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Speaker 1: Hi, everyone, it's Sophia and welcome back to work in Progress.

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Speaker 1: Today's guest is world renowned chef and owner of Think

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Speaker 1: Food Group, Jose Andres. I am just so happy to

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Speaker 1: have Jose here, as he is a chef and an

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Speaker 1: incredible global humanitarian. He's all about food and activism, which,

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Speaker 1: as you know, are two things I love the most.

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Speaker 1: Jose is known for bringing small plates or tap us

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Speaker 1: from Spain to the United States, but you might know

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Speaker 1: him more for a number of other reasons. He's a

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Speaker 1: New York Times bestselling author, he is a television personality.

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Speaker 1: He is the owner of nearly twenty restaurants, including Mini Bar,

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Speaker 1: which has received two stars from the DC edition of

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Speaker 1: The Michelin Guide. And he is the founder of World

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Speaker 1: Central Kitchen, a nonprofit devoted to providing meal in the

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Speaker 1: wake of natural disasters. Jose has been awarded the National

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Speaker 1: Humanities Medal, he was named Outstanding Chef and Humanitarian of

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Speaker 1: the Year by the James Beard Foundation, and he has

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Speaker 1: been twice named one of Time magazines hundred Most Influential People.

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Speaker 1: He and I got to talk today about how he

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Speaker 1: first became interested in food, his childhood in Spain, his

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Speaker 1: career in the restaurant industry and how that led to

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Speaker 1: his work around the world to help end food scarcity

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Speaker 1: and hunger. Without further ado, let's jump in and get

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Speaker 1: cooking on this episode with Chef Jose andres Chef. It's

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Speaker 1: such an honor to have you on the show today

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Speaker 1: and I'm really excited to talk about your work and

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Speaker 1: World Central Kitchen and your activism. But before we get

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Speaker 1: into all of the amazing things that you're up to now,

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Speaker 1: I'd like to go back a bit and start closer

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Speaker 1: to the beginning because I'm curious about a young Jose.

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Speaker 1: I know that you grew up in what is the

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Speaker 1: proper pronunciation? Is it mites me? It is? That's that's

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Speaker 1: the perfect pronunciation. Okay, good. So you grew up in

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Speaker 1: midtest Spain, and I've never been to that part of Spain,

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Speaker 1: and I'm wondering if you could tell us a little

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Speaker 1: bit about it, and you know, what, what were you

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Speaker 1: up to as a little kid? So me it is

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Speaker 1: is a mining town. Mining has slowly been fading away,

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Speaker 1: but back in the days when I was born fifty

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Speaker 1: one years ago, in the hospital of the Spanish Red Cross.

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Speaker 1: It's a place that I I speak about my childhood,

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Speaker 1: but my mom, who passed away three years ago, always

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Speaker 1: told me that was impossible. I had any ideas of

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Speaker 1: remembrance of what was going on, because it was only

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Speaker 1: four or five when we left. Mids Medes is in

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Speaker 1: the province of Stories, in the very north part of Spain,

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Speaker 1: and he's a beautiful place that you can be uh

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Speaker 1: surrounded by his snow in top, beautiful mountains with shades,

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Speaker 1: beautiful greens, with chestnut trees and all of the silent

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Speaker 1: Thirty minutes later, if you go towards the coast, you

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Speaker 1: are in the ocean where you will see cows in

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Speaker 1: the landscape next to apple trees where they will make cider,

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Speaker 1: which is the national drink of that region. And at

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Speaker 1: the same time you will see the fishermen arriving every

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Speaker 1: day to the local tavern after a very long day

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Speaker 1: up in the ocean, trying to get anything that the

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Speaker 1: ocean will be willing to give them. That was very

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Speaker 1: much my my my childhood Aromas, outsider of of apples,

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Speaker 1: of chestnut trees, of the sea. Obviously, I was an

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Speaker 1: immigrant very very early in my life because when I

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Speaker 1: moved to to Barcelona, in Catalonia. I guess it was

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Speaker 1: the moment I was realizing that my mom, my dad

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Speaker 1: came from one part of Spain, but here we were

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Speaker 1: coming to another part of Spain with different food, different

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Speaker 1: history and itself, different culture, different language. And I think

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Speaker 1: my early childhood was that beginning to understand that I

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Speaker 1: will embrace being an immigrant, that we became bridges that

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Speaker 1: will bring far away places closer together, showing that what

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Speaker 1: makes us different is actually what makes us unique. And

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Speaker 1: that was very much my early years. My chillow I

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Speaker 1: love that it's beautiful. I fell in love with tapas

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Speaker 1: in Barcelona. My one of my best friends went to

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Speaker 1: grad school there and we used to go and visit

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Speaker 1: her over our Thanksgiving break, and I mean I had

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Speaker 1: to roll me home by the end of the week

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Speaker 1: because I was just like trying to eat everything I

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Speaker 1: could get my hands around the city. It's so amazing.

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Speaker 1: So Barcelona for me, obviously is the city I became

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Speaker 1: a little, a little boy. I left the school very early.

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Speaker 1: My father relies on my mother. The traditionally school system

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Speaker 1: was not for me. Was the days that I began

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Speaker 1: learning about how to code, how to write my own programs,

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Speaker 1: on on on basics, something like look so far away

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Speaker 1: now when I had a computer that was the Commodore

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Speaker 1: sixty four and strand that. Now when you tell anybody

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Speaker 1: about those things, they look at you were like you

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Speaker 1: had to pride your own programs, like well you did

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Speaker 1: if you wanted. I wanted to be an actor. I

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Speaker 1: was in uh in my the little town where I

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Speaker 1: grew up in Catalonia, in this acting group, and we

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Speaker 1: will do different things like the Ghost of canter Bill

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Speaker 1: where I played the ghost, or even accuse of Peter Schaefer.

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Speaker 1: Uh and I will play basketball and I will play

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Speaker 1: soccer because the town was very little and you had

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Speaker 1: to play everywhere in order to have enough people to

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Speaker 1: play anything. Uh uh. And this was like, okay, let's

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Speaker 1: do it. Who do you need. I don't know how

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Speaker 1: to do this, but if you need people, let's do it.

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Speaker 1: And very early on is when always helping my dad

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Speaker 1: and my mom, who were nurses. My mom will be

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Speaker 1: more than cooked during the week my father will be

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Speaker 1: more the cook on the weekends. Even each each one

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Speaker 1: will help each other. I will do more the shopping.

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Speaker 1: I was the older brother of four, going on my

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Speaker 1: bike every day to the bake freshly baked breath uh,

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Speaker 1: surrounded by amazing uh cherry trees. I remember in a

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Speaker 1: spring when all the beautiful white flowers will be like

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Speaker 1: these amazing horizon that sometimes will be touches of pink,

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Speaker 1: because the peach trees also will say hello, we're here too.

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Speaker 1: It's not only the cherry is the ones that count.

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Speaker 1: Look at me, Look at me, and you will look

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Speaker 1: at the white of the cherry flowers, the beautiful peach trees.

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Speaker 1: And this was my other obviously next childhood, and my

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Speaker 1: father will put me to cook, often helping he make

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Speaker 1: the fire, gathering the wood out of the near by forest,

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Speaker 1: making branches, making the fire, and he will make paea,

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Speaker 1: these traditional rice Spanish dish that is a lot of

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Speaker 1: people love by, but a lot of people do love

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Speaker 1: research how is uh done in Spain. So everyone makes

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Speaker 1: their own recipe, which which is great. But sometimes the

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Speaker 1: recipes you see made around American around the world, they're

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Speaker 1: a little bit too much in the star trek outer

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Speaker 1: edges of the universe. Um too many cling too many clingers.

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Speaker 1: And I used go up helping my fire, make the fire,

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Speaker 1: and knowing that cooking was the happy place for me

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Speaker 1: that shopping and going to the market, being around the

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Speaker 1: farms and the workers was my happy place. I guess

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Speaker 1: I didn't decide I wanted to be a cook. Life

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Speaker 1: decided for me I had to be a cook. Well.

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Speaker 1: And the way you talk about the place and the

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Speaker 1: food and the process and the people and the environment,

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Speaker 1: it's very poetic and it's very intimate, and cooking, I

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Speaker 1: think is so intimate. You know, there's something to using

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Speaker 1: the land around you and knowing who grows your food

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Speaker 1: and having a relationship with people. When when you make

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Speaker 1: something then for everyone around your table, it's it's a

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Speaker 1: love language. It is a love of language. Because even

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Speaker 1: I am very pragmatic when I talk about those things,

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Speaker 1: because we need to be pragmatic because at the same time,

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Speaker 1: as a young child, I only saw the beauty. Then

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Speaker 1: you realize that in that process sometimes the people that

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Speaker 1: fit the world are hungry themselves or those beautiful places

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Speaker 1: that we take photos that we have a woman in

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Speaker 1: any part in the world cooking in the middle of

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Speaker 1: the street, where we we we romanticize that moment when

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Speaker 1: actually sometimes there's a lot of hardships on that person

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Speaker 1: cooking in the streets I have no problems supporting a

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Speaker 1: street food, but sometimes we need to be slightly careful

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Speaker 1: because some people are in the streets because they have

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Speaker 1: another place to belong and and and it's not all

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Speaker 1: a beautiful photo Instagram. Uh you mentioned love. I mean,

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Speaker 1: let's see, how can I expend this uh without anybody

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Speaker 1: thinking I'm a strange uh, John fifty one year old boy.

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Speaker 1: But the first moment as we come to the world

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Speaker 1: that we receive a gift that is physical, even we

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Speaker 1: are highly unconscious because we have only a few minutes,

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Speaker 1: a few hours of life outside the bomb of our mother.

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Speaker 1: Is that moment that we are being fed a moment

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Speaker 1: that I wish we all will remember because I think

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Speaker 1: this attachment we all have to our mothers or the

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Speaker 1: father if if I gave you baby bottle, if you

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Speaker 1: think about it, is the first moment that we receive

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Speaker 1: a gift, that receives something that happens, is food that

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Speaker 1: happens is probably one of the most beautiful moments you

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Speaker 1: kind of experience. I've been there watching my wife fitting

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Speaker 1: my three daughters and most with emby because that's a beautiful,

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Speaker 1: fascinating moment that forever we get attached to food, and

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Speaker 1: that's why longer tables and not higher walls, and giving

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Speaker 1: and sharing food with people we know and people we

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Speaker 1: love or new people that come into our lives. That

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Speaker 1: moment of sharing food and making sure that we share

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Speaker 1: with others who we are through food, that seat is

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Speaker 1: planted in the very early minutes in our life with

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Speaker 1: the love of our mother. I think that's so beautiful day.

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Speaker 1: And it strikes me because you know the story that

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Speaker 1: you tell about your experience with your family in your

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Speaker 1: neighborhood making a I think about you know, my mom

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Speaker 1: talking about man making pasta with her grandmother, you know,

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Speaker 1: her grandmother and her mother who were born on the

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Speaker 1: same farm in Italy. I mean, it's that the beauty

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Speaker 1: of the locality and the familial nature of food is

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Speaker 1: the best of what it is. And to your point,

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Speaker 1: when we begin to look larger, when we back up

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Speaker 1: and we get more of a bird's eye view and

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Speaker 1: we look at the system of food and the system

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Speaker 1: of subjugation that exists in food and so many other industries,

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Speaker 1: and and the food insecurity that causes hunger. One of

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Speaker 1: the things that struck me as so special that you

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Speaker 1: said you spoke about your parents both being nurses, and

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Speaker 1: in an article that you wrote about the aftermath of

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Speaker 1: Hurricane Maria and Puerto Rico, you said kitchens and hospitals

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Speaker 1: are two different worlds. But I believe that the fight

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Speaker 1: to feed the hungry needs to learn from the history

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Speaker 1: of the fight to heal the sick, and that really

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Speaker 1: hit me. Beca has. The best of medicine is healing,

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Speaker 1: and yet the medical industry is broken. And the best

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Speaker 1: of food is intimate and beautiful and local and about family.

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Speaker 1: Yet the food industry is a mess. And I'm so

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Speaker 1: curious about how you have found your way both as

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Speaker 1: a chef and an activist, because there is so much

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Speaker 1: love in what you do, and there's so much beauty

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Speaker 1: in the way you talk about it, and even in

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Speaker 1: the way by the way that you talk about being

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Speaker 1: a father. You know, you talk about your wife and

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Speaker 1: your three daughters. I'm curious as you learned about food.

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Speaker 1: You know, you you mentioned that you left school early

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Speaker 1: because it wasn't for you. You enrolled in culinary school

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Speaker 1: in Barcelona when you were just fifteen. You worked at LBO,

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Speaker 1: which I have so many questions left for another day,

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Speaker 1: but I'm so curious about how how you're sort of

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Speaker 1: launch pad into this world of incredible culinary work and

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Speaker 1: cuisine is also mirrored by your commitment to people. Were

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Speaker 1: those things happening at the same time or or or

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Speaker 1: was it first about the food and the courses and

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Speaker 1: then later you looked at the systems? I mean obviously

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Speaker 1: where when you are young, he was you, You're happy

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Speaker 1: to be long, right, you. You're happy to be part

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Speaker 1: of the celebration of life, and and you look to discover.

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Speaker 1: I got my early opportunity of discovery when I joined

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Speaker 1: the Spanish military. Was mandatory too, but it changed my

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Speaker 1: life because was a very powerful experience. They put me

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Speaker 1: to cook for the Admiral of Spain, and I was like, no, way,

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Speaker 1: who say first time I got an opportunity. I told

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Speaker 1: him there, sir, uh, thank you for the honor they

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Speaker 1: chose me to cook for you. But I want to

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Speaker 1: go on a boat. And I don't want to go

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Speaker 1: on any boat. I want to go in the training

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Speaker 1: ship of the Spanish Navy where the midshipmen get their training.

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Speaker 1: This was a foremast tall ship. Uh. He granted me

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Speaker 1: my wish almost with tears on his eyes and I

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Speaker 1: remember a tenth of January of ninety ninety that I

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Speaker 1: got onto that boat and I sell the oceans, uh

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Speaker 1: of of life. And this first time I saw Africa,

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Speaker 1: first time I saw South American, the Caribbean, first time

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Speaker 1: I came to America, Pensacola, New York. Um. This for

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Speaker 1: me was my early start in seeing that the Wall

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Speaker 1: was a beautiful, big place, that I was hungry, hungry

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Speaker 1: for more, and obviously for me, coming to New York

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Speaker 1: in more ways than one, after I finished my military

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Speaker 1: service changed my life in the sense of without moving

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Speaker 1: from my hat and the melting pot that America is described,

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Speaker 1: I could experience every ethnic cookie, every ingredient, um, every

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Speaker 1: new technique, romans and flavors and never even imagined. And

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Speaker 1: as a young boy growing up in the streets of

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Speaker 1: my hat, and I got my first opportunity to eat escamoles,

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Speaker 1: the amazing mcgay worms of Mexico in a taco or

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Speaker 1: having coury that I never imagined, all the fragrance and

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Speaker 1: the flavor in one dish, or the very different things

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Speaker 1: that a young mind that wanted to learn, that was

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Speaker 1: hungry for more. Without moving from a not even a city,

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Speaker 1: but without moving from an entire neighborhood one of the biggest,

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Speaker 1: most populated islands in the world. I was literally, uh

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Speaker 1: eating my way around the world, and this really made

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Speaker 1: me in many ways who I am today. So what

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Speaker 1: was the pathway to eventually coming to live in the States?

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Speaker 1: How did you make the decision to leave sane? So

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Speaker 1: I finished my military service, I went back to El Bougie.

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Speaker 1: For the ones that don't know, how can I explain

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Speaker 1: El Buggie? If we will speak about the Big Bang

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Speaker 1: and the creation of the universe. Obviously cooking was already invented,

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Speaker 1: but somehow, obviously for four hundreds of thousands of years

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Speaker 1: in a million we we we realized that for Ruan,

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Speaker 1: I was probably sixteen seventeen when I went to work

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Speaker 1: with him, Uh, that he was this young man, he

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Speaker 1: was only twenty four on his own, but his way

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Speaker 1: to see things was very different. He will he will

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Speaker 1: respect tradition, but at the same time he will say

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Speaker 1: we need to respect tradition, but we should question where

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Speaker 1: that tradition comes from, and if it not, should be evolved.

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Speaker 1: Why we need to keep doing the things that people

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Speaker 1: two hundred three hundred years before us began doing is

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Speaker 1: not our time to keep improving and changing and moving forward.

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Speaker 1: So this is the amazing place I was where I

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Speaker 1: began understanding that too. To cook with ingredients, you must

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Speaker 1: understand ingredients. You must listen to the ingredients. You must

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Speaker 1: look at the glass of water, not like you know

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Speaker 1: what it is, but almost with wonder, to say what

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Speaker 1: secrets this glass of water holds? That? Because I go

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Speaker 1: through life like I know everything, I'm not stopping to

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Speaker 1: second guest myself, and second guest everything is known. This

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Speaker 1: was for run Adria, a guy that helped many of

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Speaker 1: us that within through his prism of life, the person

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Speaker 1: that planted the seat of innovation, obviously, but innovation that

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Speaker 1: came out of willingness to be surprised, willingness to as

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Speaker 1: yourself the right because we forget that sometimes the important

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Speaker 1: thing is not a good answer, but the right question

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Speaker 1: that opens you the whole world of opportunities. The right question.

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Speaker 1: I love that when you think about the questions, food

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Speaker 1: leads you to how did that inform your next steps?

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Speaker 1: Because after a bui and coming here, you ended up

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Speaker 1: in Washington, d C. And you started a hugely successful

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Speaker 1: restaurant there, Minibar in two thousand three, and you you've

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Speaker 1: done all this work in the community, you know, because

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Speaker 1: of the d C Central Kitchen and these local food organizers.

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Speaker 1: So so when you are talking about being at the

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Speaker 1: sort of pinnacle of food molecular gastronomy, you know, looking

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Speaker 1: at the glass of water as hydrogen and oxygen and

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Speaker 1: figuring out how something oxidizes in a pan with another ingredient.

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Speaker 1: I mean you're talking in science and art, and then

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Speaker 1: you're talking boots on the ground activism and making sure

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Speaker 1: that you can empower people and their communities through food.

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Speaker 1: So where do those two things? Me? How does that begin?

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Speaker 1: I know you've been asking me that, and I seem

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Speaker 1: not to get to the to the answer because there's

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Speaker 1: many I love all the stories. We don't have to

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Speaker 1: get there right away. It's it's many ways to get

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Speaker 1: there right When I was in the military service on

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Speaker 1: that tall ship selling the world his first time, probably

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Speaker 1: I saw mak inequality. No like in a Spain where

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Speaker 1: I grew up, because no people maybe having hardships. But

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Speaker 1: this is what I saw in the streets of Abidjan.

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Speaker 1: Inequality I didn't see back home, is where I saw

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Speaker 1: in the fabellas of Rio Janeiro that they saw in equality.

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Speaker 1: I never saw back home in the streets of Dominican Republic,

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Speaker 1: that I saw inequality. I didn't see in the same way.

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Speaker 1: But a moment this began connecting my early first readings,

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Speaker 1: when John Stemberg became my first American author. I read

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Speaker 1: in English and read learning about the Pearl and how

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Speaker 1: there was inequality. Uh and and reading about the grapes

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Speaker 1: of wrath, and they were saying who it was in

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Speaker 1: equality in the richest country in in the world. All

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Speaker 1: those little things began, little seats that began shaping this

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Speaker 1: young boy. Still I feel I am at times uh

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Speaker 1: uh And I think was many people, right, Sophia, You

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Speaker 1: and you and I. We are the people we are

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Speaker 1: thanks to the people that we have around us, people

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Speaker 1: we had in the past, even people we forgot. People

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Speaker 1: we read a quote that somehow became very important in

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Speaker 1: our brains by somebody. Sometimes we don't even remember. A teacher,

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Speaker 1: a friend, a foreigner in a bus station giving us

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Speaker 1: as isle or or helping us covering the ticket we

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Speaker 1: didn't had an no money in our pockets to pay,

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Speaker 1: and a person you never saw again, a small acts

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Speaker 1: of kindness and empathy that began shaping all of us

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Speaker 1: in the way we are and we become to this day,

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Speaker 1: I am who I am thanks to my wife, my daughters,

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Speaker 1: my friends, uh, the people working obviously with me. So

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Speaker 1: those stories began being those seats I arrived this sea.

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Speaker 1: I learned that across the street from my first restaurant,

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Speaker 1: Halleo on seventh and in Northwest, in a place in

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Speaker 1: Washington we call the Penn Quarter, Clara Barton had her office,

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Speaker 1: the Missing Soldiers Office. Many people don't even really know

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Speaker 1: who Clara Barton is, even we see her here and

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Speaker 1: there on walls and buildings on the streets. Maybe Clara

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Speaker 1: Barton was this amazing woman like a Norse, like my mom,

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Speaker 1: who very much studied to be a North pregnant of

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Speaker 1: my fourth brother, so my father could be getting some

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Speaker 1: help with an extra salary to who keep feeding all

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Speaker 1: all of my brothers and i Uh. Clara Barton single

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Speaker 1: handed created this organization to take care of the wounded

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Speaker 1: soldiers on the Civil War, began finding what happened to

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Speaker 1: the loved ones, so the families could bring some closure

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Speaker 1: to what happened to those men and woman that they

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Speaker 1: never saw again. Clad Barton became influential figure in my

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Speaker 1: brain in the distance of time. Amazed that I didn't

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Speaker 1: even know about her before she founded the American Red Cross.

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Speaker 1: I saw myself almost like emulating her. She when the

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Speaker 1: capital was attack over a century Over a century ago,

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Speaker 1: she went with food to the capital to provide food

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Speaker 1: to the soldiers that were guarding the capital. Can you

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Speaker 1: believe this ws central kitchen? Myself I was following her

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Speaker 1: footsteps bringing food to the many people, providing relief and

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Speaker 1: security to the capital after January six fascinating Robert Egger

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Speaker 1: you mentioned this is central kitchen. Robert Egger became a

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Speaker 1: fatherhood figure to me in more ways than one. He's

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Speaker 1: the man that I met when I was twenty three,

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Speaker 1: upon arriving to the sea away from my restaurants. He

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Speaker 1: had this kitchen. He everybody talks about food waste, Why

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Speaker 1: we don't talk about wasting people's life? Of sure, we

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Speaker 1: should not waste food, but this is not about wasting food.

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Speaker 1: Is we are wasting people? This is what is really important.

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Speaker 1: So let's not get caught in the wrong. Uh important issues.

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Speaker 1: Food waste should not be happening, But what we should

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Speaker 1: not be happening is wasting people's Robert Egger, Robert Eger

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Speaker 1: was that person for me. He told me that philanthropy

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Speaker 1: seems it's about the redemption of the giver, when phil

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Speaker 1: anthropy should be able deliberation of the receiver. It's okay

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Speaker 1: to do good, It's okay to feel good doing it

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Speaker 1: nothing wrong. Everybody should feel good if you do something good.

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Speaker 1: But we must do better. To do good is not

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Speaker 1: enoughing that on the first century. We must do a

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Speaker 1: smart good because if we are not able to solve

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Speaker 1: the problems that we are facing, uh yeah, let's keep

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Speaker 1: giving money, let's keep giving our volunteer time. But then

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Speaker 1: fifty years from now we look back and the same

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Speaker 1: problems will stay there because we keep repeating the same

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Speaker 1: old recipes. So why wasn't the kitchen Because many of

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Speaker 1: those stories, many of those moments, many of those books,

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Speaker 1: those places a piecy, those connections that you began seeing

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00:25:53,440 --> 00:25:58,800
Speaker 1: that everything seems is totally disconnected. But every one of

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00:25:59,000 --> 00:26:03,159
Speaker 1: us and every single issue, especially when we talk about food,

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00:26:03,560 --> 00:26:07,480
Speaker 1: it's more interconnected than we think. At the end of

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Speaker 1: the day, if we really look deep, when we have

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Speaker 1: a plate of food in front of us and we shouldn't,

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Speaker 1: but I think sometimes we must. We could very much

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Speaker 1: as brillat Savaran the French will alsofer in the six

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Speaker 1: he said, tell me what you eat, and I will

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Speaker 1: tell you who you are. I think this is even deeper.

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Speaker 1: Tell me how you eat, and I will tell you

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Speaker 1: what world you want to live in. And that's why

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00:26:38,800 --> 00:26:43,760
Speaker 1: food requires more understanding, and it requires that we give

402
00:26:44,119 --> 00:26:48,600
Speaker 1: more importance in at the social level, at the political level.

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00:26:49,359 --> 00:26:53,159
Speaker 1: Uh And because if we start thinking, food should stop

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00:26:53,160 --> 00:26:57,120
Speaker 1: being the problem and food can once and for all

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00:26:57,200 --> 00:27:02,120
Speaker 1: become part of the solution. Mm hmm. And I think

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00:27:03,240 --> 00:27:10,639
Speaker 1: for most of us being more emotionally and geographically connected

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00:27:10,680 --> 00:27:15,199
Speaker 1: to our food. I remember years ago um with a

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00:27:15,359 --> 00:27:18,920
Speaker 1: with a wonderful group of people actually talking about hunger

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00:27:18,960 --> 00:27:22,440
Speaker 1: and food systems and water, being asked to go through

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00:27:22,920 --> 00:27:25,879
Speaker 1: almost like a waking meditation at a dinner and to

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00:27:26,000 --> 00:27:28,800
Speaker 1: look at everything on the plate and imagine where it

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00:27:28,920 --> 00:27:32,680
Speaker 1: started and how many hands it had to touch. Who

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00:27:32,720 --> 00:27:35,480
Speaker 1: picked this tomato and then put it in a crate,

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00:27:35,520 --> 00:27:37,679
Speaker 1: and then someone carried the crate and put it on

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00:27:37,720 --> 00:27:40,040
Speaker 1: a truck, and then the truck was taken to the

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00:27:40,080 --> 00:27:42,080
Speaker 1: front of the farm, and then from there, the crates

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00:27:42,080 --> 00:27:44,080
Speaker 1: were loaded onto a larger truck, and then they were

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Speaker 1: driven by someone on a highway who had to get

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00:27:47,119 --> 00:27:49,280
Speaker 1: gas from a gas station on that highway and pay

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00:27:49,320 --> 00:27:51,000
Speaker 1: someone for that gas, and then they had to bring

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00:27:51,040 --> 00:27:53,239
Speaker 1: them to and it goes on and on and on

422
00:27:53,240 --> 00:27:55,200
Speaker 1: and on and on until it's processed and gone into

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00:27:55,240 --> 00:27:56,959
Speaker 1: the grocery store and put on the display, and then

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00:27:57,000 --> 00:27:58,400
Speaker 1: you go and you pick it up, and you bring

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00:27:58,400 --> 00:27:59,720
Speaker 1: it home and you cook it and you serve it

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00:27:59,800 --> 00:28:03,320
Speaker 1: as one And can you imagine all the hands that

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00:28:03,480 --> 00:28:06,040
Speaker 1: had to gently hold that piece of food so you

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00:28:06,080 --> 00:28:11,480
Speaker 1: could eat it. And I can't help but think about,

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00:28:11,640 --> 00:28:16,159
Speaker 1: especially now, you know, a year into this pandemic, the

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00:28:16,240 --> 00:28:19,000
Speaker 1: incredible work that the people who have kept the world

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00:28:19,119 --> 00:28:23,119
Speaker 1: fed have had to do. And then the strange politicization

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Speaker 1: we see in America of certain governors saying, you know,

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Speaker 1: immigrants who work in in um in our food industry

434
00:28:30,280 --> 00:28:33,919
Speaker 1: aren't going to get vaccinated. And I'm like, hold on

435
00:28:34,080 --> 00:28:41,000
Speaker 1: a minute. It it feels so personal, and it feels

436
00:28:41,120 --> 00:28:45,160
Speaker 1: so big. And sometimes when I look at the scope

437
00:28:45,200 --> 00:28:47,680
Speaker 1: of the industry and where the problems are and where

438
00:28:47,680 --> 00:28:51,680
Speaker 1: the people inside of it can be harmed, I think

439
00:28:51,720 --> 00:28:56,000
Speaker 1: about your TED talk and you're talking about getting on

440
00:28:56,040 --> 00:28:58,440
Speaker 1: the ground in Puerto Rico and you are going to

441
00:28:58,480 --> 00:29:00,760
Speaker 1: all these meetings and this deva stating a hurricane. It

442
00:29:00,840 --> 00:29:03,120
Speaker 1: just happened, and millions of people were without power and

443
00:29:03,640 --> 00:29:07,400
Speaker 1: the island was devastated, and there was FEMA saying, well, okay,

444
00:29:07,400 --> 00:29:10,120
Speaker 1: so what what program can we launch in twenty days?

445
00:29:10,640 --> 00:29:13,400
Speaker 1: And you're just my favorite. You're like, twenty days, we

446
00:29:13,480 --> 00:29:16,440
Speaker 1: have twenty minutes. And you just started making phone calls

447
00:29:17,280 --> 00:29:19,760
Speaker 1: and all these people were saying, how did you get

448
00:29:19,800 --> 00:29:21,160
Speaker 1: this and how did you get a kitchen? And how

449
00:29:21,200 --> 00:29:23,360
Speaker 1: could you get food? And you said, because I called people,

450
00:29:24,560 --> 00:29:29,800
Speaker 1: and you went into immediate response mode because you knew

451
00:29:29,800 --> 00:29:33,600
Speaker 1: there was no time to waste. And and I wonder,

452
00:29:34,800 --> 00:29:39,680
Speaker 1: does your experience in restaurants, because restaurants are immediate, cooking

453
00:29:39,760 --> 00:29:42,840
Speaker 1: is immediate, serving people as immediate. Do you feel like

454
00:29:43,040 --> 00:29:45,560
Speaker 1: in that moment, you could see through all the red

455
00:29:45,640 --> 00:29:47,880
Speaker 1: tape and you knew that you essentially just had to

456
00:29:47,880 --> 00:29:50,840
Speaker 1: get in the kitchen and get to work. By the

457
00:29:50,880 --> 00:29:52,800
Speaker 1: time I was going through those meetings, I think we

458
00:29:52,800 --> 00:29:58,720
Speaker 1: were already doing like thirty thousand meals a day, already

459
00:29:59,560 --> 00:30:03,640
Speaker 1: already we we We We went from thousand meals a day

460
00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:08,760
Speaker 1: to almost hundred fifty thousand meals a day. We went

461
00:30:08,800 --> 00:30:12,280
Speaker 1: from ten friends to more than twenty five thousand Puerto

462
00:30:12,400 --> 00:30:16,840
Speaker 1: Ricans that helped feed Puerto Rico. We went from and

463
00:30:16,880 --> 00:30:21,200
Speaker 1: this only within our organization. I'm not counting many other

464
00:30:21,200 --> 00:30:24,920
Speaker 1: people that they did amazing great things. We went from

465
00:30:24,920 --> 00:30:29,160
Speaker 1: one kitchen to twenty six kitchens. We we didn't only

466
00:30:29,200 --> 00:30:33,040
Speaker 1: do almost four million mills ourselves, but I know we

467
00:30:33,040 --> 00:30:36,240
Speaker 1: were able to plant the seed in many other organizations,

468
00:30:36,280 --> 00:30:39,320
Speaker 1: many other people all across the island that because they

469
00:30:39,360 --> 00:30:41,720
Speaker 1: saw what we were doing, they said, you know what,

470
00:30:41,880 --> 00:30:43,880
Speaker 1: we can do the same in our neighborhood. We can

471
00:30:43,920 --> 00:30:47,400
Speaker 1: do the same in our little too town. And this

472
00:30:47,520 --> 00:30:50,880
Speaker 1: was the most beautiful thing, not so much what we did,

473
00:30:51,320 --> 00:30:53,640
Speaker 1: but how we are, how we were able to used

474
00:30:53,640 --> 00:30:57,160
Speaker 1: to inspire many other people that maybe they didn't join

475
00:30:57,320 --> 00:31:00,760
Speaker 1: us directly, but in the spirit we were are all

476
00:31:01,000 --> 00:31:04,360
Speaker 1: one very big family doing tens of millions of meals.

477
00:31:05,960 --> 00:31:08,680
Speaker 1: I think the words of Martin Luther King, the urgency

478
00:31:08,720 --> 00:31:13,479
Speaker 1: of now, especially in emergencies, are more more important than

479
00:31:13,520 --> 00:31:15,800
Speaker 1: ever for us. It's not even the urgency of now

480
00:31:16,160 --> 00:31:20,200
Speaker 1: is the origency of yesterday, because if we don't even

481
00:31:20,240 --> 00:31:25,000
Speaker 1: bring more urgency to the issues we're facing today and

482
00:31:25,120 --> 00:31:29,120
Speaker 1: recognize that they come already from from behind, we are

483
00:31:29,160 --> 00:31:32,600
Speaker 1: always too slow and to And you know, one thing

484
00:31:32,640 --> 00:31:34,920
Speaker 1: I realized of here that some of the bigger problems

485
00:31:34,960 --> 00:31:39,720
Speaker 1: we face they actually technically they have very simple solutions.

486
00:31:41,080 --> 00:31:45,000
Speaker 1: We are humans. We are a beautiful animal is specy

487
00:31:45,280 --> 00:31:50,040
Speaker 1: the homosoppience. We are we we are we are very

488
00:31:50,200 --> 00:31:56,520
Speaker 1: unique species because we're smart. We are already uh, with

489
00:31:56,600 --> 00:32:02,720
Speaker 1: a helicopter in the surface of Mars flying for four seconds. Uh.

490
00:32:02,600 --> 00:32:05,400
Speaker 1: And this tells me that there's nothing the human is

491
00:32:05,440 --> 00:32:09,680
Speaker 1: physical and not achieve when we put our empathy, our

492
00:32:09,800 --> 00:32:14,680
Speaker 1: pragmatism and our brains and heard at work. Uh. And

493
00:32:14,760 --> 00:32:19,680
Speaker 1: obviously when you mentioned before the health food system, it's

494
00:32:19,720 --> 00:32:23,520
Speaker 1: plenty of things that work, obviously in our socialty. Uh.

495
00:32:23,600 --> 00:32:26,600
Speaker 1: Sometimes I look around, I'm like, why some people so

496
00:32:26,720 --> 00:32:30,240
Speaker 1: negative sayings that nothing, nothing works? When this works, this works,

497
00:32:30,280 --> 00:32:34,280
Speaker 1: this works, this works. But we need to recognize that

498
00:32:34,320 --> 00:32:38,640
Speaker 1: this this, this doesn't And especially for the people you mentioned,

499
00:32:38,880 --> 00:32:44,440
Speaker 1: the voiceless, the gooest of our system, and I mean

500
00:32:44,600 --> 00:32:48,600
Speaker 1: goes with the most respect, goes because technically they don't

501
00:32:48,600 --> 00:32:52,400
Speaker 1: belong Goes because technically they are not part of the America.

502
00:32:52,880 --> 00:32:56,120
Speaker 1: We love Goes because but let me tell you one thing.

503
00:32:57,000 --> 00:33:00,360
Speaker 1: Those men and woman eleven million and documented for example,

504
00:33:01,360 --> 00:33:04,480
Speaker 1: one to million Dreamers that they don't know any other

505
00:33:04,520 --> 00:33:10,320
Speaker 1: country but America and the many other Americans, sometimes many

506
00:33:10,360 --> 00:33:14,480
Speaker 1: generations that live in parts of America that they feel forgotten.

507
00:33:15,600 --> 00:33:22,400
Speaker 1: Those people, especially in emergencies. I never see Republicans of Democrats.

508
00:33:23,040 --> 00:33:27,120
Speaker 1: You see American people that they pull together, they believe

509
00:33:27,160 --> 00:33:30,040
Speaker 1: in longer tables, and they do whatever it needs to

510
00:33:30,080 --> 00:33:33,200
Speaker 1: be done to take care of their fellow citizens, the

511
00:33:33,400 --> 00:33:38,480
Speaker 1: fellow Americans. That's the beauty of what we see, that

512
00:33:38,720 --> 00:33:44,600
Speaker 1: people inside them. Everybody wants their worst demons out and

513
00:33:44,680 --> 00:33:49,760
Speaker 1: everybody wants to bring the best angels on the table.

514
00:33:50,320 --> 00:33:52,680
Speaker 1: And we need to have leaders, and we need to

515
00:33:52,760 --> 00:33:56,880
Speaker 1: elect leaders that want to bring the best angels inside

516
00:33:56,920 --> 00:34:01,200
Speaker 1: all of us. And when sometimes it is much better

517
00:34:01,360 --> 00:34:05,720
Speaker 1: used to be creating mistrussed and and showing that those

518
00:34:05,760 --> 00:34:09,320
Speaker 1: that don't look like you or are the enemy versus

519
00:34:09,360 --> 00:34:11,520
Speaker 1: they are used people, that they are different and they

520
00:34:11,560 --> 00:34:15,360
Speaker 1: bring something else to the table. Is when we began

521
00:34:15,440 --> 00:34:18,240
Speaker 1: having problems. But are you still. I'm a big believer

522
00:34:19,000 --> 00:34:22,560
Speaker 1: that America and the world is full of wonderful people

523
00:34:23,160 --> 00:34:25,319
Speaker 1: that we need to give boys to those that have

524
00:34:25,440 --> 00:34:28,560
Speaker 1: the good messages and try to put away the ones

525
00:34:28,600 --> 00:34:31,839
Speaker 1: that want to break us apart. We don't need those

526
00:34:31,880 --> 00:34:36,680
Speaker 1: people anywhere in America or anywhere around the world. Yeah,

527
00:34:36,840 --> 00:34:39,000
Speaker 1: I agree, And I think you know, to your point,

528
00:34:39,080 --> 00:34:42,840
Speaker 1: this idea of coming here as an immigrant and what

529
00:34:42,880 --> 00:34:47,000
Speaker 1: the American dream means. You know, my mother's mother came

530
00:34:47,040 --> 00:34:49,839
Speaker 1: here through allis Island and my father immigrated to the

531
00:34:49,960 --> 00:34:53,600
Speaker 1: United States and the seventies, and you know, the American

532
00:34:53,719 --> 00:34:58,600
Speaker 1: dream is the most alive and households of immigrants because

533
00:34:58,600 --> 00:35:04,640
Speaker 1: it is this global idea of a literal dream, a

534
00:35:04,760 --> 00:35:08,359
Speaker 1: family and opportunity. And and to your point, I get

535
00:35:08,400 --> 00:35:12,560
Speaker 1: excited when people want to be here. I get excited.

536
00:35:12,600 --> 00:35:17,080
Speaker 1: And diverse communities and the leaders who want us to think,

537
00:35:17,880 --> 00:35:22,239
Speaker 1: um that someone is more American than someone else. I

538
00:35:22,280 --> 00:35:25,279
Speaker 1: always want to know who they're getting paid by. I'm like,

539
00:35:25,320 --> 00:35:27,239
Speaker 1: who's paying your bills? What do you what do you

540
00:35:27,280 --> 00:35:30,719
Speaker 1: advocating for? Because and you've talked a lot about this

541
00:35:30,760 --> 00:35:33,000
Speaker 1: with World Central Kitchen, you know, hunger is not a

542
00:35:33,080 --> 00:35:36,560
Speaker 1: red state or a blue state crisis. Kentucky is an

543
00:35:36,560 --> 00:35:41,160
Speaker 1: incredibly red state and in the last census, twelve percent

544
00:35:41,200 --> 00:35:42,960
Speaker 1: of adults there so they didn't have enough to eat.

545
00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:45,320
Speaker 1: And California is a very blue state and ten percent

546
00:35:45,360 --> 00:35:47,160
Speaker 1: of adults here say they don't have enough to eat.

547
00:35:48,000 --> 00:35:51,400
Speaker 1: So there there is a I almost feel like we

548
00:35:51,440 --> 00:35:55,480
Speaker 1: need to lift the veil of of the lie. The

549
00:35:55,560 --> 00:35:57,920
Speaker 1: other is m and say, hey, we're in this together.

550
00:35:58,120 --> 00:36:01,680
Speaker 1: How can we heal this together? To your point, Jose,

551
00:36:01,840 --> 00:36:04,120
Speaker 1: how can we stop talking about food waste and how

552
00:36:04,160 --> 00:36:07,520
Speaker 1: can we start talking about If this many people in

553
00:36:07,520 --> 00:36:09,720
Speaker 1: America go hungry every day and this is the amount

554
00:36:09,760 --> 00:36:11,759
Speaker 1: of food that gets wasted wasted, why don't we just

555
00:36:11,800 --> 00:36:15,839
Speaker 1: give those people this food and solve this problem. We

556
00:36:15,840 --> 00:36:19,960
Speaker 1: we have the capabilities, but to so many people who

557
00:36:20,040 --> 00:36:23,640
Speaker 1: aren't experts like you are, it it can feel insurmountable.

558
00:36:23,680 --> 00:36:28,680
Speaker 1: It feels intimidating to try to fix it. So in

559
00:36:28,760 --> 00:36:32,760
Speaker 1: all the advocacy you've done and all the learning about

560
00:36:32,840 --> 00:36:36,279
Speaker 1: food and and you know, by the way, I'm going

561
00:36:36,360 --> 00:36:37,800
Speaker 1: to brag on you for a minute because you're not

562
00:36:37,800 --> 00:36:39,359
Speaker 1: going to do it, but you know you served four

563
00:36:39,400 --> 00:36:42,799
Speaker 1: million meals after Hurricane Maria, and and you have done

564
00:36:42,840 --> 00:36:46,879
Speaker 1: incredible work on the ground in so many avenues. You've

565
00:36:46,880 --> 00:36:49,680
Speaker 1: been named one of Time magazines hundred most Influential People.

566
00:36:49,760 --> 00:36:52,760
Speaker 1: You have Michelin Stars, you, you have a Humanities Medal,

567
00:36:53,160 --> 00:36:56,360
Speaker 1: you have a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Association

568
00:36:56,360 --> 00:36:59,840
Speaker 1: of Culinary Professionals at James Beard Award. I mean, you

569
00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:04,480
Speaker 1: are at the top of your game in your personal career,

570
00:37:05,040 --> 00:37:08,200
Speaker 1: and you are one of our most fierce and loving

571
00:37:08,360 --> 00:37:14,319
Speaker 1: public advocates. So my curiosity is what what I see

572
00:37:14,400 --> 00:37:17,839
Speaker 1: when we talk about everything you've done and achieved is

573
00:37:18,400 --> 00:37:23,480
Speaker 1: expert expert expert expert. So as our expert, what would

574
00:37:23,480 --> 00:37:27,359
Speaker 1: you suggest to people like me who care so much

575
00:37:27,400 --> 00:37:31,400
Speaker 1: about this issue but don't know what it is they

576
00:37:32,000 --> 00:37:35,040
Speaker 1: can do that idea? I'm one person. What can I do?

577
00:37:35,160 --> 00:37:37,200
Speaker 1: What can I say? Who can I call? How can

578
00:37:37,239 --> 00:37:41,319
Speaker 1: I advocate? How do we all as a collective, the

579
00:37:41,360 --> 00:37:43,279
Speaker 1: folks listening here and the folks they are going to

580
00:37:43,360 --> 00:37:45,520
Speaker 1: go talk to about this when this episode is over.

581
00:37:46,520 --> 00:37:51,440
Speaker 1: How do we show up to help you help people?

582
00:37:52,200 --> 00:37:55,000
Speaker 1: How do we show up for food and for hunger

583
00:37:55,080 --> 00:37:59,600
Speaker 1: and for humanity? I said before that the big problems saying, hey,

584
00:37:59,640 --> 00:38:04,760
Speaker 1: but he's solutions. I think very often I will say,

585
00:38:04,840 --> 00:38:07,000
Speaker 1: and this has happened to me, and I'm trying to

586
00:38:07,120 --> 00:38:11,920
Speaker 1: change still. I have time to change, is that, I

587
00:38:11,960 --> 00:38:14,880
Speaker 1: will say in a very bad way, because you can

588
00:38:14,960 --> 00:38:18,680
Speaker 1: do no harm. I want to end hunger in the world,

589
00:38:20,120 --> 00:38:23,799
Speaker 1: but right now looks very difficult to achieve that. Right.

590
00:38:25,280 --> 00:38:27,120
Speaker 1: So this is like if you're trying to get the

591
00:38:27,160 --> 00:38:30,839
Speaker 1: apples at the very top of the trade. But why

592
00:38:30,920 --> 00:38:33,640
Speaker 1: we don't concentrate in what we can all do? What

593
00:38:33,960 --> 00:38:37,160
Speaker 1: about the low hanging fruit? The low hanging fruit is

594
00:38:37,160 --> 00:38:40,640
Speaker 1: there for a reason. Those are the places and the

595
00:38:40,760 --> 00:38:44,360
Speaker 1: things that you can touch, that you can be active

596
00:38:44,719 --> 00:38:48,080
Speaker 1: and that actually you can't try to make a difference

597
00:38:48,760 --> 00:38:53,239
Speaker 1: that then if you succeed, you can bring that example

598
00:38:53,800 --> 00:38:58,160
Speaker 1: to all the communities, to all the states, through our country,

599
00:38:58,200 --> 00:39:01,279
Speaker 1: or maybe to the world. So in my brain, I'm

600
00:39:01,400 --> 00:39:05,360
Speaker 1: more and more as a big dreamer. I am for something.

601
00:39:05,440 --> 00:39:09,479
Speaker 1: I born on July third teenth of nineteen six nine,

602
00:39:09,560 --> 00:39:12,799
Speaker 1: and you know, we were arriving to the moon in

603
00:39:12,840 --> 00:39:17,319
Speaker 1: that moment, and and uh, and I'm a cancer and

604
00:39:17,320 --> 00:39:20,319
Speaker 1: and I'm a dreamer in many ways. But I think

605
00:39:20,320 --> 00:39:23,719
Speaker 1: we need to have the boots on the ground and dreaming. Uh,

606
00:39:23,880 --> 00:39:27,400
Speaker 1: they go hand by hand because the dreams allows you

607
00:39:27,440 --> 00:39:31,160
Speaker 1: to think big, but the boots on the ground allows

608
00:39:31,200 --> 00:39:35,640
Speaker 1: you to be successful in key things. So we've been

609
00:39:35,680 --> 00:39:39,440
Speaker 1: talking sentire rife America about food deserts. In the richest

610
00:39:39,480 --> 00:39:44,560
Speaker 1: country in the world. We have community after community, White Committee,

611
00:39:45,440 --> 00:39:51,799
Speaker 1: Black communities, Native Americans, the Nalajo nation um. Anywhere is

612
00:39:51,840 --> 00:39:55,759
Speaker 1: food deserts, and usually where there is food deserts happens

613
00:39:56,280 --> 00:40:03,560
Speaker 1: is also job deserts, jobs deserts, hospital deserts, school district deserts.

614
00:40:03,600 --> 00:40:07,760
Speaker 1: At the end, poor people they have. I'man nothing or nothing.

615
00:40:08,680 --> 00:40:11,200
Speaker 1: Let's start try and used to fix one more products.

616
00:40:11,320 --> 00:40:15,640
Speaker 1: Let's just stop having conferences about ending food deserts. Let's

617
00:40:15,680 --> 00:40:18,920
Speaker 1: make sure we get the president, the governors, the congressman,

618
00:40:18,960 --> 00:40:23,040
Speaker 1: the senators and say what the federal government can do

619
00:40:23,080 --> 00:40:25,800
Speaker 1: in partnership with the private sector and in partnership with

620
00:40:26,040 --> 00:40:29,480
Speaker 1: NGOs and the local communities to make sure that we

621
00:40:29,640 --> 00:40:33,520
Speaker 1: stop talking about food deserts, because we're going there and

622
00:40:33,560 --> 00:40:35,960
Speaker 1: we're making sure that every one of those communities will

623
00:40:36,000 --> 00:40:41,160
Speaker 1: have a function in market where families can walk by

624
00:40:41,200 --> 00:40:44,120
Speaker 1: because many of those families don't even have public transportation,

625
00:40:44,480 --> 00:40:46,919
Speaker 1: or they don't own a car. Why we don't start

626
00:40:47,000 --> 00:40:49,680
Speaker 1: making sure that they have access to fresh fruits and vestibles.

627
00:40:49,920 --> 00:40:52,200
Speaker 1: Why we don't make sure that maybe because there is

628
00:40:52,200 --> 00:40:55,080
Speaker 1: a tackle tract and a coffee shop and the local dinner,

629
00:40:55,520 --> 00:40:59,360
Speaker 1: that those families, especially woman, especially women that have to

630
00:40:59,400 --> 00:41:01,560
Speaker 1: work to jobs and still don't make it at the

631
00:41:01,680 --> 00:41:04,799
Speaker 1: end of the month, that the food STAPs. We give

632
00:41:04,840 --> 00:41:09,319
Speaker 1: them snaps more technically technically speaking, that they can use

633
00:41:09,400 --> 00:41:12,640
Speaker 1: it in the local restaurants. In the process, you are

634
00:41:12,880 --> 00:41:16,080
Speaker 1: fraying that woman sometimes from the labor of having to

635
00:41:16,120 --> 00:41:18,080
Speaker 1: be feeding the entire families where she has to be

636
00:41:18,120 --> 00:41:21,160
Speaker 1: working sixteen hours a day every day. In the process,

637
00:41:21,239 --> 00:41:23,440
Speaker 1: that money helps with the family. In the process, that

638
00:41:23,480 --> 00:41:27,160
Speaker 1: money helps that money to stay in her community, which

639
00:41:27,200 --> 00:41:30,520
Speaker 1: will stop in suppoor all of the sudden, that local diner,

640
00:41:30,640 --> 00:41:32,960
Speaker 1: that local food truck is doing better, all of the

641
00:41:32,960 --> 00:41:35,760
Speaker 1: sudden they can be employing more people, all of the sudden,

642
00:41:36,160 --> 00:41:40,000
Speaker 1: that one dollar that comes from the federal government, which

643
00:41:40,120 --> 00:41:42,280
Speaker 1: by the way, I don't want to be giving anything

644
00:41:42,320 --> 00:41:45,560
Speaker 1: to anybody, because people the one our pity, people want

645
00:41:45,560 --> 00:41:50,600
Speaker 1: our respect. But we must understand that sometimes some Americans,

646
00:41:50,600 --> 00:41:52,960
Speaker 1: some people in the world for behind. That's what you

647
00:41:53,000 --> 00:41:55,319
Speaker 1: have a government to make sure that the government are

648
00:41:55,400 --> 00:41:57,960
Speaker 1: not next to the ones we are doing well, but

649
00:41:58,200 --> 00:42:01,040
Speaker 1: especially are next to the one is maybe not doing

650
00:42:01,160 --> 00:42:05,680
Speaker 1: so well but with the wind behind the cells helping

651
00:42:05,920 --> 00:42:10,640
Speaker 1: them sell on their own. We can do better by

652
00:42:10,840 --> 00:42:14,680
Speaker 1: not throwing money of the problem, but investing in the solutions.

653
00:42:14,880 --> 00:42:17,440
Speaker 1: If we're trying to help the poor neighborhoods of America,

654
00:42:17,680 --> 00:42:22,000
Speaker 1: if we are trying to lift up those people from poverty,

655
00:42:22,200 --> 00:42:25,719
Speaker 1: let's make sure that every dollar we put is not

656
00:42:26,280 --> 00:42:30,480
Speaker 1: use something that is wasted, but something like actually not

657
00:42:30,640 --> 00:42:33,600
Speaker 1: only empowers those families to move away from what the

658
00:42:33,680 --> 00:42:37,319
Speaker 1: whole they may be, but helps their community, helps the

659
00:42:37,360 --> 00:42:40,560
Speaker 1: local businesses, helps the local farmers, and all of the

660
00:42:40,640 --> 00:42:44,680
Speaker 1: sudden is slowly. By slowly, using the low hanging fruit mentality,

661
00:42:45,080 --> 00:42:48,360
Speaker 1: we can be fixing some of the bigger problems because

662
00:42:48,360 --> 00:42:52,239
Speaker 1: they repeat the solutions are simple. But we need to

663
00:42:52,280 --> 00:42:55,600
Speaker 1: have the will, because if we have the will, there

664
00:42:55,719 --> 00:42:59,560
Speaker 1: will always be away. Yes, and some of the kinds

665
00:42:59,600 --> 00:43:02,759
Speaker 1: of testing, and that's kind of how I think about it, right,

666
00:43:02,840 --> 00:43:07,160
Speaker 1: We all as citizens, we invest in America, we pay taxes.

667
00:43:07,880 --> 00:43:10,799
Speaker 1: There's meant to be a return on investment, and the

668
00:43:10,880 --> 00:43:14,440
Speaker 1: return on investment has to be for the country. It

669
00:43:14,520 --> 00:43:18,360
Speaker 1: has to be for the greatest good. And you've spoken

670
00:43:18,400 --> 00:43:21,480
Speaker 1: a lot about how there are so many food and

671
00:43:21,560 --> 00:43:25,560
Speaker 1: nutrition programs we take for granted. There are sectors in

672
00:43:25,600 --> 00:43:29,400
Speaker 1: which the government invests that we benefit from that we

673
00:43:29,440 --> 00:43:32,840
Speaker 1: take for granted because these investments were decided upon a

674
00:43:32,880 --> 00:43:35,200
Speaker 1: long time ago. That the last time there was a

675
00:43:35,239 --> 00:43:39,799
Speaker 1: food somewhe at the White House was sixty nine. It's

676
00:43:39,840 --> 00:43:43,799
Speaker 1: obviously time for a new one. And and I get

677
00:43:43,800 --> 00:43:46,319
Speaker 1: so excited about what you're talking about because you put

678
00:43:46,360 --> 00:43:50,200
Speaker 1: some dollars into the community as an investment and the

679
00:43:50,239 --> 00:43:53,359
Speaker 1: community grows. And you've talked about this with the Feed Act,

680
00:43:53,440 --> 00:43:55,279
Speaker 1: and you wrote this amazing piece in the New York

681
00:43:55,320 --> 00:43:59,080
Speaker 1: Times called we need a Food Secretary. So can you

682
00:43:59,160 --> 00:44:02,600
Speaker 1: tell people little bit about what that act and what

683
00:44:02,760 --> 00:44:06,680
Speaker 1: a food secretary if we made those changes, like, what

684
00:44:06,840 --> 00:44:10,720
Speaker 1: could actually happen in terms of communities and in terms

685
00:44:11,280 --> 00:44:15,319
Speaker 1: of policy. Well, I can say that is I know

686
00:44:15,400 --> 00:44:18,040
Speaker 1: in this administration is a lot of things happening behind

687
00:44:18,080 --> 00:44:22,160
Speaker 1: the scenes that hopefully we will see things and announcements

688
00:44:22,160 --> 00:44:27,760
Speaker 1: in the next weeks and months. Obviously, I was trying

689
00:44:27,760 --> 00:44:31,000
Speaker 1: to challenge everybody because you get attention when you try

690
00:44:31,040 --> 00:44:34,360
Speaker 1: to create a new department very much right, and especially

691
00:44:34,400 --> 00:44:38,400
Speaker 1: when when when I don't know why even anybody published

692
00:44:38,440 --> 00:44:42,520
Speaker 1: whatever I write. But but people start thinking, and then

693
00:44:42,560 --> 00:44:46,200
Speaker 1: you start having pocals from different people who said, what's

694
00:44:46,200 --> 00:44:48,400
Speaker 1: wrong with the US? There what I'm not doing a

695
00:44:48,400 --> 00:44:53,680
Speaker 1: good job about, Like I'm only saying when buns do better.

696
00:44:55,400 --> 00:44:58,759
Speaker 1: What I'm trying to say is that I created a

697
00:44:58,880 --> 00:45:03,839
Speaker 1: class ideas ago at Juge Washington University. The idea came

698
00:45:03,880 --> 00:45:08,280
Speaker 1: almost ten years ago, which the idea was, let's create

699
00:45:08,320 --> 00:45:11,960
Speaker 1: a food institute that we will put food in the

700
00:45:11,960 --> 00:45:17,120
Speaker 1: middle and we will start seeing all the opportunities we

701
00:45:17,200 --> 00:45:23,040
Speaker 1: have through food for job creation, climate change and environment.

702
00:45:24,280 --> 00:45:30,000
Speaker 1: Understand our history, so we can't fix with better solutions

703
00:45:30,000 --> 00:45:35,400
Speaker 1: and better decisions the present we face footage, immigration reform, footage,

704
00:45:35,400 --> 00:45:40,920
Speaker 1: female homeland security. Food is empower empower in the countries

705
00:45:41,000 --> 00:45:44,200
Speaker 1: near America to do better so we don't have the

706
00:45:44,320 --> 00:45:47,200
Speaker 1: problem we are facing right now in the southern border.

707
00:45:47,239 --> 00:45:50,120
Speaker 1: Because no no person wants to live their homes. They

708
00:45:50,160 --> 00:45:52,640
Speaker 1: only do it when they're so hungry that they look

709
00:45:52,719 --> 00:45:55,520
Speaker 1: to the place that maybe food all of the sudden

710
00:45:55,760 --> 00:46:00,400
Speaker 1: footage at the heart of very much everything we are.

711
00:46:00,440 --> 00:46:04,080
Speaker 1: But somehow food is never in the conversation of any

712
00:46:04,080 --> 00:46:09,680
Speaker 1: politician barely ever, never at the most when they're they're

713
00:46:09,719 --> 00:46:15,360
Speaker 1: talking to farmers, and that's about it. So food is

714
00:46:16,480 --> 00:46:20,400
Speaker 1: the most important energy on the face of earth. Is

715
00:46:20,440 --> 00:46:24,400
Speaker 1: not gas, it's not fuel, it's food because food moves

716
00:46:24,840 --> 00:46:28,240
Speaker 1: the most important assets, which are not cars or planes,

717
00:46:28,320 --> 00:46:35,160
Speaker 1: which are humans. Therefore, we must not take food for granted. Uh.

718
00:46:35,280 --> 00:46:39,080
Speaker 1: And we're taking food for granted. So why we have

719
00:46:40,640 --> 00:46:46,160
Speaker 1: health pandemic with Americans that are poor but arrabies at

720
00:46:46,160 --> 00:46:49,680
Speaker 1: the same time. And this is happening. This is a new,

721
00:46:50,160 --> 00:46:54,000
Speaker 1: a new conundrum of the century that only humans could create.

722
00:46:54,680 --> 00:46:58,640
Speaker 1: That we will be mal fed, overweight, and with a

723
00:46:58,680 --> 00:47:01,760
Speaker 1: lot of sickness in a process of trying to to

724
00:47:01,840 --> 00:47:06,360
Speaker 1: stay alive, which is fascinating. So, uh, Secretary of Food,

725
00:47:07,520 --> 00:47:10,920
Speaker 1: what I'm applying, I'm asking more is to have somebody

726
00:47:10,960 --> 00:47:14,080
Speaker 1: near the President of the United States that in the

727
00:47:14,160 --> 00:47:19,560
Speaker 1: same time he has national security advisors on defense, terrorism,

728
00:47:19,719 --> 00:47:22,480
Speaker 1: any other issue that is important that the President is

729
00:47:22,520 --> 00:47:27,279
Speaker 1: aware of. That person will be bringing to attention of

730
00:47:27,400 --> 00:47:31,640
Speaker 1: the President at all times the important issues with the

731
00:47:31,680 --> 00:47:35,319
Speaker 1: possible quick solutions in the short meet and long term,

732
00:47:35,760 --> 00:47:39,799
Speaker 1: and more important understanding that we're not gonna fix the

733
00:47:39,880 --> 00:47:42,840
Speaker 1: food problems we have in America and therefore around the

734
00:47:42,880 --> 00:47:46,680
Speaker 1: world only at the duo s d A at the

735
00:47:46,719 --> 00:47:50,440
Speaker 1: Department of Agriculture. I think Secretary Bill set is the

736
00:47:50,520 --> 00:47:53,640
Speaker 1: right person for the times. He brings off experience from

737
00:47:53,680 --> 00:47:57,800
Speaker 1: before uh, he knows his staff, and I do believe

738
00:47:58,320 --> 00:48:01,120
Speaker 1: he is going to be bolder even he was in

739
00:48:01,160 --> 00:48:04,080
Speaker 1: the times of President Obama, and hopefully we're gonna see

740
00:48:04,440 --> 00:48:07,720
Speaker 1: good things happening in the next four years or beyond.

741
00:48:08,120 --> 00:48:13,600
Speaker 1: But Food is also the Department of Transportation to make

742
00:48:13,640 --> 00:48:17,360
Speaker 1: sure that the right infrastructure. Infrastructure is in place so

743
00:48:17,880 --> 00:48:21,040
Speaker 1: if farmers have too much production of something, food doesn't

744
00:48:21,080 --> 00:48:23,680
Speaker 1: go waste and can be delivered to other parts of

745
00:48:23,719 --> 00:48:28,160
Speaker 1: America or soup kitchens or food banks. To make sure

746
00:48:28,200 --> 00:48:30,440
Speaker 1: that the food that is not wasted, that we can

747
00:48:30,440 --> 00:48:33,399
Speaker 1: pay the farmers so diven waste the right now, we're

748
00:48:33,400 --> 00:48:37,040
Speaker 1: paying farmers almost for not producing. How are we crazy?

749
00:48:37,200 --> 00:48:40,359
Speaker 1: We should be paying them for producing and macture that

750
00:48:40,360 --> 00:48:43,359
Speaker 1: that money is share we people that may need in

751
00:48:43,360 --> 00:48:46,680
Speaker 1: America maybe in other parts of Central America and or

752
00:48:46,719 --> 00:48:50,360
Speaker 1: beyond food deserts. We need the Department of Housing and

753
00:48:50,520 --> 00:48:54,759
Speaker 1: Urban Development, the Department of Defense. They should be investing

754
00:48:55,080 --> 00:48:57,880
Speaker 1: in better quality school lunches. Why because what was the

755
00:48:57,920 --> 00:49:02,480
Speaker 1: Department of Defense the ones that actually as Congress for

756
00:49:02,719 --> 00:49:06,640
Speaker 1: extra money to feed children in the schools better after

757
00:49:06,719 --> 00:49:09,439
Speaker 1: World War Two? Because they had no people to join

758
00:49:10,239 --> 00:49:13,880
Speaker 1: the military. And we keep going and going. Instead of

759
00:49:13,920 --> 00:49:19,160
Speaker 1: the Department of Health spending money in fixing Americans, let's

760
00:49:19,160 --> 00:49:23,280
Speaker 1: make sure that the Department of Health invest as medicine,

761
00:49:23,440 --> 00:49:26,920
Speaker 1: good quality food that keeps American healthy. All of the subbing,

762
00:49:27,080 --> 00:49:30,080
Speaker 1: saving billions of dollars a year, all of the sudden

763
00:49:30,239 --> 00:49:35,880
Speaker 1: keeping America working, America prosperous. You see, all those issues

764
00:49:36,280 --> 00:49:39,560
Speaker 1: are highly connected. The people we have right Antijuana in

765
00:49:39,560 --> 00:49:42,239
Speaker 1: the past, in the southern border, I've been there for

766
00:49:42,360 --> 00:49:46,160
Speaker 1: many weeks. We got back to back in September, October

767
00:49:46,239 --> 00:49:52,400
Speaker 1: November hurricanes Guatemala and door As Columbia underwater, entire firming areas.

768
00:49:52,440 --> 00:49:56,759
Speaker 1: People lost their lifehoods, They love their homes, They had nothing. Yes,

769
00:49:56,960 --> 00:49:59,319
Speaker 1: they have governments that maybe are not providing for them.

770
00:49:59,360 --> 00:50:03,200
Speaker 1: But Europe America, the richest countries in the world, they

771
00:50:03,280 --> 00:50:07,400
Speaker 1: must do better. So we invest in them. We create

772
00:50:07,480 --> 00:50:10,920
Speaker 1: factories in those communities, we create jobs in those communities.

773
00:50:11,200 --> 00:50:15,560
Speaker 1: Those communities do well, we do better. So as you see,

774
00:50:15,719 --> 00:50:19,160
Speaker 1: food is fascinating because if you put it in the

775
00:50:19,239 --> 00:50:23,520
Speaker 1: center and you analyze the world we live in connected

776
00:50:23,560 --> 00:50:28,000
Speaker 1: to food, we can't have a better world only if

777
00:50:28,040 --> 00:50:31,200
Speaker 1: we think what display the food in front of me

778
00:50:32,160 --> 00:50:36,680
Speaker 1: can't change tomorrow. If I have the right ingredients on

779
00:50:36,719 --> 00:50:39,560
Speaker 1: the plate, we must do that. That's why I'm asking

780
00:50:40,000 --> 00:50:42,640
Speaker 1: to this administration and beyond I work also with the

781
00:50:42,719 --> 00:50:45,560
Speaker 1: Trauma administration. I am a guy that one needs to

782
00:50:45,600 --> 00:50:48,640
Speaker 1: feed people. I work with. Anybody is willing to work

783
00:50:48,680 --> 00:50:51,240
Speaker 1: with us, is welling to work with me and listen.

784
00:50:52,160 --> 00:50:55,200
Speaker 1: But with this administration, I believe that President by Then

785
00:50:55,239 --> 00:50:58,480
Speaker 1: gave me the honor a few months ago that probably

786
00:50:58,520 --> 00:51:00,600
Speaker 1: is the first time ever that is a town hall

787
00:51:01,160 --> 00:51:04,799
Speaker 1: where a candidate for president dedicates the entire hour to

788
00:51:04,840 --> 00:51:08,360
Speaker 1: talk about food issues. And to me, I'm very hopeful

789
00:51:08,840 --> 00:51:14,440
Speaker 1: that President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will really

790
00:51:14,480 --> 00:51:18,160
Speaker 1: put food closer to the center of the plate and

791
00:51:18,520 --> 00:51:23,239
Speaker 1: hopefully come once and for all with a smarter, bigger decisions.

792
00:51:23,320 --> 00:51:28,640
Speaker 1: Hopefully the conference well inside the White House, well outside, uh,

793
00:51:28,680 --> 00:51:31,719
Speaker 1: well the secretary of food or some other form of

794
00:51:31,880 --> 00:51:36,800
Speaker 1: leaders in the departments that will handle food like throying

795
00:51:36,880 --> 00:51:40,240
Speaker 1: horses of good. I hope that in the next three years,

796
00:51:40,840 --> 00:51:42,720
Speaker 1: three and a half years, we're gonna see a smart

797
00:51:42,760 --> 00:51:47,480
Speaker 1: decisions made on behalf of American people, where we all

798
00:51:47,560 --> 00:51:51,480
Speaker 1: are gonna believe that longer tables, now higher walls is

799
00:51:51,520 --> 00:51:57,000
Speaker 1: how we're gonna be creating a better American Yes. Ah,

800
00:51:57,160 --> 00:52:01,360
Speaker 1: And it feels, you know, to the point of the conversation,

801
00:52:01,520 --> 00:52:05,360
Speaker 1: how how big a problem can feel. These are the

802
00:52:05,440 --> 00:52:09,440
Speaker 1: kinds of solutions that make it feel possible. I feel

803
00:52:09,520 --> 00:52:14,880
Speaker 1: sparkly and excited and inspired because when you see the

804
00:52:14,880 --> 00:52:18,239
Speaker 1: way the systems are all connected, and you realize that

805
00:52:18,280 --> 00:52:20,600
Speaker 1: if you can get into the middle of those connections

806
00:52:20,600 --> 00:52:24,640
Speaker 1: and create a solution, the solution travels to all sides

807
00:52:24,680 --> 00:52:31,399
Speaker 1: of the problem and does its work. It feels so exciting.

808
00:52:32,320 --> 00:52:35,359
Speaker 1: And I hope that because we're in this time where

809
00:52:35,400 --> 00:52:38,160
Speaker 1: more and more people want to talk about systems and

810
00:52:38,160 --> 00:52:41,000
Speaker 1: how to make them better, they that they will be

811
00:52:41,000 --> 00:52:44,800
Speaker 1: willing to listen to exactly what you're saying and realize

812
00:52:44,840 --> 00:52:48,920
Speaker 1: the solutions are they're not political, and they're not geographical.

813
00:52:49,040 --> 00:52:52,200
Speaker 1: They're really and truly based in every single community, no

814
00:52:52,239 --> 00:52:55,440
Speaker 1: matter where they are or how they vote. There's a

815
00:52:55,480 --> 00:52:58,319
Speaker 1: way forward for us if we if we use this

816
00:52:58,440 --> 00:53:02,799
Speaker 1: as our central connection and it it feels exciting. I

817
00:53:03,320 --> 00:53:05,719
Speaker 1: I am so amazed with all you've done, and I

818
00:53:05,800 --> 00:53:08,360
Speaker 1: really can't wait to see what's coming next for you

819
00:53:08,960 --> 00:53:10,960
Speaker 1: because you feel like one of those people to me

820
00:53:11,000 --> 00:53:12,759
Speaker 1: who I want to look to and say, Okay, what's

821
00:53:12,800 --> 00:53:14,960
Speaker 1: he doing, because that's where I want to get involved.

822
00:53:16,320 --> 00:53:18,520
Speaker 1: You need to understand that on this pandemic, we began

823
00:53:18,800 --> 00:53:23,800
Speaker 1: very much activating. Wasn't the kitchen the first of February

824
00:53:24,320 --> 00:53:26,799
Speaker 1: when we went to Japan to start feeding the first

825
00:53:26,800 --> 00:53:30,760
Speaker 1: cruise ship that was arriving to port with COVID cases

826
00:53:30,760 --> 00:53:34,120
Speaker 1: on board, and we began feeding in Yokohama because nobody

827
00:53:34,280 --> 00:53:37,920
Speaker 1: seems were able to handle it. We've done many issues,

828
00:53:38,040 --> 00:53:42,360
Speaker 1: many times cholera situations, and where we are it is

829
00:53:42,400 --> 00:53:45,880
Speaker 1: never color so because we have very good systems for

830
00:53:46,040 --> 00:53:49,320
Speaker 1: health and and the health protocols to protect our teams,

831
00:53:49,320 --> 00:53:53,200
Speaker 1: to protect the people were feeding. We follow helping Governor

832
00:53:53,280 --> 00:53:56,280
Speaker 1: Newson in Auckland when the next cruise ship was arriving

833
00:53:56,680 --> 00:54:00,400
Speaker 1: in March with more people with COVID, and in that

834
00:54:00,520 --> 00:54:03,719
Speaker 1: moment we realized that early on that COVID was going

835
00:54:03,760 --> 00:54:08,400
Speaker 1: to be hitting everybody. We began looking at the badly

836
00:54:08,440 --> 00:54:12,360
Speaker 1: college Spanish flu we I began learning about how people

837
00:54:12,440 --> 00:54:16,400
Speaker 1: handle it. Over a century ago, we began buying masks,

838
00:54:16,719 --> 00:54:19,600
Speaker 1: all of the salam and I remember I was with

839
00:54:19,680 --> 00:54:23,560
Speaker 1: my car giving away and nary five masks to hospitals

840
00:54:23,560 --> 00:54:26,919
Speaker 1: in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York, New York City

841
00:54:26,960 --> 00:54:29,880
Speaker 1: because we had masks, because we bought them for our teams,

842
00:54:29,960 --> 00:54:32,440
Speaker 1: for our cooks. So at the at the end of

843
00:54:32,480 --> 00:54:35,320
Speaker 1: we can like, how can we be so ahead of

844
00:54:35,400 --> 00:54:38,440
Speaker 1: what is to come when when on paper you have

845
00:54:38,840 --> 00:54:42,200
Speaker 1: experts that the only should be thinking about that uh

846
00:54:42,239 --> 00:54:45,120
Speaker 1: and get more ready for it. But that's fine. I

847
00:54:45,160 --> 00:54:48,200
Speaker 1: hope that the learning curve is there. I hope that

848
00:54:48,239 --> 00:54:51,960
Speaker 1: we're gonna understand better our systems. I hope we will

849
00:54:52,040 --> 00:54:56,240
Speaker 1: realize better what doesn't work. We should embraise what works

850
00:54:57,040 --> 00:54:59,719
Speaker 1: and what wasn't worked. We should stop figure pointing and

851
00:54:59,760 --> 00:55:02,359
Speaker 1: create excising. What we should do is get to work

852
00:55:02,400 --> 00:55:06,360
Speaker 1: butts on the ground and the star implementing solutions to

853
00:55:06,400 --> 00:55:09,680
Speaker 1: the problems we're facing so we can keep looking at

854
00:55:09,719 --> 00:55:12,200
Speaker 1: the future with the hope that we all want in

855
00:55:12,239 --> 00:55:15,280
Speaker 1: our lives. Yeah, and you guys have done such amazing

856
00:55:15,320 --> 00:55:19,320
Speaker 1: work this year responding and taking care of people all

857
00:55:19,320 --> 00:55:23,080
Speaker 1: over the place during this pandemic, which you know has

858
00:55:23,160 --> 00:55:26,400
Speaker 1: really turned the world upside down and increased food and

859
00:55:26,440 --> 00:55:30,880
Speaker 1: security in so many communities. So thank you for for

860
00:55:30,920 --> 00:55:34,000
Speaker 1: all of that. And any time you're going anywhere, like

861
00:55:34,040 --> 00:55:36,479
Speaker 1: if you need an extra set of hands. I grew

862
00:55:36,520 --> 00:55:40,440
Speaker 1: up in an Italian kitchen. I'm pretty good. I'm excellent

863
00:55:40,480 --> 00:55:42,360
Speaker 1: with the cast iron pan. You just let me know.

864
00:55:43,200 --> 00:55:48,279
Speaker 1: I'm I'm ready to go any time. Uh, any time.

865
00:55:48,320 --> 00:55:50,560
Speaker 1: So so so you you're welcome. I mean, I know you

866
00:55:50,680 --> 00:55:55,160
Speaker 1: and many many people has helped us. Uh, this wouldn't

867
00:55:55,200 --> 00:55:58,560
Speaker 1: be happening without the help of so many people that

868
00:55:58,719 --> 00:56:02,040
Speaker 1: I didn't even have time to and get people that

869
00:56:02,120 --> 00:56:05,879
Speaker 1: believe that we had to be ahead of the game,

870
00:56:05,920 --> 00:56:10,320
Speaker 1: that we had to be ready for the wars. Unfortunately

871
00:56:10,760 --> 00:56:14,840
Speaker 1: we were only the little tip of the iceberg. But

872
00:56:15,120 --> 00:56:16,640
Speaker 1: what I know is that we were there at the

873
00:56:16,760 --> 00:56:20,320
Speaker 1: very early when hospitals were having issues, to feed people,

874
00:56:20,480 --> 00:56:24,440
Speaker 1: when elderly homes were having issues, when entire communities like

875
00:56:24,480 --> 00:56:27,839
Speaker 1: the Navajo Nations, we're having issues. At one moment, we

876
00:56:27,840 --> 00:56:32,960
Speaker 1: were in hundreds of hospitals a day UH in multiple countries.

877
00:56:33,040 --> 00:56:35,719
Speaker 1: I had to go to Spain where we opened UH

878
00:56:35,880 --> 00:56:38,880
Speaker 1: sixteen seventeen kitchens because I had to go to the

879
00:56:38,920 --> 00:56:42,160
Speaker 1: country that I come from, and I was so proud.

880
00:56:42,239 --> 00:56:44,719
Speaker 1: We were able to activate the entire restaurant community there,

881
00:56:44,760 --> 00:56:47,200
Speaker 1: and we did the best we could to show that

882
00:56:47,680 --> 00:56:50,320
Speaker 1: if we want, we can do it. In the process,

883
00:56:50,360 --> 00:56:54,120
Speaker 1: you know, fires in California and Colorado, tornadoes in Ayowa,

884
00:56:54,200 --> 00:57:03,359
Speaker 1: the Moine, hurricanes in Lake Charles, Lusiana, Honduras, Colombia, Guatemala, Lebanon, Indonesia,

885
00:57:03,800 --> 00:57:06,799
Speaker 1: and the amazing thing myself, I've been to nine nine

886
00:57:06,880 --> 00:57:11,040
Speaker 1: ten countries and a year later, I've been vaccinated, but

887
00:57:11,440 --> 00:57:13,680
Speaker 1: I cannot believe. At the end, the only thing we

888
00:57:13,719 --> 00:57:18,400
Speaker 1: did was we were masked, We kept distance, We took

889
00:57:18,400 --> 00:57:22,400
Speaker 1: it very seriously. We washed hands even more than everybody

890
00:57:22,400 --> 00:57:24,640
Speaker 1: tells me. If I say, why are you are your

891
00:57:24,680 --> 00:57:27,720
Speaker 1: hands so soft and not like because I washed my

892
00:57:27,760 --> 00:57:33,320
Speaker 1: hands so often every single day, I look like a baby. Uh,

893
00:57:33,400 --> 00:57:38,400
Speaker 1: and this is what we did as SOFIA. These I'm

894
00:57:38,520 --> 00:57:41,440
Speaker 1: very crowd of because I remember closing my restaurants around

895
00:57:41,480 --> 00:57:46,600
Speaker 1: the fourteenth of March even earlier, and we created this

896
00:57:46,880 --> 00:57:51,440
Speaker 1: protocol when when we were not having anything from anybody,

897
00:57:51,520 --> 00:57:55,400
Speaker 1: no city, nobody was giving us what to do. So

898
00:57:55,560 --> 00:57:57,800
Speaker 1: we did that and we shared with everybody. We tried

899
00:57:57,880 --> 00:58:02,120
Speaker 1: to believe it fun because the times were dark and

900
00:58:02,720 --> 00:58:07,600
Speaker 1: and this was Musky that was telling all of us

901
00:58:08,120 --> 00:58:11,440
Speaker 1: how to behave in the kitchen, how to keep healthy,

902
00:58:12,120 --> 00:58:15,240
Speaker 1: how to how to protect yourself, and how to protect

903
00:58:15,560 --> 00:58:18,600
Speaker 1: each other. I can't I can't tell you that many

904
00:58:18,640 --> 00:58:21,840
Speaker 1: many of the team members we had, they went through

905
00:58:21,880 --> 00:58:26,640
Speaker 1: the entire thing COVID free. Obviously some got it, some

906
00:58:26,840 --> 00:58:30,600
Speaker 1: got it even before. But I will say that overall,

907
00:58:30,720 --> 00:58:33,800
Speaker 1: the vast majority of people we've been working with, we've

908
00:58:33,840 --> 00:58:38,360
Speaker 1: been very blessed and very lucky for how much activation

909
00:58:38,480 --> 00:58:41,960
Speaker 1: we had within a helicopter, within in military planes, in

910
00:58:42,520 --> 00:58:47,200
Speaker 1: in in humbies, all across with different militaries of different countries,

911
00:58:47,320 --> 00:58:51,160
Speaker 1: with volunteers all over the place, and we try to

912
00:58:51,480 --> 00:58:55,080
Speaker 1: fit everybody, bring water to everybody. But more important, we

913
00:58:55,240 --> 00:58:57,760
Speaker 1: try to make sure that we will not only protect ourselves,

914
00:58:57,800 --> 00:59:00,960
Speaker 1: but that we will help protect the people we were feeding.

915
00:59:01,200 --> 00:59:04,560
Speaker 1: And I hope we did a good job. And I'm

916
00:59:04,640 --> 00:59:07,280
Speaker 1: very proud of not all the team of all Central

917
00:59:07,400 --> 00:59:11,360
Speaker 1: Kitchen alone, but the many men and women that they've

918
00:59:11,440 --> 00:59:15,840
Speaker 1: given time or money, or the many people working on

919
00:59:15,920 --> 00:59:19,440
Speaker 1: the farms, on the fields, on the fishing boats, on

920
00:59:19,600 --> 00:59:24,480
Speaker 1: the delivery on the supermarkets, refilling all the shelves so

921
00:59:24,760 --> 00:59:28,800
Speaker 1: everybody could feed their families, or waiting in the comfort

922
00:59:28,800 --> 00:59:31,760
Speaker 1: of our homes when we knew somebody will be delivering

923
00:59:31,840 --> 00:59:35,160
Speaker 1: the home if you could afford that. Those men and women,

924
00:59:35,360 --> 00:59:38,560
Speaker 1: obviously our nurses and all the health to me are

925
00:59:38,680 --> 00:59:40,640
Speaker 1: people that we're going to have to be once this

926
00:59:40,760 --> 00:59:45,000
Speaker 1: pandemic is over. Even understanding that we lost uh many

927
00:59:45,120 --> 00:59:47,560
Speaker 1: people and many of us. We lost people we knew

928
00:59:47,640 --> 00:59:51,080
Speaker 1: and loved ones I think we're gonna have once this

929
00:59:51,200 --> 00:59:54,280
Speaker 1: pandemic is over. A big run of applause to all

930
00:59:54,360 --> 00:59:58,960
Speaker 1: those people that not expecting anything and return, nor expecting

931
00:59:59,080 --> 01:00:01,920
Speaker 1: a clap on a laws. They show up every day

932
01:00:02,400 --> 01:00:05,040
Speaker 1: with only one idea to do what they were here

933
01:00:05,160 --> 01:00:07,720
Speaker 1: to do, to take care of everybody else, to take

934
01:00:07,760 --> 01:00:10,000
Speaker 1: care of the family, and in the process keeping America

935
01:00:10,040 --> 01:00:12,400
Speaker 1: and the world fat. Those men and woman for me

936
01:00:12,520 --> 01:00:16,000
Speaker 1: are are my heroes. And in this pandemic UH they

937
01:00:16,120 --> 01:00:19,240
Speaker 1: shown that the humanities was served with those individuals because

938
01:00:19,280 --> 01:00:22,600
Speaker 1: they don't care about themselves. They only care about the

939
01:00:22,680 --> 01:00:25,600
Speaker 1: betterment of the lives of others. And this is this

940
01:00:25,720 --> 01:00:28,280
Speaker 1: should be the new American dream, And this should be

941
01:00:28,360 --> 01:00:30,640
Speaker 1: the new dream of the world we need to live in.

942
01:00:30,800 --> 01:00:34,680
Speaker 1: Where do you look for your own and you love ones, obviously,

943
01:00:35,240 --> 01:00:37,320
Speaker 1: but the new American dreams should be where every one

944
01:00:37,400 --> 01:00:41,520
Speaker 1: of us also wants to fight to provide for others

945
01:00:42,200 --> 01:00:44,320
Speaker 1: the same things that you want to provide for your own.

946
01:00:44,680 --> 01:00:47,400
Speaker 1: That should be the new American dream. Yeah, to treat

947
01:00:47,440 --> 01:00:50,320
Speaker 1: your neighbors the way you treat your loved ones. You know,

948
01:00:50,880 --> 01:00:53,600
Speaker 1: every person in our community deserves that kind of love.

949
01:00:53,720 --> 01:00:56,760
Speaker 1: And I think about something you said after the the

950
01:00:56,920 --> 01:00:59,320
Speaker 1: hurricane when you guys were working in Puerto Rico, and

951
01:00:59,400 --> 01:01:01,800
Speaker 1: you said, you know, we have volunteers who will go

952
01:01:01,960 --> 01:01:06,000
Speaker 1: to the ends of the earth for people. And you

953
01:01:06,080 --> 01:01:08,240
Speaker 1: talked about how you've built so many of the things

954
01:01:08,280 --> 01:01:10,360
Speaker 1: in your life because you have friends who are crazy

955
01:01:10,480 --> 01:01:12,320
Speaker 1: enough to do the big thing that you want to do.

956
01:01:12,920 --> 01:01:16,080
Speaker 1: And I think it's in in between those things. You know,

957
01:01:16,280 --> 01:01:19,200
Speaker 1: your your loved ones, and your friends who, in response

958
01:01:19,280 --> 01:01:22,520
Speaker 1: to your big dreams or you saying I think we

959
01:01:22,600 --> 01:01:25,720
Speaker 1: can fix this, say yeah, I'm in I'll go with

960
01:01:25,800 --> 01:01:29,560
Speaker 1: you to do that. And then the strangers who when

961
01:01:29,600 --> 01:01:31,200
Speaker 1: you say this is how I want to fix this,

962
01:01:31,240 --> 01:01:33,040
Speaker 1: show up and say I'll do whatever it takes to

963
01:01:33,120 --> 01:01:37,360
Speaker 1: help that. That's the energy I hope we bring out

964
01:01:37,440 --> 01:01:41,560
Speaker 1: of this pandemic and into our future. And and I

965
01:01:41,680 --> 01:01:44,080
Speaker 1: know you have so many good things in store for us.

966
01:01:44,160 --> 01:01:47,160
Speaker 1: I'm I'm curious, and this is my favorite and final

967
01:01:47,280 --> 01:01:50,080
Speaker 1: thing to ask everyone who comes on the show. It's

968
01:01:50,120 --> 01:01:53,000
Speaker 1: called work in progress. You have a lot going on,

969
01:01:53,960 --> 01:01:57,120
Speaker 1: but I'm curious if it's if there's something that sticks out,

970
01:01:57,240 --> 01:02:02,600
Speaker 1: if it's personal, professional, political, whatever, What feels like a

971
01:02:02,680 --> 01:02:10,919
Speaker 1: work in progress in your life right now? Oh? Well,

972
01:02:11,000 --> 01:02:14,320
Speaker 1: one work in progress is I realized that life never

973
01:02:14,440 --> 01:02:18,720
Speaker 1: comes with instructions. And I've been trying to be the

974
01:02:19,560 --> 01:02:22,160
Speaker 1: best friend to my wife I could, and my to

975
01:02:22,280 --> 01:02:24,360
Speaker 1: my friends, the best husband I could, and the best

976
01:02:24,440 --> 01:02:27,800
Speaker 1: father I could, and I feel I'm always behind, like

977
01:02:28,800 --> 01:02:31,760
Speaker 1: between work and and my daughters. Now they're going to

978
01:02:31,960 --> 01:02:35,680
Speaker 1: university and and I think my working progress is sure

979
01:02:35,760 --> 01:02:39,120
Speaker 1: that I catch up with them and I can become

980
01:02:39,200 --> 01:02:43,080
Speaker 1: their best friend, their best father, and their best husband.

981
01:02:43,760 --> 01:02:47,600
Speaker 1: Uh not like I don't think I don't a bad job.

982
01:02:48,200 --> 01:02:49,760
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, I'm I've been

983
01:02:49,800 --> 01:02:51,320
Speaker 1: able to do all the things I do in my

984
01:02:51,440 --> 01:02:55,240
Speaker 1: life because those for women in my life, they've been

985
01:02:55,720 --> 01:03:00,680
Speaker 1: very unselfish. They've been always even when they missed me,

986
01:03:00,920 --> 01:03:04,280
Speaker 1: They've been always behind me, even when I was not here,

987
01:03:04,360 --> 01:03:08,800
Speaker 1: They've been behind me. And uh, you know, I need

988
01:03:08,840 --> 01:03:10,640
Speaker 1: to take care of the people working with me. I

989
01:03:10,720 --> 01:03:13,680
Speaker 1: need to take obviously care how many people around the

990
01:03:13,760 --> 01:03:16,439
Speaker 1: world that I care for. But at the same time,

991
01:03:16,480 --> 01:03:19,320
Speaker 1: obviously I need to take care of of the people

992
01:03:19,440 --> 01:03:23,959
Speaker 1: that like my wife has been with me already years.

993
01:03:24,320 --> 01:03:26,680
Speaker 1: I don't know what she keeps up with me, but

994
01:03:27,640 --> 01:03:30,560
Speaker 1: but I know eternally I need to be thankful because

995
01:03:30,640 --> 01:03:33,360
Speaker 1: if I've been able to do any of the things

996
01:03:33,480 --> 01:03:36,360
Speaker 1: I do in my life, it is because then So

997
01:03:36,560 --> 01:03:42,360
Speaker 1: this is my working progress, trying to trying to be

998
01:03:42,520 --> 01:03:47,360
Speaker 1: more for her because she's always there for me. That's

999
01:03:47,400 --> 01:03:52,720
Speaker 1: one of my working progress more personal. But but the

1000
01:03:52,840 --> 01:03:56,920
Speaker 1: one thing used to add one more, uh, three billion

1001
01:03:57,040 --> 01:04:03,120
Speaker 1: people on planet Earth cooked with charcoal or what Especially women,

1002
01:04:04,320 --> 01:04:07,880
Speaker 1: poverty is a formula the energy you put out versus

1003
01:04:07,960 --> 01:04:11,520
Speaker 1: the energy you bring in. Is many millions of woman

1004
01:04:11,600 --> 01:04:14,600
Speaker 1: in the world that they give more away than what

1005
01:04:14,760 --> 01:04:17,840
Speaker 1: they bring in. That's why they're poor and they're hungry,

1006
01:04:18,680 --> 01:04:21,080
Speaker 1: not because they are not any better. It's only because

1007
01:04:21,560 --> 01:04:25,280
Speaker 1: they give everything they have. We must make sure that

1008
01:04:25,600 --> 01:04:29,160
Speaker 1: every household in the world is able to make sure

1009
01:04:29,280 --> 01:04:32,000
Speaker 1: that feeding their families is not something like takes them

1010
01:04:32,040 --> 01:04:35,920
Speaker 1: hours because they have to to to go for wood

1011
01:04:35,960 --> 01:04:38,400
Speaker 1: on the forest, or to work four hours to buy

1012
01:04:38,440 --> 01:04:41,720
Speaker 1: the charcoal where they buy the charcoal daily because they

1013
01:04:41,760 --> 01:04:44,360
Speaker 1: don't have money used to buy for a month. And

1014
01:04:44,480 --> 01:04:46,960
Speaker 1: we need to make sure that we liberate those women

1015
01:04:47,920 --> 01:04:52,440
Speaker 1: from almost the servitude, and that is feeding humanity, making

1016
01:04:53,360 --> 01:04:57,720
Speaker 1: them feeding the wall easier faster, so they love they

1017
01:04:57,800 --> 01:05:01,160
Speaker 1: give away, can even share more. That's what I hope

1018
01:05:01,160 --> 01:05:03,760
Speaker 1: it will be my work in progress the next twenty

1019
01:05:03,800 --> 01:05:06,880
Speaker 1: five thirty years of my life. Bring one clin cookie

1020
01:05:06,920 --> 01:05:09,000
Speaker 1: stuff the same way you and I we have a

1021
01:05:09,120 --> 01:05:12,960
Speaker 1: home to every single family in the world. If we

1022
01:05:13,040 --> 01:05:17,600
Speaker 1: do that, maybe hunger and poverty is something we can eradicate.

1023
01:05:17,680 --> 01:05:20,320
Speaker 1: In our lifetimes. But we need, we need, we have

1024
01:05:20,440 --> 01:05:23,800
Speaker 1: a lot of work ahead of us. Indeed, are you

1025
01:05:23,960 --> 01:05:27,280
Speaker 1: excited about all of this new battery and solar technology

1026
01:05:27,360 --> 01:05:31,680
Speaker 1: that might help us solve that problem more quickly? Yes?

1027
01:05:31,800 --> 01:05:35,000
Speaker 1: And no, Uh, sometimes we need to be careful with

1028
01:05:36,720 --> 01:05:40,800
Speaker 1: the talk about technology. And even it's been a lot

1029
01:05:40,840 --> 01:05:45,080
Speaker 1: of achievements. We see farmers in rural America, that in

1030
01:05:45,200 --> 01:05:49,200
Speaker 1: rural Africa that are able to know better what's the

1031
01:05:49,360 --> 01:05:52,720
Speaker 1: price in the market on their phones, or that they

1032
01:05:52,760 --> 01:05:54,880
Speaker 1: are able to all of the sudden and the banking

1033
01:05:55,000 --> 01:05:59,080
Speaker 1: on their phones. But then no, everybody necessarily has a

1034
01:05:59,160 --> 01:06:04,280
Speaker 1: phone yet on everybody necessarily has connection to a cell tower.

1035
01:06:05,520 --> 01:06:08,240
Speaker 1: We've been doing things like, for example, in some projects

1036
01:06:08,680 --> 01:06:12,440
Speaker 1: where now we are able to give families, especially women,

1037
01:06:13,160 --> 01:06:19,960
Speaker 1: gas tanks that has UH technology attached to the bottle

1038
01:06:20,600 --> 01:06:24,360
Speaker 1: and so they can be buying the gas as they

1039
01:06:24,480 --> 01:06:29,280
Speaker 1: needed daily. Even we may give them hundreds of dollars

1040
01:06:29,400 --> 01:06:32,960
Speaker 1: worth of gas in the tank. They don't need to

1041
01:06:33,040 --> 01:06:36,760
Speaker 1: pay more than what they need. This is a new

1042
01:06:36,840 --> 01:06:38,880
Speaker 1: way of giving a loan. It's a new way to

1043
01:06:38,960 --> 01:06:42,800
Speaker 1: giving UH interest free loan, if you may. This is

1044
01:06:42,880 --> 01:06:46,400
Speaker 1: a way that yes, technology can be helping, But I'm

1045
01:06:46,440 --> 01:06:48,840
Speaker 1: only saying that we need to be careful that we

1046
01:06:48,920 --> 01:06:52,520
Speaker 1: don't go with the technology quicker than many millions around

1047
01:06:52,560 --> 01:06:56,520
Speaker 1: the world have time to catch up on. So, like always,

1048
01:06:56,680 --> 01:07:01,200
Speaker 1: pragmatismbol win the day the right. It is good that

1049
01:07:01,280 --> 01:07:06,280
Speaker 1: we're both and we bring technology and advances forward, but

1050
01:07:06,680 --> 01:07:08,959
Speaker 1: let's make sure that the process we don't keep leaving

1051
01:07:09,000 --> 01:07:12,520
Speaker 1: people behind, because if all those people will never have

1052
01:07:12,640 --> 01:07:16,439
Speaker 1: the opportunity to catch up again. So so it's it's

1053
01:07:16,560 --> 01:07:21,680
Speaker 1: it's I'm optimistic, but again always with prognatism, making sure

1054
01:07:21,800 --> 01:07:26,800
Speaker 1: that we don't go so quickly that that sometimes a

1055
01:07:26,960 --> 01:07:32,840
Speaker 1: simple solution can be implemented versus a more sophisticated technological one.

1056
01:07:33,880 --> 01:07:37,760
Speaker 1: Let's let's make sure that technology doesn't go ahead of

1057
01:07:38,160 --> 01:07:42,160
Speaker 1: of the simple solutions that we can implement quicker and faster, uh,

1058
01:07:42,240 --> 01:07:46,200
Speaker 1: and where everybody can be part of. So I love technology,

1059
01:07:46,280 --> 01:07:49,080
Speaker 1: don't misunderstand me. But at the same time, I want

1060
01:07:49,120 --> 01:07:53,800
Speaker 1: to make sure that technology doesn't create other problems beyond

1061
01:07:54,440 --> 01:07:57,400
Speaker 1: the problems that we're trying to solve. That's that's that's

1062
01:07:57,440 --> 01:07:59,920
Speaker 1: why all I have to say about that. Yeah, that's

1063
01:08:00,080 --> 01:08:03,400
Speaker 1: really wise advice. I think two people looking to solve problems,

1064
01:08:03,480 --> 01:08:07,400
Speaker 1: to make sure your solutions are immediate. That's really great,

1065
01:08:08,200 --> 01:08:10,439
Speaker 1: jose Thank you. This has just been such a joy.

1066
01:08:10,680 --> 01:08:15,040
Speaker 1: I've really loved speaking with you today, and I hope

1067
01:08:15,080 --> 01:08:16,719
Speaker 1: we get to do more of this in the future.

1068
01:08:17,439 --> 01:08:17,840
Speaker 1: Let's do it.