WEBVTT - The Green Solution to Food Apartheid 0:00:02.600 --> 0:00:04.400 When I was a kid, I used to read a 0:00:04.519 --> 0:00:08.480 lot of science magazines three to one, Contact pop side 0:00:08.600 --> 0:00:12.440 Popular Mechanics, and I like them because I love to 0:00:12.560 --> 0:00:16.079 look at the inventions. I genuinely wanted to know what 0:00:16.200 --> 0:00:20.200 the future would look like. And sometimes the ideas were funny, 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:23.279 like one scientist decided peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were 0:00:23.360 --> 0:00:27.720 too hard to make, so he invented individual jelly slices 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:30.280 that you could lay onto the bread instead of spreading it, 0:00:30.840 --> 0:00:34.080 kind of like craft singles, and I have yet to 0:00:34.080 --> 0:00:37.120 see those in the real world. Some of the inventions 0:00:37.120 --> 0:00:40.240 were ingenious, like what if you could take your sunscreen 0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:43.000 in a pill instead of having to deal with applying it? 0:00:43.720 --> 0:00:47.160 And sometimes well, there were things I still think about, 0:00:47.800 --> 0:00:50.680 like the idea of vertical farms. What if you could 0:00:50.720 --> 0:00:55.480 grow entire farms inside skyscrapers and rotate the crops to 0:00:55.520 --> 0:00:59.160 face the sun. And what if these skyscraper farms were 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:02.200 in cities so you could reduce the distance to get 0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:06.080 all this fresh food to people. It's kind of incredible, 0:01:06.200 --> 0:01:10.520 right In some ways, vertical farms are like robot butlers 0:01:10.560 --> 0:01:14.800 and jet packs, these things science magazines and the jetsons 0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:17.920 told us about inventions that feel like they should be 0:01:18.200 --> 0:01:22.880 just around the corner to solve all our problems. But 0:01:23.000 --> 0:01:25.840 what if we don't have time to wait. According to 0:01:25.880 --> 0:01:28.920 the U s d A, about twenty three point five 0:01:29.080 --> 0:01:33.479 million people live in food deserts today. Those are areas 0:01:33.520 --> 0:01:38.440 where it's difficult or impossible to access affordable, healthy food options, 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:42.319 and it's no surprise that nearly half of these food 0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:46.400 deserts are in low income areas, as well, areas where 0:01:46.480 --> 0:01:49.800 grocery stores don't think they can make a profit, so 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:53.080 people are forced to make do with what's available. They 0:01:53.080 --> 0:01:56.680 eat fast food or junk food because that's what's near, 0:01:57.400 --> 0:02:02.120 which leads to all sorts of health complications. It's a cycle, 0:02:02.240 --> 0:02:05.600 and it is depressing. But there are things we can 0:02:05.640 --> 0:02:08.720 do right now. It turns out growing your own food 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:12.160 is one of the most promising solutions. We don't often 0:02:12.200 --> 0:02:15.400 think of gardening as a path to self reliance, but growing, 0:02:16.040 --> 0:02:18.840 whether that's part of a community garden or even in 0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:23.239 your own backyard, allows people to eat healthier, disrupt a 0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:27.800 broken system, and meet their own food demands. And along 0:02:27.800 --> 0:02:35.720 the way, it should make for happier and healthier communities too. Hey, 0:02:35.720 --> 0:02:38.800 there I'm Mongais Articular, a co host of Part Time Genius, 0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:41.400 one of the co founders of Mental Flaws. And this 0:02:42.040 --> 0:02:45.800 is Humans Growing Stuff, a collaboration from my Heart Radio 0:02:45.960 --> 0:02:48.680 and your friends at Miracle Grow. My goal is to 0:02:48.720 --> 0:02:52.639 make this the most human show about plants you'll ever 0:02:52.720 --> 0:02:56.960 listen to, and along the way, we'll share sweet, inspiring stories, 0:02:57.080 --> 0:03:00.200 tips and tricks to nurture your plant addiction, and just 0:03:00.440 --> 0:03:04.200 enough science to make you sound like an expert. In 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:07.720 today's episode, we're going to explore the issues surrounding food 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:12.440 deserts and the bootstrapped community builders and leaders who are 0:03:12.480 --> 0:03:20.519 working on growing solutions to eliminate food insecurity. Chapter six, 0:03:21.240 --> 0:03:27.280 Can growing food Grow Freedom? The truth is, food deserts 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:31.160 aren't a new phenomena. Years ago, I was driving into Wilmington, 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:33.760 Delaware to pick up a friend from the train station. 0:03:35.240 --> 0:03:38.120 I actually went to elementary school in Wilmington's My school 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:40.280 buzz used to take me along this same route. But 0:03:40.800 --> 0:03:43.400 before I picked up my friend, I needed to run 0:03:43.440 --> 0:03:46.760 into a grocery store, so I stopped by this familiar chain. 0:03:47.760 --> 0:03:52.320 But what I saw inside was dismal. I remember being 0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:56.119 struck by how sad the offerings were the shelves were 0:03:56.160 --> 0:04:00.760 barely stocked, the produce was meager and old, and for me, 0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:06.040 the experience was jarring. This felt like the flimsiest excuse 0:04:06.080 --> 0:04:09.240 for a grocery store, and there really weren't other options around. 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:14.200 Of course, this isn't a problem that's unique to Wilmington's. 0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:17.040 All over the country you can find areas that are 0:04:17.080 --> 0:04:20.680 flush with grocery stores. They have aisles upon aisles of 0:04:20.720 --> 0:04:24.080 fresh produce, and then on the other side of town 0:04:24.320 --> 0:04:27.960 you can pass through neighborhoods with a single poorly stocked store, 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:32.640 or sometimes areas where they're just dollar stores or corner 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:36.760 stores as replacements. So I've been wondering what's being done 0:04:36.760 --> 0:04:40.120 to change or combat this issue. Kamal Bell is on 0:04:40.160 --> 0:04:43.599 the front lines of fighting food deserts. Easy teacher and 0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:47.120 the founder of Sankofa Farms in North Carolina, just outside 0:04:47.120 --> 0:04:50.159 of Derham. The farm is focused on serving those in 0:04:50.200 --> 0:04:53.839 the Grham and Orange County urban areas that are effectively 0:04:53.880 --> 0:04:59.000 food deserts. Each week, Kamal and his team delivered dehydrated chips, 0:04:59.120 --> 0:05:02.600 farm fresh egg, and honey, all made for the bounty 0:05:02.680 --> 0:05:06.120 of his farm and his bee hives. Additionally, Kamal has 0:05:06.160 --> 0:05:08.760 made it his personal mission to teach students in these 0:05:08.760 --> 0:05:12.360 areas stem and agriculture to set them up for success 0:05:12.440 --> 0:05:15.280 and the nutrient rich future where they can grow their 0:05:15.320 --> 0:05:19.479 food not only for themselves but for their communities. I 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:21.719 called up Kamal to hear more about his journey with 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:25.000 Sankofa and how he seemed to change in the communities 0:05:25.000 --> 0:05:33.760 he serves, especially when they have access to healthy foods. Hey, Comal, Hey, 0:05:33.760 --> 0:05:37.000 how are you doing doing well? First things first, I 0:05:37.040 --> 0:05:39.840 want to hear how you got into farming. All right, 0:05:39.920 --> 0:05:43.320 So I was on track to be a veterinarian and 0:05:43.400 --> 0:05:45.160 I was sitting in class one day and this dawned 0:05:45.200 --> 0:05:47.360 on me. It was like, what are you gonna do 0:05:47.440 --> 0:05:50.360 with this? That really serves people, and that serves you 0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:53.479 and me and my wife we will find out we 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:56.200 were having our first son. So I was thinking about 0:05:56.680 --> 0:06:00.640 what could we do to always support him, like no 0:06:00.680 --> 0:06:03.360 matter what happened, whether we were unemployed, whether we employed, 0:06:03.680 --> 0:06:06.640 if something goes wrong, and how can we always make 0:06:06.680 --> 0:06:09.400 sure this young man is taken care of? And farming 0:06:09.480 --> 0:06:12.040 dawned on me. And also at this time, I was 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:15.360 working on my masters. I was studying these things called 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:19.440 food deserts, and I'm thinking about what's the common thread 0:06:19.720 --> 0:06:23.320 that connects everything and farming was that thing? And what 0:06:23.480 --> 0:06:25.480 sort of gave you the confidence that you could grow 0:06:25.560 --> 0:06:28.560 stuff and and be a farmer? That's a great question, Like, 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:31.159 that's a great question. Not a lot of people ask 0:06:31.200 --> 0:06:34.359 me that. So the what gave what drives me to 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:37.520 do that is one. I feel like I'm really helping 0:06:37.600 --> 0:06:41.840 my community. I'm curious. Santo actually has a few meanings, right, Okay, 0:06:41.880 --> 0:06:43.920 can can you talk about the alternate meetings of it? Yes? 0:06:44.000 --> 0:06:47.120 So sant cofa also means to go back and get it. 0:06:47.560 --> 0:06:51.160 So it comes out of the Aconn language in West Africa, 0:06:51.600 --> 0:06:55.719 and it's symbolic or represented by a mythical bird. And 0:06:55.920 --> 0:06:59.680 as it's moving forward, its head is turned backward. If 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:02.880 we want to fixed problems in today's time, we have 0:07:03.000 --> 0:07:05.599 to look back in our ancestry, in our history to 0:07:05.680 --> 0:07:09.960 be able to attack these issues. Saying kofa came up 0:07:10.080 --> 0:07:12.000 when I learned about these food deserts, and I was 0:07:12.000 --> 0:07:14.200 just like, how can we get people food? If we're 0:07:14.200 --> 0:07:16.040 trying to get people food, of course we need more 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:20.040 people to produce food. Um, there's also allocation issue that 0:07:20.080 --> 0:07:23.200 goes into the whole making of the food desert. But 0:07:23.400 --> 0:07:25.240 for me, like what I felt like I can really 0:07:25.280 --> 0:07:28.360 impact was the growing of the food. At first, I 0:07:28.400 --> 0:07:30.679 started out selling dehydrat and chips. I have a commercial 0:07:30.720 --> 0:07:32.960 dehydrot like fifty ft away from me in my garage 0:07:32.960 --> 0:07:35.200 that we used to use. And the whole idea behind 0:07:35.240 --> 0:07:37.239 that was to get people who were living in food 0:07:37.240 --> 0:07:40.800 deserts and affected by food and security healthier food. So 0:07:40.800 --> 0:07:46.360 we should dehydra apples, pineapples, kale, mangoes, cinnamon, apples, bananas. 0:07:46.720 --> 0:07:48.560 We used to make all these products and get them 0:07:48.560 --> 0:07:51.560 to people who are affected our food and secure areas. 0:07:51.640 --> 0:07:55.280 And for me, East Greensboro is a food desert through 0:07:55.320 --> 0:07:58.440 and through, but in West Greensboro you had a more 0:07:58.440 --> 0:08:01.720 fluid side of the the town. You have like this overabundance 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:04.800 of healthy food white you have food stops everywhere. But 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:08.120 we were able to streamline the leverage that we had 0:08:08.120 --> 0:08:10.800 created with the dehydrant chips, and then that led us 0:08:10.800 --> 0:08:13.920 into getting the farm. I know you spent a lot 0:08:13.920 --> 0:08:17.200 of time delivering food to various communities and groups. Can 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:19.080 you talking a little bit about the diversity of groups 0:08:19.120 --> 0:08:22.120 that you're passing food along too. So there's an organization 0:08:22.200 --> 0:08:25.360 called Root Causes that works with Farmer Food's a food 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:29.000 distribution uh, it's a cook in Derhm and they get 0:08:29.000 --> 0:08:31.640 food to people who have been recommended by the doctor. 0:08:32.280 --> 0:08:34.480 And I like the food we really fresh, so like 0:08:34.559 --> 0:08:36.760 I'll go to the extra mile to make sure it's 0:08:36.800 --> 0:08:39.079 like far Fresh is not as it hasn't been sent 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:41.920 for a couple of hours. I'll go wake up at 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:45.880 around five thirty, get there around six thirty tomorrow morning. 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:48.920 So jobs to the farm. Harvest Food had that dropped 0:08:48.920 --> 0:08:51.720 off by nine thirty, and then they distributed it in 0:08:51.800 --> 0:08:53.880 their bags like it's part of a larger system. They 0:08:53.920 --> 0:08:57.000 send bags of healthy produce to people. It's just been 0:08:57.040 --> 0:08:59.960 really cool to work with organizations that can do the 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:03.200 handom distribution aspect. It's just it's just really cool. It's 0:09:03.200 --> 0:09:06.240 just really cool. There's a teaching component the story. It 0:09:06.280 --> 0:09:08.880 involves you being at a public school and R Yes, 0:09:09.000 --> 0:09:12.240 I actually drew up this idea of the farm and 0:09:12.320 --> 0:09:14.719 took to the principle because I was teaching agriculture at 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:17.360 the school. And the students will gravitate towards the work 0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:20.240 and they will also change their behavior. So I saw 0:09:20.280 --> 0:09:24.199 that introducing them to agriculture gave them a foundation outside 0:09:24.240 --> 0:09:26.160 the classroom, and that's I think that's what we want 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:28.360 education to do. Like it just can't be useful in 0:09:28.400 --> 0:09:30.800 the school. So I literally took them out to the 0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:33.640 farm and two of the students, one of them, his 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:36.160 birthday is actually today. His name is Kamani. I have 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:38.319 a birthday Comini. He'll be listening to this at some point, 0:09:38.559 --> 0:09:41.720 having another student, Cameron, whose birthday was last week. They 0:09:41.800 --> 0:09:44.560 actually have stayed with the program from its inception all 0:09:44.559 --> 0:09:46.920 the way until now. So it's been really cool to 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:49.760 see their growth and see their knowledge based growth, and 0:09:49.760 --> 0:09:51.960 then see them be able to say, hey, yo, i 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:54.960 am in this food instant care area, but I'm in 0:09:55.040 --> 0:09:57.760 this place where I have access to fresh food because 0:09:57.840 --> 0:09:59.320 I know how to do it and how to grow it, 0:09:59.559 --> 0:10:02.079 and I can take it home with me. I'm curious, 0:10:02.160 --> 0:10:04.520 just as we get into food deserts, how would you 0:10:04.559 --> 0:10:08.040 define the food desert. That's a great question, um, because 0:10:08.240 --> 0:10:11.640 terminology can be use it gets people to confuse them. 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:15.960 I just define it as a place where you don't 0:10:16.000 --> 0:10:20.400 have access to healthy food. So it gets tricky because 0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:23.120 the U s A has definition and then people saying 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:26.040 not food desert, it's like a food apart tide. I 0:10:26.080 --> 0:10:28.600 hear all that, but I might look the reality is 0:10:29.120 --> 0:10:32.680 people want to eat healthy and don't have access to it. 0:10:32.679 --> 0:10:36.440 And in economics goes into it because you look at cars, 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:38.800 like some people might not have cars to to drive 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:41.079 from the store. Then you look at how the city 0:10:41.120 --> 0:10:44.040 is drawing out like city planet, goes into it. Um 0:10:44.160 --> 0:10:47.000 through these communities, I'm like, dam, I'm tired of seeing 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:49.439 corner stores. Everywhere you see corner stores or you're left 0:10:49.559 --> 0:10:51.199 or you're right. You don't even have to go with 0:10:51.559 --> 0:10:55.319 all this unhealthy food. When you start seeing family dollars 0:10:55.360 --> 0:10:58.840 in communities, that's a pretty good identified that it's a 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:02.720 food desert. It's just any place that I go in 0:11:03.040 --> 0:11:06.040 and I know that people you can like really see 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:07.600 a food and just by the how you see the 0:11:07.679 --> 0:11:10.480 people in the area. In an urban setting, now in 0:11:10.480 --> 0:11:14.360 the rural setting, you're even further from a grocery store 0:11:14.520 --> 0:11:17.280 because our farmers in a rural area, you would think, 0:11:17.320 --> 0:11:20.440 since there's farms around there, getting healthy food, but a 0:11:20.480 --> 0:11:22.560 lot of the farms aren't producing that quality of food. 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:24.800 So we're really talking about like a really a really 0:11:24.880 --> 0:11:28.120 large issue that affects people, that affects a lot of people. 0:11:28.320 --> 0:11:32.840 What you think to be I think it's a multi 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:35.359 tier plan. I think we have to look at food distribution. 0:11:35.840 --> 0:11:39.199 We definitely have to look at agricultural education and really 0:11:39.240 --> 0:11:43.360 getting kids in because if once these students get in 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:46.280 permanent situations like they can turn their backyards into a 0:11:46.400 --> 0:11:49.320 into a guarden, everybody has to pitch in. So I 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:51.560 think we have to look at distribution, We have to 0:11:51.559 --> 0:11:54.400 look at getting the younger generation to agriculture, and then 0:11:54.440 --> 0:11:57.079 overwall awareness, I think a lot of people aren't aware 0:11:57.520 --> 0:12:00.400 that they're living in a food insecure area. Once you 0:12:00.400 --> 0:12:03.199 would come aware, we can start troubleshooting and working with 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:07.080 structures in our communities that are trying to fix the issue. 0:12:07.360 --> 0:12:09.520 But even if you can't get to some of these 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:13.360 large organic like groceries and stuff there, it's expensive, right 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:15.400 it is. There's a real value to being able to 0:12:15.400 --> 0:12:18.520 grow your own it is. And then the economic piece 0:12:18.559 --> 0:12:22.760 where people if if not saying it's a one it's 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:27.400 like a remedy for everybody, but there are people who 0:12:28.280 --> 0:12:31.800 want to do better in their communities and agriculture can 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:35.640 be that tool that resource because like one thing that's 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:37.600 like that you hear a lot is that the community 0:12:37.600 --> 0:12:41.760 don't have resources. There are resources in these areas. Just 0:12:41.840 --> 0:12:44.559 change your perspective on where you are and you can 0:12:44.600 --> 0:12:48.160 begin to reimagine how you can change that area, your 0:12:48.280 --> 0:12:51.280 resource in your community. And look at this land that's there, 0:12:51.400 --> 0:12:54.640 look at the way the houses are situated. So there 0:12:54.640 --> 0:12:56.600 are people who I think were really if they had 0:12:56.880 --> 0:13:00.000 access to the resource, were really changed. And I see 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:03.080 that especially with the bees. People like love bees. My 0:13:03.120 --> 0:13:06.520 wife just got certified two weeks ago. I'm certified for 0:13:06.640 --> 0:13:08.839 the students of certified beekeepers. I never know I was 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:10.200 gonna be a beekeeper. You would have asked me three 0:13:10.240 --> 0:13:11.760 years ago, I would have well, four years ago, the 0:13:11.840 --> 0:13:14.560 bere like I'm scared of bees. But just getting people 0:13:15.080 --> 0:13:18.520 access to resources and opportunities and will see a shift 0:13:18.520 --> 0:13:20.320 in a lot of things. I mean, my my favorite 0:13:20.320 --> 0:13:22.240 thing on your I was looking at the store on 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:25.000 your website, and you know you've got some lettuce and 0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:29.160 T shirts and stuff, and then it's like Lesa be high. Yeah, yeah, 0:13:29.280 --> 0:13:33.680 yeah yeah, And I think that's a program that's going 0:13:33.760 --> 0:13:38.640 to really be really take off because right, was like 0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:41.080 this whole movement start with us seeing the police botell 0:13:41.240 --> 0:13:44.000 with George Floyd. When that wave hit, there was a 0:13:44.000 --> 0:13:46.920 lot of attention that went to black farmers and black 0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:49.760 people in agricultural spaces and we got like this wave 0:13:49.840 --> 0:13:53.040 of followers out of nowhere. And somebody hit me up 0:13:53.040 --> 0:13:54.920 on Twitter the day They're like, can I at least 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:57.400 to be high? And I'm like, where do you live? 0:13:57.440 --> 0:13:59.000 He was like California And I was like, well, you 0:13:59.040 --> 0:14:01.120 can lease it at sent off. It will send you 0:14:01.160 --> 0:14:03.240 the honey from your high. He was like, I can't 0:14:03.240 --> 0:14:05.240 wait till the next spring, but I think we're gonna 0:14:05.280 --> 0:14:09.679 see a really big jump in that program next year 0:14:09.720 --> 0:14:13.120 because right now we're at forty behalves, so we wouldn't 0:14:13.120 --> 0:14:14.920 have a lot. I've never seen that before that. I 0:14:15.200 --> 0:14:19.760 loved it so much just looking at um, you know, 0:14:19.800 --> 0:14:22.040 you know, but one of the things you were hitting 0:14:22.040 --> 0:14:25.480 on with social issues and and uh, when you're not 0:14:25.600 --> 0:14:29.320 dependent on others for food and you're not feeling that insecurity, 0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:32.520 then you have space to concentrate and change other things 0:14:32.560 --> 0:14:34.760 in your life, you know. And and I was curious 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:37.000 if you're thinking about that as well. Yeah, if I 0:14:37.040 --> 0:14:39.320 think about like how much time that we spend going 0:14:39.360 --> 0:14:42.960 to a grocery store, and society is already fast paced 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:45.480 where we want to be, Like, honest, we're doing all 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:48.400 these things at some level to eat. Everybody wants to heat. 0:14:48.800 --> 0:14:52.320 But if we could just start going into this for ourselves, 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:55.800 we would have more control over every other aspects of 0:14:55.800 --> 0:14:57.800 our life, especially our health. We had top of the 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:01.320 quality between healthy eating and you're health. Those things go 0:15:01.480 --> 0:15:03.840 hand in the head. I don't think it's I think 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:05.600 it's a basic human necessity. Like us, we don't we 0:15:05.720 --> 0:15:08.320 grow food for ourselves. I think we can really impact 0:15:08.640 --> 0:15:10.880 and create a lot of change. I know you spent 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:13.480 a lot of time delivering food to to various communities 0:15:13.480 --> 0:15:17.680 and groups. Have you seen the impact on the people themselves, 0:15:17.960 --> 0:15:20.680 the people who are receiving the food. I have it, 0:15:21.040 --> 0:15:24.760 and that's primarily because we're dropping it off, and I 0:15:24.840 --> 0:15:28.280 probably haven't because I haven't like consciously thought of it. Yeah, 0:15:28.320 --> 0:15:30.000 I feel like they made me cry. If somebody I 0:15:30.040 --> 0:15:32.120 was just like, yeah, that kills just so good, and 0:15:32.720 --> 0:15:34.720 my daughters liked it. On my son, I think i'd 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:36.920 probably like tear up. Yeah, of course, I don't want 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:39.560 to ever feel like the job is done and I 0:15:39.560 --> 0:15:42.680 don't want to settle. So this morning in my mind, 0:15:42.720 --> 0:15:44.600 I'm like, oh, I didn't do enough, Like I'm that 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:46.560 type of person, so I want to do more. That's 0:15:46.560 --> 0:15:48.960 really cool. Come Al though, thank you so much for 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:51.840 hanging out with us and and sharing your story. No problem, 0:15:51.920 --> 0:15:57.240 thank you for interview. It has been real cool. Humans 0:15:57.240 --> 0:16:06.680 growing stuff will be right back after a short I've 0:16:06.680 --> 0:16:09.320 been thinking a lot about what Kamal said about how 0:16:09.320 --> 0:16:12.320 the resources are there to grow our own food and 0:16:12.640 --> 0:16:16.360 become independent of the food distribution system. It made me 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:19.360 think of the Bronx green Up, the community gardens here 0:16:19.400 --> 0:16:22.680 in New York, where sometimes people grow so much food 0:16:23.040 --> 0:16:25.520 they end up sharing it with their friends or, in 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:29.080 one man's case, even mailing the harvest to his relatives 0:16:29.080 --> 0:16:31.680 in Puerto Rico, and I thought about Shelley from the 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:36.400 Highland Community Gardens to where the organization takes saplings and 0:16:36.440 --> 0:16:40.000 plants them in neighbor's backyards so families can cultivate their 0:16:40.000 --> 0:16:43.840 own veggies. It's a service they offer to combat food deserts. 0:16:45.240 --> 0:16:48.320 But Gary Oppenheimer, the founder of Ample Harvest dot org, 0:16:48.800 --> 0:16:51.720 has figured out another way to help. What if there 0:16:51.800 --> 0:16:54.560 was a better way to share all the extra food 0:16:54.600 --> 0:16:57.280 we end up growing. What if we could take all 0:16:57.320 --> 0:17:01.840 the extra produce that's farmed and connect American gardeners the 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:06.720 local food pantries in need. It's an incredible idea and 0:17:06.840 --> 0:17:13.879 I wanted to hear more, so we gave him a call. Hey, Gary, 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:16.239 how's it going? I am well man, how are you 0:17:16.600 --> 0:17:19.200 doing super well? And it's really nice to be chatting. 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:23.040 So I want to hear all about how you started 0:17:23.200 --> 0:17:26.520 apple harvest Dot Oregon and to get your backstory a 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:30.960 little bit. Um. I went to college, studied psychology and 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:33.600 decided when I was done with school that I should 0:17:33.600 --> 0:17:37.520 never be psychologist, which my wife bully agrees with. And 0:17:38.040 --> 0:17:43.320 fast forward to nineteen. We buy a house in northern 0:17:43.400 --> 0:17:46.879 New Jersey and a large piece of property, and I 0:17:46.960 --> 0:17:49.399 decided that I had all this time, I should know 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:52.560 how to garden, so I became a master gardener. I 0:17:52.600 --> 0:17:56.360 was successfully, as it turns out, like millions of other gardeners, 0:17:56.400 --> 0:17:58.720 growing more food than I could use or preserve or 0:17:58.760 --> 0:18:01.840 share with friends. I started looking around to see where 0:18:01.840 --> 0:18:03.760 I could donate, and I found a battered woman shelter 0:18:03.840 --> 0:18:06.280 in my town, and I took the food there. The 0:18:06.359 --> 0:18:08.640 woman who accepted the food, she said, thank you. Now 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:11.560 we can have fresh food, And that was a weird thing. 0:18:11.640 --> 0:18:15.320 I remember walking away hearing. Around the same time, I 0:18:15.320 --> 0:18:18.040 was asked to take over the management of my town's 0:18:18.119 --> 0:18:21.240 community garden, and I did at the end of the 0:18:21.320 --> 0:18:23.400 prior growing season. When I first met with the people 0:18:23.400 --> 0:18:26.320 in the garden, one of the people said to me 0:18:26.760 --> 0:18:31.000 that she was deeply concerned because the at the end 0:18:31.040 --> 0:18:32.679 of the growing season, there's a lot of food being 0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:35.240 left over in the garden. People were bored, overwhelmed, went 0:18:35.280 --> 0:18:37.720 on vacation. She said, I don't want to see that 0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:40.640 food go to waste. And I said, well, if we're 0:18:40.640 --> 0:18:42.600 gonna have an ample harvest, the least we could do 0:18:42.640 --> 0:18:44.360 is get it to hungry people. Now, I had never 0:18:44.400 --> 0:18:46.640 said the for example, harvest in my life. I've never 0:18:46.840 --> 0:18:49.520 those two words, that had never come together. They loved 0:18:49.560 --> 0:18:52.560 that idea. We set about setting up a program in 0:18:52.560 --> 0:18:55.159 this community garden to do that very thing, and in 0:18:55.200 --> 0:18:59.280 the process I discovered that when I went on to Google, 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:02.680 Google said the nearest food program to me was in Morristown, 0:19:02.680 --> 0:19:07.160 New Jerseys, away, which I knew was wrong, and It's 0:19:07.200 --> 0:19:11.800 suddenly dawned on me that the food problem we were 0:19:11.920 --> 0:19:18.159 experiencing wasn't about the food, it was about information. I 0:19:18.240 --> 0:19:21.960 had been misinformed, as we all have been, that you 0:19:22.000 --> 0:19:25.639 weren't allowed to donate food to a food pantry. That 0:19:25.680 --> 0:19:29.919 you will all heard the mantra at food drives of jars, cans, boxes, 0:19:29.960 --> 0:19:32.400 but no fresh food. We were told you can't do that. 0:19:33.320 --> 0:19:36.920 What I realized this was fundamentally a problem of misinformation 0:19:37.040 --> 0:19:40.679 and missing information. The misinformation you're not allowed to donate 0:19:40.680 --> 0:19:44.000 the food. The missing information was too word to donate it, 0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:46.440 and the optimum day of the weekend time at which 0:19:46.520 --> 0:19:48.840 to do it, because if you timed it just right, 0:19:49.320 --> 0:19:51.760 the food pantry did not need to refrigerate your food, 0:19:51.800 --> 0:19:54.119 because the food could be donated just before the hungry 0:19:54.160 --> 0:19:57.199 families take it home. I then got two volunteers to 0:19:57.240 --> 0:19:59.879 help me, and over the deck to nine weeks, we 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:04.240 built what is today ample harvest dot org. The idea 0:20:04.400 --> 0:20:08.640 was to create a massive public awareness campaign helping millions 0:20:08.640 --> 0:20:11.280 and millions of gardeners learned that they can donate food, 0:20:11.359 --> 0:20:14.720 and to build an optimized search engine of America's food 0:20:14.720 --> 0:20:17.920 pantries and for the pantry to guide the gardener to 0:20:18.000 --> 0:20:20.440 the day of the week and time of day that's 0:20:20.480 --> 0:20:23.760 best for donation. That was launched in May of two 0:20:23.800 --> 0:20:27.800 thousand nine. Here we are now in October of twenty 0:20:27.880 --> 0:20:32.280 twenty and nearly nine thousand food pantries, about a quarter 0:20:32.320 --> 0:20:36.000 of all the food pantries in America in communities in 0:20:36.080 --> 0:20:39.080 all fifty states are now a part of ample harvest 0:20:39.119 --> 0:20:42.879 dot org. And I should tell you one big important number. 0:20:43.440 --> 0:20:47.760 Pre COVID, the National Guarding Association said that America had 0:20:47.840 --> 0:20:52.440 forty two million gardeners of all households. Now in these 0:20:52.480 --> 0:20:57.680 COVID years, it's skyrocket at the sixty two million gardeners. 0:20:57.720 --> 0:21:00.920 Sixty two million people in this country grow food, not 0:21:01.200 --> 0:21:03.320 like a farmer to make money, but for their own 0:21:03.359 --> 0:21:08.400 pleasure and enjoyment. And that's our target population. And that's 0:21:08.400 --> 0:21:11.800 just since COVID. Well, the the from the jump of 0:21:11.840 --> 0:21:14.639 forty two to sixty two million is just since COVID, correct. 0:21:15.960 --> 0:21:17.600 And part of that, when you think about it, is 0:21:17.720 --> 0:21:19.919 if you're no longer commuting to work, if you're working 0:21:19.920 --> 0:21:23.720 from home, for example, you have time to garden. And 0:21:24.119 --> 0:21:26.840 most people once they start, really enjoy it and don't stop. 0:21:27.480 --> 0:21:29.879 You know you were telling me before before the show 0:21:29.960 --> 0:21:33.760 that that you had actually um donated in a vast 0:21:33.800 --> 0:21:36.879 amount of food from your own garden. How much did 0:21:36.880 --> 0:21:40.280 you donate again? About two hundred and fifty two pounds, 0:21:40.359 --> 0:21:44.760 give or take, which is amazing. That's like five times 0:21:44.800 --> 0:21:48.720 the size of my seven year old, which is impressive. 0:21:49.520 --> 0:21:52.760 Let me tell you something, um, pre covid our data 0:21:52.840 --> 0:21:58.560 show that America's gardeners grew eleven plus billion pounds more 0:21:58.600 --> 0:22:01.000 food than they could use or pres over share with friends. 0:22:02.280 --> 0:22:07.320 If all that food, if all of that food we're donated, 0:22:07.359 --> 0:22:09.800 that would feed twenty eight million people a year. And 0:22:09.880 --> 0:22:12.800