perle Wine Bar with take-out dinner last week); Adelsheim Pinot Noir; Reeve Pinot Noir; Stubbs Chardonnay; Louis Jadot 2017 Pinot Noir; Georges Dubdeuf 2019 Beaujolais Nouveau; and an affordable Cote du Rhone procured by the case from a favorite local restaurant. Inquire at your neighborhood restaurants, as they may also be offering wine sales to generate revenue.