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Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, it's Bill Corney with an army of normal folks.

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Speaker 1: And we continue now with part two of our conversation

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Speaker 1: with Ben Collier and Owen Do back right after these

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Speaker 1: brief messages from our general sponsors. As I'm listening to you,

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Speaker 1: you're gaining a valuable lesson and ego, selfishness, business, and

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Speaker 1: the reality of the world. Because there's a guy named

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Speaker 1: zig Ziggler. You won't know his name. Maybe you do, anyway,

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Speaker 1: back in the day, he was one of these motivational

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Speaker 1: speech speakers, one of the greatest ever. If you look

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Speaker 1: up his eighties tapes and you listen to him, they'll

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Speaker 1: be dated, but they're full of wonderful, dead bits of information.

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Speaker 1: One of the things he said was you always share

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Speaker 1: your go up your give up goals with everyone. You

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Speaker 1: share your go up goals with no one. And what

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Speaker 1: he meant by that was, if you're gonna quit drinking,

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Speaker 1: or you're gonna quit smoking, or you're gonna quit somebody,

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Speaker 1: that's a give up goal, tell everybody, because the minute

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Speaker 1: that person sees you take a sip of beer or

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Speaker 1: a drag off a cigarette, they'll be sure to remind you, Oh,

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Speaker 1: I thought you said you were going to quit smoking.

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Speaker 1: I knew you couldn't do it. You use human nature

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Speaker 1: for your benefit, but your go up goals, you share

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Speaker 1: those with no ones. If your go up goals are

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Speaker 1: I want two year stap this promotion, I want two

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Speaker 1: year stap this organization to be here. If you share

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Speaker 1: those go up goals with everybody, the same human nature

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Speaker 1: that helps you in your give up, they will help

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Speaker 1: bring you down because they will be like, I don't

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Speaker 1: want you doing that because that may tread on what

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Speaker 1: I want to do. You see what I'm saying. So

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Speaker 1: his deal was share your give up goals with everybody,

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Speaker 1: share your go up goals with nobody. And it is

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Speaker 1: a it's actually a sobering look at the reality of

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Speaker 1: much of the way humans interact with each other. But

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Speaker 1: it's also I wouldn't say any lesson is one hundred

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Speaker 1: percent true, But you get the thirty thousand foot view

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Speaker 1: of what zeg Zigler's saying. I think you were experiencing that.

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Speaker 2: I think our optimism at the time would have disagreed

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Speaker 2: with that, because in a world where hey, we want

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Speaker 2: to be the most successful AI company, that means we

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Speaker 2: want to do that at the expense of everyone else.

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Speaker 2: We want to take all that market share in a

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Speaker 2: world where the goal is to see everybody who is

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Speaker 2: struggling with hunger fed, and every organization in this industry

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Speaker 2: has that goal as their north star. We felt that

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Speaker 2: there would be something different, and by and large, that

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Speaker 2: is something that people individually feel, but the actions and

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Speaker 2: the structures that were being built contradicted it.

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Speaker 1: And you guys were very punny about to upset the

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Speaker 1: apple cart.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and that I think that became our goal.

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Speaker 2: And we had this weird stubbornness that came from conversations

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Speaker 2: like that Cucumber conversation where we thought, we're going to

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Speaker 2: make them work with us. You know, we're gonna make

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Speaker 2: these guys collaborate because we don't see a path to

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Speaker 2: actually changing this system if all of these different organizations

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Speaker 2: that stand to benefit from working together choose to. And

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Speaker 2: so it's this weird thing where we almost want to.

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Speaker 2: I can picture like my parents sitting me and my

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Speaker 2: twin brother down and being like, you guys are gonna

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Speaker 2: love each other, and it's like that's such a weird way,

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Speaker 2: but that's kind of what we've we felt and continue

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Speaker 2: to feel. I know you're gonna work together. So it

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Speaker 2: feels a contradictory in nature, but it's something that needed

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Speaker 2: to happen.

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Speaker 1: So a month then you get hit in the face

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Speaker 1: with the cucumber usual or as you get dunked on.

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Speaker 2: I did not say we got in the face of

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Speaker 2: the quo.

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Speaker 1: Okay, you got donked on. I did say that. So

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Speaker 1: where do you go from there?

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Speaker 2: LinkedIn? That's when we started recruiting. We thought, all right,

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Speaker 2: now we have this first summer of the pandemic. No

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Speaker 2: college student that we knew was still going to do

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Speaker 2: what they were planning to do that summer, So let's

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Speaker 2: give them all a chance to be a part of this,

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Speaker 2: or as many as we can. And I think within

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Speaker 2: two months now Farmlink has gone from an idea to

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Speaker 2: something that over two hundred students are now working on

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Speaker 2: from around the Lost Country and even beyond everywhere.

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Speaker 1: Right. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: Another great thing of the ABC World News tonight's segment

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Speaker 3: was all these kids reached out and were like, I

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Speaker 3: want to work on this. I'm not in school right now,

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Speaker 3: I'm not so.

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Speaker 1: Are they reaching you through your website?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a website with an email on it. So

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Speaker 3: everyone was sending an email. And you know, if you

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Speaker 3: see the film the documentary, Joe in that film was

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Speaker 3: one of those people who reached out. And yeah, our

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Speaker 3: zoom chat of ten people went to two hundred and

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Speaker 3: all of a sudden, like to open every like meeting,

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Speaker 3: everyone singing together and dancing and like that community that

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Speaker 3: we were all missing before it's starting to come together.

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Speaker 3: I'll never forget one of the calls, someone's grandparents started

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Speaker 3: singing sea shanties like something you'd saying on like a

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Speaker 3: ship in the seventeen hundred.

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Speaker 4: To open the call, and everyone was like energized.

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Speaker 1: So so fired up.

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Speaker 4: So fired up.

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Speaker 3: And then and then we like dive into business and

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Speaker 3: move like one hundred thousand pounds of food.

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Speaker 4: It was, it was crazy.

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Speaker 1: So I was in that first year, we want to

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Speaker 1: move a million pounds of food, right, yeah, yeah, So

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Speaker 1: you'd already moved what fifty or sixty thousand pounds of potatoes,

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Speaker 1: onions and eggs, right.

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Speaker 3: So by that point where we're already at the point

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Speaker 3: where we're coming towards like i'd say, like two hundred

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Speaker 3: and fifty thousand pounds of food or something like that.

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Speaker 1: Which we wanted. If that was the end of it.

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Speaker 1: That would already have been a phenomenal thing.

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Speaker 4: That's what we thought start.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, we still thought it was maybe a summer project

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Speaker 3: act or something like that. There was no impetus that

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Speaker 3: there's no like. It was not supposed to be an organization.

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Speaker 3: And reflecting on it now, I'm so grateful that we

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Speaker 3: used one hundred percent of that money towards transportation. No

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Speaker 3: one was like, I want to be paid, I'm working

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Speaker 3: hard on this. That was not it at all. Everyone

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Speaker 3: had shared ownership, whether you were person number one to

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Speaker 3: enter or a person two hundred, this was all of

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Speaker 3: our project, and this belonged to all of us, and

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Speaker 3: that proved very.

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Speaker 1: Important, which is interesting, shameless plug. My paramount belief is

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Speaker 1: the only thing that's going to fix all the things

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Speaker 1: that alis is when an army of normal folks come together,

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Speaker 1: see the area need and fill it. Yeah, And in

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Speaker 1: a microcosm of that thirty thousand and fift view, that

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Speaker 1: is exactly what was going on three months in y'all's existence.

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Speaker 1: Because now you have this army of two hundred kids

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Speaker 1: across the country, restless wanted to be part of something good,

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Speaker 1: and if it had been as deal. Great.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's the same with you know, your football team.

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Speaker 3: It doesn't revolve around one person that everyone's catering towards.

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Speaker 3: Everyone has an equal part in the season and needs

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Speaker 3: to work together.

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Speaker 1: So that's what y'all are doing. And and your goal

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Speaker 1: was a million pounds, right.

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Speaker 2: Well, initially, no, you're not you're not wrong. That was

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Speaker 2: like we thought, if we move a million pounds of food,

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Speaker 2: that'd be pretty special. And I think a month after

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Speaker 2: we had that initial conversation, I remember talking to Aiden

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Speaker 2: and we're like, well, that was quicker than we thought.

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Speaker 1: And you want to do it a year, You did

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Speaker 1: it in a month.

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Speaker 2: And so we were just setting goals as quickly as

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Speaker 2: we could break them in a weird way. And so

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Speaker 2: I think we then made our goal, all right, this summer,

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Speaker 2: let's move ten million pounds of food and see what happens.

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Speaker 2: And I think going back to what you guys were

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Speaker 2: just addressing what we didn't realize would drive this was

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Speaker 2: the community. And we were all stripped of that right

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Speaker 2: when the pandemic began and suddenly no one I had

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Speaker 2: never had a pen pal. Do you ever become friends

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Speaker 2: with someone before the pandemic that you'd never met in person.

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Speaker 2: I hadn't something. We had a hundred faces that I

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Speaker 2: felt like I really knew, and I was getting to

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Speaker 2: know beyond just the food that we were moving and

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Speaker 2: the farmers we were calling. And that was what made

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Speaker 2: this feel like something that really had the longevity to

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Speaker 2: go further and further and further. And so that summer

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Speaker 2: was just so fast. We had this partnership with Uber

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Speaker 2: Freight where they gave us free transportation on anything we

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Speaker 2: moved with them. And it's like an uber say, it

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Speaker 2: needs to go from point A to point B, needs

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Speaker 2: to be this kind of truck at this temperature.

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Speaker 1: There's a thing called uber Freight.

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Speaker 2: There is, and we didn't know about it, but either

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Speaker 2: it gave us the space and a million dollars of

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Speaker 2: free transportation to figure it out because we were not

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Speaker 2: the most efficient at moving food at that time, but

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Speaker 2: we were contacting everybody, and so that for a summer,

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Speaker 2: because of that transportation buffer, or that ability to be

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Speaker 2: a little bit less efficient than we otherwise are now,

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Speaker 2: we learned so much. And I think in that first

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Speaker 2: year it was all about just doing with the best

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Speaker 2: intent of supporting everybody in mind and going back to

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Speaker 2: that piece I said earlier. We really wanted to make

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Speaker 2: it so that we could work with everybody. Our philosophy is,

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Speaker 2: if we're not as additive as possible to farmers and

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Speaker 2: to food banks and communities that we're serving, we're not

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Speaker 2: going to actually work in this in between space that

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Speaker 2: we think we need to be. And so that's where

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Speaker 2: we pivoted as much as we needed to in that

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Speaker 2: first year to make sure what we were doing was

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Speaker 2: as supportive as possible.

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Speaker 1: But then kids start going back to school, and therefore

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Speaker 1: your massive network of people have all this time to

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Speaker 1: give and the restlessness, they don't have that time anymore.

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Speaker 1: So now you got to pivot again, don't you.

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Speaker 2: So we're looking at the end of the summer of

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty, we're about five months into farming. We moved

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Speaker 2: ten million pounds of food ten million and five months.

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Speaker 2: Let's just stop and maritate on that for a minute.

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Speaker 2: Ten million pounds of food and five months for a

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Speaker 2: bunch of kids who start off in a U haul

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Speaker 2: picking up some eggs, I mean, that's really what we're

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Speaker 2: talking about. And a network of two hundred and fifty kids, yep,

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Speaker 2: and how much money raised at that point, I think

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Speaker 2: we were looking at it over a million dollars.

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Speaker 1: Okay, in five months. Yeah, let me just say this

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Speaker 1: real quick to everyone listening. These are college kids who

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Speaker 1: don't know jack about nothing. One of them just graduated

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Speaker 1: college and was learning storytelling. Another was laid up from

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Speaker 1: a leg injury. And all these kids get together because

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Speaker 1: they see a line of people in Pittsburgh running out

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Speaker 1: of food and they're seeing other stories about food going

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Speaker 1: to waste, and say, how can we put the two together?

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Speaker 1: And they end up getting a U haul picking up

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Speaker 1: some eggs, and in five months you've got about a

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Speaker 1: million dollars of donations. You've been on the New York Times,

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Speaker 1: you've been on World News tonight, and you've moved ten

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Speaker 1: million pounds. Well, when you put it like that, food,

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Speaker 1: well that's where we are. It's the end of the story.

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Speaker 1: So if you're sitting around right now, I want to

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Speaker 1: remind you that the two adages I say all the

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Speaker 1: time is the only thing that's going to fix this

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Speaker 1: country is when an army of normal folks decide to

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Speaker 1: bond together, rise up and say the narratives out of

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Speaker 1: the national press are set to divide us the narratives

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Speaker 1: out of DC are set to a divide us. And

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Speaker 1: the things that are really going to fix us is

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Speaker 1: when an army of normal folks look themselves in the

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Speaker 1: mirror and say, I'm going to announce those narratives that

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Speaker 1: are dividing us, and I'm going to join together with

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Speaker 1: people and say hey, I can help. And the second

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Speaker 1: thing is the magic happens when passion and discipline meet opportunity.

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Speaker 1: When you have a passion and an ability to do

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Speaker 1: something and you see an opportunity and you match those

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Speaker 1: things together, magic happens. And these two guys are such

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Speaker 1: beautiful examples of that. You had a passion and ability

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Speaker 1: and storytelling. And if you weren't able to tell stories,

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Speaker 1: you're never on world news tonight. You don't get your

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Speaker 1: first one hundred and fifty thousand dollars your mother instilled.

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Speaker 1: I don't want to take away from who you are,

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Speaker 1: but there's no way your mother did instill you a

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Speaker 1: passion for people. All that can go to her. It's true,

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Speaker 1: and you saw an opportunity and as passion and opportunity

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Speaker 1: and discipline collided in only five months, these goofy, dumb

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Speaker 1: college kids who don't really know what the hell they're doing.

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Speaker 1: Have moved ten million pounds of food to food banks

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Speaker 1: to fill the gap of hunger during COVID, have raised

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Speaker 1: a million dollars and still really don't know what they

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Speaker 1: have on their hands.

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Speaker 3: No. I remember there was a day where twelve people

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Speaker 3: were all writing on post it post it note, it's

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Speaker 3: what do you think we're doing here? Who do you

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Speaker 3: think we're helping? And where should we go? And it

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Speaker 3: was really still that arbitrary. It was like we did

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Speaker 3: not one hundred percent know where we fit into the

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Speaker 3: terrible food system.

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Speaker 1: And a lot and what I said to echo what

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Speaker 1: I said one more time is kids are also going

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Speaker 1: to start going back to school soon. You're actually going

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Speaker 1: to be in class. And so this massive network of

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Speaker 1: restless kids with free time that want to do something.

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Speaker 1: Their hearts may still be in the right place, but

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Speaker 1: pragmatism says they're going back to class. So you have

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Speaker 1: to kind of pivot at this point, don't you.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean in August, so five months in we

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Speaker 2: look up and I remember having a conversation with you

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Speaker 2: guys where we say, if we don't get so many

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Speaker 2: more kids on board to help us do this. This

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Speaker 2: is just going to go away in a month when

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Speaker 2: people do have to go back to class. Now, it's

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Speaker 2: worth noting that first school year of the pandemic, so

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Speaker 2: that September through the following spring, all class was still online.

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Speaker 2: And so I'll share my personal position. I'd finished my

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Speaker 2: degree requirements. I was taking online classes that my parents

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Speaker 2: wouldn't love hearing this. It was kind of a joke.

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Speaker 2: And you didn't have the community that students looked to

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Speaker 2: get from classes, and so Farmlink could still provide that.

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Speaker 2: And so for that first school year that carried us

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Speaker 2: into the second year, a whole year really from September

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Speaker 2: of twenty twenty five months into the pandemic until May

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Speaker 2: of the following year. We still can't that's a whole

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Speaker 2: year two slash yep. That we're now a year in

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Speaker 2: a Farmlink. We could still every few months go out

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Speaker 2: get another hundred students that were so passionate to be

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Speaker 2: a part of farm I could help build that community.

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Speaker 2: I mean, by the end of that first year of

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Speaker 2: farm Link, over four hundred students had been a part

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Speaker 2: of the farm Link project, and the community I think

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Speaker 2: at that point was still only growing and becoming stronger.

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Speaker 2: That next September, a year and a half into Farmlink.

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Speaker 2: That was that transition you were really talking about, and

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Speaker 2: that was really tricky.

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Speaker 1: Hes tell us how you did it.

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Speaker 2: Well, we're a year into Farmlink. We've moved thirty million

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Speaker 2: pounds of food. It's unbelievable. And this is fresh produce.

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Speaker 2: It's stuff that is hard to come by outside of

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Speaker 2: a pandemic. Food banks still all going to food banks,

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Speaker 2: and no food bank is paying for it. And that's

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Speaker 2: when students are going back to in person classes. I

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Speaker 2: just graduated, Ohen, You're trying to survive in LA. You

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Speaker 2: have your balance of making money outside of Farmlank trying

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Speaker 2: to still support farm Link. And this is when we

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Speaker 2: made the really difficult decision. If we don't pay somebody

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Speaker 2: to do this full time, we're really concerned about the

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Speaker 2: accountability of this project to keep growing in the way

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Speaker 2: that we think it can.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, farm Link is now a five ZHO one S

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Speaker 1: three in a rural organization. It actually needs an executive director.

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Speaker 2: It needed that and it needed We knew that the

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Speaker 2: culture and the community energy was always going to be

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Speaker 2: able to come from these young students, but there was

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Speaker 2: experience that we could benefit so much from. I mean,

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Speaker 2: we're cold calling thousands of farmers a week. We could

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Speaker 2: bring on one of the right people who just knows

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Speaker 2: all of these farmers and he can call them up

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Speaker 2: and speak their language and get the same amount of

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Speaker 2: food that thirty students spending thirty hours a week could do.

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Speaker 2: And so I graduated at that point, and Aiden and

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Speaker 2: I started working on this full time, and the full

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Speaker 2: time team began to grow from there.

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Speaker 1: We'll be right back.

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Speaker 3: And then we brought on Luis Yepis, who was the

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Speaker 3: first real adult who came into this space.

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Speaker 1: And he's the Mexican dude. Yeah, yes, yeah, he is Mexican.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, a big opera singer.

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Speaker 1: He's a Mexican singer.

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Speaker 4: He isn't a punk band.

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Speaker 2: He's incredible.

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Speaker 1: Well, let's just step back. Yeah, yeah, he's a Mexican

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Speaker 1: opera singer who is in a punk band, who of

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Speaker 1: course fits perfectly with Farmlink from a rural.

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Speaker 2: Native American community in northern Mexico, who spent his entire

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Speaker 2: life as both a rebel and someone working so hard

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Speaker 2: to take care of other people.

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Speaker 3: And the way he describes it is that he has

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Speaker 3: been the crazy guy shouting in the corner his entire

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Speaker 3: life that we need to rescue all this food, we

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Speaker 3: need to collaborate, and no one has ever listened to him.

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Speaker 5: How did the two of you hook up with Luis?

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Speaker 5: Yeahs Luis was working. I could let Ben and tell

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Speaker 5: it in a second. But Louis was work moving surplus

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Speaker 5: food in Los Angeles, an organization called Food Forward that

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Speaker 5: he was help growing, and we were partners with them.

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Speaker 5: So we were moving food with Louise, and I was

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Speaker 5: getting videos in because we were asking for storytelling and

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Speaker 5: if anyone went to the delivery, just take a footo

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Speaker 5: on your iPhone and here's this guy crying on camera

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Speaker 5: about you know, we need to get food today to people.

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Speaker 5: And he was so passionate, and I think there was

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Speaker 5: a sense that, you know, the crazy ideas that he

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Speaker 5: had dreamt of, they were possible at Farmlanke.

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Speaker 2: You know, you talk about a volunteer. He didn't work

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Speaker 2: at Food Forward when he started, and he woke up

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Speaker 2: at four am every day for years to go to

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Speaker 2: the La wholesale markets build relationships with the vendors that

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Speaker 2: were selling food to restaurants and grocery stores and built

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Speaker 2: a pipeline of food donations between them and Food Forward

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Speaker 2: that now recovers forty million pounds of food a year unpaid.

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Speaker 4: He was a volunteer, and he did.

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Speaker 2: Not have the resources to really dedicate himself in this

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Speaker 2: way if it wasn't something that was his source of life.

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Speaker 2: And I think that's something you can probably resonate pretty

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Speaker 2: strong with. But Luis called us around that time and said,

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Speaker 2: I want to do this. I want to do what

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Speaker 2: I've been doing, I want to do it at a

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Speaker 2: national scale, and I think you guys are the tip

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Speaker 2: of the arrow that can really make progress here. And

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Speaker 2: so Luise joins us in September a year and a

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Speaker 2: half into farm Link and immediately brings with him, you know,

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Speaker 2: the ability to connect with tens of millions of pounds

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Speaker 2: of food that we maybe would have one day reached,

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Speaker 2: but he knew exactly where to go find out.

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Speaker 1: He's the antithesis the cucumber people.

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Speaker 2: He is the antithesis of the que That's a great

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Speaker 2: way to put it. And I think what we even

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Speaker 2: had to train into Louise was he'd spent so long

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Speaker 2: being rejected by these institutions within food banking. He almost

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Speaker 2: was like screw will do it without them, And so

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Speaker 2: I had to sit with Louise for months to get

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Speaker 2: him to even be open to collaborating once again, because

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Speaker 2: not to his discredit, he'd been so turned they turned

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Speaker 2: their back on him so consistently they he almost had

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Speaker 2: given up on this idea that we could work with everybody,

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Speaker 2: and he met all the Cucumber people exactly, and now

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Speaker 2: he's at a place where he's opened back up to it.

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Speaker 2: I think that that optimism has been reinstilled in him.

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Speaker 2: But it's a good example of how someone who's so

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Speaker 2: well intentioned can even be driven away from that spirit

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Speaker 2: of collaboration, just because it's so difficult to hold hold

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Speaker 2: yourself accountable to that level of optimism.

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Speaker 1: It's just I don't know you all a thousand eggs,

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Speaker 1: a sheet, a Mexican opera singer. You can't make this up, right.

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Speaker 4: That's why we made a film. It's never going to

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Speaker 4: happen again.

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Speaker 2: And you know Owen's film, It doesn't even really tell you.

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Speaker 3: The film is called Abundance. If you look up Abundance

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Speaker 3: farm link, you can see it on YouTube.

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Speaker 1: Right, which I watched again today in preparation of you guys,

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Speaker 1: it's really really well done and I'm not doing your

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Speaker 1: story the credit that the film does. I'm trying to

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Speaker 1: piece it together for our listeners. But I hope you

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Speaker 1: all will go watch Abundance. I think it was a

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Speaker 1: It had a Moniker on. It was some film festival.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, we just won Best Documentary at Sun Valley Film

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Speaker 3: Festival and we won mon Talk Film Festival as well.

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Speaker 1: This congratulations, man, I know that is that. I know

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Speaker 1: you don't make films to win awards. The awards verify

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Speaker 1: the good work that you do, So congratulations on that.

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Speaker 1: So take me from the Mexican Opera singer today.

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Speaker 2: Well, that first year was really difficult from a cultural

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Speaker 2: community the week right, Yeah, because I'm here with Aiden,

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Speaker 2: with James Seer.

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Speaker 1: I mean I was.

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Speaker 2: I had moved to Los Angeles after graduating, and we

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Speaker 2: have a few people that are being paid that cannot

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Speaker 2: provide the level of accountability to someone like Luis or Emma,

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Speaker 2: our new director of development, and these folks that came

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Speaker 2: from real workplaces where you expect a level of accountability

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Speaker 2: from your teammates, and at the same time we couldn't

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Speaker 2: provide All of these college students are peers and contemporaries

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Speaker 2: and friends the level of involvement and leadership that they'd

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Speaker 2: once had, not just because we had a full time team,

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Speaker 2: but because now their communities were opening back up again.

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Speaker 2: They couldn't work thirty hours a week, they could work five.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what I was trying to get in.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And so that first school year was really tough,

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Speaker 2: and you had a lot of our teammates that have

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Speaker 2: been around since the start that just came to the

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Speaker 2: conclusion that it was their time to go and focus

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Speaker 2: on other things because Farmlink couldn't be what it was

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Speaker 2: for them in that first year. That's not anyone's fault.

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Speaker 2: And it was really painful because you'd see people burn

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Speaker 2: out and move on. But fortunately that's the reality of

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Speaker 2: philanthropy though, of course. And thankfully what you'd see is

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Speaker 2: they'd burn out, there'd be a period that was really tough,

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Speaker 2: and then the second they were gone, they'd immediately look

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Speaker 2: back on Farmlink with love and it felt like immediately

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Speaker 2: it was water under the bridge. And so once we

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Speaker 2: got through that first year, it felt like, all right,

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Speaker 2: the last two and a half years, we've really been

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Speaker 2: building this team, building something special, and.

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Speaker 3: Now it's a mix between the college students who you

439
00:22:46,840 --> 00:22:49,600
Speaker 3: see in the film building this all up and industry

440
00:22:49,600 --> 00:22:52,399
Speaker 3: professionals who have left some of the biggest nonprofits in

441
00:22:52,400 --> 00:22:55,080
Speaker 3: the country to work on this. And that hybrid model

442
00:22:55,119 --> 00:22:57,680
Speaker 3: has worked really well because you still have that imagination

443
00:22:57,800 --> 00:23:02,480
Speaker 3: and that rebelliousness of young people, and you have older

444
00:23:02,480 --> 00:23:06,760
Speaker 3: people who have these really strong connections and systems and

445
00:23:06,800 --> 00:23:08,200
Speaker 3: mechanisms to move all this food.

446
00:23:08,359 --> 00:23:13,199
Speaker 1: So, Ben, did you take some of those people jumping

447
00:23:13,320 --> 00:23:16,919
Speaker 1: ship because of the reality of their burnout and that

448
00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:19,440
Speaker 1: they had a life now that they had to pursue

449
00:23:19,480 --> 00:23:22,280
Speaker 1: because we were returning to normalcy? Did you take that personally?

450
00:23:23,440 --> 00:23:26,480
Speaker 2: I didn't take it personally. I knew that it had

451
00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:29,680
Speaker 2: to happen, and at the same time, it was deeply

452
00:23:29,800 --> 00:23:35,119
Speaker 2: saddening and painful to watch. And I think I've always

453
00:23:35,119 --> 00:23:38,000
Speaker 2: been lucky to be able to look far enough ahead

454
00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:40,040
Speaker 2: at things to see why some of the more difficult

455
00:23:40,080 --> 00:23:42,120
Speaker 2: things are worth it. But it doesn't make it any

456
00:23:42,119 --> 00:23:45,560
Speaker 2: easier to go through it. And especially when these aren't

457
00:23:45,640 --> 00:23:49,240
Speaker 2: just colleagues, they are now some of my closest friends.

458
00:23:50,040 --> 00:23:52,600
Speaker 2: That balance is so difficult because they're decisions that I

459
00:23:52,720 --> 00:23:55,119
Speaker 2: know we need to make and I know they're going

460
00:23:55,200 --> 00:23:56,040
Speaker 2: to hurt my friends.

461
00:23:56,880 --> 00:24:00,240
Speaker 1: You said you learned a lot about what the true

462
00:24:00,320 --> 00:24:04,960
Speaker 1: definition of community was during the pandemic days. Yeah, what

463
00:24:05,160 --> 00:24:05,480
Speaker 1: is that?

464
00:24:07,160 --> 00:24:11,000
Speaker 2: I felt we could give people a sense of purpose

465
00:24:12,240 --> 00:24:17,480
Speaker 2: along with that sense of belonging, and that created something

466
00:24:17,520 --> 00:24:20,240
Speaker 2: that was more powerful than anything I've ever been a

467
00:24:20,280 --> 00:24:24,360
Speaker 2: part of. I remember in the end of our first year,

468
00:24:24,440 --> 00:24:26,919
Speaker 2: we would do these seasonal ceremonies where often there are

469
00:24:26,920 --> 00:24:29,040
Speaker 2: a lot of people moving on, we'd take a moment

470
00:24:29,080 --> 00:24:32,119
Speaker 2: and we would have a session that we would just

471
00:24:32,160 --> 00:24:34,480
Speaker 2: open up. We'd call it thank Yous, and it would

472
00:24:34,520 --> 00:24:37,440
Speaker 2: just be a space where anyone could unmute and give

473
00:24:37,480 --> 00:24:39,480
Speaker 2: a shout out, a thank you, a moment of recognition

474
00:24:39,520 --> 00:24:41,920
Speaker 2: to anyone else. And they would always start pretty slowly,

475
00:24:42,520 --> 00:24:45,720
Speaker 2: and within five minutes you'd have people just completely opening

476
00:24:45,760 --> 00:24:48,399
Speaker 2: themselves up. And I'm not someone who cries very often.

477
00:24:49,840 --> 00:24:51,760
Speaker 2: We suddenly are on zoom. People are in one hundred

478
00:24:51,760 --> 00:24:53,960
Speaker 2: different place around the country, and half of them are

479
00:24:54,000 --> 00:24:57,879
Speaker 2: just bawling. And I will share one story you referenced Joe.

480
00:24:58,600 --> 00:25:00,560
Speaker 2: Joe is this teammate of ours who joined us in

481
00:25:00,560 --> 00:25:03,040
Speaker 2: the summer. I don't think any of us had really

482
00:25:03,040 --> 00:25:05,720
Speaker 2: met him in person. He was so bubbly and positive,

483
00:25:05,720 --> 00:25:07,880
Speaker 2: and anything you asked him to do, he'd be like, sure, man,

484
00:25:07,960 --> 00:25:11,639
Speaker 2: I'm happy to can do. Guess so positive to the

485
00:25:11,680 --> 00:25:14,919
Speaker 2: point where you're like, I can't believe how optimistic he is.

486
00:25:15,440 --> 00:25:17,840
Speaker 2: And he gets on this zoom and he says, hey,

487
00:25:17,880 --> 00:25:19,639
Speaker 2: I haven't talked about this with a lot of you guys,

488
00:25:20,760 --> 00:25:24,359
Speaker 2: but a couple of weeks before, a couple weeks before

489
00:25:24,520 --> 00:25:29,119
Speaker 2: I joined farm Link, my dad passed away from COVID.

490
00:25:30,560 --> 00:25:33,840
Speaker 2: Even now, I can feel my heart like pounding, and

491
00:25:35,119 --> 00:25:37,280
Speaker 2: I'm not someone who cries that often, especially in front

492
00:25:37,280 --> 00:25:39,800
Speaker 2: of other people. And on Zoom, I'm falling in front

493
00:25:39,800 --> 00:25:41,959
Speaker 2: of a hundred people and I can't I can barely speak,

494
00:25:42,440 --> 00:25:45,960
Speaker 2: And I still felt so okay being there with them

495
00:25:46,240 --> 00:25:50,919
Speaker 2: and being that kind of vulnerable, And I think that

496
00:25:52,800 --> 00:25:55,360
Speaker 2: it was such a sign. And Joe wasn't the only

497
00:25:55,359 --> 00:25:57,120
Speaker 2: one sharing stories. You had all these people were saying

498
00:25:57,160 --> 00:25:59,960
Speaker 2: I was so confused, so lost, so upset, so to proud,

499
00:26:00,240 --> 00:26:03,240
Speaker 2: and this has given me something. And we're not even

500
00:26:03,520 --> 00:26:05,600
Speaker 2: at this point, we're not even talking yet about the

501
00:26:05,640 --> 00:26:07,880
Speaker 2: impact that this is having on the lives of people

502
00:26:07,920 --> 00:26:10,440
Speaker 2: receiving the food. We're just looking at these peers and colleagues,

503
00:26:10,480 --> 00:26:14,000
Speaker 2: and I think that was that feeling of community that

504
00:26:14,160 --> 00:26:19,680
Speaker 2: was so strong from all of these places around the country.

505
00:26:19,720 --> 00:26:22,440
Speaker 1: When you did the pivot, what you learn about leadership.

506
00:26:28,800 --> 00:26:34,000
Speaker 2: I learned that we have to help people see why

507
00:26:34,080 --> 00:26:39,879
Speaker 2: the work they're doing matters and ladders up to a

508
00:26:39,960 --> 00:26:43,240
Speaker 2: north Star goal. Because I could tell you with confidence

509
00:26:43,280 --> 00:26:46,240
Speaker 2: we have twenty one full time employees. I could tell

510
00:26:46,280 --> 00:26:48,480
Speaker 2: you how every single one of them is doing something

511
00:26:48,680 --> 00:26:51,960
Speaker 2: that if they weren't there, it would destabilize what we're doing.

512
00:26:52,720 --> 00:26:55,760
Speaker 2: And I know there are times where that is lost

513
00:26:55,960 --> 00:27:00,000
Speaker 2: for people, and that's when burnout and confusion and frustrated,

514
00:27:00,640 --> 00:27:04,440
Speaker 2: that's when it occurs. And I think my biggest job

515
00:27:04,720 --> 00:27:08,439
Speaker 2: for farm Link is as much as possible helping people

516
00:27:08,480 --> 00:27:13,439
Speaker 2: see that connection. And there are sometimes where we'll have

517
00:27:13,520 --> 00:27:18,359
Speaker 2: a gap where nobody has the ability to problem solve

518
00:27:18,440 --> 00:27:20,680
Speaker 2: in an area, and that's when it falls on my plate.

519
00:27:21,160 --> 00:27:23,760
Speaker 2: And so along with helping people see this is your

520
00:27:23,800 --> 00:27:26,399
Speaker 2: biggest responsibility, the other thing that I think is my

521
00:27:26,560 --> 00:27:29,520
Speaker 2: job at farm Link is saying, Okay, this is a

522
00:27:29,560 --> 00:27:31,680
Speaker 2: gap that no one's position to fill. And I sure

523
00:27:31,680 --> 00:27:33,679
Speaker 2: as hell shouldn't be doing it. That's when we need

524
00:27:33,720 --> 00:27:36,479
Speaker 2: to bring on someone else. And so it's just finding

525
00:27:36,520 --> 00:27:39,119
Speaker 2: your position, helping people see their role, and then helping

526
00:27:39,119 --> 00:27:39,600
Speaker 2: the team grow.

527
00:27:39,680 --> 00:28:00,440
Speaker 1: At the right time, we'll be right back. It's your

528
00:28:00,640 --> 00:28:06,840
Speaker 1: greatest lesson of documenting and being involved, but also documenting

529
00:28:06,880 --> 00:28:07,760
Speaker 1: and telling the story.

530
00:28:09,040 --> 00:28:10,560
Speaker 4: I think it's.

531
00:28:11,560 --> 00:28:17,040
Speaker 3: It's how strong of a motivator hope is versus dwelling

532
00:28:17,040 --> 00:28:20,520
Speaker 3: on the negative, dwelling on the problem. I think I

533
00:28:20,600 --> 00:28:26,320
Speaker 3: had grown up with nonprofit storytelling being show people how

534
00:28:26,400 --> 00:28:32,200
Speaker 3: bad it really is, and you know, yeah, Syrian crisis.

535
00:28:32,000 --> 00:28:35,720
Speaker 3: There's actually a really interesting New York Times article on

536
00:28:35,800 --> 00:28:39,760
Speaker 3: why the Syrian refugee crisis raised didn't raise very much

537
00:28:39,800 --> 00:28:45,000
Speaker 3: money proportionally to other major world crises. It's because the storytelling.

538
00:28:45,280 --> 00:28:47,560
Speaker 3: In many ways, it's because the storytelling did not provide

539
00:28:47,560 --> 00:28:50,960
Speaker 3: a pathway for hope. If you see a kid whose

540
00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:54,440
Speaker 3: house has just been bombed and they're covered in soot,

541
00:28:54,640 --> 00:28:58,680
Speaker 3: and that those are the visuals that you're seeing, it

542
00:28:58,800 --> 00:29:01,160
Speaker 3: is good to communicate the truth. You need to know

543
00:29:01,200 --> 00:29:04,720
Speaker 3: what's going on, But someone who wants to help does

544
00:29:04,800 --> 00:29:08,000
Speaker 3: not think they can if you can tell a story

545
00:29:08,080 --> 00:29:11,240
Speaker 3: going from the rubble to being in a more stable

546
00:29:11,280 --> 00:29:15,400
Speaker 3: place where you have educational materials and access to teachers

547
00:29:15,400 --> 00:29:18,960
Speaker 3: and more resources. And the donations are creating that pipeline,

548
00:29:18,960 --> 00:29:22,239
Speaker 3: and you can see that that will rally people, that

549
00:29:22,320 --> 00:29:25,720
Speaker 3: will get people to actually drive change. And we saw

550
00:29:25,760 --> 00:29:29,920
Speaker 3: the same thing with Farmlink. When we post videos, if

551
00:29:29,960 --> 00:29:32,720
Speaker 3: we lead with the problem in the first minute, people

552
00:29:32,720 --> 00:29:36,000
Speaker 3: stop listening after five seconds. People do not want to

553
00:29:36,080 --> 00:29:39,000
Speaker 3: hear how bad the problem is. If you lead with

554
00:29:39,120 --> 00:29:42,280
Speaker 3: some sort of teaser leaving the door open that hey,

555
00:29:42,280 --> 00:29:43,840
Speaker 3: there's something we can do here and we can do

556
00:29:43,880 --> 00:29:47,360
Speaker 3: it together, people watch until the end and I had never.

557
00:29:47,440 --> 00:29:50,680
Speaker 1: And get involved, either financially or individually.

558
00:29:50,200 --> 00:29:51,240
Speaker 4: And get involved.

559
00:29:51,360 --> 00:29:51,640
Speaker 1: Yeah.

560
00:29:51,760 --> 00:29:55,720
Speaker 3: Yeah, And similar to what Ben said, if you give

561
00:29:55,800 --> 00:29:59,760
Speaker 3: people purpose, they will it will become a part of

562
00:29:59,800 --> 00:30:02,320
Speaker 3: their identity. It's more than a job, it's more than

563
00:30:02,360 --> 00:30:05,160
Speaker 3: a hobby. It's you know, it's a real it's a

564
00:30:05,200 --> 00:30:09,200
Speaker 3: real passion. Like I dedicated seventy or eighty hours a

565
00:30:09,240 --> 00:30:13,080
Speaker 3: week for a while to this. That's everything, Like you're

566
00:30:13,120 --> 00:30:15,440
Speaker 3: eating while you're working and you're doing something like that.

567
00:30:15,480 --> 00:30:19,880
Speaker 3: And it's because it's because we tied our identities to it.

568
00:30:20,480 --> 00:30:24,640
Speaker 1: Something just about every guest will say after speaking with them,

569
00:30:24,800 --> 00:30:31,920
Speaker 1: is the payoff is regardless of how much you work,

570
00:30:32,080 --> 00:30:34,200
Speaker 1: or how many hours you put in, or how much

571
00:30:34,240 --> 00:30:37,920
Speaker 1: effort bud sweat and tears in it, you get exponentially

572
00:30:38,000 --> 00:30:40,560
Speaker 1: more out of the experience than you ever put into it.

573
00:30:41,040 --> 00:30:43,920
Speaker 1: And I hear your growth. How do you know, twenty five,

574
00:30:45,040 --> 00:30:51,720
Speaker 1: you're a twenty five year old kid who has maybe

575
00:30:51,760 --> 00:30:57,520
Speaker 1: a better take on community and leadership than many forty

576
00:30:57,560 --> 00:30:59,600
Speaker 1: and fifty year old people I've ever been around as

577
00:30:59,680 --> 00:31:02,880
Speaker 1: because you had to create it and grow it and

578
00:31:02,880 --> 00:31:08,280
Speaker 1: live it. And you're a dude who graduated starving as

579
00:31:08,480 --> 00:31:12,680
Speaker 1: a storyteller, who took what you learned working with some

580
00:31:12,760 --> 00:31:19,160
Speaker 1: guys doing a story in Syria and have created I

581
00:31:19,200 --> 00:31:23,040
Speaker 1: assume your first real project that is now winning awards

582
00:31:24,080 --> 00:31:26,480
Speaker 1: as a result of the work you put in and

583
00:31:27,120 --> 00:31:30,840
Speaker 1: inn that the payoff to all of it is you

584
00:31:30,920 --> 00:31:33,960
Speaker 1: get exponentially more out of it than you put into it,

585
00:31:34,080 --> 00:31:40,280
Speaker 1: all the while motivating, encouraging, giving people hope, and feeding

586
00:31:40,320 --> 00:31:46,240
Speaker 1: the hungry. Yeah, I mean, you're too young for that

587
00:31:46,360 --> 00:31:48,600
Speaker 1: to be the pinnacle. You got more to do.

588
00:31:49,040 --> 00:31:53,040
Speaker 3: Yeah, but guys, it's been amazing, And I will say

589
00:31:53,040 --> 00:31:56,600
Speaker 3: there's one moment where the payoff feels so much greater

590
00:31:56,680 --> 00:31:59,680
Speaker 3: than anything else. It's when we're at a distribution. The

591
00:32:00,080 --> 00:32:02,880
Speaker 3: truck gets delivered, there's a pile of food as high

592
00:32:02,920 --> 00:32:05,800
Speaker 3: as you can imagine, and then throughout the course of

593
00:32:05,800 --> 00:32:07,880
Speaker 3: the day, it all disappears.

594
00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:09,480
Speaker 4: It all like you see.

595
00:32:09,240 --> 00:32:12,800
Speaker 3: Every with your hands, you hand, like every family like

596
00:32:13,200 --> 00:32:16,680
Speaker 3: passes through, receives that food and it's all gone. Like,

597
00:32:16,760 --> 00:32:19,600
Speaker 3: I honestly do not feel an ounce of happiness when

598
00:32:19,640 --> 00:32:21,800
Speaker 3: we win an award or do a screening. I honestly

599
00:32:21,840 --> 00:32:23,520
Speaker 3: get kind of anxious when I have to speak or

600
00:32:23,600 --> 00:32:26,080
Speaker 3: I have to go on stage. That part is like

601
00:32:26,600 --> 00:32:29,880
Speaker 3: a necessary evil of promoting what we're doing. But it's

602
00:32:29,920 --> 00:32:32,880
Speaker 3: the distributions where it's like that is the real payoff,

603
00:32:33,040 --> 00:32:36,280
Speaker 3: like like we did something, we built something that helped

604
00:32:36,440 --> 00:32:38,840
Speaker 3: make this happen in collaboration with our partners.

605
00:32:39,080 --> 00:32:43,240
Speaker 1: So tell me, yeah, how many pounds As of to

606
00:32:43,520 --> 00:32:48,680
Speaker 1: day you goofy kids have delivered.

607
00:32:49,520 --> 00:32:54,080
Speaker 2: Over two hundred million pounds of fresh and healthy food

608
00:32:54,640 --> 00:32:57,560
Speaker 2: and a few truckloads of ice cream when it's been donated.

609
00:32:57,160 --> 00:33:03,240
Speaker 1: To us, Farmley, it's ice cream. The ice cream guy.

610
00:33:03,480 --> 00:33:06,920
Speaker 2: We're not prescriptive about what communities should have access to.

611
00:33:07,080 --> 00:33:09,200
Speaker 2: We're just gonna focus on the stuff the toughest to get,

612
00:33:09,400 --> 00:33:11,600
Speaker 2: which is the fresh and healthy food. So if someone

613
00:33:11,600 --> 00:33:13,360
Speaker 2: calls and says blue Bunny will call and say we

614
00:33:13,360 --> 00:33:15,520
Speaker 2: have a chocolate of ice cream, sure that's gonna make

615
00:33:15,520 --> 00:33:18,280
Speaker 2: people more happy than the radishes we got. But we

616
00:33:18,320 --> 00:33:18,720
Speaker 2: know that.

617
00:33:20,520 --> 00:33:22,960
Speaker 1: I will take beaucoup ice cream over a bushel of

618
00:33:23,040 --> 00:33:27,040
Speaker 1: radishes for any day a week. So, and you have

619
00:33:27,160 --> 00:33:29,080
Speaker 1: twenty one full time show.

620
00:33:29,080 --> 00:33:32,040
Speaker 2: Employees, We've had over seven hundred students and young change

621
00:33:32,040 --> 00:33:35,719
Speaker 2: makers a part of the farm Link project since twenty twenty,

622
00:33:36,200 --> 00:33:39,360
Speaker 2: and I just want to agree with what Owen just

623
00:33:39,400 --> 00:33:42,200
Speaker 2: said about being there in person. I didn't hold a

624
00:33:42,200 --> 00:33:44,640
Speaker 2: piece of food that farm Linked had helped rescue in

625
00:33:44,640 --> 00:33:47,000
Speaker 2: my hands for a year and a half, and there

626
00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:47,640
Speaker 2: were miles.

627
00:33:47,960 --> 00:33:50,560
Speaker 1: It was all virtual, all virtual.

628
00:33:50,200 --> 00:33:52,240
Speaker 2: And I couldn't I couldn't even walk for that first year.

629
00:33:52,280 --> 00:33:55,280
Speaker 2: I wasn't anywhere near a distribution. And by the time

630
00:33:55,320 --> 00:33:58,560
Speaker 2: I finally saw, I started crying too, because there were

631
00:33:58,600 --> 00:34:00,920
Speaker 2: moments where I thought, man, this is what we're doing.

632
00:34:01,040 --> 00:34:01,480
Speaker 4: It's great.

633
00:34:01,520 --> 00:34:04,560
Speaker 2: We've moved fifteen million pounds of food. I've seen nothing

634
00:34:04,600 --> 00:34:07,600
Speaker 2: that validates that I'm not just losing my mind in

635
00:34:07,640 --> 00:34:11,480
Speaker 2: my bedroom right now, and so actually being there and

636
00:34:11,480 --> 00:34:14,279
Speaker 2: seeing the impact, that's why we do all of this.

637
00:34:14,640 --> 00:34:18,080
Speaker 1: And Uh, what's what's a what's a what's a family

638
00:34:18,200 --> 00:34:22,640
Speaker 1: driving through a food bank? Whatever stuck through their window?

639
00:34:22,719 --> 00:34:25,040
Speaker 1: What does that look like? Is that a box? And

640
00:34:25,080 --> 00:34:26,399
Speaker 1: what's in it? You know what I'm saying?

641
00:34:26,480 --> 00:34:28,600
Speaker 4: It depends, Yeah, it depends.

642
00:34:28,880 --> 00:34:29,319
Speaker 1: Give me a.

643
00:34:31,239 --> 00:34:36,040
Speaker 3: So one of our food distribution in Navajo Nation, there's

644
00:34:36,120 --> 00:34:39,800
Speaker 3: one where you know, you'll receive a box of mixed produce.

645
00:34:39,920 --> 00:34:44,960
Speaker 3: Maybe there's lettuce, tomatoes, apples, onions, oranges, everything. Yeah, and

646
00:34:44,960 --> 00:34:48,440
Speaker 3: then you'll also receive some non perishables, so a box

647
00:34:48,480 --> 00:34:49,560
Speaker 3: of what's.

648
00:34:49,320 --> 00:34:53,960
Speaker 2: In the pasta cans, canned goods, et cetera. We're not

649
00:34:54,640 --> 00:34:57,359
Speaker 2: we're We're a part of that. And that's where farm

650
00:34:57,400 --> 00:34:59,960
Speaker 2: Link needs to be seen. Alongside the thousands of other

651
00:35:00,080 --> 00:35:03,000
Speaker 2: organizations in this space. We could get we could get

652
00:35:03,040 --> 00:35:05,160
Speaker 2: more fresh produced to every single community in this country.

653
00:35:05,400 --> 00:35:08,680
Speaker 2: They're still going to need support with grains and non

654
00:35:08,680 --> 00:35:13,040
Speaker 2: perishables and dairy, et cetera. And so it is a

655
00:35:13,080 --> 00:35:15,200
Speaker 2: box of all of that. I think something that's worth

656
00:35:15,239 --> 00:35:18,720
Speaker 2: saying is it needs to be so much better still,

657
00:35:19,040 --> 00:35:22,719
Speaker 2: and how can it be? Well, I think there's the

658
00:35:22,840 --> 00:35:25,680
Speaker 2: food access piece and then there's the social stigma piece.

659
00:35:26,520 --> 00:35:30,160
Speaker 2: I'll start with the food access piece. We believe Farmlink

660
00:35:30,200 --> 00:35:33,840
Speaker 2: has a confident understanding of how we can direct billions

661
00:35:33,880 --> 00:35:36,320
Speaker 2: of servings of fresh produce to communities around the country

662
00:35:36,560 --> 00:35:39,640
Speaker 2: with consistency. And that's so exciting that He's always that

663
00:35:39,880 --> 00:35:43,520
Speaker 2: you believe you've got that distribution and network now. And

664
00:35:43,520 --> 00:35:45,040
Speaker 2: that's the story we're trying to tell over the next

665
00:35:45,080 --> 00:35:48,319
Speaker 2: six months with Owen's next project, and it is that's

666
00:35:48,360 --> 00:35:49,759
Speaker 2: a hard thing to figure out, but that's made to

667
00:35:49,760 --> 00:35:50,520
Speaker 2: seem impossible.

668
00:35:50,560 --> 00:35:52,960
Speaker 1: It's not. But the other view got it. I mean,

669
00:35:53,000 --> 00:35:55,400
Speaker 1: are you able to do that? Yeah, with all confidence

670
00:35:55,480 --> 00:35:56,080
Speaker 1: you can do that.

671
00:35:56,160 --> 00:35:58,319
Speaker 2: I will say, with all confidence, we want to do that.

672
00:35:58,400 --> 00:36:03,280
Speaker 2: So what's next? So what's next is the social stigma piece.

673
00:36:04,000 --> 00:36:06,359
Speaker 2: Fifty percent of people that are food and secure and

674
00:36:06,400 --> 00:36:08,799
Speaker 2: know where the local food pantry is will still not

675
00:36:08,880 --> 00:36:12,239
Speaker 2: go largely because of the social stigma associated with that choice.

676
00:36:12,239 --> 00:36:14,600
Speaker 2: I mean, you guys, they you look at the beginning

677
00:36:14,600 --> 00:36:16,680
Speaker 2: of the pandemic, there are millions of people that are

678
00:36:16,680 --> 00:36:18,760
Speaker 2: food and secure for the first time, in their lives,

679
00:36:19,200 --> 00:36:21,160
Speaker 2: and if you're lucky enough to have never needed to

680
00:36:21,160 --> 00:36:22,879
Speaker 2: go to a food pantry, you think, well, that's for them,

681
00:36:22,960 --> 00:36:26,520
Speaker 2: that's not for me. That us versus them divide is

682
00:36:26,560 --> 00:36:29,320
Speaker 2: what creates that stigma to begin with. And a parallel

683
00:36:29,400 --> 00:36:32,000
Speaker 2: we talk about all the time is that used to

684
00:36:32,080 --> 00:36:34,439
Speaker 2: exist with water. It used to be if you could

685
00:36:34,440 --> 00:36:37,960
Speaker 2: afford to drink filtered water, you would buy it, and

686
00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:40,120
Speaker 2: if you had to, you drink that public well water.

687
00:36:40,440 --> 00:36:42,800
Speaker 2: And that was especially when water was a leading cause

688
00:36:42,960 --> 00:36:45,399
Speaker 2: of non war death. It wasn't as safe, but then

689
00:36:45,440 --> 00:36:47,600
Speaker 2: it got safe, and there was still that stigma, and

690
00:36:47,680 --> 00:36:52,160
Speaker 2: over decades, huge investments were made in normalizing clean, safe,

691
00:36:52,400 --> 00:36:57,320
Speaker 2: and dignified drinking water. And by and large, now whether

692
00:36:57,360 --> 00:37:00,200
Speaker 2: you drink for free from a water fountain or a

693
00:37:00,239 --> 00:37:03,360
Speaker 2: bottle of Fiji water, now their experience is more dignified

694
00:37:03,440 --> 00:37:05,480
Speaker 2: than the other. And we're nowhere near that being the

695
00:37:05,520 --> 00:37:08,880
Speaker 2: case with food, despite how necessary it is. And so

696
00:37:09,040 --> 00:37:11,800
Speaker 2: a lot of people talk about the end goal being

697
00:37:12,480 --> 00:37:14,719
Speaker 2: no one needs food banks, and I think that is

698
00:37:14,880 --> 00:37:18,160
Speaker 2: a reasonable end goal. But another thing we talk about

699
00:37:18,320 --> 00:37:22,040
Speaker 2: is what about a world where food is so ubiquitous that,

700
00:37:22,160 --> 00:37:24,239
Speaker 2: like water, you can be in an airport and an

701
00:37:24,280 --> 00:37:27,440
Speaker 2: afterschool program wherever it is, if you need food, there

702
00:37:27,480 --> 00:37:30,160
Speaker 2: will be food there, and you're still buying food. But

703
00:37:30,920 --> 00:37:35,360
Speaker 2: there is that there's not that divide where the concept

704
00:37:35,400 --> 00:37:39,400
Speaker 2: of food assistance and food access are just blending together.

705
00:37:40,040 --> 00:37:43,560
Speaker 2: That piece comes from one improving the actual quality of

706
00:37:43,560 --> 00:37:46,880
Speaker 2: food assistance, but then challenging why people see food like

707
00:37:46,920 --> 00:37:49,440
Speaker 2: that to begin with. And I think storytelling is at

708
00:37:49,440 --> 00:37:51,719
Speaker 2: the center of how we can even make that possible.

709
00:37:51,920 --> 00:37:58,000
Speaker 1: Have you thought about as I'm listening to you, I

710
00:37:58,120 --> 00:38:02,279
Speaker 1: have a friend named John Wilfon. John played basketball for

711
00:38:02,320 --> 00:38:04,880
Speaker 1: the University of Memphis back in the day when we

712
00:38:05,000 --> 00:38:06,600
Speaker 1: used to go to the final four and lead eight

713
00:38:06,640 --> 00:38:08,600
Speaker 1: all the time. I bet you remember John will Fong.

714
00:38:09,000 --> 00:38:11,680
Speaker 1: That's the other producer shaking us said, yeah, a stroke,

715
00:38:11,760 --> 00:38:17,360
Speaker 1: bro cun it up. He and actually his son, and

716
00:38:17,480 --> 00:38:23,400
Speaker 1: he started coaching for literacy, which is I don't know

717
00:38:23,400 --> 00:38:25,719
Speaker 1: if you've ever seen a coach on a sideline, they've

718
00:38:25,760 --> 00:38:31,520
Speaker 1: got a little green ribbon. Hell. And it all started

719
00:38:31,560 --> 00:38:35,840
Speaker 1: from finding out that if you're not reading by grade

720
00:38:35,960 --> 00:38:41,759
Speaker 1: level by I think third grade, that the data shows

721
00:38:41,960 --> 00:38:46,000
Speaker 1: that an exponentially higher percentage of people who don't read

722
00:38:46,080 --> 00:38:48,920
Speaker 1: by grade level by third grade, will end up in poverty,

723
00:38:49,040 --> 00:38:53,719
Speaker 1: in jail, dead and all of that, Okay, And so

724
00:38:53,800 --> 00:38:56,799
Speaker 1: their goal is to work with the schools and communities

725
00:38:56,840 --> 00:39:02,280
Speaker 1: and families and get kids grade level reading about third grade.

726
00:39:02,320 --> 00:39:04,920
Speaker 1: Because if you are reading the antithesis on the other

727
00:39:04,960 --> 00:39:07,160
Speaker 1: side of that is, if you are reading about third grade,

728
00:39:07,640 --> 00:39:11,239
Speaker 1: your trajectory has all kinds of positive possibilities. But if

729
00:39:11,280 --> 00:39:14,560
Speaker 1: kids aren't read bedtime stories, and if they are not

730
00:39:14,680 --> 00:39:20,399
Speaker 1: sung lullabies and they hear nothing but noise as infants

731
00:39:20,440 --> 00:39:26,160
Speaker 1: and small children instead of educational stuff, they're probably not

732
00:39:26,200 --> 00:39:28,319
Speaker 1: going to read about third grade level. But if they

733
00:39:28,480 --> 00:39:32,960
Speaker 1: are read bedtime stories and books, so there, that's that

734
00:39:35,239 --> 00:39:40,600
Speaker 1: I also can't help think about when I'm hearing you say, okay,

735
00:39:40,600 --> 00:39:42,719
Speaker 1: we can distribute food, but now we got to work

736
00:39:42,760 --> 00:39:46,239
Speaker 1: on this social impact to the stigma, which I get

737
00:39:46,239 --> 00:39:49,719
Speaker 1: it because I've driven down streets and seen lines of

738
00:39:49,760 --> 00:39:53,120
Speaker 1: cars of people waiting for boxes of food at food banks.

739
00:39:53,160 --> 00:39:55,520
Speaker 1: And in Memphis, it's a lot of churches that do it,

740
00:40:00,280 --> 00:40:02,080
Speaker 1: and there are people who drive by them and look

741
00:40:02,120 --> 00:40:06,319
Speaker 1: down their nose at those folks, and you know, those

742
00:40:06,360 --> 00:40:08,920
Speaker 1: folks are faced with do I feel like a second

743
00:40:08,960 --> 00:40:12,799
Speaker 1: class that is in or drive feed my children. And

744
00:40:15,239 --> 00:40:20,319
Speaker 1: we need to get over ourselves a little bit when

745
00:40:20,360 --> 00:40:24,160
Speaker 1: we think about the people in those lines and whatever

746
00:40:24,239 --> 00:40:26,840
Speaker 1: struggles led them to themselves that their food and secure

747
00:40:26,920 --> 00:40:29,319
Speaker 1: and the ability to get food. And I think you're right.

748
00:40:29,360 --> 00:40:31,879
Speaker 1: But the other thing is this, I think there's an

749
00:40:32,000 --> 00:40:35,600
Speaker 1: entire other social impact that should be communicated, which is,

750
00:40:39,040 --> 00:40:44,000
Speaker 1: how does a hungry kid learn to read? If reading

751
00:40:44,040 --> 00:40:47,279
Speaker 1: on third grade level is so paramount to the success

752
00:40:47,320 --> 00:40:54,640
Speaker 1: of your entire life, then so must be hunger. Because

753
00:40:54,640 --> 00:40:57,160
Speaker 1: a hungry kid can't learn in school well, a hungry

754
00:40:57,239 --> 00:41:00,320
Speaker 1: kid can't be happy, a hungry kid does not sleep well,

755
00:41:00,640 --> 00:41:02,880
Speaker 1: and a hungry kid is not going to And a

756
00:41:03,480 --> 00:41:05,799
Speaker 1: parent with hungry kid, it's not going to be thinking

757
00:41:05,800 --> 00:41:08,000
Speaker 1: about Lola Bajah bedtime stories. They're going to be thinking

758
00:41:08,040 --> 00:41:11,239
Speaker 1: about how do I get food in my baby? So

759
00:41:11,280 --> 00:41:15,319
Speaker 1: there's not only the social stigma about receiving food, there's

760
00:41:15,400 --> 00:41:20,600
Speaker 1: also a social impact on people who are hungry.

761
00:41:21,600 --> 00:41:22,000
Speaker 4: Totally.

762
00:41:27,080 --> 00:41:28,080
Speaker 1: We will be right back.

763
00:41:36,920 --> 00:41:38,360
Speaker 4: We've already told our own story.

764
00:41:38,560 --> 00:41:40,920
Speaker 3: It's time to tell the story of the people that

765
00:41:40,960 --> 00:41:43,440
Speaker 3: we're working with who are serving and.

766
00:41:43,719 --> 00:41:47,200
Speaker 1: On the rational side, where we got the distribution down.

767
00:41:47,280 --> 00:41:49,320
Speaker 1: Now we're going to work on the social impact side.

768
00:41:49,320 --> 00:41:52,479
Speaker 1: On the storytelling side, You've told one story, Yep, what's

769
00:41:52,560 --> 00:41:53,160
Speaker 1: next for you?

770
00:41:53,239 --> 00:41:54,640
Speaker 4: It's time to tell the next.

771
00:41:54,680 --> 00:41:56,360
Speaker 3: There are a bunch of things that are next, but

772
00:41:57,000 --> 00:42:00,440
Speaker 3: along that point it's I think the traditional non profit

773
00:42:00,680 --> 00:42:03,480
Speaker 3: will take a single portrait photo of a kid who's

774
00:42:03,560 --> 00:42:07,280
Speaker 3: hungry and say, this kid is hungry, please help them.

775
00:42:07,600 --> 00:42:10,839
Speaker 3: And I think what we see in your story and Undefeated,

776
00:42:11,040 --> 00:42:16,120
Speaker 3: it's seeing character transformation that is powerful, that moves people,

777
00:42:16,120 --> 00:42:20,960
Speaker 3: that inspires people. So telling a story about a kid

778
00:42:20,960 --> 00:42:23,640
Speaker 3: who's growing up without food who all of a sudden

779
00:42:23,719 --> 00:42:26,800
Speaker 3: has that access point and their grades go from c's

780
00:42:26,880 --> 00:42:30,799
Speaker 3: to a'spike that you know, that is the thing that

781
00:42:31,000 --> 00:42:32,120
Speaker 3: unlocked that.

782
00:42:32,120 --> 00:42:33,080
Speaker 4: That was the barrier.

783
00:42:33,160 --> 00:42:36,040
Speaker 3: I could not imagine going to school on an empty stomach.

784
00:42:36,080 --> 00:42:38,239
Speaker 3: I couldn't imagine being you know, I think there are

785
00:42:38,239 --> 00:42:42,000
Speaker 3: teachers out there who are paying for materials for their

786
00:42:42,040 --> 00:42:45,320
Speaker 3: students instead of getting meals themselves.

787
00:42:44,880 --> 00:42:48,439
Speaker 1: All over the inner cities, doing that all over. Those

788
00:42:48,480 --> 00:42:50,120
Speaker 1: stories are not well paid people.

789
00:42:50,480 --> 00:42:52,279
Speaker 4: No, No, those stories need to be told.

790
00:42:52,320 --> 00:42:56,239
Speaker 3: I'll never forget being in Dallas, Texas, in a community

791
00:42:56,280 --> 00:42:58,480
Speaker 3: that had an eighty percent food and security rate.

792
00:42:58,719 --> 00:43:00,520
Speaker 4: Almost the entire community did.

793
00:43:00,719 --> 00:43:03,680
Speaker 1: Eighty percent of the kids in this district were food

794
00:43:03,719 --> 00:43:04,480
Speaker 1: and secure.

795
00:43:04,280 --> 00:43:07,960
Speaker 3: Eighty percent of the people. And you see not in Dallas,

796
00:43:08,000 --> 00:43:12,200
Speaker 3: but in this community of Dallas. And you know, you

797
00:43:12,200 --> 00:43:15,040
Speaker 3: see it in the documentary. It's Karen Belknap, who's a

798
00:43:15,080 --> 00:43:18,799
Speaker 3: teacher who's telling the story about a student who you know,

799
00:43:18,920 --> 00:43:23,000
Speaker 3: over Thanksgiving break, that student didn't eat for six days

800
00:43:23,160 --> 00:43:25,600
Speaker 3: and on the Tuesday that they got back from school,

801
00:43:25,800 --> 00:43:29,880
Speaker 3: the student passed out and for lack of nutrition from

802
00:43:29,920 --> 00:43:32,839
Speaker 3: malnutrition and luckily was okay. But that's you know, that's

803
00:43:32,880 --> 00:43:35,760
Speaker 3: a moment where everyone in the whole theater.

804
00:43:36,719 --> 00:43:39,320
Speaker 1: Is the one break she has that she gets no

805
00:43:39,440 --> 00:43:41,200
Speaker 1: food is Thanksgiving.

806
00:43:41,120 --> 00:43:42,359
Speaker 4: Thanksgiving for food.

807
00:43:42,680 --> 00:43:44,560
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's why we always make an effor we do

808
00:43:44,600 --> 00:43:47,760
Speaker 3: a huge push during Thanksgiving to make sure like millions

809
00:43:47,760 --> 00:43:48,479
Speaker 3: of people have food.

810
00:43:48,520 --> 00:43:49,640
Speaker 4: That's really important to us.

811
00:43:49,680 --> 00:43:54,200
Speaker 3: But that day, I was working in the parking lot

812
00:43:54,239 --> 00:43:57,000
Speaker 3: for the whole day, you know, just like pushing carts

813
00:43:57,040 --> 00:44:00,480
Speaker 3: making sure they all got back. And at lung I

814
00:44:00,520 --> 00:44:04,000
Speaker 3: saw six nurses line up in line at the food

815
00:44:04,000 --> 00:44:08,359
Speaker 3: bank altogether. This was their one hour lunch break and

816
00:44:08,480 --> 00:44:10,799
Speaker 3: they had to spend it waiting in line at the

817
00:44:10,840 --> 00:44:14,840
Speaker 3: food bank, and it's ours nurses, and it's COVID right now,

818
00:44:15,280 --> 00:44:17,440
Speaker 3: And you would think these are the people in our

819
00:44:17,440 --> 00:44:19,560
Speaker 3: society that we are valuing the most.

820
00:44:19,920 --> 00:44:22,000
Speaker 4: We're saving eros, they're saving.

821
00:44:21,680 --> 00:44:24,960
Speaker 3: People's lives during a national crisis, and here they are

822
00:44:24,960 --> 00:44:27,960
Speaker 3: needing food assistance because they're not paid enough or they're

823
00:44:27,960 --> 00:44:31,239
Speaker 3: not receiving enough support during the pandemic. And that made

824
00:44:31,320 --> 00:44:34,680
Speaker 3: me realize there's so many perspectives that are not shared

825
00:44:34,719 --> 00:44:38,520
Speaker 3: here that I think that I think are important and

826
00:44:38,560 --> 00:44:42,200
Speaker 3: I think can be embedded in stories that motivate people

827
00:44:42,239 --> 00:44:43,759
Speaker 3: who can actually change things here.

828
00:44:43,960 --> 00:44:49,920
Speaker 1: So the next action is to positively affect and try

829
00:44:50,000 --> 00:44:55,239
Speaker 1: to erase the stigma, and the next storytelling is going

830
00:44:55,320 --> 00:44:59,759
Speaker 1: to be all about those perspectives, and I guess try

831
00:44:59,800 --> 00:45:03,120
Speaker 1: to for a helpful view of how to raise the stigmas.

832
00:45:03,239 --> 00:45:04,080
Speaker 1: Am I missing that?

833
00:45:04,920 --> 00:45:08,840
Speaker 3: I think that, well, it starts with who are the

834
00:45:08,880 --> 00:45:10,640
Speaker 3: people who can actually change things here?

835
00:45:11,120 --> 00:45:12,440
Speaker 4: I think in a big way.

836
00:45:12,920 --> 00:45:15,799
Speaker 3: The first place to start is every community leader in

837
00:45:15,840 --> 00:45:17,880
Speaker 3: the country, every person who runs a food bank or

838
00:45:17,880 --> 00:45:21,560
Speaker 3: a church organization that gives out food. We can tell

839
00:45:21,600 --> 00:45:25,799
Speaker 3: a story that hosts like a single screening or a

840
00:45:25,880 --> 00:45:28,960
Speaker 3: series of screenings around the country where we get eyeballs

841
00:45:29,040 --> 00:45:31,719
Speaker 3: on every single person who's in that position, and if

842
00:45:31,760 --> 00:45:34,799
Speaker 3: they see that story and unlock something for them, that's like, Hey,

843
00:45:34,800 --> 00:45:36,800
Speaker 3: we've been doing this the same way for thirty years.

844
00:45:37,160 --> 00:45:39,400
Speaker 3: We can make this slight tweak and hey we have

845
00:45:39,440 --> 00:45:42,600
Speaker 3: a more dignified experience. I mean, it can be simple.

846
00:45:42,640 --> 00:45:44,640
Speaker 3: As you know, this isn't just a food bank, but

847
00:45:44,680 --> 00:45:46,760
Speaker 3: we're also doing live music and all of a sudden,

848
00:45:46,760 --> 00:45:48,960
Speaker 3: it's not just a place to receive food assistance. It's

849
00:45:49,040 --> 00:45:52,279
Speaker 3: community center where everyone goes and you're not segregating the

850
00:45:52,320 --> 00:45:55,480
Speaker 3: population between you know, you can afford food, You can

851
00:45:55,600 --> 00:45:56,240
Speaker 3: afford food.

852
00:45:56,360 --> 00:45:57,960
Speaker 4: This is just where the community comes.

853
00:45:58,320 --> 00:46:00,880
Speaker 3: And I think if we targe the right people, like

854
00:46:01,080 --> 00:46:02,680
Speaker 3: I'm not afraid to spend a year and a half

855
00:46:02,680 --> 00:46:05,799
Speaker 3: on a film that only two thousand people see, if

856
00:46:05,800 --> 00:46:07,839
Speaker 3: it means those two thousand people are going to make

857
00:46:07,880 --> 00:46:09,000
Speaker 3: more of a difference.

858
00:46:08,600 --> 00:46:11,759
Speaker 1: Than Oh my yes is born two thousand people see. Yeah,

859
00:46:11,840 --> 00:46:14,760
Speaker 1: you have something to tell you. It's an interesting again,

860
00:46:14,840 --> 00:46:20,040
Speaker 1: as I'm listening to you, this is the South Church

861
00:46:20,120 --> 00:46:25,799
Speaker 1: is a big thing here still and probably will remain so.

862
00:46:25,880 --> 00:46:28,240
Speaker 1: One of the things we've talked about in the last

863
00:46:28,280 --> 00:46:34,200
Speaker 1: decade is Sunday is probably the most segregated day in

864
00:46:34,239 --> 00:46:37,880
Speaker 1: the United States. When an actuality, if faith is active

865
00:46:37,880 --> 00:46:40,640
Speaker 1: in your life, it should be the most desegregated day.

866
00:46:42,000 --> 00:46:48,200
Speaker 1: And my faith, Christianity, has done itself quite a disservice

867
00:46:48,239 --> 00:46:51,400
Speaker 1: of the last five decades allowing that truth to happen,

868
00:46:53,560 --> 00:46:56,520
Speaker 1: and there is a stigma around my faith as a

869
00:46:56,560 --> 00:46:59,440
Speaker 1: result of that. And I hear you talking about the

870
00:46:59,480 --> 00:47:05,960
Speaker 1: stigma of food banks and needing food and all of that.

871
00:47:06,080 --> 00:47:13,600
Speaker 1: I hear you talk about the storytelling, and it is

872
00:47:13,719 --> 00:47:17,880
Speaker 1: interesting that when we're talking about food, that should not

873
00:47:18,080 --> 00:47:23,600
Speaker 1: be a political it should not be as segregating, it

874
00:47:23,640 --> 00:47:28,839
Speaker 1: should not be a divisive topic. But in fact, when

875
00:47:28,880 --> 00:47:33,520
Speaker 1: you talk about lunches, free lunches, and you talk about

876
00:47:33,760 --> 00:47:39,920
Speaker 1: free breakfasts and schools, and you talk about government food assistance,

877
00:47:40,239 --> 00:47:45,440
Speaker 1: it actually is incredibly political and incredibly has the potential

878
00:47:45,480 --> 00:47:48,839
Speaker 1: to be incredibly divisive when it really should not be.

879
00:47:49,600 --> 00:47:54,480
Speaker 1: And I think your guys, a studentess about how to

880
00:47:54,520 --> 00:47:58,200
Speaker 1: remove that stigma goes a long way toward not only

881
00:47:59,440 --> 00:48:03,239
Speaker 1: solving hunger, but maybe some things that have had us

882
00:48:03,280 --> 00:48:04,959
Speaker 1: as well, I hope.

883
00:48:04,960 --> 00:48:08,200
Speaker 2: So I think what we're doing can be as bipartisan

884
00:48:08,800 --> 00:48:10,160
Speaker 2: as possible.

885
00:48:09,960 --> 00:48:12,200
Speaker 1: Or good beating hungry people not right.

886
00:48:12,280 --> 00:48:15,360
Speaker 2: Well, I've had some real angry calls and up saying

887
00:48:15,360 --> 00:48:19,200
Speaker 2: it should, but I think it just let's just make people,

888
00:48:19,200 --> 00:48:21,160
Speaker 2: make sure people look at this through the right lens,

889
00:48:21,200 --> 00:48:24,759
Speaker 2: you know, because we're supporting farmers, we're feeding families. Anyone

890
00:48:24,800 --> 00:48:27,960
Speaker 2: who shows up should be able to be supported by

891
00:48:27,960 --> 00:48:30,399
Speaker 2: what we're doing. And so I think that we will

892
00:48:30,440 --> 00:48:32,640
Speaker 2: always try and in the same way that I talked

893
00:48:32,640 --> 00:48:34,520
Speaker 2: about from the first month. We've got to be able

894
00:48:34,520 --> 00:48:36,120
Speaker 2: to collaborate with everybody. We got to be able to

895
00:48:36,120 --> 00:48:39,400
Speaker 2: support everybody. It needs to be that level of inclusive

896
00:48:39,680 --> 00:48:42,960
Speaker 2: and collaborative for this to truly work.

897
00:48:43,560 --> 00:48:44,279
Speaker 4: Yeah, we saw this.

898
00:48:44,440 --> 00:48:48,000
Speaker 3: We world premiered the documentary in the Capitol Building in

899
00:48:48,040 --> 00:48:50,759
Speaker 3: front of Congress, and the months leading up to it

900
00:48:50,840 --> 00:48:53,560
Speaker 3: is you can't use that word when you're talking about

901
00:48:53,600 --> 00:48:55,560
Speaker 3: hunger because then none of the Republicans will come. You

902
00:48:55,600 --> 00:48:58,799
Speaker 3: can't use that word around climate because no Democrats will come.

903
00:48:59,200 --> 00:49:01,920
Speaker 3: And it Yeah, we learned very quickly. It's a very

904
00:49:02,160 --> 00:49:05,400
Speaker 3: political issue. But I think we can storytell in a

905
00:49:05,440 --> 00:49:06,520
Speaker 3: way that rallies everyone.

906
00:49:06,840 --> 00:49:11,800
Speaker 1: Gus keep doing what you're doing, break down those walls,

907
00:49:11,960 --> 00:49:18,320
Speaker 1: because that's when you transition things like hunger and stigma

908
00:49:18,480 --> 00:49:23,640
Speaker 1: into cultural change, which my generation has completely screwed up.

909
00:49:23,680 --> 00:49:25,120
Speaker 1: And I have all the hope that the world guys

910
00:49:25,160 --> 00:49:28,680
Speaker 1: in your generation can fix for us. I'm encouraged by

911
00:49:28,719 --> 00:49:31,719
Speaker 1: your story. It's phenomenal. If somebody wants to support you,

912
00:49:32,160 --> 00:49:36,560
Speaker 1: hear more about it, get involved. What do they do well?

913
00:49:36,760 --> 00:49:38,319
Speaker 2: I would say, first of all, we've talked about it

914
00:49:38,360 --> 00:49:41,760
Speaker 2: all day, but this film Abundance, the farm Link story

915
00:49:41,840 --> 00:49:44,719
Speaker 2: is on YouTube and that'd be a great place to start,

916
00:49:44,760 --> 00:49:47,400
Speaker 2: and we call it Abundance for this The entire purpose

917
00:49:47,400 --> 00:49:50,040
Speaker 2: of this conversation is to acknowledge there is more than

918
00:49:50,120 --> 00:49:52,040
Speaker 2: enough food up there. There is the opportunity for us

919
00:49:52,040 --> 00:49:52,960
Speaker 2: to collaborate so much more.

920
00:49:53,080 --> 00:49:54,000
Speaker 1: We could be the whole world.

921
00:49:54,040 --> 00:49:56,680
Speaker 2: We grow enough food to feed the entire planet one

922
00:49:56,719 --> 00:49:59,640
Speaker 2: and a half times over, and so that's done a

923
00:49:59,680 --> 00:50:02,359
Speaker 2: way forty percent of all the food we grow.

924
00:50:02,520 --> 00:50:06,040
Speaker 1: That's been unbelievable when you see the late night commercials

925
00:50:06,040 --> 00:50:09,320
Speaker 1: of the starving kids with the flies buzzing around their heads.

926
00:50:09,440 --> 00:50:12,719
Speaker 1: Knowing that we make enough food to feed one and

927
00:50:12,760 --> 00:50:15,760
Speaker 1: a half times the world population as it is today.

928
00:50:17,440 --> 00:50:20,560
Speaker 1: Sure makes sense that we how to figure out the logistics.

929
00:50:19,920 --> 00:50:22,080
Speaker 2: Well, and it actually makes this problem seem a lot

930
00:50:22,120 --> 00:50:24,640
Speaker 2: more solvable. That's why we want to start by acknowledging

931
00:50:24,680 --> 00:50:26,600
Speaker 2: there is an abundance of food. It's a matter of

932
00:50:26,640 --> 00:50:29,280
Speaker 2: logistics and collaboration to get it to the right people

933
00:50:29,320 --> 00:50:31,600
Speaker 2: at the right time. And so go watch that film

934
00:50:31,880 --> 00:50:33,640
Speaker 2: and if you can share it with and you want

935
00:50:33,640 --> 00:50:34,839
Speaker 2: to put it up on YouTube, right.

936
00:50:34,880 --> 00:50:37,279
Speaker 3: And pull it up on YouTube. It's twenty one minutes long.

937
00:50:37,800 --> 00:50:38,760
Speaker 3: Share it with your friends.

938
00:50:38,560 --> 00:50:40,360
Speaker 1: And face watch share it with every body.

939
00:50:40,480 --> 00:50:43,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've said this and it's really worked. If everyone

940
00:50:43,080 --> 00:50:45,399
Speaker 2: thought of one person in their life that they think

941
00:50:45,640 --> 00:50:48,040
Speaker 2: would most be able to connect with or support or

942
00:50:48,160 --> 00:50:50,759
Speaker 2: help amplify this story, just share it with that one

943
00:50:50,840 --> 00:50:54,799
Speaker 2: person that's been a huge catalyst for our growth, and

944
00:50:54,840 --> 00:50:56,080
Speaker 2: how can they reach us?

945
00:50:56,280 --> 00:50:58,560
Speaker 3: Yeah, So if you go to farmlink project dot org,

946
00:50:58,719 --> 00:51:01,600
Speaker 3: there are a few ways you can get involved. Everyone

947
00:51:01,600 --> 00:51:03,640
Speaker 3: has a different way that they can help, so feel

948
00:51:03,640 --> 00:51:06,480
Speaker 3: free to email us directly. If you have a kid

949
00:51:06,520 --> 00:51:09,800
Speaker 3: who's in high school or college, you can still volunteer

950
00:51:09,840 --> 00:51:11,560
Speaker 3: in the ways that you heard of in this podcast

951
00:51:11,640 --> 00:51:14,319
Speaker 3: and help move millions of pounds of food. If you

952
00:51:14,360 --> 00:51:17,160
Speaker 3: work for a company that donates to nonprofits, that's been

953
00:51:17,200 --> 00:51:19,040
Speaker 3: a great way people have gotten involved.

954
00:51:19,440 --> 00:51:22,799
Speaker 1: And if you're an individuals, yeah, and we're growing at

955
00:51:22,800 --> 00:51:24,160
Speaker 1: the rate weekend fundraise right now.

956
00:51:24,200 --> 00:51:25,880
Speaker 2: The food is there and we know where it is.

957
00:51:25,960 --> 00:51:28,799
Speaker 2: And so for every dollar we fundraise, we're able to

958
00:51:28,840 --> 00:51:31,840
Speaker 2: move over twenty pounds of food to communities face and hunger,

959
00:51:31,880 --> 00:51:34,279
Speaker 2: and it's at zero pounds per dollar, and it's at

960
00:51:34,400 --> 00:51:37,239
Speaker 2: zero costs to those community organizations that are working so

961
00:51:37,320 --> 00:51:38,439
Speaker 2: hard to support each other.

962
00:51:38,480 --> 00:51:40,839
Speaker 1: And there is that what you said, twenty pounds per dollar. Yep,

963
00:51:41,520 --> 00:51:44,239
Speaker 1: you're telling me a hundred bucks.

964
00:51:44,520 --> 00:51:47,000
Speaker 2: Gets two thousand pounds of food a ton of food.

965
00:51:47,840 --> 00:51:52,200
Speaker 1: Literally one hundred bucks for a ton of food. That's

966
00:51:52,800 --> 00:51:55,719
Speaker 1: pretty cool, thank you. So that's how they reach out.

967
00:51:57,480 --> 00:52:03,880
Speaker 1: So I'm hearing, you know, all politics is local, so

968
00:52:03,960 --> 00:52:06,560
Speaker 1: I guess alf of philanthropy may be local too. I

969
00:52:06,560 --> 00:52:10,319
Speaker 1: don't know, I'm hearing all this, and I'm you know,

970
00:52:10,400 --> 00:52:14,239
Speaker 1: in Memphis, there are churches, and there's Maifa, and there

971
00:52:14,360 --> 00:52:17,520
Speaker 1: is the Memphis Food Bank. And I can't help, but

972
00:52:17,920 --> 00:52:21,560
Speaker 1: they you know, what could happen in my town, and

973
00:52:21,960 --> 00:52:24,800
Speaker 1: other people listening are probably thinking what could happen in

974
00:52:24,840 --> 00:52:29,080
Speaker 1: their town, What can a local food bank, and what

975
00:52:29,239 --> 00:52:34,000
Speaker 1: can a city like Memphis do to improve the amount

976
00:52:34,040 --> 00:52:35,560
Speaker 1: of food they have and their service.

977
00:52:37,040 --> 00:52:40,360
Speaker 2: I will speak for all of the nonprofits, the local

978
00:52:40,440 --> 00:52:44,520
Speaker 2: organizations that are doing everything they can. Ask them, ask

979
00:52:44,600 --> 00:52:48,839
Speaker 2: them what they need, and really listen, because if you're

980
00:52:48,840 --> 00:52:50,839
Speaker 2: the food bank, ask those community partners what they really

981
00:52:50,880 --> 00:52:54,200
Speaker 2: need need. They might need the food bank to evolve

982
00:52:54,239 --> 00:52:56,400
Speaker 2: in certain ways to better support them, and if that

983
00:52:56,440 --> 00:52:58,760
Speaker 2: food bank can really listen, it's going to create change.

984
00:52:58,800 --> 00:53:02,960
Speaker 2: We hear so often how community level organizations actually struggle

985
00:53:03,000 --> 00:53:06,640
Speaker 2: to connect with each other and with their food bank partners, etc.

986
00:53:06,920 --> 00:53:09,239
Speaker 2: And so if you're in that world, talk to each

987
00:53:09,239 --> 00:53:11,239
Speaker 2: other and really see how you can stretch each other's

988
00:53:11,280 --> 00:53:14,319
Speaker 2: resources further, because you're always going to be greater than

989
00:53:14,320 --> 00:53:16,320
Speaker 2: the sum of your parts when you're working together. And

990
00:53:16,360 --> 00:53:19,240
Speaker 2: if you're an individual that's looking to support them, don't

991
00:53:19,280 --> 00:53:22,040
Speaker 2: assume that you know exactly what's best, because those people

992
00:53:22,040 --> 00:53:25,239
Speaker 2: are doing everything they can to support their community. If

993
00:53:25,280 --> 00:53:27,200
Speaker 2: you ask them really earnestly and give them the space

994
00:53:27,239 --> 00:53:29,560
Speaker 2: to be heard, I'll tell you as someone who's running

995
00:53:29,600 --> 00:53:32,680
Speaker 2: a nonprofit. That's all I've ever wanted from our community

996
00:53:32,719 --> 00:53:34,719
Speaker 2: and our supporters, and that's the thing that I think

997
00:53:34,719 --> 00:53:37,120
Speaker 2: can help us grow the quickest and the most effectively.

998
00:53:38,200 --> 00:53:40,600
Speaker 1: When you hear that, listeners, please remember that one of

999
00:53:40,600 --> 00:53:43,440
Speaker 1: the most valuable life lessons I've received top five in

1000
00:53:43,520 --> 00:53:45,960
Speaker 1: my life, came from a nineteen year old kid that

1001
00:53:46,080 --> 00:53:49,280
Speaker 1: played football for me in the hood. You can reference

1002
00:53:49,280 --> 00:53:51,080
Speaker 1: a Turkey person's story if you want to know what

1003
00:53:51,120 --> 00:53:53,839
Speaker 1: I'm talking about. So when you hear this twenty five

1004
00:53:53,920 --> 00:53:56,840
Speaker 1: year old kid give you that bit of advice, it's okay,

1005
00:53:56,880 --> 00:53:58,520
Speaker 1: there's a twenty five year old kids, you need to

1006
00:53:58,560 --> 00:54:04,200
Speaker 1: listen because that is profoundly true what you just said,

1007
00:54:04,239 --> 00:54:07,520
Speaker 1: and it resonates with me picked on. I hope people

1008
00:54:07,600 --> 00:54:11,040
Speaker 1: listen to you, guys. When I first heard the story

1009
00:54:11,080 --> 00:54:13,759
Speaker 1: owned in Nashville at the Do Good Or conference, I

1010
00:54:13,960 --> 00:54:16,439
Speaker 1: was like, I can't wait to talk more about this,

1011
00:54:16,719 --> 00:54:21,640
Speaker 1: And you guys have not disappointed and your uplifting and inspiring.

1012
00:54:21,719 --> 00:54:24,200
Speaker 1: The work you've done is amazing and it's not bad

1013
00:54:24,320 --> 00:54:28,200
Speaker 1: for a couple of idiots in college with a U

1014
00:54:28,280 --> 00:54:31,400
Speaker 1: haul and a sheet going to pick up eleven thousand

1015
00:54:31,440 --> 00:54:34,040
Speaker 1: eggs doing fifteen miles an hour and the four h five.

1016
00:54:34,080 --> 00:54:36,160
Speaker 1: I'm surprised you. I bet you got flipped off and

1017
00:54:36,200 --> 00:54:37,520
Speaker 1: honked out the whole way.

1018
00:54:37,520 --> 00:54:38,080
Speaker 4: Oh my god.

1019
00:54:38,120 --> 00:54:40,560
Speaker 3: And we didn't even talk about the other trucks I

1020
00:54:40,800 --> 00:54:42,879
Speaker 3: crashed into a tree, parking and stuff like that.

1021
00:54:43,000 --> 00:54:46,120
Speaker 4: So for another time, listen.

1022
00:54:46,640 --> 00:54:50,240
Speaker 1: There's a certain amount of navita that also makes things

1023
00:54:50,280 --> 00:54:56,160
Speaker 1: like this happen, and I think you guys have proven that. Gentlemen,

1024
00:54:56,440 --> 00:54:59,120
Speaker 1: thank you for coming to Memphis. Thank you for sharing

1025
00:54:59,120 --> 00:55:03,920
Speaker 1: your story. You guys are normal kids who've done extraordinary things,

1026
00:55:03,960 --> 00:55:07,960
Speaker 1: and yet just another example of members of the army

1027
00:55:08,000 --> 00:55:11,279
Speaker 1: of normal folks making enormous change in our community. And

1028
00:55:12,160 --> 00:55:14,239
Speaker 1: guys like you make me hopeful that we can fix

1029
00:55:14,280 --> 00:55:16,360
Speaker 1: what else is. So thanks for being here.

1030
00:55:16,360 --> 00:55:17,879
Speaker 4: Thanks coach, Thanks for having us.

1031
00:55:17,920 --> 00:55:23,839
Speaker 1: You inspire us too, and thank you for joining us

1032
00:55:23,880 --> 00:55:27,320
Speaker 1: this week. If Ben an Owen or other guests have

1033
00:55:27,480 --> 00:55:30,240
Speaker 1: inspired you in general, or better yet, to take action

1034
00:55:30,440 --> 00:55:34,919
Speaker 1: by volunteering with the Farm League project, by donating to them,

1035
00:55:35,080 --> 00:55:39,040
Speaker 1: or something else entirely, please let me know. I really

1036
00:55:39,040 --> 00:55:41,359
Speaker 1: want to hear about it. You can write me anytime

1037
00:55:41,640 --> 00:55:45,200
Speaker 1: at Bill at Normalfolks dot us, and I promise you

1038
00:55:45,520 --> 00:55:49,840
Speaker 1: I will respond. And if you enjoyed this episode, please

1039
00:55:49,920 --> 00:55:52,040
Speaker 1: do us a favor. Share it with friends that are

1040
00:55:52,040 --> 00:55:56,719
Speaker 1: on social, subscribe to the podcast, rate and review it.

1041
00:55:57,200 --> 00:56:00,640
Speaker 1: Become a premium member at normalfolks dot org us all

1042
00:56:00,719 --> 00:56:03,880
Speaker 1: these things that will help us grow an army of

1043
00:56:04,000 --> 00:56:07,759
Speaker 1: normal folks. The bigger the army, the bigger the impact.

1044
00:56:08,320 --> 00:56:10,600
Speaker 1: I'm Bill Courtney. I'll see you next week.