For thirteen years, Metro Trans Umbrella Group has been helping trans people in Saint Louis build a community that takes care of each other.
It started with a single support group. Today we have eight groups across Missouri and Illinois, a food pantry that feeds 30 to 40 households a month, a clothing closet to shop for affirming clothes safely, a magazine that shines a light on trans creativity, and a community center where the doors are open every Tuesday and Thursday. No referral. No paperwork. No income verification.
In 2025, all of that got tested.
When SNAP benefits were cut in November, the pantry grew to serve 112 households in one month. When a threat was left in our Memorial Garden before Trans Day of Remembrance, forty clergy and volunteers showed up so we could safely gather to mourn our dead. When a presidential memorandum targeted organizations like ours, we kept the doors open and fed 300 people at Transgiving.
Each time, the community we'd built answered.
In 2026 we're building on what works.
We're tearing down the failing garage in the backyard and building a real boutique in its place, where people can shop Alix's Closet in dignity. That frees up the basement to double the pantry's capacity. And we're expanding the Memorial Garden into a second space that grows fresh food for the families the pantry serves. Your donation helps pay for all of it, and for the investment in community leadership that makes this work sustainable.
And we’re just getting started.