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Speaker 1: I mean, I showed up with my camera because I'm like,

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Speaker 1: I'll document this. Hey, maybe we'll end up on the

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Speaker 1: local news. We can use it to help raise a

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Speaker 1: bit more money or something. And I remember the guy

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Speaker 1: who works at the egg ranch comes over to me

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Speaker 1: and he whispers, He's like, you really shouldn't be filming this.

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Speaker 2: You need a refrigerated truck. Like you can't put eggs

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Speaker 2: in a U haul.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, whoops.

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Speaker 4: And I was like, hush, obviously that.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, So I don't know.

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Speaker 1: I kept I kept filming, and we put the we

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Speaker 1: put the eggs in there, and you know, it's pretty heavy.

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Speaker 2: You're not supposed to fill you haul with that much weight.

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Speaker 5: And we're driving up the four h five.

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Speaker 1: We're in the left lane, like the fastest lane where

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Speaker 1: people drive one hundred miles an hour, and we're going

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Speaker 1: ten fifteen.

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Speaker 5: Miles an hour. It's like, might not make it up

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Speaker 5: the hill.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, we got it to the food bank, and

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Speaker 1: the people there were so wonderful and lovely and grateful

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Speaker 1: that we were able to bring.

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Speaker 5: It to them.

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Speaker 2: And we were like, if we did.

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Speaker 1: This again, would you want more food than they were

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Speaker 1: like absolutely, And that gave us a lot of confirmation

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Speaker 1: that we should keep going.

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Speaker 3: Welcome to an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney.

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Speaker 3: I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband, a father, an entrepreneur,

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Speaker 3: and I've been a football coach in Inner City Memphis.

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Speaker 3: And the last part it unintentionally led to an oscar

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Speaker 3: for the film about our team. It's called Undefeated. Guys,

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Speaker 3: I believe our country's problems will never be solved by

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Speaker 3: a bunch of fancy people and nice suits talking big

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Speaker 3: words that nobody understands on CNN and Fox, but rather

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Speaker 3: an army of normal folks, US just you and me deciding, Hey,

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Speaker 3: you know what I can help. That's what Ben Collier

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Speaker 3: and Owen Dubeck, the voices we just heard, have done.

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Speaker 3: The COVID pandemic led to two problems that strangely existed

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Speaker 3: at the exact same time. Millions of Americans were going

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Speaker 3: hungry after losing their jobs, and yet thousands of commercial

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Speaker 3: farmers were literally dumping their food when customers such as

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Speaker 3: restaurants and schools shut down. This didn't make any sense

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Speaker 3: to Ben Andoan and their ragtag group of college frooms,

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Speaker 3: so they decided to become the link between those two worlds.

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Speaker 3: Apparently no adults are going to do it. And today

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Speaker 3: the farm Link Project has delivered get this, one hundred

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Speaker 3: and sixty five million pounds of food to people who

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Speaker 3: didn't have it. I cannot wait for you to meet

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Speaker 3: Ben and Oen right after these brief messages from our

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Speaker 3: general sponsors. Ben and Owen, welcome to Memphis.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for having us.

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Speaker 3: That was the flight.

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Speaker 4: Got emergency row.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's not bad, especially for a guy with long

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Speaker 3: legs like you. Right.

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Speaker 4: A woman checking me in said you're too tall to

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Speaker 4: somewhere else for free?

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Speaker 3: Everybody. Ben Callier and Owen du Beck Am I saying that? Right?

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Speaker 3: All right? Owen du Bec are from LA and they

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Speaker 3: have a really interesting story that I first learned about

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Speaker 3: in Nashville. Is where we met.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Nashville a few months ago at the summit.

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Speaker 3: Ironlight Labs Nashville Summit, which is basically a collection of

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Speaker 3: dadgum do goods.

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Speaker 2: Yep.

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Speaker 3: And they're all telling their stories, right yeap, yeah, and

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Speaker 3: you told yours.

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Speaker 5: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: And I was sitting in the front row with Alex

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Speaker 3: wondering why I was dragged to this summit of do goods.

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Speaker 3: And once I started hearing the stories. I was so

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Speaker 3: inspired and when I specifically heard you, I turned to

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Speaker 3: Alex I said, I really want to do a podcast

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Speaker 3: on those guys. And so here we are. Ben and

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Speaker 3: Owen have flown in from LA late last night here

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Speaker 3: in Memphis with me, and after this, hopefully they're going

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Speaker 3: to go to the National Civil Rights Museum and see

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Speaker 3: a few things in Memphis before they they bow out

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Speaker 3: of here. And Ben and Owen started this thing called

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Speaker 3: the farm Link Project that we are going to get to.

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Speaker 3: But first, first, would you grow up?

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Speaker 4: Who are these guys? I grew up in Connecticut, so

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Speaker 4: born and raised in the Northeast and then ended up

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Speaker 4: in LA after college.

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Speaker 3: You're a Yankee.

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Speaker 4: I am a Yankee. I'm a Mets fan Yankee.

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Speaker 3: But yes, that's weird, isn't that weird? I mean I

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Speaker 3: thought everybody liked the Yankees and the Mets were the

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Speaker 3: other team.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, it's easy to cheer for the good teams.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, so you're you just you just you just

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Speaker 3: dig your heels in on.

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Speaker 4: Dig my heels in with the Mets, Jets and Knicks.

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Speaker 4: Which and you went to Brown I did go to Brown. Yes,

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Speaker 4: so you're dumb I'm dumb. Yeah, they're only dumb people

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Speaker 4: go to Brown, right. Well, I got in. I ended

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Speaker 4: up playing sports, But really I was a tennis player.

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Speaker 3: No kidding, you say it was. You're still probably pretty good.

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Speaker 3: I'm pretty good. Had a pretty big surgery right before

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Speaker 3: the pandemic and farm like golf started, so not the same,

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Speaker 3: but I could still swing around full reconstructive leg and

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Speaker 3: ankle surgery. Absolutely, how'd that happen?

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Speaker 4: I've had this neurological thing going on with my legs

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Speaker 4: since I was like fifteen, kept playing on it, and

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Speaker 4: it just gave out junior year.

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Speaker 3: So that kind of sucks.

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Speaker 4: There's nothing they could do but break it all and

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Speaker 4: put it back together.

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Speaker 3: Really. Oh yeah, and so you were playing college tennis

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Speaker 3: and then they had to do all that to your leg.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, they just offerred like three or four years before

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Speaker 4: this gave out. I just strapped it into a really

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Speaker 4: tight ankle brace and it was definitely on. You knew

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Speaker 4: that was the trajectory it was going.

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Speaker 3: I'm a three to five. Could I even stay on

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Speaker 3: the court with you? No?

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Speaker 2: You can't even see this guy, sir. Baseball my whole life.

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Speaker 1: I'd rather get hit by a ninety mile per hour

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Speaker 1: fastball on the shoulder than return to this sky's serf.

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Speaker 3: It's is it a.

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Speaker 4: I could? All right, if we're talking about serves, I'm

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Speaker 4: here for this podcast now, I could. I could do all.

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Speaker 4: My serf was my best part of my game. When

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Speaker 4: you're this tall and this slow, you got to have

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Speaker 4: a good serve.

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Speaker 3: I'll love it, all right. And so owen you are from.

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Speaker 1: I'm from New York originally so New York. Grew up

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Speaker 1: in the suburbs for a little bit, had a somewhat

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Speaker 1: normal childhood with a front yard. Backyard situation in New

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Speaker 1: York is in state or a little outside of.

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Speaker 2: The city, and then we moved into the city later on.

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Speaker 3: So did you grow were able to grow up in

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Speaker 3: the city.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's kind of cool. It was like, yeah,

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Speaker 2: middle school, high school in the city, which is interesting,

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Speaker 2: thirtieth floor of an apartment building like uptown.

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Speaker 1: My mom. My mom day traded so she raised us

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Speaker 1: and just like traded stocks all day. She's a total,

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Speaker 1: total wizard. She's like, you know, she'll text me at

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Speaker 1: two in the morning and be like, sell everything, and

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Speaker 1: then there will be a text at seven am that

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Speaker 1: says don't sell it went back up. That's uh, that's

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Speaker 1: what my mom was up to and my dad. My

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Speaker 1: dad was involved in finance. He just kind of did

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Speaker 1: what what everyone was doing in Manhattan.

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Speaker 5: But it worked all the time.

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Speaker 3: It's as a high school to grow up in the city,

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Speaker 3: I guess.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it was cool. Like starting at thirteen, you have

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Speaker 1: full independence. You can kind of build your own world,

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Speaker 1: your own community. Like your parents don't really know where

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Speaker 1: you are. So it's like, you know, you're playing baseball

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Speaker 1: in the park one moment and you're hanging out downtown

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Speaker 1: with a bunch of people, and it was like, yeah,

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Speaker 1: it was like a little a little adventure.

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Speaker 3: That's pretty awesome. Y Okay. So then you end up

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Speaker 3: at in school at Claremont McKenna.

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Speaker 2: Claremont McKenna and that's east of l A.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so it's like, what are you doing going all

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Speaker 3: the way there from New York?

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Speaker 5: Yeah?

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Speaker 2: So I had surfed growing up in New York.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, in New York.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, he's the most California New Yorker you'll ever. I

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Speaker 4: did not like growing up.

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Speaker 5: I hated growing up in New York.

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Speaker 3: How do you in New York?

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Speaker 1: So I took the a train two hours to South

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Speaker 1: Brooklyn and there's a place called Rockaway Beach where you

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Speaker 1: can surf, and there's a little community there, and they're

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Speaker 1: actually really good.

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Speaker 2: Waves a few days of the year, but in the.

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Speaker 1: Winter, right, Yeah, But the trick is in the fall

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Speaker 1: and winter that's when the waves are actually good.

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Speaker 3: So so what do you wet a mink?

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Speaker 5: Yeah, you look like a seal.

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Speaker 1: You have the taketeer, you have the hood, gloves, boots like.

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Speaker 3: You don't we love surfing To do that, to take

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Speaker 3: a train two hours and dress like a seal to

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Speaker 3: surf off Brooklyn.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, for sure.

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Speaker 1: And then in the in the summers it would be

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Speaker 1: warmer and we would go out to Long Island and

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Speaker 1: that was a little easier. But I always knew I

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Speaker 1: wanted to do that. So my entire college list was

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Speaker 1: a California. I was like, I'm not going anywhere else.

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Speaker 1: And Claremont McKenna was just this really beautiful community. It

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Speaker 1: was a three hundred person per class school where it

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Speaker 1: seemed like they give you a ton of agency to

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Speaker 1: pursue your passions and what you wanted to do.

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Speaker 3: And this thing is I think you said outside Fontana

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Speaker 3: I mean.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's like sixty miles east of downtown.

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Speaker 4: So what's that big pitch they say at all the

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Speaker 4: Claremont schools, they're like, you can ski and surf in

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Speaker 4: the same day.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, you can see your because you could have gotten

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Speaker 3: a Big Bear and go snow skiing. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Well, even closer than Big Bear, there was Mount Baldy,

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Speaker 1: a tiny local mountain twenty minutes away.

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Speaker 2: You could be skiing.

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Speaker 1: You just drive straight up like the steepest canyon road,

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Speaker 1: and then you could go surfing that same day an hour.

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Speaker 5: So I was sold on that pitch.

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Speaker 3: So Ben, what was your first year of college?

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Speaker 4: My first year of college, Oh, twenty seventeen.

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Speaker 2: Twenty seventeen, and Owen mine was twenty sixteen, twenty sixteen.

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Speaker 3: Okay, so from the at you guys listening, understand, these

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Speaker 3: are still young men and they're in college about to

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Speaker 3: do the college thing, playing tennis, surfing, assume considering going

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Speaker 3: to class fairly regularly, and yeah, trying to make your grades,

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Speaker 3: do the right thing, and you're going to learn and

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Speaker 3: study and go be you. Right, then, people in your

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Speaker 3: generation dealt with this thing called COVID. So what were

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Speaker 3: where were you guys in school COVID time where in like,

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Speaker 3: were you junior?

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Speaker 1: What?

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Speaker 2: How do what you want to go first? Because you're still.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, so I was a junior. I just had the

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Speaker 4: surgery though, and so I was the first couple of

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Speaker 4: months of twenty twenty, I was taking twelve percosets a day,

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Speaker 4: still in ten out of ten pain, and so I

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Speaker 4: was already looking ahead at the next couple of years,

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Speaker 4: thinking my whole community is really getting shaken up. And

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Speaker 4: then the pandemic starts, and suddenly someone else is in

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Speaker 4: the exact same position. And so in a way, COVID

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Speaker 4: made it almost easier for me to be where I was,

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Speaker 4: because I couldn't already be anywhere else. But yeah, I

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Speaker 4: was back home by the end of March or early April,

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Speaker 4: or I think maybe even before then.

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Speaker 3: And this is twenty nineteen, This is twenty twenty, twenty twenty, yeah,

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Speaker 3: all right.

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Speaker 2: And Owen, Yeah, I had just graduated from college.

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Speaker 1: So I'm a little bit older than Ben and most

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Speaker 1: of the people at Farmlink, and I was working as

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Speaker 1: a documentary filmmaker in LA doing like all the grunt

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Speaker 1: work for.

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Speaker 2: The Creator projects, which means.

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Speaker 1: Starting to death, not making any money, just like still surfing,

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Speaker 1: filming weird commercials like whatever will come my way to

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Speaker 1: pay the bills, and all of a sudden, COVID hits.

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Speaker 1: All the work drives up, and a few of my

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Speaker 1: friends call me with the big idea. And you know,

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Speaker 1: I was itching to get outside. I was itching to

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Speaker 1: talk to people have community, the same kind of thing.

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Speaker 3: But we're all we I mean, I remember it too. Everybody.

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Speaker 3: Everybody has their own COVID reality story. But I mean

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Speaker 3: I remember the board games. I remember creating things to

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Speaker 3: do at home, and I cannot imagine being a junior

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Speaker 3: in college or a recent graduate trying to start off

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Speaker 3: life in the world shut down on you. My son,

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Speaker 3: my third child, first son, Will was about to be

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Speaker 3: a senior at Ole miss And you know, I mean

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Speaker 3: this is people died and everything, so this is small,

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Speaker 3: but you know, his formal was robbed from him. Kids,

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Speaker 3: high school football games were robbed from him. It we

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Speaker 3: need to be reminded. It for a year and a half,

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Speaker 3: shut down the world, and for kids that hadn't finished

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Speaker 3: college or just getting out of college or in high school,

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Speaker 3: it really had a profound effect because at the most

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Speaker 3: social time in your lives. You were now told you

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Speaker 3: cannot be social. So that's kind of your reality and

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Speaker 3: your generation experienced that reality, right, And who was it

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Speaker 3: that was first watching TV hearing about hungry people.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so you know we were all, you know, I'll

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Speaker 1: relate this back to my mom. My mom had always

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Speaker 1: said it's in moment of crisis that there's the most

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Speaker 1: opportunity for growth, for learning her stocks, that she's investig in,

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Speaker 1: like all that stuff.

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Speaker 5: It's like when everyone is.

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Speaker 3: A day trader would understand right.

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Speaker 1: When she was like, when everyone is fearful, that is

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Speaker 1: the time you want to look around and do your

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Speaker 1: own research and see like where there's opportunity. And it

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Speaker 1: felt like as a documentary filmmaker, this was a similar

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Speaker 1: a similar situation. You know, normalcy, there's there's not much

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Speaker 1: interesting nuance or people's personal stories in a normal day.

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Speaker 1: But when all the rules of the world change, that's fascinating.

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Speaker 1: How do people react, how do people shift their lives?

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Speaker 1: And so in the beginning of the pandemic, that's really

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Speaker 1: what we were looking towards. It was like, what can

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Speaker 1: we do to help other people? What's here that's missing?

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Speaker 1: Where's this major gap? And I started calling James and Aiden,

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Speaker 1: who you see in the film, and then they called

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Speaker 1: Ben and we were all spitballing ideas like what.

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Speaker 5: Can we do here? Kind of ask question, Yeah, why why?

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Speaker 3: Go ahead?

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Speaker 1: I think because you know, for me, my why was

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Speaker 1: I was working on a documentary on an undocumented kid

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Speaker 1: my age was living in San Francisco, and I saw

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Speaker 1: everyone get a relief check except for him, and I

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Speaker 1: saw him lose's apartment and I was like, that's messed up.

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Speaker 1: And there are millions of people in this situation right now.

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Speaker 1: And I'm privileged enough that I'm gonna be okay. I

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Speaker 1: have a little money saved up from college. I can

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Speaker 1: go a little while without income.

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Speaker 3: And let's less be candid. You have parents that could

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Speaker 3: support you if.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, if it, if it, if it all goes to ship,

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Speaker 1: they can give me a couple thousand dollars to get

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Speaker 1: through that month's rent. And I have that safety net

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Speaker 1: and I'm so lucky for that, and I want to

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Speaker 1: use every ounce of that privilege to help other people

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Speaker 1: because we can. There's there's so much that we can do.

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Speaker 1: And even though we hadn't built anything that actually worked before,

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Speaker 1: there there's always been this feeling amongst our friends that like,

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Speaker 1: we can actually make a big impact here, and we

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Speaker 1: want to start something and we want to like think

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Speaker 1: of these bigger eye It's fun to think of these

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Speaker 1: big ideas and what if this worked, what if that worked?

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Speaker 1: And yeah, I threw around some ideas that were like

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Speaker 1: pretty bad in hindsight.

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Speaker 4: We're never going to work.

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Speaker 5: And then that's a luxury, isn't it?

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Speaker 3: Being young, stupid and.

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Speaker 5: Broke, right totally?

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Speaker 3: So what if you mess up? Yeah, young stupid broke

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Speaker 3: at that point, right.

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Speaker 5: Totally, Yeah, you and fall back on us.

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Speaker 3: But you're saying you just felt a call to do something.

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Speaker 3: You felt an urge or a sense that there's we're

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Speaker 3: in a crisis. There's got to be a way we

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Speaker 3: can do something. There's this feeling of restlessness. I mean, no,

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Speaker 3: that's interesting.

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Speaker 4: I think when you acknowledge once that privilege of safety

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Speaker 4: is there, we're home, we're locked up. In many ways,

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Speaker 4: things aren't going to change. I think you had hundreds

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Speaker 4: and thousands of students and young people who, for the

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Speaker 4: first time in their lives, had no outlet to direct

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Speaker 4: that whether their previous outlet was something social or productive

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Speaker 4: or academic or entrepreneurial or just drinking. There was almost

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Speaker 4: none of that, and so I think it was all

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Speaker 4: of these different experiences that were leading so many students

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Speaker 4: to the similar place of I will pour myself into

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Speaker 4: something if given the opportunity, just.

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Speaker 3: Give me something today I mean restlessness. That is so

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Speaker 3: that's interesting to me.

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Speaker 4: Well, at the start of the pandemic, you're like, this

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Speaker 4: is a vacation, and then you and then then after

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Speaker 4: a couple of weeks, this sucks.

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Speaker 3: My mom.

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Speaker 4: To tie it back to our moms, my mom saw

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Speaker 4: all this ppe shortage and she just started taking all

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Speaker 4: of our old, old T shirts and sewing them into

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Speaker 4: masks and so at the same time, do something, do anything.

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Speaker 4: And she would see all these articles because right at

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Speaker 4: the beginning of the pandemic they highlighted these food shortages

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Speaker 4: quite a lot, farmers facing huge surpluses as the commercial

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Speaker 4: food industry shut down, and then food banks facing these

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Speaker 4: long lines as school lunch programs and so many other

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Speaker 4: things became less accessible. My mom would cut these out

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Speaker 4: and just leave them outside of me and my brother's door.

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Speaker 4: We'd joke like some humanitarian serial killer just with these

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Speaker 4: ransom notes. But we'd wake up and we'd just read

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Speaker 4: we'd read these articles, and I think that it wasn't

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Speaker 4: one student. I mean everybody was seeing this. And so

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Speaker 4: when we started to come together and think, all right,

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Speaker 4: let's just learn more, let's just do a little more,

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Speaker 4: one step more, I think that was all that was

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Speaker 4: really needed for us to then get that ball roll.

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Speaker 3: And now a few messages from our general sponsors. But first,

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Speaker 3: I hope you'll consider becoming a Premium member of the

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Speaker 3: Army at Normalfolks dot us. By becoming one for ten

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Speaker 3: bucks a month or one thousand dollars a year, you

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Speaker 3: can get access to cool benefits like bonus episodes, a

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Speaker 3: yearly group call, and even a one on one call

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Speaker 3: with me. Frankly, guys, Premium memberships also help us to

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Speaker 3: grow this army that our country desperately needs right now.

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Speaker 3: So I hope you'll think about it. We'll be right back.

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Speaker 3: I think a little background for our listeners on some

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Speaker 3: things I really didn't consider think about. But do you know,

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Speaker 3: I think you probably know the numbers, but how many

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Speaker 3: kids in the United States are fed lunch by a

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Speaker 3: school that, if they weren't in school, would not eat.

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Speaker 3: Do you know that number.

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Speaker 2: I don't know the exact numbers, but I think, do

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Speaker 2: you know the exact number?

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Speaker 4: I know? I know about one in five kids has

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Speaker 4: inadequate food access in this country. Say that again, about

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Speaker 4: one in five kids has inadequate food access.

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Speaker 3: That's twenty percent of the United States. Twenty percent of

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Speaker 3: the kids in the United States have inadequate food access.

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Speaker 3: So I think the number I've read is seven million

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Speaker 3: kids in the country, if they did not have school

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Speaker 3: provided lunch, would go hungry that day. Oftentimes that is

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Speaker 3: the meal, and in some districts they get breakfast and

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Speaker 3: launch and without those meals they would not eat well.

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Speaker 3: COVID happens, and these kids aren't in school, so where

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Speaker 3: do they eat. That's one of the things that struck

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Speaker 3: me when I really thought about your guys story, is

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Speaker 3: we literally had kids starving. They weren't dying of COVID,

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Speaker 3: but they were hungry and restless and hungry.

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Speaker 1: I think what struck us too was how slow. You know,

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Speaker 1: they're billion dollar organizations in this space, they're massive government programs,

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Speaker 1: they're supposed to be working on this, and they weren't

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Speaker 1: agile enough to anticipate that quickly.

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Speaker 3: I've heard you say that before. I think it might

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Speaker 3: have been on the documentary. I'm not sure I agree

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Speaker 3: with that. I think maybe they weren't creative enough. It'd

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Speaker 3: be too I think maybe it took a twenty one,

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Speaker 3: twenty two twenty year old mind to say why not?

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Speaker 3: And can't we do it differently?

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Speaker 4: That question is something we talk about a lot. We

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Speaker 4: just revisited our values. You know, what are the things

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Speaker 4: that really drive us? And that question of why or

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Speaker 4: why not is everything at the beginning. I think that

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Speaker 4: you talk about creativity so many times we asked questions

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Speaker 4: at at those beginning ones because we knew nothing, and

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Speaker 4: why was the leading question, and wherever someone said that's

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Speaker 4: the way it's always been, those were the areas where

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Speaker 4: we were able to do something the most innovative or creative.

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Speaker 3: Do you know the final words of a dying organization?

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Speaker 3: Because that's the way we've all done it. You have

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Speaker 3: to constantly ask why, you have to constantly reinvent, and

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Speaker 3: you have to constantly find creativity in any organization. I

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Speaker 3: own a business that I started in two thousand and one,

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Speaker 3: and every couple of years I create a crisis. And

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Speaker 3: what I mean by that is, I don't actually go

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Speaker 3: into my own company and destroy anything. But we get

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Speaker 3: together as a leadership team and we say, what if

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Speaker 3: this happened, what would our response be? And if we

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Speaker 3: can't come up with an atticate response to that crisis,

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Speaker 3: we have work to do because we haven't asked the

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Speaker 3: wise and we haven't been creative, and I think nobody

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Speaker 3: asked the question in our country among these large organizations.

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Speaker 3: As you talk about what happens if a pandemic happens,

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Speaker 3: what will our response be? You're right, government has tons

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Speaker 3: of organizations, tons of money. There's all these large NGOs.

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Speaker 3: But as you guys learned and pointed out that you're

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Speaker 3: now going to share with our audience, we had millions

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Speaker 3: upon means of food being thrown away, while we had

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Speaker 3: means upon means of kids and families starving, and there

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Speaker 3: was no organization to figure out how to quote them,

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Speaker 3: which is what a bunch of college kids with some creativity,

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Speaker 3: some initiative, some restlessness, some time on their hands ultimately

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Speaker 3: figured out. So tell me about Pittsburgh and tell me

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Speaker 3: about how it happened.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, So Pittsburgh was on the news. There was this visual.

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Speaker 1: It's a helicopter shot of a mile long line for

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Speaker 1: food banks, a bunch of cars honking at each other.

443
00:23:32,240 --> 00:23:35,760
Speaker 3: And literally literally on the off ramp. It was backed

444
00:23:35,840 --> 00:23:36,159
Speaker 3: up that far.

445
00:23:36,240 --> 00:23:39,040
Speaker 1: Oh my god, it's it's overflowing, and people were waiting

446
00:23:39,080 --> 00:23:41,720
Speaker 1: in line for twelve hours only to get to the

447
00:23:41,760 --> 00:23:43,840
Speaker 1: front and the food bank to tell them we just

448
00:23:43,960 --> 00:23:46,800
Speaker 1: ran out of food. I could not imagine having two

449
00:23:46,880 --> 00:23:50,320
Speaker 1: three kids in the car in the United States and

450
00:23:50,680 --> 00:23:53,919
Speaker 1: not being able to get that to get that food assistance.

451
00:23:54,320 --> 00:23:57,680
Speaker 1: So I think when we saw that became more personal,

452
00:23:58,359 --> 00:24:01,800
Speaker 1: you felt it in your stomach, and I remember James

453
00:24:01,800 --> 00:24:04,840
Speaker 1: said to me, let's just do one small thing to help.

454
00:24:05,080 --> 00:24:07,600
Speaker 1: Let's do one delivery. We're not going to solve this

455
00:24:07,680 --> 00:24:10,639
Speaker 1: whole crisis. There was no thought of an organization or

456
00:24:10,680 --> 00:24:14,600
Speaker 1: a documentary or anything like that. It was let's call

457
00:24:14,640 --> 00:24:17,560
Speaker 1: as many farms as we can, let's find one, and

458
00:24:17,640 --> 00:24:20,159
Speaker 1: let's drive it to our local food bank. Where we're

459
00:24:20,160 --> 00:24:21,520
Speaker 1: seeing similar things happen.

460
00:24:22,119 --> 00:24:25,520
Speaker 3: Because also on the news, you're also seeing these pictures

461
00:24:25,800 --> 00:24:28,480
Speaker 3: of these farms that now that restaurants are shut down

462
00:24:28,560 --> 00:24:31,560
Speaker 3: and schools are shut down, they have nowhere to sell

463
00:24:31,600 --> 00:24:35,480
Speaker 3: their food, so they're literally throwing food away.

464
00:24:35,280 --> 00:24:38,440
Speaker 1: Right, billions of pounds of bananas being thrown in the dump,

465
00:24:38,760 --> 00:24:43,239
Speaker 1: watermelons being smashed, there's milk being poured in drains like,

466
00:24:43,480 --> 00:24:47,640
Speaker 1: there's beautiful edible food being thrown away all over the country.

467
00:24:47,440 --> 00:24:50,000
Speaker 3: Because there's no outlet for the farmers to go with

468
00:24:50,040 --> 00:24:52,480
Speaker 3: it again, because the schools are shut down so we

469
00:24:52,560 --> 00:24:55,000
Speaker 3: don't need school lunches, and all the restaurants are shut down.

470
00:24:55,119 --> 00:24:58,920
Speaker 3: And so you guys say, let's help our food bank

471
00:24:59,000 --> 00:25:01,280
Speaker 3: because all we got to do call these farmers are

472
00:25:01,320 --> 00:25:02,719
Speaker 3: throwing the food away and get it to them.

473
00:25:02,760 --> 00:25:06,240
Speaker 4: That's what your thought is exactly, And it was just

474
00:25:06,800 --> 00:25:09,080
Speaker 4: there's one spot with so much food nowhere to go.

475
00:25:09,200 --> 00:25:11,400
Speaker 4: There's another spot that can't possibly get enough food through

476
00:25:11,400 --> 00:25:14,400
Speaker 4: its doores. Why and what is going to connect those two?

477
00:25:14,800 --> 00:25:16,120
Speaker 3: So you started calling farmers.

478
00:25:16,119 --> 00:25:20,320
Speaker 4: No problem, right, We've said let's find every farmer that

479
00:25:20,359 --> 00:25:23,280
Speaker 4: has been written about in local news, national news.

480
00:25:23,320 --> 00:25:28,040
Speaker 3: Where are we right now? We're in April, where logistically,

481
00:25:28,119 --> 00:25:29,800
Speaker 3: where's the food bank are going to help?

482
00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:34,120
Speaker 4: Well? I think we The intention was Los Angeles from

483
00:25:34,520 --> 00:25:37,520
Speaker 4: from James and Aiden and Owen being over there. We're

484
00:25:37,520 --> 00:25:40,800
Speaker 4: calling people everywhere and call.

485
00:25:40,800 --> 00:25:42,400
Speaker 3: But that idea was we're going to help our one

486
00:25:42,400 --> 00:25:44,520
Speaker 3: food bank, and that one food bank was a food

487
00:25:44,520 --> 00:25:46,200
Speaker 3: bank in La Yeah, is that right?

488
00:25:46,320 --> 00:25:50,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, And but very quickly it proved difficult. We weren't

489
00:25:50,080 --> 00:25:52,160
Speaker 1: getting the reception from farmers that we expected.

490
00:25:52,200 --> 00:25:52,639
Speaker 3: Yeah, tell me.

491
00:25:52,840 --> 00:25:56,159
Speaker 1: It was dozens of rounds of rejection. It was like,

492
00:25:56,240 --> 00:25:58,760
Speaker 1: this is a scam. I don't believe you. You're in college,

493
00:25:59,119 --> 00:26:00,119
Speaker 1: hang up, like, and.

494
00:26:00,119 --> 00:26:02,360
Speaker 4: There's a pandemic going on. What do you expect? These

495
00:26:02,400 --> 00:26:05,320
Speaker 4: guys are getting called by people that admit at the jump,

496
00:26:05,400 --> 00:26:06,920
Speaker 4: we don't know anything about this. We're just trying to

497
00:26:06,920 --> 00:26:09,000
Speaker 4: help the like, well, we got bigger fish to fry

498
00:26:09,119 --> 00:26:11,440
Speaker 4: right now. So there was this rejection.

499
00:26:11,640 --> 00:26:13,600
Speaker 3: So how many farmers do you think you called that

500
00:26:13,840 --> 00:26:17,200
Speaker 3: first week or whatever? I think it was like two hundred,

501
00:26:17,840 --> 00:26:19,679
Speaker 3: and all of them were just like, leave me alone. Well,

502
00:26:19,720 --> 00:26:21,639
Speaker 3: there's a lot of voicemails because we're not even going

503
00:26:21,680 --> 00:26:23,160
Speaker 3: to get through to begin with. And those we did

504
00:26:23,200 --> 00:26:25,520
Speaker 3: get through with we couldn't speak the language at the time,

505
00:26:25,680 --> 00:26:28,160
Speaker 3: and so yeah, it was it was a whole lot

506
00:26:28,200 --> 00:26:28,720
Speaker 3: of rejection.

507
00:26:29,760 --> 00:26:34,840
Speaker 1: So and eventually we landed on we landed on two farms.

508
00:26:34,880 --> 00:26:38,000
Speaker 1: There was one farm in right outside of La. It

509
00:26:38,080 --> 00:26:38,880
Speaker 1: was like an egg.

510
00:26:38,720 --> 00:26:43,840
Speaker 3: Ranch and the farms are having to euthanize their chickens.

511
00:26:43,880 --> 00:26:46,959
Speaker 4: They literally couldn't possibly figure out where to get all

512
00:26:47,000 --> 00:26:48,479
Speaker 4: of this, these eggs that they were creating.

513
00:26:48,520 --> 00:26:50,240
Speaker 3: They were euphanizing their chickens.

514
00:26:50,320 --> 00:26:52,040
Speaker 4: I mean, this was happening all over the country.

515
00:26:52,240 --> 00:26:54,879
Speaker 3: Yeah, we'll let you find an egg ranch.

516
00:26:55,760 --> 00:26:58,200
Speaker 1: That's what they were called. It's Trafficana egg ranch is

517
00:26:58,200 --> 00:27:02,119
Speaker 1: what it's called north of La like in the valley,

518
00:27:02,320 --> 00:27:07,359
Speaker 1: not that far away distance. He answers our call. He says, sure,

519
00:27:07,440 --> 00:27:09,600
Speaker 1: you can pick up these eggs and transport them to

520
00:27:09,600 --> 00:27:12,040
Speaker 1: the foods. We talk about it. It was like forty

521
00:27:12,119 --> 00:27:15,920
Speaker 1: thousand eggs, eggs, eggs.

522
00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:18,439
Speaker 4: We picked up eleven thousand of them. To put that

523
00:27:18,480 --> 00:27:22,400
Speaker 4: into perspective, it filled a U haul. That's how you rip.

524
00:27:22,600 --> 00:27:25,440
Speaker 5: So we rented a U haul and I remember.

525
00:27:27,880 --> 00:27:33,120
Speaker 3: Needs to get this picture. These college kids, restless asking why,

526
00:27:33,400 --> 00:27:36,640
Speaker 3: seeing stuff on the news, decide we're going to help

527
00:27:36,640 --> 00:27:39,200
Speaker 3: our food bank. And you call all over the place,

528
00:27:39,200 --> 00:27:42,200
Speaker 3: you get told no, and you finally find happy egg

529
00:27:42,240 --> 00:27:44,959
Speaker 3: farmer who gives you eleven thousand eggs, and you like,

530
00:27:45,280 --> 00:27:47,640
Speaker 3: how are we going to get them? There? Are you haul?

531
00:27:47,680 --> 00:27:49,760
Speaker 4: How do you move your how do your college dorm.

532
00:27:49,600 --> 00:27:52,000
Speaker 3: Went to you? So you go, you show up at

533
00:27:52,000 --> 00:27:55,040
Speaker 3: an egg ranch in a U haul and you leave

534
00:27:55,080 --> 00:27:57,399
Speaker 3: with eleven thousand eggs pounder.

535
00:27:58,080 --> 00:28:01,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, so yeah, I remember. I mean I showed up

536
00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:04,520
Speaker 1: with my camera because I'm like, I'll document this. Hey,

537
00:28:04,600 --> 00:28:06,560
Speaker 1: maybe we'll end up on the local news. We can

538
00:28:06,640 --> 00:28:09,040
Speaker 1: use it to help raise a bit more money or something.

539
00:28:09,480 --> 00:28:11,520
Speaker 1: And I remember the guy who works at the egg

540
00:28:11,560 --> 00:28:13,800
Speaker 1: ranch comes over to me and he whispers, He's like,

541
00:28:14,080 --> 00:28:15,280
Speaker 1: you really shouldn't be filming this.

542
00:28:15,359 --> 00:28:18,520
Speaker 2: You need a refrigerated truck. Like you can't put eggs

543
00:28:18,520 --> 00:28:19,200
Speaker 2: in a U haul?

544
00:28:20,200 --> 00:28:26,200
Speaker 3: Yeah whoops. And I was like, uh, obviously that.

545
00:28:26,520 --> 00:28:28,359
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, so I don't know.

546
00:28:28,400 --> 00:28:30,439
Speaker 1: I kept I kept filming, and we put the we

547
00:28:30,480 --> 00:28:33,240
Speaker 1: put the eggs in there, and you know, it's pretty heavy.

548
00:28:33,280 --> 00:28:35,240
Speaker 2: You're not supposed to fill you haul with that much weight.

549
00:28:35,480 --> 00:28:37,160
Speaker 5: And we're driving up the four h five.

550
00:28:37,480 --> 00:28:39,800
Speaker 1: We're in the left lane, like the fastest lane where

551
00:28:39,800 --> 00:28:43,640
Speaker 1: people drive like one hundred miles an hour, and we're

552
00:28:43,640 --> 00:28:45,600
Speaker 1: going ten fifteen.

553
00:28:45,200 --> 00:28:47,760
Speaker 5: Miles an hour. It's like, might not make it up

554
00:28:47,800 --> 00:28:48,160
Speaker 5: the hill.

555
00:28:49,240 --> 00:28:52,320
Speaker 1: And like I had met Aiden once before, like we

556
00:28:52,320 --> 00:28:54,680
Speaker 1: weren't close for I was close friends with James, so

557
00:28:54,720 --> 00:28:56,800
Speaker 1: Aidan and I are like meeting for the first time

558
00:28:56,880 --> 00:29:00,480
Speaker 1: and bonding over this shared experience of like trying not

559
00:29:00,560 --> 00:29:02,280
Speaker 1: to blow it with all these eggs in the back.

560
00:29:03,920 --> 00:29:06,880
Speaker 1: But yeah, we got it to the food bank and

561
00:29:07,440 --> 00:29:10,440
Speaker 1: the people there were so wonderful and lovely and grateful

562
00:29:10,560 --> 00:29:12,320
Speaker 1: that we were able to bring it to them. And

563
00:29:12,360 --> 00:29:14,960
Speaker 1: we were like, if we did this again, would you

564
00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:17,920
Speaker 1: want more food? And they were like absolutely, And that

565
00:29:18,000 --> 00:29:20,200
Speaker 1: gave us a lot of confirmation that we should keep going.

566
00:29:20,600 --> 00:29:22,960
Speaker 1: Oh and the other thing which needs to be said

567
00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:26,280
Speaker 1: is that James had the idea to paint a banner

568
00:29:26,640 --> 00:29:29,640
Speaker 1: that said Farmlink and strap it to the side of

569
00:29:29,640 --> 00:29:32,200
Speaker 1: the U haul like a bed sheet, like an eight

570
00:29:32,240 --> 00:29:34,280
Speaker 1: foot long bed sheet taped to the U haul.

571
00:29:34,800 --> 00:29:37,200
Speaker 5: And Eden was like, this is a horrible idea.

572
00:29:37,240 --> 00:29:39,320
Speaker 1: It's gonna fly off, it's gonna hit someone's windshield, they're

573
00:29:39,360 --> 00:29:41,560
Speaker 1: gonna crash. The whole thing's gonna be done. They're gonna

574
00:29:41,600 --> 00:29:45,160
Speaker 1: hurt someone, crash the name of the thing we're starting

575
00:29:45,320 --> 00:29:47,920
Speaker 1: just directly implicating us. But it turned out to be

576
00:29:48,000 --> 00:29:51,000
Speaker 1: the most important element because a bunch of kids standing

577
00:29:51,000 --> 00:29:53,560
Speaker 1: in front of that banner looked like the beginnings of

578
00:29:53,600 --> 00:29:57,080
Speaker 1: a movement, and that's what new local news and eventually

579
00:29:57,200 --> 00:30:02,080
Speaker 1: national news gravitated towards. I think that's what people all

580
00:30:02,120 --> 00:30:04,920
Speaker 1: over the country saw as a symbol of hope. And

581
00:30:05,560 --> 00:30:09,200
Speaker 1: I never thought that the bedsheet still the banner. It

582
00:30:09,240 --> 00:30:12,000
Speaker 1: was not this professionally printed out thing. It was this

583
00:30:12,200 --> 00:30:16,280
Speaker 1: painted like slanted thing that said farm link with a

584
00:30:16,280 --> 00:30:18,240
Speaker 1: bunch of kids standing in front of a rented U

585
00:30:18,360 --> 00:30:19,680
Speaker 1: haul filled with food.

586
00:30:19,880 --> 00:30:21,960
Speaker 3: It felt like eleven thousand eggs.

587
00:30:21,640 --> 00:30:22,880
Speaker 5: Filled eleven thousand eggs.

588
00:30:22,920 --> 00:30:26,840
Speaker 1: It felt like the scrappiness that I don't know, in

589
00:30:26,880 --> 00:30:30,040
Speaker 1: some ways provided hope or the country felt like we

590
00:30:30,120 --> 00:30:31,080
Speaker 1: needed at that time.

591
00:30:31,320 --> 00:30:33,840
Speaker 4: There's two disclaimers to share. The first is the eggs

592
00:30:33,880 --> 00:30:36,720
Speaker 4: arrived in good condition and they were well received, and

593
00:30:36,760 --> 00:30:38,480
Speaker 4: the second is that we don't have kids drive our

594
00:30:38,560 --> 00:30:41,320
Speaker 4: fruit around in you hauls anymore. So both of those things.

595
00:30:43,160 --> 00:30:45,120
Speaker 3: There were some more U haulwork very well.

596
00:30:45,240 --> 00:30:48,320
Speaker 4: The second these truckloads were happening at the same time,

597
00:30:48,400 --> 00:30:50,920
Speaker 4: but right when these guys were going to pick up

598
00:30:50,960 --> 00:30:54,040
Speaker 4: these eggs. We'd also spoken with this onion farmer. His

599
00:30:54,120 --> 00:30:57,600
Speaker 4: name was Shay, and he had a much larger onion

600
00:30:57,600 --> 00:31:00,840
Speaker 4: operation in Idaho, and he had just been written about

601
00:31:00,840 --> 00:31:03,200
Speaker 4: in the New York Times for having a pile of

602
00:31:03,320 --> 00:31:06,080
Speaker 4: millions of pounds of onions with nowhere to go. And

603
00:31:06,160 --> 00:31:08,479
Speaker 4: it was at the point where he was literally digging

604
00:31:08,480 --> 00:31:11,720
Speaker 4: a ditch in his farm and just burying millions of onions.

605
00:31:11,760 --> 00:31:14,800
Speaker 4: And there's this visual of more onions than I have

606
00:31:14,920 --> 00:31:19,400
Speaker 4: ever could could ever possibly imagine. And we get on

607
00:31:19,400 --> 00:31:20,680
Speaker 4: the phone with him and he says, well, if you

608
00:31:20,680 --> 00:31:22,240
Speaker 4: get a truck here, you can take whatever you can.

609
00:31:22,880 --> 00:31:24,720
Speaker 4: And so as these.

610
00:31:24,680 --> 00:31:26,800
Speaker 3: Hell onions riden at u haul, well.

611
00:31:26,680 --> 00:31:30,360
Speaker 4: Those went in a forty foot long truck that fit

612
00:31:30,480 --> 00:31:34,080
Speaker 4: forty thousand pounds of onions. And so just as these

613
00:31:34,120 --> 00:31:37,240
Speaker 4: eggs are being picked up, we have the world's biggest

614
00:31:37,240 --> 00:31:38,440
Speaker 4: omelet coming together.

615
00:31:38,680 --> 00:31:42,240
Speaker 3: And that was are you taking these onions to that

616
00:31:42,360 --> 00:31:43,160
Speaker 3: light thing? Still?

617
00:31:43,360 --> 00:31:45,120
Speaker 1: The one yeah we took I think they went to

618
00:31:45,360 --> 00:31:47,480
Speaker 1: We sent one truck to San Francisco and we sent

619
00:31:47,560 --> 00:31:50,280
Speaker 1: one truck to La I'm pretty sure how'd.

620
00:31:50,040 --> 00:31:51,080
Speaker 3: You get some money for the truck?

621
00:31:51,600 --> 00:31:54,000
Speaker 4: That was our first fundraise. I mean, to this day,

622
00:31:54,120 --> 00:31:57,160
Speaker 4: trucks are the main expense we have. But we just said,

623
00:31:57,200 --> 00:32:00,440
Speaker 4: all right, we need nine hundred dollars. Let's just reach

624
00:32:00,480 --> 00:32:02,320
Speaker 4: out to whoever we can, or some friends and family.

625
00:32:02,360 --> 00:32:04,320
Speaker 4: And that was the proof of concept. That was how

626
00:32:04,320 --> 00:32:06,960
Speaker 4: we got started. And I think that New York Times

627
00:32:07,080 --> 00:32:11,520
Speaker 4: article is particularly important because now we've moved eleven thousand eggs,

628
00:32:11,960 --> 00:32:14,880
Speaker 4: a full truckload of tens of thousands of pounds of onions,

629
00:32:15,360 --> 00:32:17,360
Speaker 4: we still don't really know what we're trying to do.

630
00:32:17,440 --> 00:32:20,920
Speaker 4: And one of our early teammates, Jeordie, reaches back out

631
00:32:20,960 --> 00:32:23,400
Speaker 4: to that New York Times writer who just written this article.

632
00:32:23,480 --> 00:32:25,240
Speaker 4: It says, hey, we're a bunch of college students. Here's

633
00:32:25,240 --> 00:32:27,080
Speaker 4: what we did with this, just so you know, they

634
00:32:27,080 --> 00:32:29,840
Speaker 4: want a follow up piece. And so three weeks into Farmlink,

635
00:32:29,920 --> 00:32:33,160
Speaker 4: we barely even have a website, and suddenly we're featured

636
00:32:33,200 --> 00:32:36,920
Speaker 4: in the New York Times, and that accelerated the trajectory

637
00:32:36,960 --> 00:32:38,320
Speaker 4: that we were on immediately.

638
00:32:39,560 --> 00:32:59,360
Speaker 3: That's I'm believe we'll be right back. I got to

639
00:32:59,360 --> 00:33:02,240
Speaker 3: tell you a quick story. You might find it funny.

640
00:33:02,480 --> 00:33:07,040
Speaker 3: There's the supplements called juice plus. All right, your parents

641
00:33:07,080 --> 00:33:09,320
Speaker 3: may have taken them. I bet your parents know what

642
00:33:09,360 --> 00:33:12,880
Speaker 3: they are. But they're little pills. The one's a fruit

643
00:33:13,160 --> 00:33:16,280
Speaker 3: and one's a vegetable supplement, and they're good supplements. They've

644
00:33:16,320 --> 00:33:19,360
Speaker 3: got all the vitamins and stuff. It's what old people

645
00:33:19,400 --> 00:33:21,280
Speaker 3: like me to say, Is this an AD? Huh?

646
00:33:21,360 --> 00:33:22,080
Speaker 4: Is this an AD?

647
00:33:23,160 --> 00:33:27,400
Speaker 3: Is it an AD? No? It's funny though it should

648
00:33:27,480 --> 00:33:30,600
Speaker 3: be Jay Martin, the owner of Juice Plus, you need

649
00:33:30,640 --> 00:33:32,840
Speaker 3: to reach out to me because it's just free advertising

650
00:33:32,920 --> 00:33:37,000
Speaker 3: podcasts in U haul. Oddly, it was the reason I

651
00:33:37,040 --> 00:33:39,760
Speaker 3: know about. It was started here, but it's sold worldwide

652
00:33:39,800 --> 00:33:45,640
Speaker 3: and they're little green pharmaceutical looking containers that you've seen them,

653
00:33:45,680 --> 00:33:47,920
Speaker 3: like if you go to gen C or whatever supplements

654
00:33:48,000 --> 00:33:50,760
Speaker 3: vitamins right. Juice Plus, well, it was getting off the

655
00:33:50,760 --> 00:33:54,720
Speaker 3: ground here in Memphis, and the folks were trying to

656
00:33:54,760 --> 00:33:58,960
Speaker 3: figure out Juice Plus. You know, we need a spokesman,

657
00:33:59,000 --> 00:34:02,320
Speaker 3: we need to really get the nationwide and everything else,

658
00:34:02,360 --> 00:34:08,359
Speaker 3: and they thought Juice O. J. Simpson. So they brought

659
00:34:08,400 --> 00:34:12,120
Speaker 3: Oj to Memphis, went to La signed a deal with them.

660
00:34:12,160 --> 00:34:16,160
Speaker 3: We're about to pay him to be their spokesman. And

661
00:34:16,200 --> 00:34:18,200
Speaker 3: three days later he's driving down their state in the

662
00:34:18,200 --> 00:34:23,040
Speaker 3: white Bronco and we's rested. Go back to the picture.

663
00:34:23,560 --> 00:34:26,960
Speaker 3: He's pulled out of the Bronco and he's wearing juice

664
00:34:26,960 --> 00:34:30,040
Speaker 3: plus t shirt and Juice plus went nuts, and they

665
00:34:30,040 --> 00:34:31,760
Speaker 3: never had to pay him because now he's a convict.

666
00:34:31,880 --> 00:34:35,040
Speaker 3: So anyway, what I'm saying is when I hear your

667
00:34:35,080 --> 00:34:37,680
Speaker 3: story about the sheet on the side of the truck,

668
00:34:38,160 --> 00:34:43,000
Speaker 3: it's phenomenal. The right picture of the right thing at

669
00:34:43,000 --> 00:34:45,640
Speaker 3: the right time can do for you. And it's amazing

670
00:34:45,680 --> 00:34:48,360
Speaker 3: to me that in four weeks you guys, are you

671
00:34:48,440 --> 00:34:51,760
Speaker 3: have a janky website. You delivered some eggs and some onions,

672
00:34:51,840 --> 00:34:54,680
Speaker 3: but you're being put into the New York Times.

673
00:34:55,040 --> 00:34:57,800
Speaker 4: I've never in four years of farm Link been compared

674
00:34:57,840 --> 00:34:58,760
Speaker 4: to oj Simpson.

675
00:34:58,880 --> 00:35:02,520
Speaker 3: Well he the juice, it should be. There's a connection there.

676
00:35:02,520 --> 00:35:04,359
Speaker 3: It's more lenk, it's more leak.

677
00:35:04,520 --> 00:35:05,080
Speaker 4: Thank you.

678
00:35:05,160 --> 00:35:13,200
Speaker 3: So when that thing happens, did y'all? I remember reading

679
00:35:13,320 --> 00:35:16,439
Speaker 3: somewhere there was a GoFundMe or something and you woke

680
00:35:16,520 --> 00:35:18,840
Speaker 3: up and you're like, hold it, we got one money.

681
00:35:19,000 --> 00:35:19,560
Speaker 4: Yeah.

682
00:35:19,760 --> 00:35:23,680
Speaker 1: So I was driving back from Idaho. I had gone

683
00:35:23,680 --> 00:35:26,080
Speaker 1: there to take photos of all the potato the five

684
00:35:26,120 --> 00:35:27,879
Speaker 1: million potatoes in the in the side.

685
00:35:28,080 --> 00:35:30,040
Speaker 3: We hadn't heard about the potatoes. Maybe that was a

686
00:35:30,120 --> 00:35:31,080
Speaker 3: Doug has project.

687
00:35:31,120 --> 00:35:33,799
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, so yeah, go ahead, no, go for it.

688
00:35:34,040 --> 00:35:37,799
Speaker 4: Well, right after this onion and these eggs, we get

689
00:35:37,840 --> 00:35:39,080
Speaker 4: on a call and we think, all right, we need

690
00:35:39,120 --> 00:35:41,279
Speaker 4: to split into two groups some one group needs to

691
00:35:41,280 --> 00:35:43,480
Speaker 4: focus on the farms. One group needs to focus on

692
00:35:43,480 --> 00:35:45,680
Speaker 4: fundraising and storytelling, because if we're gonna keep doing this,

693
00:35:45,719 --> 00:35:46,360
Speaker 4: we need money.

694
00:35:46,840 --> 00:35:49,799
Speaker 3: And so the way, I'm sorry to interrupt you, the

695
00:35:49,800 --> 00:35:54,479
Speaker 3: storytelling part of this is so integral because not only

696
00:35:54,520 --> 00:35:57,399
Speaker 3: were you doing work to do the work, you have

697
00:35:57,440 --> 00:35:59,960
Speaker 3: to do fundraising and do fundraising. People have to hear

698
00:36:00,160 --> 00:36:03,680
Speaker 3: about you and the fact that you guys had the foresight,

699
00:36:03,760 --> 00:36:08,399
Speaker 3: the creativity, or maybe just the restlessness with the right

700
00:36:09,640 --> 00:36:14,440
Speaker 3: amount of skill set from each individual person involved in this.

701
00:36:15,160 --> 00:36:18,120
Speaker 3: To have not only the work going wrong with the

702
00:36:18,239 --> 00:36:23,000
Speaker 3: storytelling in order to build I think is part of

703
00:36:23,000 --> 00:36:23,400
Speaker 3: the secret.

704
00:36:23,440 --> 00:36:26,200
Speaker 4: So, I mean, James and Aden are great storytellers. Owen

705
00:36:26,360 --> 00:36:29,799
Speaker 4: is the the keystone of that though. And so to

706
00:36:29,840 --> 00:36:33,200
Speaker 4: have people from the start senior praise yeah, I mean,

707
00:36:33,280 --> 00:36:37,080
Speaker 4: it just it positioned us to be something that I

708
00:36:37,080 --> 00:36:40,560
Speaker 4: think is I mean, storytelling is such a necessary ingredient

709
00:36:40,560 --> 00:36:42,719
Speaker 4: for systemic change. We didn't even know that at the time.

710
00:36:42,840 --> 00:36:44,600
Speaker 4: We just knew this is a part of who we

711
00:36:44,640 --> 00:36:47,000
Speaker 4: are and how we think this needs to be operated.

712
00:36:47,640 --> 00:36:49,839
Speaker 1: Yeah, And what I'll say about that is, so I

713
00:36:49,920 --> 00:36:52,919
Speaker 1: was working for two guys who make social impact documentaries

714
00:36:53,320 --> 00:36:57,640
Speaker 1: and they had raised ninety million dollars for Syrian refugees

715
00:36:57,880 --> 00:37:01,160
Speaker 1: and people living in poverty through the stories. And for

716
00:37:01,200 --> 00:37:03,480
Speaker 1: the last two and a half three years, I had

717
00:37:03,520 --> 00:37:06,520
Speaker 1: seen their work. I had seen every step of how

718
00:37:06,560 --> 00:37:09,480
Speaker 1: they put their stories together, how they run impact campaigns.

719
00:37:09,520 --> 00:37:12,560
Speaker 1: They fully took me under their wing and mentored me,

720
00:37:12,640 --> 00:37:16,360
Speaker 1: which I'm so grateful for. So by the time Farming started,

721
00:37:16,400 --> 00:37:18,040
Speaker 1: I was ready to hit the ground running. I was like,

722
00:37:18,080 --> 00:37:20,560
Speaker 1: I know how to do this. I'm young, i haven't

723
00:37:20,600 --> 00:37:24,239
Speaker 1: done this before, but I've seen it work, and that's

724
00:37:24,280 --> 00:37:26,840
Speaker 1: what we tried to replicate. I was like, this is

725
00:37:26,880 --> 00:37:30,880
Speaker 1: a time where everyone's at home. Every news story is

726
00:37:31,160 --> 00:37:34,160
Speaker 1: as negative as it's ever been. Let's give people hope.

727
00:37:34,360 --> 00:37:37,120
Speaker 1: Let's only storytell from the perspective of hope.

728
00:37:37,440 --> 00:37:41,239
Speaker 3: And so you separated in two groups fundraising, storytelling and

729
00:37:41,520 --> 00:37:43,040
Speaker 3: actual production.

730
00:37:43,360 --> 00:37:46,040
Speaker 4: And we're calling hundreds of farmers same deal. Now we

731
00:37:46,080 --> 00:37:47,759
Speaker 4: have a little bit of credibility. You know, we did

732
00:37:47,760 --> 00:37:49,160
Speaker 4: this with the Onions. Here's what we did in New

733
00:37:49,239 --> 00:37:52,120
Speaker 4: York Times. We still aren't having much success. But we

734
00:37:52,160 --> 00:37:54,600
Speaker 4: get through to this potato farmer and he's growing potatoes

735
00:37:54,640 --> 00:37:57,880
Speaker 4: that are seed potatoes, so they're not historically sold at stores.

736
00:37:58,080 --> 00:38:02,960
Speaker 4: They're used to grow more potatoes, completely nutritious. And he says,

737
00:38:03,120 --> 00:38:05,799
Speaker 4: I just have potatoes in a pile. And oh, and

738
00:38:05,800 --> 00:38:08,200
Speaker 4: you went and saw it. It's how many feet tall

739
00:38:08,320 --> 00:38:09,040
Speaker 4: was that mountain?

740
00:38:09,480 --> 00:38:11,400
Speaker 2: Fifty foot tall pile of potatoes.

741
00:38:11,520 --> 00:38:14,359
Speaker 4: Millions of potatos, and he's so huge, and they store them.

742
00:38:14,400 --> 00:38:16,319
Speaker 4: That's how they storre them. They can last for a

743
00:38:16,440 --> 00:38:17,040
Speaker 4: year like that.

744
00:38:17,640 --> 00:38:18,880
Speaker 3: They like under a shed.

745
00:38:19,040 --> 00:38:21,640
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's like it's like a shed like some.

746
00:38:23,320 --> 00:38:27,880
Speaker 4: It's like a airplane hangar full of potatoes. And he says,

747
00:38:27,960 --> 00:38:30,919
Speaker 4: I don't have packaging, but if you guys figure that out,

748
00:38:31,080 --> 00:38:33,040
Speaker 4: you can have them. And so this was the first

749
00:38:33,080 --> 00:38:36,040
Speaker 4: time we really figured out all of the logistics of

750
00:38:36,080 --> 00:38:39,760
Speaker 4: making this work. We had a local Idaho packaging company

751
00:38:39,800 --> 00:38:43,319
Speaker 4: donate boxes that they brought to the farm. Then we

752
00:38:43,360 --> 00:38:46,120
Speaker 4: said food banks that we knew we could could receive

753
00:38:46,160 --> 00:38:48,840
Speaker 4: the potatoes. Then we had to coordinate the trucks to

754
00:38:48,880 --> 00:38:51,400
Speaker 4: go pick up the potatoes, the bins to be filled,

755
00:38:51,440 --> 00:38:52,759
Speaker 4: and then all of those to be moved. It was

756
00:38:52,760 --> 00:38:55,000
Speaker 4: our first time doing all of those logistics and it

757
00:38:55,040 --> 00:38:58,319
Speaker 4: was pretty clunky, but I mean it was a way

758
00:38:58,320 --> 00:39:03,080
Speaker 4: for us to learn, and those potatoes were I think

759
00:39:03,160 --> 00:39:06,640
Speaker 4: proof for me that this wasn't just a fluke. And

760
00:39:06,840 --> 00:39:10,359
Speaker 4: this guy was a fifth generation potato farmer. He said,

761
00:39:10,400 --> 00:39:12,520
Speaker 4: no one in my life has ever experienced something like

762
00:39:12,560 --> 00:39:14,799
Speaker 4: this pandemic. The closest thing I can think of is

763
00:39:15,239 --> 00:39:15,799
Speaker 4: what was it like.

764
00:39:15,760 --> 00:39:19,399
Speaker 2: The Spanish This great grandfather during like the Spanish flu?

765
00:39:19,760 --> 00:39:23,600
Speaker 4: And so he's like, we farmers, we know everything about

766
00:39:23,600 --> 00:39:25,759
Speaker 4: this industry. We don't know what's going on right now.

767
00:39:25,800 --> 00:39:27,640
Speaker 4: And he told us, he said, the saddest day in

768
00:39:27,680 --> 00:39:30,759
Speaker 4: a farmer's life is the day all of the food

769
00:39:30,840 --> 00:39:34,080
Speaker 4: you spend your entire livelihood growing is going to waste.

770
00:39:34,719 --> 00:39:36,560
Speaker 4: And we've tried to figure out how to make farm

771
00:39:36,560 --> 00:39:39,799
Speaker 4: link the most financially viable solution for farmers. But that

772
00:39:39,880 --> 00:39:42,759
Speaker 4: was when it also clicked that the real reason they

773
00:39:42,840 --> 00:39:45,000
Speaker 4: wanted to be a part of this at the jump

774
00:39:45,160 --> 00:39:47,840
Speaker 4: was this is what they're here for. They're here to

775
00:39:47,880 --> 00:39:50,000
Speaker 4: feed people, and especially in a moment where so many

776
00:39:50,040 --> 00:39:52,960
Speaker 4: people were hungry, that was what drove them to respond

777
00:39:53,000 --> 00:39:55,000
Speaker 4: to farm Link. More than anything else because we didn't

778
00:39:55,000 --> 00:39:57,840
Speaker 4: have a perfect solution or experience behind us. But I

779
00:39:57,840 --> 00:40:00,879
Speaker 4: think that hope piece really resonated with the farmers too.

780
00:40:01,080 --> 00:40:03,000
Speaker 3: So how many trucks of potatoes did you like that.

781
00:40:03,080 --> 00:40:04,719
Speaker 4: At that time? I think we were covered about one

782
00:40:04,760 --> 00:40:07,080
Speaker 4: hundred and fifty thousand pounds of potatoes, and so you're

783
00:40:07,080 --> 00:40:10,799
Speaker 4: looking at like four truckloads, which you know, now we're

784
00:40:10,800 --> 00:40:13,600
Speaker 4: doing deals where we're moving and we're talking, we're talking

785
00:40:13,600 --> 00:40:15,960
Speaker 4: about so much a truckload. When we say a truckload,

786
00:40:15,960 --> 00:40:16,759
Speaker 4: we're talking.

787
00:40:16,680 --> 00:40:20,120
Speaker 2: Two foot truck. It fits twenty two pallettes in there.

788
00:40:20,440 --> 00:40:23,680
Speaker 4: And forty thousand pounds is our unit of measurement for

789
00:40:23,719 --> 00:40:26,640
Speaker 4: a truckload. So forty thousand pounds is enough to fill

790
00:40:27,040 --> 00:40:30,800
Speaker 4: a large room with six feet tall oft produce es.

791
00:40:31,280 --> 00:40:33,480
Speaker 1: To tie it back to what you're saying before, I

792
00:40:33,640 --> 00:40:38,319
Speaker 1: was driving back from that visit of the potatoes and

793
00:40:39,320 --> 00:40:41,080
Speaker 1: we got a call that ABC.

794
00:40:40,840 --> 00:40:43,480
Speaker 2: World News wanted to feature us. They had seen like the.

795
00:40:43,520 --> 00:40:45,880
Speaker 3: GBC World News tonight on ABC. We're like, say about

796
00:40:45,920 --> 00:40:49,920
Speaker 3: thirty Real News David, bigger than the New York Times.

797
00:40:49,840 --> 00:40:51,919
Speaker 1: And they were like, yeah, they had seen the two

798
00:40:51,960 --> 00:40:54,040
Speaker 1: sentences we were featured in in the New York Times,

799
00:40:54,120 --> 00:40:57,280
Speaker 1: and they were like, can five of you send videos saying,

800
00:40:57,520 --> 00:41:00,320
Speaker 1: Hey David, I'm here on the potato farm. Hey David,

801
00:41:00,360 --> 00:41:03,520
Speaker 1: I'm here receiving the potatoes at the food bank. And

802
00:41:04,239 --> 00:41:07,239
Speaker 1: I plugged my laptop into the outside of a Dairy

803
00:41:07,360 --> 00:41:12,560
Speaker 1: Queen takeout window and started I started, yeah, there's a

804
00:41:12,600 --> 00:41:15,239
Speaker 1: photo of it, and it started sending them all the

805
00:41:15,320 --> 00:41:17,719
Speaker 1: videos like quickly because the news was going on in

806
00:41:17,719 --> 00:41:18,960
Speaker 1: like two and a half hours.

807
00:41:19,120 --> 00:41:21,040
Speaker 3: It's like they didn't can you do this? We want

808
00:41:21,040 --> 00:41:22,359
Speaker 3: to go out with it in two hours.

809
00:41:22,400 --> 00:41:24,759
Speaker 4: If they don't, that's all you get. If if if

810
00:41:24,760 --> 00:41:26,200
Speaker 4: this is going to happen, it's going to happen.

811
00:41:26,239 --> 00:41:26,439
Speaker 3: Now.

812
00:41:26,640 --> 00:41:28,560
Speaker 1: They were like, this is can you get it to me?

813
00:41:28,600 --> 00:41:30,920
Speaker 1: I have like nine emails from the producer. There's no

814
00:41:31,239 --> 00:41:33,359
Speaker 1: text in the in the body of the email, it's

815
00:41:33,400 --> 00:41:36,080
Speaker 1: all caps in the subject line and that's how they communicate.

816
00:41:36,160 --> 00:41:38,160
Speaker 1: And I was like, oh my god, I don't know,

817
00:41:38,160 --> 00:41:38,880
Speaker 1: have a panic attack.

818
00:41:38,960 --> 00:41:43,960
Speaker 3: I got to start da Yeah. Unfortunately, again, yeah, this

819
00:41:44,000 --> 00:41:47,399
Speaker 3: doesn't happen. Had you not understood the power of storytelling

820
00:41:47,880 --> 00:41:50,200
Speaker 3: while you're doing this, because if you hadn't had those

821
00:41:50,239 --> 00:41:52,879
Speaker 3: files on you and already canned and ready to go.

822
00:41:53,520 --> 00:41:55,480
Speaker 3: You couldn't send them content. Your stories never.

823
00:41:55,400 --> 00:41:58,080
Speaker 1: Told right, we had the first delivery and with the

824
00:41:58,120 --> 00:42:00,560
Speaker 1: banner and the U haul, and then we had this

825
00:42:00,640 --> 00:42:03,319
Speaker 1: is starting to happen on a much bigger scale, so

826
00:42:03,520 --> 00:42:08,520
Speaker 1: people could understand what was happening there, and I mean

827
00:42:08,880 --> 00:42:11,800
Speaker 1: I've never seen I mean, we raised like one hundred

828
00:42:11,800 --> 00:42:14,040
Speaker 1: and twenty thousand dollars and ten minutes.

829
00:42:14,120 --> 00:42:18,480
Speaker 6: And after right when it as it aired, like as

830
00:42:18,480 --> 00:42:21,640
Speaker 6: it was still playing, it was like our PayPal account

831
00:42:21,920 --> 00:42:24,719
Speaker 6: got shut down for suspicious activity because we had so

832
00:42:24,840 --> 00:42:26,080
Speaker 6: many donations coming in.

833
00:42:26,360 --> 00:42:28,960
Speaker 1: And it wasn't people donating one thousand dollars. It was hey,

834
00:42:29,000 --> 00:42:31,959
Speaker 1: I got ten dollars here, twenty dollars here, thirty dollars here,

835
00:42:32,360 --> 00:42:35,400
Speaker 1: and these long, long messages about what this meant to

836
00:42:35,440 --> 00:42:38,440
Speaker 1: them and how they want their kids to participate, And

837
00:42:38,719 --> 00:42:40,440
Speaker 1: it was people from all over the country.

838
00:42:40,480 --> 00:42:42,920
Speaker 3: There was no and it's a pandemic.

839
00:42:43,000 --> 00:42:45,719
Speaker 2: So during the pandemic home it was a symbol of hope.

840
00:42:45,800 --> 00:42:50,320
Speaker 1: Everyone's at home and it's the only positive news story

841
00:42:50,480 --> 00:42:52,680
Speaker 1: of a nine hour negative news cycle.

842
00:42:53,440 --> 00:42:56,960
Speaker 3: It was literally overnight, you went from raising a little

843
00:42:56,960 --> 00:42:59,200
Speaker 3: bit of money to you one hundred thousand.

844
00:42:59,000 --> 00:43:02,319
Speaker 4: In our friend's bank count, and suddenly we're thinking this

845
00:43:02,480 --> 00:43:03,239
Speaker 4: needs to change.

846
00:43:03,320 --> 00:43:06,480
Speaker 3: I hear that fate was just noping to check it out.

847
00:43:06,600 --> 00:43:08,920
Speaker 4: Credit to one of our co founders, Max Goldman, who

848
00:43:09,000 --> 00:43:11,600
Speaker 4: did not run away that morning.

849
00:43:12,680 --> 00:43:15,960
Speaker 3: All that the quarter million dollars. Did it really happened

850
00:43:15,960 --> 00:43:17,440
Speaker 3: like that quick overnight?

851
00:43:17,560 --> 00:43:20,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, because after the news there is like an hour later,

852
00:43:20,239 --> 00:43:22,920
Speaker 1: it's all it's all gone. Like if you didn't donate

853
00:43:22,960 --> 00:43:25,120
Speaker 1: by then, you forgot about it. You watched the next thing.

854
00:43:25,200 --> 00:43:26,880
Speaker 1: So it all happened at once.

855
00:43:27,200 --> 00:43:30,879
Speaker 3: That's unbelievable. So now you've delivered eleven thousand eggs, you've

856
00:43:30,880 --> 00:43:34,520
Speaker 3: delivered two truckloads of onions, four truckloads of potatoes, you've

857
00:43:34,520 --> 00:43:36,840
Speaker 3: got a short in the New York Times, you've got

858
00:43:37,040 --> 00:43:39,600
Speaker 3: your world news tonight. At this point, you're a few

859
00:43:39,600 --> 00:43:40,959
Speaker 3: months old, I assume.

860
00:43:41,360 --> 00:43:42,600
Speaker 4: Less than we're less than a month.

861
00:43:42,800 --> 00:43:46,920
Speaker 3: A month old, and you've got now how much money,

862
00:43:47,040 --> 00:43:48,400
Speaker 3: and who's was it?

863
00:43:48,560 --> 00:43:51,240
Speaker 4: Call it one hundred and fifty thousand dollars and whose account?

864
00:43:51,239 --> 00:43:58,760
Speaker 3: With maxes and Max's bas you realize how ridiculous it's crazy.

865
00:43:58,320 --> 00:44:05,240
Speaker 3: So in a month, you've delivered onions, potatoes, eggs, let omelet,

866
00:44:05,400 --> 00:44:08,560
Speaker 3: been on New York Times, been on World News tonight,

867
00:44:09,120 --> 00:44:12,080
Speaker 3: and Max wakes up to one hundred and fifty grand

868
00:44:12,120 --> 00:44:14,400
Speaker 3: and y'all got a U haul truck and a bedsheet.

869
00:44:15,200 --> 00:44:19,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that's that's a catalog of all the assets

870
00:44:20,280 --> 00:44:21,000
Speaker 1: that does.

871
00:44:20,800 --> 00:44:24,440
Speaker 3: Not happen without some college kids with some creativity and

872
00:44:24,480 --> 00:44:26,000
Speaker 3: some restlessness going why not?

873
00:44:26,440 --> 00:44:30,440
Speaker 4: And we didn't know what we couldn't do. So there

874
00:44:30,520 --> 00:44:33,959
Speaker 4: was this optimism in this naivete that just led it all.

875
00:44:34,280 --> 00:44:35,960
Speaker 4: And I think when we woke up, when we when

876
00:44:35,960 --> 00:44:38,160
Speaker 4: that money was there, we thought, Okay, there is a

877
00:44:38,239 --> 00:44:40,960
Speaker 4: level of responsibility. And we were already so locked in

878
00:44:41,000 --> 00:44:42,640
Speaker 4: and motivated by this, but there was a level of

879
00:44:42,640 --> 00:44:46,520
Speaker 4: responsibility to push from there where we thought, okay, this

880
00:44:46,560 --> 00:44:50,040
Speaker 4: needs to become a step more intentional. What's going to

881
00:44:50,080 --> 00:44:53,000
Speaker 4: happen from here? And so that's when we just continue

882
00:44:53,000 --> 00:44:54,959
Speaker 4: to ramp it up hosting on our social media.

883
00:44:55,360 --> 00:44:57,200
Speaker 3: The first thing you did was actually open a harm

884
00:44:57,239 --> 00:44:58,120
Speaker 3: Link bank account.

885
00:44:58,160 --> 00:45:01,480
Speaker 4: We did. What we started is yeah, was pretty integral

886
00:45:01,520 --> 00:45:04,680
Speaker 4: for getting all that legitimacy lined up. I think he

887
00:45:04,719 --> 00:45:07,600
Speaker 4: was kind of scared, this is much money you're gonna

888
00:45:07,640 --> 00:45:08,160
Speaker 4: go to jail.

889
00:45:09,360 --> 00:45:13,799
Speaker 3: But that's a late where was backs in school at

890
00:45:13,840 --> 00:45:14,080
Speaker 3: the time.

891
00:45:14,239 --> 00:45:16,000
Speaker 4: He was one of my classmates at Browns. I got it,

892
00:45:16,080 --> 00:45:18,279
Speaker 4: and I actually didn't even really know Max. So many

893
00:45:18,320 --> 00:45:20,520
Speaker 4: these people were coming together in a way where it

894
00:45:20,560 --> 00:45:22,879
Speaker 4: was happening so quickly. It was happening so quickly, and

895
00:45:23,960 --> 00:45:26,240
Speaker 4: I think this is when we started to really learn

896
00:45:26,600 --> 00:45:28,439
Speaker 4: that next month about it and help.

897
00:45:28,520 --> 00:45:31,399
Speaker 3: But laugh at you two guys. I'm seeing these two

898
00:45:31,520 --> 00:45:34,480
Speaker 3: college kids wanting to do something good getting involved in

899
00:45:34,560 --> 00:45:38,319
Speaker 3: doing all this. Picking up some paperwork left outside your

900
00:45:38,880 --> 00:45:41,600
Speaker 3: bedroom board by your mom and a dude who likes

901
00:45:41,640 --> 00:45:44,680
Speaker 3: to serve from New York and you put a sheet

902
00:45:44,800 --> 00:45:47,920
Speaker 3: on a U haul and only a month later. I

903
00:45:47,960 --> 00:45:50,000
Speaker 3: mean it had to have been surreal for you. Really,

904
00:45:50,600 --> 00:45:52,640
Speaker 3: I'm trying to get in your minds. But a month

905
00:45:52,640 --> 00:45:54,560
Speaker 3: into this it had been exciting, but you had to

906
00:45:54,560 --> 00:45:57,160
Speaker 3: be looking at each other going, what well we.

907
00:45:57,160 --> 00:46:01,040
Speaker 4: Got dunked on so hard right after that, because we're thinking,

908
00:46:01,040 --> 00:46:04,160
Speaker 4: all right, we have this article coming out where the

909
00:46:04,200 --> 00:46:07,760
Speaker 4: talk of the town. Surely we must be moving into

910
00:46:08,160 --> 00:46:12,000
Speaker 4: a center position in this industry. And I'm gonna tell

911
00:46:12,000 --> 00:46:15,200
Speaker 4: this cucumber story real quick. I mean, we then speak

912
00:46:15,280 --> 00:46:18,360
Speaker 4: with a cucumber farmer in Florida. This is all happening

913
00:46:18,360 --> 00:46:21,440
Speaker 4: within the same couple of weeks. He has thirty truckloads

914
00:46:21,440 --> 00:46:23,279
Speaker 4: of cucumbers with nowhere to go, and he's a guy

915
00:46:23,360 --> 00:46:25,799
Speaker 4: who grows cucumbers to turn them into pickles. If your

916
00:46:25,840 --> 00:46:29,200
Speaker 4: audience doesn't know it, calls her cucumbers, Yes they are.

917
00:46:29,440 --> 00:46:31,400
Speaker 4: I actually think a lot of us didn't know that,

918
00:46:31,480 --> 00:46:34,320
Speaker 4: but that's ridiculous. Nobody was pickling anything in May of

919
00:46:34,400 --> 00:46:36,920
Speaker 4: twenty twenty and so we had one point two million

920
00:46:36,920 --> 00:46:40,200
Speaker 4: pounds of cucumbers and we think perfect, we can get

921
00:46:40,200 --> 00:46:43,000
Speaker 4: these to twenty different food banks. And a local food

922
00:46:43,000 --> 00:46:46,360
Speaker 4: bank calls and they say, this is our territory. You

923
00:46:46,440 --> 00:46:51,040
Speaker 4: need to back off. And this is something we didn't

924
00:46:51,040 --> 00:46:55,359
Speaker 4: know existed. And they said, this is our farmer. We're

925
00:46:55,360 --> 00:46:57,200
Speaker 4: going to take five of these truckloads of cucumbers, but

926
00:46:57,239 --> 00:46:59,319
Speaker 4: you're gonna you're in a mess, this whole thing up.

927
00:46:59,680 --> 00:47:01,839
Speaker 4: You can give us money or you can get out

928
00:47:01,840 --> 00:47:04,120
Speaker 4: of here. And we're like, what about the other twenty

929
00:47:04,120 --> 00:47:06,399
Speaker 4: five truckloads, the million pounds of cucumbers. We can find

930
00:47:06,440 --> 00:47:09,160
Speaker 4: homes for them. And they called the farmer with me

931
00:47:09,239 --> 00:47:11,480
Speaker 4: on the phone and said, these kids are scamming you

932
00:47:11,680 --> 00:47:13,839
Speaker 4: and hung up, and the farmer didn't work with us,

933
00:47:13,920 --> 00:47:17,319
Speaker 4: and a million pounds of cucumbers went to waste. And

934
00:47:17,400 --> 00:47:21,759
Speaker 4: so now we're sitting here not really sure what to

935
00:47:21,840 --> 00:47:25,879
Speaker 4: do at all. Because we know this food is there,

936
00:47:25,920 --> 00:47:27,759
Speaker 4: we're starting to talk to more and more people who

937
00:47:27,800 --> 00:47:31,000
Speaker 4: have it, but maybe this industry that we're trying to

938
00:47:31,040 --> 00:47:34,440
Speaker 4: support doesn't actually want us there to begin with, And

939
00:47:34,480 --> 00:47:37,400
Speaker 4: so that kicked off I think a lot of learning

940
00:47:37,560 --> 00:47:40,799
Speaker 4: and asking of questions for us, and that is not

941
00:47:40,840 --> 00:47:43,279
Speaker 4: a reflection of food banking as a whole. But what

942
00:47:43,320 --> 00:47:46,360
Speaker 4: we started to learn was there are hundreds of food

943
00:47:46,360 --> 00:47:48,239
Speaker 4: banks and each one is set up to support their

944
00:47:48,280 --> 00:47:51,080
Speaker 4: local community and they see those people showing up every

945
00:47:51,080 --> 00:47:55,000
Speaker 4: single day needing them, and so it's really easy to

946
00:47:55,360 --> 00:47:57,960
Speaker 4: just focus on preserving and supporting your slice of the pie.

947
00:47:58,080 --> 00:48:00,239
Speaker 4: And what we realized was they're all these food thanks,

948
00:48:00,320 --> 00:48:03,359
Speaker 4: hundreds of them around the country, that in a weird way,

949
00:48:03,680 --> 00:48:06,960
Speaker 4: are not incentivized to support each other. And so that

950
00:48:07,080 --> 00:48:09,640
Speaker 4: became a layer of this that we started to realize,

951
00:48:09,719 --> 00:48:11,520
Speaker 4: if we're going to make some progress at a large

952
00:48:11,560 --> 00:48:14,480
Speaker 4: scale here, we need to address that too. And so

953
00:48:14,960 --> 00:48:18,520
Speaker 4: I think that between the David Muir and all this

954
00:48:18,600 --> 00:48:21,680
Speaker 4: money showing up and then starting to have these conversations

955
00:48:21,680 --> 00:48:24,080
Speaker 4: with these folks in the industry, realizing this is so

956
00:48:24,200 --> 00:48:27,000
Speaker 4: much more nuanced than we maybe gave it credit credit

957
00:48:27,000 --> 00:48:28,040
Speaker 4: for when we started out.

958
00:48:33,520 --> 00:48:37,120
Speaker 3: And that concludes part one of my conversation with Ben

959
00:48:37,160 --> 00:48:39,600
Speaker 3: Collier and Owen do Beck, and you do not want

960
00:48:39,600 --> 00:48:42,080
Speaker 3: to miss part two that's now available to listen to,

961
00:48:42,760 --> 00:48:45,520
Speaker 3: as their fight to link these two worlds is just

962
00:48:45,640 --> 00:48:50,560
Speaker 3: getting started together. Guys, we can change the country, but

963
00:48:50,600 --> 00:49:00,840
Speaker 3: it starts with you. I'll see in part two the