It was late September, and Chicago was strutting. Clear blue sky. Not a whisper of humidity. You looked for a reason to be outside.

Chez Smith had her reason. She was on the corner of 79th and Cottage Grove, setting up a table filled with free diapers, soap, and feminine hygiene products. She had ordered chicken and coleslaw, enough for 50 people, to be delivered that afternoon. It was the fifth anniversary of the Gyrls in the HOOD Foundation, and Smith was out spreading the word. “We started in the streets, where the people are,” she says. “I don’t like to be in the office.”

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Video by Ross Feighery.