January 26, 2026
“Look for the helpers.”
We say it to comfort ourselves. But sometimes, looking for the helpers breaks your heart because it forces you to see exactly why they are needed.
On January 23rd, just 24 hours before Alex Pretti was murdered by federal agents in Minneapolis, a video dropped from the outlet Good Trouble.
If you know Good Trouble, you know the vibe. It is chaotic. It is loud. And yes, the reporter swears. A lot. There are F-bombs flying like shrapnel. It is the raw, unfiltered sound of people who are sick and tired of being sick and tired.
But in the center of that profane storm sits a man named Benji Gomez. And Benji doesn’t swear. Benji just feeds people.
The Hunger Games of the Surveillance State
The video is hard to watch, not because of the language, but because of the reality it exposes.
Benji isn’t running a hipster food truck. He is running a tactical supply line to families who are currently living under siege.
We talk a lot about “mass deportation” as a political concept. We argue about numbers. But we rarely talk about the logistics of terror.
If you are undocumented in 2026, the grocery store is a trap.
You can’t drive to Walmart because license plate readers will flag you.
You can’t walk to the corner store because local PD might stop you for “loitering” and hand you over to ice.
So you stay inside. You ration. You starve.
In the video, Benji explains this with a heartbreaking calmness. He talks about mothers who are boiling water just to make their kids feel like something is being cooked. He talks about fathers who weep when he hands them a bag of rice because they haven’t eaten in two days so their children could have a bleak breakfast.
While the reporter screams (rightfully) about how f**ked up the system is, Benji just loads the truck. He is the quiet defiance to a system that wants these people to disappear.
“I’m Just the Delivery Guy”
There is a moment in the video that wrecked me. The reporter is ranting about the fascism of it all, dropping “sh*ts” and “f**ks” with righteous fury, and they turn to Benji and ask him about the politics.
And Benji? He just smiles, a little sad, and keeps packing vegetables. He isn’t there to lecture. He is there because a child is hungry, and a hungry child is a sin that he cannot abide.
He is risking his own safety to be the bridge between the food and the fear. He drives into neighborhoods where ice patrols are heavy. He knocks on doors that are bolted shut with three locks. He whispers “It’s me, it’s Benji,” so they know it’s safe to open up.
A Light Before the Dark
This video was posted on January 23rd. The very next day, the guns went off in Minneapolis.
Retrospect is a heavy thing. Watching it now, knowing what was coming less than 24 hours later, makes Benji’s mission feel even more urgent. The violence of the state takes many forms. Sometimes it is a bullet. Sometimes it is a barrier to bread.
Benji is fighting the quiet violence of hunger.
If you have a few dollars, and I know times are tight, please throw them at this man. He is doing the work that the government refuses to do. He is doing the work that humanity demands.
DONATE TO BENJI’S MISSION HERE
Let’s fill that truck. Let’s make sure that while the world goes crazy, the kids still eat.
Video by Good Trouble - Jan 23, 2026. Here it is on YouTube: “ look for the helpers “
Note: Good Trouble posted this video on Jan 23, the day before Alex Pretti was murdered by ICE Agents.
P.S. To the reporter at Good Trouble: Keep cursing. You’re saying what we’re all thinking.
P.P.S. To Benji: Thank you for being the quiet in the storm.
Open hearts. Open minds. Full bellies.
