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ORAL HISTORY
Dan Bingler
Greater New Orleans Caring Collective
Dan-Ramiah Bingler (he/they) was born in 1984 on a self-described “hippie commune” in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, near the mouth of the Mississippi River. When Bingler was six years old, their family relocated to Gainesville, Florida. Bingler moved to New Orleans in 2015 and has spent many years working in restaurants. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, they were furloughed from their fine dining job.
Bingler joined together with a couple of friends in March 2020 to start the Greater New Orleans Caring Collective, a mutual aid effort to help people stay safely self-quarantined. To do that, the group hoped to deliver groceries to families and set up a laundry service for people without a washer and dryer at home. Within a couple of weeks, the group was distributing essentials to hundreds of households across the city.
After Hurricane Ida hit in August of 2021, GNOCC used its existing network and pivoted to set up a supply distribution site at a New Orleans church. Groups stored donations there, and community members could take what they needed, for free.
