Chai Hard With a Vengeance Cookies for Gaza
These spicy cookies are made with a combination of barista-grade chai concentrate, instant chai powder, loose leaf chai-spiced black tea, a homemade chai spice blend, candied ginger, and have an extra-chewy chai cream cheese core. Before baking, each ball of dough gets rolled in chai sugar, and after baking, the bottoms get coated in a thin layer of white chocolate and pressed into even more chai sugar. A dozen for donating $50 or more to families in Gaza.
Fairdays—Bad News
I went to high school with this dude. I’ve always had lovely interactions with him, and then we bonded over our shared activism. Then I checked his music out and, holy shit. I couldn’t believe he came out of Alaska. He’s got that Largo sound that feels a part of the family of Jon Brion, Aimee Mann, Michael Penn, and the like. So, so good, and I’m pretty sure I’d be recommending it to tons of people even if I didn’t know him.
Waseem’s Sand Names
Waseem is in his final year of high school in Gaza, and his school fees (roughly $400) are due in two days. For a $50 donation, he will write your name in Gaza’s sandy beach and send you photos and a video of it. Just email gaza@lesterco.co after your donation is made so I can get your contact information to him. You can also follow him at @waseemssandnames on IG. Please share as this goal is urgent! ♥️
Get in Shape with Diaa Ouda
After my dad died last year, my health and self-care went into a tailspin. I quickly gained weight, and tried to fix it by taking intermittent fasting to the extreme, drinking black coffee until the middle of the afternoon and then binging on every temptation I could get my hands on. I used to exercise every day with my mom as part of my caregiving duties, but when she was no longer well enough to exercise with me, I gave that up too. I gained tons of weight, wanted to sleep all the time, and started doing my work from bed. I was talking to my dear friend Diaa (a former star football player in Gaza) about it—he can relate since those closest to him died, and his mom has cancer—and he told me “I can help you.” He came up with a meal plan for me, scheduled walks and light exercise to start, and almost immediately I felt a change. My energy came back. My cravings lightened. And he messaged me everyday to check in on how I’ve been eating, keeping me honest and encouraged. “You should be offering this as a service,” I told him. And now he is! He doesn’t want hand-outs, he wants to earn his money. “I can’t wait for my first customer,” he said. And I hope he gets many. He’s a truly lovely human. Link goes to a video I made for him which I hope gets seen and shared.
