Speaker 1: We got married by a rabbi, and when we were
Speaker 1: visiting with the rabbi before we got married and having discussions,
Speaker 1: we told her story that I used to have this
Speaker 1: little this this little thing I wore around my neck
Speaker 1: and it said don't postpone joy. And and I think
Speaker 1: I got it right when my wife and I started dating,
Speaker 1: and when she purchased my my wedding ring I'm wearing now,
Speaker 1: inscribed inside of it was don't postpone joy. And so
Speaker 1: when we were talking to the rabbi, I guess my
Speaker 1: wife told her this, this you know story and the
Speaker 1: meaning of it and why why that was inside my
Speaker 1: my ring. She just looked at us and said, just
Speaker 1: look inside your ring. And so we decided to go
Speaker 1: through with with wedding. Last week was a it's a
Speaker 1: really horrible week for America. I got married September fifteen,
Speaker 1: two thousand one, four days after nine eleven. Thousands of
Speaker 1: our citizens lost lives, thousands were hurt, but thousands of
Speaker 1: our citizens rose to the occasion to help. And immediately
Speaker 1: I found myself on a cruise ship UM that was
Speaker 1: anchored near ground zero, working the midnight shift, feeding first responders.
Speaker 1: Its love and compassion. God bless America. Everybody was here.
Speaker 1: Thank you for your hard work, thank you for making
Speaker 1: a nation proud, and may God bless America. It wasn't heroic.
Speaker 1: I did what I knew how to do. I did
Speaker 1: my my part. I cooked. I really didn't think much
Speaker 1: about how that came about. Um. I just heard of
Speaker 1: that there was a need. I went down and signed up,
Speaker 1: and I ended up running the kitchen from twelve o'clock
Speaker 1: at night till eight o'clock in the morning and cooking
Speaker 1: food for the first responders. We had people who were
Speaker 1: also working in I guess the front of house, you know, cleaning,
Speaker 1: clearing tables and things like that, but they also spend
Speaker 1: time with with some of the responders, and they were
Speaker 1: pretty broken up by what they were seeing. So, you know,
Speaker 1: for that short period of time we did provide, you know,
Speaker 1: some comfort. But out of our tears and stead as
Speaker 1: we saw the best of America as well. We saw
Speaker 1: a great country rise up to help. Tens of millions
Speaker 1: of dollars and thousands of hours and tons of food
Speaker 1: and clothing have all been donated. But you know, looking
Speaker 1: back on it, it was such a slapstick response. We
Speaker 1: dealt with companies that were just you know, donating food
Speaker 1: to us, and we had no idea what we're gonna cook.
Speaker 1: But there were boxes of like branded you know, rice
Speaker 1: and beans and things like that, and so it was
Speaker 1: it was completely disorganized and the only reason we made
Speaker 1: it work is because you're a bunch of professional chefs
Speaker 1: in there who just figured it out. And it was
Speaker 1: at least two weeks before we saw a real response
Speaker 1: to feeding people who were down there, you know, digging
Speaker 1: to the rubble. That's just that's just, you know, looking
Speaker 1: back on it, it's completely inadequate. You know, we we
Speaker 1: need we need a government with a plan. You know,
Speaker 1: these hurricanes and these disasters are happening all too frequently.
Speaker 1: You know, this isn't the last pandemic that we're gonna say,
Speaker 1: and so we we can't have a government, within the
Speaker 1: absence of policy, relies on you know, Joseandrias. You know,
Speaker 1: God bless him that he does this work. But we
Speaker 1: shouldn't have to rely on that. We shouldn't have to
Speaker 1: rely on his connections to wealthy people to help feed
Speaker 1: people who are in need. That's that that's not the
Speaker 1: way a government should respond to disasters, and so for
Speaker 1: this episode, we're gonna look at disaster relief and whether
Speaker 1: or not our our government should have a plan. We're
Speaker 1: gonna look at policies that that we should have in place,
Speaker 1: specifically the Feed Act, and how that that can completely
Speaker 1: remake the way we deal with disaster relief. I think,
Speaker 1: I think to understand that the need is, we need
Speaker 1: to understand that. You take a look at what it
Speaker 1: costs to move food around, would cost to mobilize the
Speaker 1: amount of people, whether it's on a in a large
Speaker 1: city or whether it's on an island nation, it doesn't
Speaker 1: really matter. It's it's about this massive, massive response that
Speaker 1: has to happen. So um the best person to I
Speaker 1: think take us through this is uh Nate Moot, the
Speaker 1: CEO of World Central Kitchen. Jose gets uh the glory
Speaker 1: out there, and he should, but Nate, Nate is the
Speaker 1: one who keeps the wheels turning. So we are going
Speaker 1: to speak it to Nate to just get an understanding
Speaker 1: of the the size and scope and complexity of what
Speaker 1: has to happen to feed people who are in need
Speaker 1: in times or a disaster. My video for us. So
Speaker 1: we're in the middle of a pandemic. Are you hearing me? Okay?
Speaker 1: With the headphones here. Most of these interviews are done
Speaker 1: via zoom or our squad cast, I should say, but yeah,
Speaker 1: that that you that social distancing thing that it's kind
Speaker 1: of happening now, So we're gonna keep our distance and
Speaker 1: and make it make a podcast. Okay, So, Nate, what
Speaker 1: what challenges are are we seeing with with the pandemic
Speaker 1: sort of let's talk about the Nited States for a second,
Speaker 1: to the nationwide pandemic versus a localized disaster. What are
Speaker 1: the challenges you're saying, Yeah, I mean, I think it's
Speaker 1: exactly right. I mean, this is very different from a
Speaker 1: natural disaster in the sense that typically you have everything
Speaker 1: focused into one area, so you can really redirect, you know,
Speaker 1: all these resources, gather up everything, all these groups come
Speaker 1: in and they focus in and they sort of you know,
Speaker 1: it's like, uh, you know, you're you're sort of healing
Speaker 1: this one place where there's been damage done. Unfortunately, now
Speaker 1: the damage is is everywhere. Um. The damage can often
Speaker 1: be seen, um, And it requires it really a completely
Speaker 1: different approach, even if the underlying goal is the same,
Speaker 1: which is to get food to those that need it.
Speaker 1: The mechanisms in which you do that have to be
Speaker 1: adapted to the current situation. You know what I mean
Speaker 1: by that is UM an organization like World Central Kitchen,
Speaker 1: but even the federal government, UM, you know, can't be
Speaker 1: everywhere at the same time. And the pandemic is really
Speaker 1: impacting the big cities like New York, but also you know,
Speaker 1: small towns, UM, rural areas. We're seeing places like Navajo
Speaker 1: Nation that actually the highest rates of of COVID in
Speaker 1: the country right now. And so if you can't be everywhere,
Speaker 1: then how do you how do you respond? UM? I
Speaker 1: think the other the other big piece is that because
Speaker 1: this is not a typical disaster, the mechanisms, especially on
Speaker 1: the federal level, that tend to get implemented in in
Speaker 1: disaster scenarios. Uh, you know, nobody really knew what to do. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, what was this an emergency where FEMA goes
Speaker 1: in and tries to do something? You know, what is
Speaker 1: what is the u s d A's role because you know,
Speaker 1: we're seeing all these food banks being overrun and is
Speaker 1: usd A now a disaster response organization? So there was
Speaker 1: almost this like paralysis at the federal level of what
Speaker 1: to do. And so you know, I think what's ended
Speaker 1: up happening. What we're seeing is that uh, nonprofits like
Speaker 1: World Central Kitchen, but also more importantly, local leaders, so
Speaker 1: the mayors, the you know, the community based organizations in
Speaker 1: the neighborhoods have really had to step up to fill
Speaker 1: the void. And the challenge with that is how do
Speaker 1: you sustain that over this period of time. You know,
Speaker 1: you can go in and very quickly activate and mobilized
Speaker 1: to do things, but how do you do that on
Speaker 1: a longer term scale. Um From the feeding side of things,
Speaker 1: one of our biggest challenges that we found is that
Speaker 1: it's the last mile that's the hardest part. How do
Speaker 1: you get the food into the hands of those that
Speaker 1: really needed It's one thing to produce the food, and
Speaker 1: what we've seen is that, you know, the there's actually
Speaker 1: ample production available right I mean, the restaurants are closed down,
Speaker 1: so you've got you know, the kitchens that are that
Speaker 1: are dormant right now that could be activated. You have
Speaker 1: the suppliers that want to sell food to to somebody,
Speaker 1: but then how do you get that food in a
Speaker 1: way to get it to the people who can't either
Speaker 1: leave their house or they can't go to congregate feeding sites,
Speaker 1: and that's really proven to be the challenge. So it's
Speaker 1: required really this sort of this complete reinvention of the
Speaker 1: way that that World Central Kitchen operates. And also I
Speaker 1: think just to wake up call more generally to our
Speaker 1: society around the importance of local leadership and and and
Speaker 1: not having to rely on somebody coming in from the
Speaker 1: outside to to support and have all the answers. Yeah,
Speaker 1: wasn't that always the case with the Stafford Act. And
Speaker 1: the Stafford Act actually UH put the uh the the
Speaker 1: onus on local governance to to deal with disasters, um,
Speaker 1: which and sometimes it's part of the problem because the
Speaker 1: federal dollars can't flow very well. But to me, you're
Speaker 1: I think this is the point. You're making a really
Speaker 1: great point here, and I think it's the point that
Speaker 1: a lot of people miss. So you can cook food.
Speaker 1: I mean, Jose can call any chef in the country
Speaker 1: and say, hey, your restaurant's closed right now, open up.
Speaker 1: I'll give you an X amount per meal. You can
Speaker 1: you know, do five thousand meals a week and we
Speaker 1: can feed a lot of people, and and and that's great,
Speaker 1: but it's the logistics of finding those people. And I
Speaker 1: work with the organization called Hungry and they were actually
Speaker 1: doing that for the city of New York. Um, working
Speaker 1: on that last not only the logistics of fighting the people,
Speaker 1: but delivering the food to them as well. And my
Speaker 1: understanding is that the rates of you know, finding the
Speaker 1: people and delivering that food those meals, there's like a
Speaker 1: fIF missr you know, mis rate I ever rate on that,
Speaker 1: which is you think about the amount of food that's
Speaker 1: being produced of that and not getting where it has
Speaker 1: to go to. That's a that's a big rate. So yeah,
Speaker 1: you're you're you're you're pointing out something that most people
Speaker 1: don't understand, that that logistics problem not only delivering the food,
Speaker 1: especially in the pandemic when things are shut down, but
Speaker 1: finding that person, especially in a city like New York.
Speaker 1: I mean, you may go to a housing project where
Speaker 1: you know you've got to go through hallways and knock
Speaker 1: on doors and and so it's it's a it's a
Speaker 1: there's a there's a lot to do here. Um. So, um,
Speaker 1: you know what Jose and I obviously you know, we've
Speaker 1: had several conversations around you know, uh, we're all central
Speaker 1: kitching starting to do UM advocacy work, not only feeding people,
Speaker 1: but you know, doing some policy work. And and it's
Speaker 1: always been well we're kind of working out. Now you
Speaker 1: guys are actually doing that policy work. And it's great
Speaker 1: to see UM because you guys UM helped. It sounds
Speaker 1: like help, right the Feed Act UM, which does exactly
Speaker 1: what we're talking about. It's actually getting those federal dollars
Speaker 1: immediately into you know, you don't have to wait for
Speaker 1: FEED to mobilize, you don't have to wait for UM
Speaker 1: for dollars to start flowing UM setting up. You know,
Speaker 1: the network is there. UM. I mean, you think about this,
Speaker 1: if if they wanted pandemic, everything starts to close, federal
Speaker 1: dollars start flowing to restaurants, those restaurants stay open. They
Speaker 1: all turn into community feeding centers. Not only do you
Speaker 1: feed a lot of people, but you keep that entire
Speaker 1: supply chain and act so that milk that we see
Speaker 1: that's being thrown out, and those chicken eggs that are
Speaker 1: being broken, and the hogs that are on slaughter, all
Speaker 1: of these things stay intact. Now so that's not that's
Speaker 1: not broken, and so it really lessens the effect of
Speaker 1: this pandemic and lessons the effect that has on hungry people,
Speaker 1: lessons the effect that has on the economy. But you
Speaker 1: have to have a plan for this, So so what
Speaker 1: what is the plan? Where? Where? Where are we with
Speaker 1: the feed ack right now? Yeah, it's it's a great point.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think again this this goes back to
Speaker 1: the idea that, um, you know, the power should be
Speaker 1: in the hands of the local community to be able
Speaker 1: to respond, and I think I ideally, like you said,
Speaker 1: that is sort of the general um goal of the
Speaker 1: Stafford Act. The problem is that we were seeing in
Speaker 1: actuality it runs into a number of barriers and there's
Speaker 1: a couple of things that we really focused on with
Speaker 1: the Feed Act. So one of them is who can
Speaker 1: actually be providing those meals you know, typically in in
Speaker 1: an emergency, and whether that should should it shouldn't be
Speaker 1: a party planning company that has no experience with food,
Speaker 1: right exactly that that we exactly exactly right. I mean,
Speaker 1: if it's looked at as government procurement, what ends up happenings?
Speaker 1: You end up with organizations that are just bidding on
Speaker 1: government contracts to make money, not organizations that really are
Speaker 1: there to feed people. We saw this failed dramatically in
Speaker 1: Puerto Rico. We've seen this fail so many times over
Speaker 1: the years. But it's the structure there that that that
Speaker 1: leads to that problem. And so the idea here is
Speaker 1: we need to open the door. We need to authorize
Speaker 1: those dollars to be able to go to businesses like
Speaker 1: restaurants and catering companies and those that are feeding people
Speaker 1: and know how to feed people at scale for a living.
Speaker 1: So that's one piece. The second pieces letting those dollars
Speaker 1: also flow into local farmers. Right there shouldn't be anything
Speaker 1: stopping a city, a county, a state from buying directly
Speaker 1: from local farms to put together produce boxes other things
Speaker 1: that can be put in the hands of those families,
Speaker 1: right that so and right now it's really tricky to
Speaker 1: do that. So those are two two key pieces. But
Speaker 1: I think one of the biggest ones what a lot
Speaker 1: of people don't realize about federal dollars is that there's
Speaker 1: something called cost share. And what this means is that
Speaker 1: the federal government will say, Okay, we're gonna we're gonna
Speaker 1: pay of this, but is on you, the state or
Speaker 1: the city or the county to cover that cost. And
Speaker 1: you know, On the surface, that seems like, Okay, that's
Speaker 1: pretty good, the federal government's gonna cover. But the reality
Speaker 1: is what this what happens is this really disincentivizes um
Speaker 1: especially lower income cities, uh, places that are harder hit
Speaker 1: by the economic effects especially this pandemic, that just don't
Speaker 1: have the budgets to do it. So, yeah, you might
Speaker 1: have a place like Silicon Valley in California, Santa Clara
Speaker 1: County that says, oh, yeah, we've got we've got Google here,
Speaker 1: we've got the budgets, we have all this tax money
Speaker 1: we can pay to feed our citizens, and then not
Speaker 1: very far away in Stockton, California, they say, we don't
Speaker 1: have the money to do this, we can't afford that
Speaker 1: cost share, so we're not going to feed anyone. And
Speaker 1: so really this has proven to be a big barrier
Speaker 1: in this pandemic where you have it's it's your incentivizing
Speaker 1: places that are already wealthy to provide food for their
Speaker 1: citizens and disincentivizing those areas that are already economically disadvantaged.
Speaker 1: And so that needs to change. And so what we're
Speaker 1: trying to do is amend the Stafford Act to say
Speaker 1: the federal government during times of national emergency or there's
Speaker 1: an emergency disaster declaration, the federal government should be willing
Speaker 1: to pay that hundred percent and not stop people from
Speaker 1: from getting access to the food that they need. And
Speaker 1: so we're hopeful. So the bill was introduced with bipartisans
Speaker 1: board in both the House and the Senate um. The
Speaker 1: language and the Feed Act was then incorporated into the
Speaker 1: Heroes Act, which was passed by Speaker Pelosi with the
Speaker 1: UM on the House and is now sitting in the Senate. Now,
Speaker 1: we we know that that that majority of anything good,
Speaker 1: we know that it is not going to survive as is,
Speaker 1: but we're hopeful that by continue to push the Feed
Speaker 1: Act in a bipartisan way in the Senate that some
Speaker 1: of that that language could could survive. And we're hopeful
Speaker 1: because you know, we're seeing in both parties, we're seeing
Speaker 1: how food should be. You know, access to food should
Speaker 1: not be a political issue, right, we should not be
Speaker 1: fighting each other around a battle like this when it's
Speaker 1: good for for all of America. It's good for the
Speaker 1: Red states, the blue states of the Purple States, and
Speaker 1: so we're gonna keep pushing it. Um. We're hopeful that
Speaker 1: when the Senate sort of reconvenes on the next steps
Speaker 1: of this issue. In June, we can I mean in July,
Speaker 1: we can continue to push for it. So so that's
Speaker 1: the goal. You know, I think, like you said, I mean,
Speaker 1: World Center Kitchen. We've you know, we we we've been
Speaker 1: wanting to you know, to get involved and push some
Speaker 1: of these initiatives forward. But this was something where it
Speaker 1: was just it was very clear cut with the work
Speaker 1: that we're doing, and we're hopeful that we can bring
Speaker 1: about some lasting change. This is not pandemic only. This
Speaker 1: can be something that can really survive and live on. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm what I'm hoping, um because for
Speaker 1: the time that I spent working on issues with Congress
Speaker 1: is that you know, they're they're not leaders in terms
Speaker 1: of you know, they're not going to stick their neck
Speaker 1: out and do something that you know, we'll give someone
Speaker 1: an opening when it comes to election time. And so
Speaker 1: when we see the lines of you know, people that
Speaker 1: are waiting to three hours mile long lines waiting for
Speaker 1: food banks to get some food for the families. And
Speaker 1: these are people who you know, three months ago, they
Speaker 1: never thought in a million years that they would be
Speaker 1: on a breadline in their car. Um. And so you know,
Speaker 1: I'm hoping that that there'll there'll be a more empathetic
Speaker 1: sort of country who isn't gonna look at people in
Speaker 1: need and say, well, you you made your own bedline
Speaker 1: it or you know, pull yourself up by the bootstraps,
Speaker 1: and you know all the rhetoric that we typically here. Um,
Speaker 1: are you know, on the ground, are you seeing people
Speaker 1: who were clearly middle class or even middle class or
Speaker 1: waiting in those lines, who who may have a different
Speaker 1: opinion of the work that you're doing, or may have
Speaker 1: a greater sense of empathy for for people who are struggling.
Speaker 1: We have, Yeah, And I think exactly like you said,
Speaker 1: I mean what we're seeing now in this country is
Speaker 1: we've had a health crisis that has uh migrated to
Speaker 1: an economic crisis that really now is a humanitarian crisis.
Speaker 1: I mean, you go out to the Bronx, you go
Speaker 1: out to queens, Um, you know you will see families
Speaker 1: waiting in line seven, eight, nine hours to get a
Speaker 1: box of food or you know, food to take home. Um.
Speaker 1: These are folks that were hard working individuals that were
Speaker 1: you know, we're doing their best and now really are
Speaker 1: have been left out in the cold. I mean we
Speaker 1: we have you know, forty plus million Americans out of
Speaker 1: work right now. That is not going to change right away. Um.
Speaker 1: And I think there's a bit of a fallacy, right.
Speaker 1: I mean, even in the restaurant industry right now around
Speaker 1: reopening restaurants, right there's a sense, oh, things are gonna
Speaker 1: get back. It's not. I mean, we're not through this,
Speaker 1: and we need to recognize that. And I hope that
Speaker 1: that more folks are going to be realizing that and
Speaker 1: and put the resources and step up to the plate
Speaker 1: to be able to support our communities too. So we
Speaker 1: we don't see this, I mean, the the amount of
Speaker 1: time that we don't respond as needed is simply going
Speaker 1: to drag out our ability to get back to any
Speaker 1: semblance of normal. So you know, you mentioned I think
Speaker 1: Harleman and Bronx. Uh, you know, cities, big cities. But
Speaker 1: how much work are you guys doing out rural areas
Speaker 1: because again my understanding that rural areas are getting hurts
Speaker 1: as hard as is urban areas. UM, people are struggling
Speaker 1: and because of the distance that you know, there's a
Speaker 1: lot more space, Um that that there's there's issues of
Speaker 1: transportation to get food as well. How much work are
Speaker 1: you guys doing out in rural areas. Yeah, so we're
Speaker 1: doing quite a bit, and we're trying to We're always
Speaker 1: trying to identify and expand ways to do more. UM.
Speaker 1: You know, I think one of the real center pieces
Speaker 1: of our model to activate restaurants to produce meals that
Speaker 1: can go out into the community. So World Center Kitchen
Speaker 1: is paying restaurants UM generally around ten dollars a meal
Speaker 1: and the and those meals can be distributed into the
Speaker 1: local communities areas of need. Um. You know, World Center
Speaker 1: Kitchen can't be everywhere. We're a small NGO. We can
Speaker 1: be in a number of places, UM, but restaurants are
Speaker 1: everywhere already, and so it's just common sense right to
Speaker 1: activate those restaurants. So we're now active. UM. I think
Speaker 1: today alone two eighteen cities and towns we're serving meals
Speaker 1: in and getting meals out to so we can reach
Speaker 1: those places. UM. And we're also specifically targeting some some
Speaker 1: areas that are really hard hardest hit by COVID So
Speaker 1: in Arizona and New Mexico um Navajo Nation, the reservation
Speaker 1: there has been per capita one of the hardest hits UM.
Speaker 1: You know, intergenerational families living together. You have about eight
Speaker 1: grocery stores for this massive geographical area UM, and it's
Speaker 1: very difficult to get food to families and also be
Speaker 1: able to support them to keep them isolated. So we've
Speaker 1: actually had to adapt our model UM in in Arizona,
Speaker 1: New Mexico to focus more on kits of food. So
Speaker 1: we went to households, we said, you know what types
Speaker 1: of food, what are you what can you cook? What?
Speaker 1: What do you want fresh produce? UM, you know what
Speaker 1: types of rice and beans and other ingredients to be
Speaker 1: able to prepare meals. And we've been putting together these
Speaker 1: food boxes UM that can produce about a hundred meals
Speaker 1: eighty to a hundred meals per box. And then that
Speaker 1: way we're able to go out and deliver those two
Speaker 1: two much more remote rural areas where places where where
Speaker 1: families can't get to food banks, where families don't have
Speaker 1: access to prepared meals. So that's sort of a you know,
Speaker 1: a way that we've been adapting the model. We've also
Speaker 1: been working very heavily in Central California with a lot
Speaker 1: of the farm workers UM. They're working with the United
Speaker 1: farm Workers Foundations, so you know, everywhere is a little
Speaker 1: bit different, and I think again that's why you have
Speaker 1: to evolve and adapt and be able to work um
Speaker 1: and understand what those local needs of the community is.
Speaker 1: But for us, really that's listening. UM. But you're right,
Speaker 1: I mean that is I think moving forward over the
Speaker 1: next uh, you know, eight weeks, the coming months, it's
Speaker 1: going to be how do we make sure that we
Speaker 1: can support those those areas that are much harder to
Speaker 1: reach than than our big cities. Right. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: you just touched on something that I think is also
Speaker 1: really important, and that is if the feeding is spread
Speaker 1: out through restaurants, UM, you have a much better chance
Speaker 1: of providing culturally appropriate and you know, other people with
Speaker 1: dietary restrictions. Uh, you can actually reach more people that
Speaker 1: way too, because it's not where you know, you're only
Speaker 1: doing one particular thing, and so you can have the
Speaker 1: restaurants that sort of how helpful and how helpful in
Speaker 1: their communities. Are kosher food, are are vegan food? UM.
Speaker 1: People that have different tastes, whether it's Caribbean, are African, are, um,
Speaker 1: what have you? And so so you have a much
Speaker 1: better chance of actually be much more inclusive with the
Speaker 1: meals that you're doing. We kind of work to provide
Speaker 1: some guidance around what types of meals are going to
Speaker 1: work l for our purposes. So you have to have
Speaker 1: meals that um Oftentimes we will prepare meals that can
Speaker 1: also be like flash chilled and then um reheated later
Speaker 1: so they can be delivered to families. Sometimes they're delivered hot,
Speaker 1: but sometimes you might be delivering a couple of meals
Speaker 1: or a bunch of meals to a family that are
Speaker 1: going to cook later. So you know, some guidance around that.
Speaker 1: But you know, what's what's really been amazing, and I
Speaker 1: think always the strength of chefs in general and restaurants
Speaker 1: is they know their stuff and so provide a little
Speaker 1: bit of feedback, a little bit of guidance, and there,
Speaker 1: you know, they kind of figure things out and we
Speaker 1: really want them to be able to do what they
Speaker 1: normally do best. And a lot of the restaurants we're
Speaker 1: working with are also open in some capacity. They might
Speaker 1: be doing take out, they might be doing some delivery
Speaker 1: food as well. You know, we're not going in to
Speaker 1: supplement all of their business. We're trying to be a
Speaker 1: little bit of reliable income to them so they can
Speaker 1: bring back some you know, some backup house staffs and
Speaker 1: some cook staff, um. But we're obviously not going to
Speaker 1: replace their entire business, so a lot of them are
Speaker 1: also doing what they normally do, so we have to
Speaker 1: kind of slot into that a little bit as well.
Speaker 1: So we've we provide you know, a little bit of guidance.
Speaker 1: But what we found is that restaurants have really you know,
Speaker 1: risen to the challenge overall. I mean, they're the chefs
Speaker 1: are creative, they're figuring things out, they're adapting their models
Speaker 1: a bit, they're trying to you know, work in this
Speaker 1: sort of post COVID world, and that's really what we've
Speaker 1: we've we've seen has been working best. And we want
Speaker 1: them to also continue to buy from their existing suppliers
Speaker 1: because as you mentioned, you know, every dollar that we
Speaker 1: put into a restaurant, that we pay a restaurant for
Speaker 1: a meal is going to go to the food costs.
Speaker 1: Of course, going to go to the labor cost, it's
Speaker 1: going to go to the suppliers that are providing that food.
Speaker 1: It's going to go to the farm that's providing the
Speaker 1: food to the distributor, and there's all this trickle down
Speaker 1: effect I think in in the restaurant industry that a
Speaker 1: lot of people don't realize, you know, on the surface.
Speaker 1: And again I think that's why it is so important
Speaker 1: for us to be able to support and uplift those
Speaker 1: local businesses. So in in those communities we can we
Speaker 1: can pay a neighborhood place, a neighborhood spot that can
Speaker 1: produce those meals and and really you know see that benefit, um,
Speaker 1: you know, stay and that those dollars stay within that
Speaker 1: community rather than going to like a big government contractor exactly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and and there's usually a multiplier effect from about a
Speaker 1: dollar seventy five every dollar with those out. So it
Speaker 1: is great for the economy, which is the argument that
Speaker 1: you always trying to make with the with the government
Speaker 1: that if you want to stimulate the economy, and restaurants
Speaker 1: are a good way to do that. Um. Definitely. So
Speaker 1: you guys have been at this, I guess for about
Speaker 1: three months now since the pandemic started. Yeah, we have. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: we've been serving now for for three months here in
Speaker 1: the United States. UM. And then even before then, we
Speaker 1: actually um in February, we were out in Japan working
Speaker 1: with the cruise ship in Yokohama that had been quarantined.
Speaker 1: So we were we were having to adapt and learn
Speaker 1: some new systems around food preparation and and and and
Speaker 1: pre prep and reheating and other things. And so getting
Speaker 1: those stems really honed. UM. But yeah, in the United States,
Speaker 1: and and we've also been working in Spain as well.
Speaker 1: Spain was was really hard hit um after Italy, before
Speaker 1: the United States really took up the mantle as being
Speaker 1: the worst in the world in terms of our COVID response. UM.
Speaker 1: But us exactly, so we've served um about fifteen million
Speaker 1: meals fresh meals. UM. These are not you know, shelf stable,
Speaker 1: these are freshly prepared meals. Fifteen million meals UM. Since
Speaker 1: that time, we've already put UM, we're we're nearing fifty
Speaker 1: million dollars that we've put directly back into the hands
Speaker 1: of small restaurants through this process, paying them to prepare meals.
Speaker 1: So you know, I don't think any of us at
Speaker 1: World Central Kitchen and UH and and otherwise really I
Speaker 1: think UM, when we started doing this work really appreciated
Speaker 1: the scale of the need and what we're seeing. And UM,
Speaker 1: you know, we're producing close to three hundred thousand meals
Speaker 1: every single day all across the country. Some of that
Speaker 1: is we've got some some kitchens um that World Central
Speaker 1: Kitchen is is we're seeing. But most of this work
Speaker 1: now is through the local restaurants and and that's really
Speaker 1: we want to prove show that this model works, and
Speaker 1: not only for the pandemic. I mean, I think what's
Speaker 1: been what's potentially really you know, if there is a
Speaker 1: silver lining. It's hard to say that, you know, with
Speaker 1: what we're facing right now, but you know, maybe just
Speaker 1: maybe we'll see some lasting change where the federal government,
Speaker 1: our cities, our states see the value of restaurants not
Speaker 1: just culturally, not just economically, but also as first responders
Speaker 1: in our communities. Absolutely, we're back. So I'm here with
Speaker 1: Nick Muck, who's the CEO of World Central Kitchen, and
Speaker 1: they have been just beating the drum on having a
Speaker 1: government response, not so much a charitable response. What what
Speaker 1: does it take to get food on someone's plate in
Speaker 1: a disaster? What does that actually look like? And how
Speaker 1: do we get here? I've always said that like restaurants us,
Speaker 1: we are first responders. And it used to be that
Speaker 1: we were always there to sort of help with the
Speaker 1: charital response, and but but now it's the work that
Speaker 1: you're doing is just more directly and then of course
Speaker 1: the extending extending that through so many chefs and restaurants
Speaker 1: across the country. UM, it's been really impressive. Any idea
Speaker 1: on how much longer you'll you'll need to do this
Speaker 1: for this pandemic. Yeah, it's it's a great question. It's
Speaker 1: one that that we're facing sort of constantly of of
Speaker 1: what is what is the ongoing need? Looking like we're
Speaker 1: always sort of adapting. Um, I think, you know, as
Speaker 1: as focused and attention is shifted from the health consequences
Speaker 1: of of COVID to the social justice issues that we're
Speaker 1: seeing now across the country. You know, my hope is
Speaker 1: we don't disconnect the two because the reality is that
Speaker 1: they are integrated, right well, connect connect connecting for us. Yeah, So,
Speaker 1: I mean, we have we have populations now, we have
Speaker 1: we have communities that have been out of work for
Speaker 1: now three plus months. Um, there's there's very little hope
Speaker 1: in a lot of places in our country right now.
Speaker 1: There are neighborhoods, there are big cities that have you know,
Speaker 1: essentially been abandoned by leadership and support. And I think
Speaker 1: you've got all of this frustration and lack of hope
Speaker 1: and lack of of of a of a future UM
Speaker 1: that has been bubbling up. And on top of that,
Speaker 1: you have the you know, the murder of of a
Speaker 1: man and police custody that has kind of boiled everything over.
Speaker 1: And we're you know, we're seeing the reaction to this UM.
Speaker 1: But I think it's all interconnected. It's all if if
Speaker 1: families are struggling to put food on their table and
Speaker 1: they are frustrated, they're out of work, there's no hope
Speaker 1: and opportunity. UM, you know that that is going to
Speaker 1: lead to unrest, right because there there is, there is.
Speaker 1: Nobody knows what's going to happen tomorrow. And so I
Speaker 1: think we have to be willing to invest in. We
Speaker 1: have to we have to, you know, provide the reforms
Speaker 1: that are that are so desperately needed in our criminal
Speaker 1: justice system and in our police uh in our policing.
Speaker 1: But we also need to tie very closely with that
Speaker 1: the support for those communities. Get figure out if we
Speaker 1: can get jobs back in and see how we can
Speaker 1: we can divert attention and resources and money into these
Speaker 1: communities that so desperately need it right now, and make
Speaker 1: sure that there is access to food, there is access
Speaker 1: to to those you know, those day to day things
Speaker 1: that are needed. So yes, you're right, this this is about,
Speaker 1: you know, creating those economic opportunities. I mean, I mean
Speaker 1: people just kind of slides by, you know, to too frequently.
Speaker 1: George Floyd was arrested for passing a counterfeit twenty bill. Well,
Speaker 1: he was arrest for passing a twenty oar council bill
Speaker 1: because he was trying to feed feed himself. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, this wasn't this wasn't about doing some of
Speaker 1: the farious thing where I'm going out there and becoming
Speaker 1: a master criminal. He was just trying to like, you know,
Speaker 1: survive and and uh, you know this is about creating
Speaker 1: economic you know, you know, opportunity. And this, again, I'm hoping,
Speaker 1: is another um sort of silver lining of in in
Speaker 1: a post COVID world is realizing how fragile so many
Speaker 1: people and how they're living on the edge and and
Speaker 1: how do you know this big business, you know, what
Speaker 1: role do they have to play? And stop looking at
Speaker 1: these quarterly you know earning reports where if you miss
Speaker 1: your earnings by a couple of pennies, you get hammered,
Speaker 1: and so the only way to make up those dollars
Speaker 1: is through labor, and labors just getting crushed. And so
Speaker 1: you know, hopefully on the other side of this again
Speaker 1: this goes goes back to having a more empathetic country,
Speaker 1: is that you know, leaders of business, leaders, the Jamie
Speaker 1: Diamonds of the world are going to turn around and go,
Speaker 1: you know what, this is wrong and and something has
Speaker 1: to change or something has to give. But we're gonna
Speaker 1: see unrest for a long time. And I think I
Speaker 1: think COVID Um, you know it's it's it's uh, it's
Speaker 1: underlying you know, the fragility in our health care system,
Speaker 1: in our in our food systems, um in in in uh,
Speaker 1: you know, the economic opportunities that people have in communities
Speaker 1: and just just exposed so many things. Um and uh.
Speaker 1: You know, hopefully in the post COVID world, UM, if
Speaker 1: there's another disaster, whether it's local or whether it's national,
Speaker 1: that funding flows, people immediately can can get to work. Uh,
Speaker 1: you get through all the red tape and people don't
Speaker 1: have to wait a week or two before they get
Speaker 1: that first meal. Immediately it'll start happening, so absolutely, so, Nate, listen,
Speaker 1: I just want to say thank you for the work
Speaker 1: that you're doing. Is we're talking to Nate Muk, who
Speaker 1: is the man behind the man, the Saint um Josandris
Speaker 1: I know as the chef owner in my restaurant. I
Speaker 1: get all the glory, but it's people like you who
Speaker 1: are behind us, who are making the wheel turn, uh,
Speaker 1: that make it happen. So so thank you for the
Speaker 1: work that you're doing with so listen. We all know
Speaker 1: that disasters are inevitable, so government should have a plan,
Speaker 1: but we find out they don't. In the absence of
Speaker 1: a plan, we have to rely on charity, but often
Speaker 1: that just falls short. You know, if you're if you're
Speaker 1: listening to this podcast and the Feed Act hasn't passed yet,
Speaker 1: call your representative and let them know that you know what,
Speaker 1: cann drives are really cool, but we need a plan
Speaker 1: and the Feed Act is that plan. So can you
Speaker 1: get behind it? Can you co sponsor it? You're like,
Speaker 1: let's pass this special Thanks Nate Muk, the CEO of
Speaker 1: World Central Kitchen. Citizen Chef with Me Tom Collikio is
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Media. Christopher Hassiotis is our
Speaker 1: executive producer, just Lyne Shield is our researcher, and Gabrielle
Speaker 1: Collins is our producer and editor. Don't forget to subscribe,
Speaker 1: and if you like us, rate us. If you don't
Speaker 1: like us, well don't. Next we'll examine how our governments
Speaker 1: responded with food aid in localized catastrophes like we saw
Speaker 1: in New York City after nine eleven, and of course,
Speaker 1: in global emergencies like the COVID virus h