Speaker 1: As the COVID nineteen surge in India reaches catastrophic levels
Speaker 1: and we all look for ways to make a difference.
Speaker 1: I want to revisit a conversation about disaster relief I
Speaker 1: had in with one of the most innovative and inspiring
Speaker 1: humanitarians I've ever known, Jose Andre Jose, a World Remound chef,
Speaker 1: started his organization in World Central Kitchen to ensure that
Speaker 1: people in crisis are treated with dignity and respect and
Speaker 1: have good food to eat. Whenever and wherever disaster strikes.
Speaker 1: Jose and his team can be counted on to be
Speaker 1: on site building massive relief operations from the ground up.
Speaker 1: As you'll hear in our conversation, he and I've worked
Speaker 1: together often, most recently using the restaurant at my presidential
Speaker 1: center in a Little Rock to prepare more than seven
Speaker 1: hundred thousand meals for people in need in Central Arkansas
Speaker 1: during the pandemic. Since the beginning of the pandemic, World
Speaker 1: Central Kitchen has partnered with more than small restaurants to
Speaker 1: help them keep their doors open while feeding vulnerable members
Speaker 1: of their communities. They've also continued to respond to natural
Speaker 1: disasters like the recent volcanic eruption on St. Vincent, the
Speaker 1: largest Atlantic hurricanes he's non record last year, and the
Speaker 1: unprecedented wildfires in the American West. Now they're providing food
Speaker 1: and hydration to the medical staff working around the clock
Speaker 1: in India in a time when there's so much needed
Speaker 1: home and abroad. I hope he'll be inspired by listening
Speaker 1: to us as I described how he came to do
Speaker 1: this work, and by realizing that we all have unique
Speaker 1: gifts that can be put to use in service of others.
Speaker 1: Bill Clinton is expected to be named a special United
Speaker 1: Nations Envoy to Haiti. A spokesman for the Haiti earthquake
Speaker 1: was really tough for a lot of us. I had
Speaker 1: been there a year working for the United Nations, and
Speaker 1: a bunch of our people, including the head of our delegation,
Speaker 1: were killed. January twelve, two thousand ten, a catastrophic earthquake
Speaker 1: ravaged Haiti's capital, Court of Prints, shaking whole neighborhoods to
Speaker 1: bits and leaving one and a half million people homeless. Now,
Speaker 1: the White House says it has asked former Presidents Bill
Speaker 1: Clinton and George W. Bush to help in the relief effort,
Speaker 1: and President Clinton when we went down there about ten
Speaker 1: days later. If there was a park where in the
Speaker 1: good weather, they had ten after ten after ten of
Speaker 1: craftsman doing wooden metalwork. It was a great place. Unbelievably,
Speaker 1: we came down there in the middleist records and there
Speaker 1: was that counted them. There were eight people who had
Speaker 1: their pictures up. Again, it's a difficult time. There'd be
Speaker 1: somewhere tween seventy and a hundred. Now I had this
Speaker 1: long kind of view and Convoy I said, stuff, I
Speaker 1: want everybody to get out and buy something. We got
Speaker 1: to buy something. These eight people, we got to support them.
Speaker 1: So I went over and bought a couple of pictures.
Speaker 1: And this guy is the way way, President Clinton. You
Speaker 1: can't go come here. You have to come here. So
Speaker 1: I came around and he said in two thousand three,
Speaker 1: when you came here, he said, you came here, you
Speaker 1: stopped here, and you bought a picture from me. So
Speaker 1: he said, I hope you'll do it again. So I
Speaker 1: bought another picture and I said to the guy, said,
Speaker 1: you know, I just I cannot believe you guys are here.
Speaker 1: This must be so hard. He said, it's not hard
Speaker 1: for me. I have nothing else to do. I lost
Speaker 1: my wife and children. I'm alone now, and I said,
Speaker 1: how can you do this? He said, it's the only
Speaker 1: way I can honor them. Look around, we're a little
Speaker 1: family here. They know if I can be here, they
Speaker 1: should be too. And we have to begin again. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's the kind of stuff you come up against, just
Speaker 1: unbelievable courage and goodness and decency. You know, somebody is
Speaker 1: not at different from you, is broken and still standing
Speaker 1: and still going on and sharing one more precious day
Speaker 1: of life. A lot of these people are lucky to
Speaker 1: be alive, but they don't feel very fortunate. We need
Speaker 1: some waters, some food, everything, and we need some medicine.
Speaker 1: You know what. Now along the short stretch of just
Speaker 1: this one street, we find disaster next to disaster where
Speaker 1: there used to be people's homes. So why am I
Speaker 1: telling you this? Because if you've never been in a
Speaker 1: natural disaster, if you've never been in a town that
Speaker 1: was leveled by a tornado or a hurricane, if you've
Speaker 1: never been in a community that was totally flooded out,
Speaker 1: if you've never been there, you forget. These are people
Speaker 1: just like you and me. They're worried about their children,
Speaker 1: or their grandchildren, or their parents or their grandparents either.
Speaker 1: They don't know what to do. You go into a
Speaker 1: disaster area where people are flatting their back and their
Speaker 1: children are dead, and there they've lost every letter they
Speaker 1: ever safe and their loved ones. They have no family
Speaker 1: pictures left, or you know, you name it. There's a
Speaker 1: story every where you go. Today, I'll be talking with
Speaker 1: Jose Andre, who is an American emigrant success story. Jose Andres,
Speaker 1: who's already well known to food loving television audiences, is
Speaker 1: also becoming increasingly known for his work to help in
Speaker 1: the wake of natural disasters like Florence Walls. Andra Kitchen,
Speaker 1: which is the organization I created around the Haiti earthquake,
Speaker 1: is a very simple adia. We make sure that what
Speaker 1: there are is hungry people, especially under very difficult circumstances,
Speaker 1: that people are going to have a decent plate of
Speaker 1: hot foot. You know, I always have this enduring image
Speaker 1: of Jose sort of standing with broken concrete blocks and
Speaker 1: wire and mango medal all around him, flipping fried eggs
Speaker 1: just because it's somehow he always finds a way to
Speaker 1: find a kitchen. That's where we're speaking to him. That
Speaker 1: I was like let's just jump right in. How did
Speaker 1: you decide to become a chef? I always believe in
Speaker 1: following life. Life has a plan for all of us.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we decide to listen, and sometimes we follow, and
Speaker 1: sometimes we find it. I'm the type of guy that
Speaker 1: listens to life. And my father would love to cook.
Speaker 1: Men cook in Spain. It's like if you are not
Speaker 1: a chef, if you don't feed your family, if you
Speaker 1: don't feed your friends, you are not at the at
Speaker 1: the right social socialist status. Cooking is part of who
Speaker 1: you are, makes you better and I always for my
Speaker 1: dad cooking at home obviously my mother who she was
Speaker 1: a great cook. And I was not doing very well
Speaker 1: at school, let's say, in the traditional education system. But
Speaker 1: it's not like I felt because I didn't care. I
Speaker 1: was spending more time hands on working in restaurants around
Speaker 1: Barcelona every hour I had free, then going to school again,
Speaker 1: the traditional education systems was not something I was the
Speaker 1: best way for me to learn, and I always was
Speaker 1: trying to find other ways that I could be better.
Speaker 1: That's how I became a cook who I became in
Speaker 1: love um with food. But probably the moment Mr President
Speaker 1: was when helping my father in one of those sundays
Speaker 1: that he would cook for all his friends. One day
Speaker 1: we could be twenty, other days we could be hundreds.
Speaker 1: My father will put me always in charge of the fire.
Speaker 1: He will send me to the forest to gather the
Speaker 1: wood and I will make a fire. He will have
Speaker 1: this very big pie, a pen, a gigantic pen where
Speaker 1: we make rice dishes in Spain. And that day I
Speaker 1: wanted to cook. I didn't want to make the fire anymore.
Speaker 1: I was doing the fire for too long. Say that
Speaker 1: I when I cook. My dad said, no, you have
Speaker 1: to make the fire. You are the only one that
Speaker 1: knows how to do it. It's a big pa. He
Speaker 1: sent me away because I got very upset, so we
Speaker 1: will speak later. When the bier was made, he got
Speaker 1: me aside and he told me, my son, I understand
Speaker 1: you wanted to do the cooking, to put the spoon,
Speaker 1: to steer the pot, but actually you were in charge
Speaker 1: of the most important which is making the fire and
Speaker 1: controlling the fire. If you control the fire, you can't
Speaker 1: do any cooking. You want control the fire and you
Speaker 1: will be in control of your destiny. I think that
Speaker 1: probably was the moment that they saw that yes, cooking
Speaker 1: was in my future, not just physically that was going
Speaker 1: to be my profession, but understanding that if we all
Speaker 1: learn and understand what our fire is, we can achieve
Speaker 1: anything we want in the world. What a wonderful story.
Speaker 1: You know. We started working together a better decade ago
Speaker 1: in Haiti. Ever since then, when we come in contact,
Speaker 1: it's usually because somebody is in trouble and you're they're
Speaker 1: trying to help them. It's true that I began working
Speaker 1: with the Clinton Global Initiative right after the earthquaking Haiti
Speaker 1: bad But now because I'm here and this is your
Speaker 1: podcast and you're the president and this is your show,
Speaker 1: and I'm trying used to to look like I want
Speaker 1: to impress you, but you had a huge impact on me,
Speaker 1: Mr President. I need to go back to six Washington,
Speaker 1: d C. I arrived Washington myself, and you were coming
Speaker 1: every year around Thanksgiving time, even you show a few
Speaker 1: other times with Mrs Clinton. And you came to a
Speaker 1: place which is still is one of the most amazing
Speaker 1: organizations called d C Central Kitchen, where Robert Eggert, the founder,
Speaker 1: one of the of the guys that has had had
Speaker 1: a huge influence in me, created this kind of badly
Speaker 1: called soup kitchen because it's much more fits a nine
Speaker 1: people a day. And you you were there billy potatoes
Speaker 1: and cooking turkeys and and but also we take homeless
Speaker 1: out of the streets and then we cleaned them, and
Speaker 1: then we trained them to be cooks, and then we
Speaker 1: graduate them and then we find them jobs in the community.
Speaker 1: It's the type of organizations that we need to be
Speaker 1: telling America about because they are really effective and his
Speaker 1: organizations that they don't throw money at the problem, but
Speaker 1: they invest into solutions. And in one of your visits,
Speaker 1: you you you were working hard like anybody else. But
Speaker 1: one time you kind of gave a speech because it
Speaker 1: was senators and congressmen coming also. And on your speech,
Speaker 1: I was twenty six years old. For some reason, you
Speaker 1: put me in that speech and you mentioned Jose addressed
Speaker 1: as an example of volunteers in America. Every year listen
Speaker 1: to this. Every single year, here five thousand volunteers roll
Speaker 1: up their sleeves and give something back to their community.
Speaker 1: People like Josiandre is one of the premier young chefs
Speaker 1: in America. See here today, stand up here holiday. Despite
Speaker 1: the literally crazy demands at his job, he comes here
Speaker 1: every single week to share his passion and his skills
Speaker 1: with all the students, and he encourages other friends to
Speaker 1: join him every time he comes. And I'm telling you
Speaker 1: that that had a huge influence on me because you
Speaker 1: know you you you did recognize me, even I didn't
Speaker 1: spent that because I was used one more person, because
Speaker 1: he takes a village to to feed them empower a
Speaker 1: lot of people. And that I remember forever the day
Speaker 1: that President Clinton kind of recognize uh hosan dress when
Speaker 1: he's six year old boy. So you had a big
Speaker 1: influence on me in that sense of service to the
Speaker 1: community and going be John your duty to serve folders,
Speaker 1: and I've never stopped quite frankly, stay tuned for more
Speaker 1: of the conversation after this short break. You just arrived
Speaker 1: before we started this conversation from Mozambique, where you've been
Speaker 1: helping people in response to the terrible cyclone either which
Speaker 1: a lot of Americans, I have the feeling, don't have
Speaker 1: any idea how truly horrible it is, partly because it
Speaker 1: hit a lot of places in England Africa and we
Speaker 1: haven't gotten enough film of it, but it's one of
Speaker 1: the worst natural disasters to hit the lower part of
Speaker 1: Africa in a very long time. So give us an update.
Speaker 1: What do you do in Mozambique? How are they doing
Speaker 1: all right? So, in the moment we heard about the
Speaker 1: cyclone uh seven, two hours later we had the team.
Speaker 1: We opened a kitchen, then we open a second kitchen.
Speaker 1: We're feeding on fourteen fifteenth referee camps, schools and hospital.
Speaker 1: I'm here in a calm called Peacock. Here in the
Speaker 1: city of Merat. They were serving a chicken with rice.
Speaker 1: Um you see uh bidlines or two three, four hours,
Speaker 1: three takes around the people here. I see a lot
Speaker 1: of time. Yesterday we reached almost twenty thousand meals a day.
Speaker 1: We already reached our hundred fifty thousand mills. And that's
Speaker 1: why I went there to make sure my team was
Speaker 1: doing good, that we were doing the right thing with
Speaker 1: the color a break. Actually, I'm very happy because we're
Speaker 1: super clean. The way we work, the way we make
Speaker 1: people wise their hands before they get the food, et cetera,
Speaker 1: et cetera, and in the process we feed as many
Speaker 1: people as we can. So we partnered with World Food Program.
Speaker 1: We partner obviously United Nations and and it's going well.
Speaker 1: I don't feel we're helping. I feel we're still learning.
Speaker 1: Every time I show up, I show up with all
Speaker 1: people that they've been before with us in missions, but
Speaker 1: always we tried to bring new people. Why because he's
Speaker 1: very important that we make people learn. How do you
Speaker 1: learn by being there? Handsome? This is a truly global
Speaker 1: organization and it's UH the World Central Kitchen, and how
Speaker 1: you have been able to mobilize people. This has been
Speaker 1: a busy time for you because I want to come
Speaker 1: back to Puerto Rico in a minute. But after the
Speaker 1: terrible hurricane damage in Puerto Rico, Jose was there and
Speaker 1: we started working together again there. But he's also been
Speaker 1: to the Venezuelan border to feed people, to the Nebraska
Speaker 1: foodlands to feed people. And one of his World Central
Speaker 1: Kitchens UH Kitchens was in the parking lot of my
Speaker 1: Presidential Library in Arkansas because we had an unusual number
Speaker 1: of people and in and around Little Rock affected by
Speaker 1: the government shutdown. A load employees get to enjoy a
Speaker 1: chef made meal. It's part of the World's Central Kitchen,
Speaker 1: which sends food trucks to natural disasters or where there's
Speaker 1: some kind of need. We've got the need here. It's
Speaker 1: all over the country for most partsback and Jeffree shows
Speaker 1: us what's on the menu for a lot of for
Speaker 1: a little folks and for how long? So the government
Speaker 1: shutdown was a national emergency to a lot of people
Speaker 1: who weren't getting paid and didn't have any other way
Speaker 1: to feed themselves. How much trouble do you have getting
Speaker 1: adequate supplies to do what you're supposed to do? Well? Yeah,
Speaker 1: the truth is that let me bring it to America.
Speaker 1: One place that I have nine mares because he wish
Speaker 1: I was there. It's almost a place like I wish
Speaker 1: I was able to go back in time and be
Speaker 1: there and being able to call you and say I
Speaker 1: need to help Katrina. The Super Dollar thousands are still
Speaker 1: corralled here at the City Sports Arena the Superdome. Soldiers
Speaker 1: from Oklahoma and Texas have piped in music, but it
Speaker 1: doesn't seem to lift the mood, one of utter despair.
Speaker 1: We remember the nine married stories were coming up at
Speaker 1: the Superdome. Thousands of Americans in a place without basic water, supplies, showers, food,
Speaker 1: woman being read all these stories we heard. Do you
Speaker 1: know what entire stadium is? Entire arena, a sports complex. Yeah,
Speaker 1: people will describe it as a place that you go
Speaker 1: to watch an NBA team or a concert. But let
Speaker 1: me tell you who I describe it. It's a gigantic
Speaker 1: restaurant that entertains with NBA. That means you sent two
Speaker 1: trucks and you said a little army of cooks. In
Speaker 1: two hours, we open all the all the places that
Speaker 1: serve you, the hot dogs and the borgers, and in
Speaker 1: two hours we are feeding every single person. America is
Speaker 1: a gigantic restaurant. The only thing we do is we go.
Speaker 1: We oversee what is left. What can't we have debate?
Speaker 1: Do we have a kitchen, do we have to bring
Speaker 1: a generator? Do we need to bring us? It's always
Speaker 1: something around you. What we try to do is maximize
Speaker 1: what is around us. So when I go to more
Speaker 1: difficult places like Muszambek or like Venezuela, Colombia in the border,
Speaker 1: is not any different. It's always a restaurant somewhere. It's
Speaker 1: always somebody with a generator that is not using. Is
Speaker 1: somebody always with LPG. It's always is always the resources
Speaker 1: out there. Only you need to be very quickly in adapting.
Speaker 1: That's what world central kitchen does We don't own hard assets,
Speaker 1: we don't own har work, we own software. We can
Speaker 1: go anywhere and adapt. If I am waiting for a
Speaker 1: kitchen that is supposed to be deployed by the military
Speaker 1: or by mars kor who knows who. Sometimes it's a week,
Speaker 1: two weeks, three weeks later and you're still waiting for
Speaker 1: the kitchen. We don't wait, we don't plan, and we
Speaker 1: don't meet. We arrived, we find the kitchen, we start cooking,
Speaker 1: and we start feeding. In the process, the plan shows up.
Speaker 1: When you go into a disaster zone, is the first
Speaker 1: thing you do actually actressment of what the cooking capacity
Speaker 1: is right now? Is that what you do first? Yeah,
Speaker 1: we will very quickly assays where are we cooking? Who?
Speaker 1: Who has control of of goods, dry goods, any vestballs,
Speaker 1: any anything is available, will make sure electricity through your
Speaker 1: narrators will cover And obviously, guys, those are kind of
Speaker 1: the four areas and the five which is the most important.
Speaker 1: Besides the people that fly in first, who who are
Speaker 1: the local the local leaders that can't help us? And
Speaker 1: the great thing is that, as you know, the wall
Speaker 1: has to eat every day, so is is millions, hundreds
Speaker 1: of millions of people that they are cooks, and we
Speaker 1: realize that people love to come together and become one
Speaker 1: and that's what we do. Um. So yes, the cooking facility,
Speaker 1: it's very important for us, and that's usually before we land.
Speaker 1: We already now right now and thanks to your initiative,
Speaker 1: Mr President, obviously for Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. Every
Speaker 1: time we have a better idea of what are the
Speaker 1: facilities we may use in case, for example of of
Speaker 1: another hurricane. So, um, we have more than twenty thirty
Speaker 1: food trucks that we can be activating immediately. We have
Speaker 1: many kitchens around the island, for example in Puerto Rico,
Speaker 1: that we know which ones are the ones that if
Speaker 1: they are safe from the hurricane, because you cannot just
Speaker 1: say one kitchen. You have to prepare for the wars
Speaker 1: of the wars, so you have to have many so
Speaker 1: you're safe from all of them being badly damaged. So
Speaker 1: very much, that's what we're doing. Places we've been before.
Speaker 1: Now I know what to do around and take away
Speaker 1: the volcano explodes again. We know what to do in
Speaker 1: Puero Rico if something happens again, we know what to
Speaker 1: do in Florida, we know what to do, uh in
Speaker 1: in in Nebraska, we know what to do the fires
Speaker 1: in California. So every time we answer to one of those,
Speaker 1: he's very important for us. He's is that all dec information,
Speaker 1: all these know how U doesn't disappear. We'll be right back.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you this, when when you leave a
Speaker 1: place World Central Kitchen and then I want to come back,
Speaker 1: specifically to Puerto Rico, because I don't think still people
Speaker 1: in the United States fully understand the dimensions of the
Speaker 1: challenge and how we have responded poorly. I think, But
Speaker 1: when you leave a place, do you do an inventory
Speaker 1: of the kinds of supplies that should be I think
Speaker 1: the term of art is prepositioned, that's stockpiled so that
Speaker 1: if there's something else that happens, someone who knows less
Speaker 1: than you do can show up and figure it out
Speaker 1: in a hurry. We are we are talking about that then, specifically,
Speaker 1: thanks to the the different groups you've created around that issue.
Speaker 1: But sometimes I feel like, and don't misunderstand me with that,
Speaker 1: but too much planning sometimes is too much. We need
Speaker 1: to do the right planning. And with that, I mean
Speaker 1: the most important is obviously showing up, and the most
Speaker 1: important is to start doing what you're supposed to do.
Speaker 1: Let's say generators. A lot of the people that die
Speaker 1: in Puerto Rico, is a President. They die because lack
Speaker 1: of electricity. Why because it's many otherly that they had
Speaker 1: issues breathing. They needed machines to help them breathe. My
Speaker 1: mom had one. I know he needs electricity and recharging
Speaker 1: if she's going away away from home. When people had
Speaker 1: no electricity for weeks and months in different parts of
Speaker 1: Puerto Rico high up in the mountains, or they had
Speaker 1: a generator and somebody could provide them gas, or those
Speaker 1: people were going to eventually get in trouble and maybe die.
Speaker 1: I can't tell you that we had hundreds of generators
Speaker 1: pile in some one for weeks, but nobody was doing
Speaker 1: the distribution. Sometimes to have assets, that's an equal good response, Mr. President.
Speaker 1: To have the assets alone, it's not good enough. Distribution
Speaker 1: is key, and distribution you need people that really are
Speaker 1: very much willing to do whatever it takes to bring
Speaker 1: that generator, that play, the food, those medicines, or whatever
Speaker 1: it takes to the people that need them. So distribution,
Speaker 1: to me is more important than the prepositioning of the assets.
Speaker 1: Even do misunderstand me. Wilmington, we did a very good job.
Speaker 1: I was very happy with my team y because before
Speaker 1: the hurricane came in, we already had four kitchens preposition
Speaker 1: around the state. But more important in Wilmington, we had
Speaker 1: two tracks because we knew that the hurricane was coming
Speaker 1: that way. We had two and higher tracks full of
Speaker 1: food worth ten days for at least ten thousand people. Hello,
Speaker 1: people of America here uh Hossian address. Already from our
Speaker 1: headquarters in Wilmington. We have another kitchen in Rally. We're
Speaker 1: gonna be producing today between both kitchens on the north
Speaker 1: of fifteen thousand, if it's needed, probably will reach twenty thousand.
Speaker 1: I think we're gonna be fitting a total of around
Speaker 1: twenty five shelters. We are doing the map so yes,
Speaker 1: to understand the assets and pready position those assets is
Speaker 1: very important. But what is more important at the end
Speaker 1: of the day is the willingness to adapt and then
Speaker 1: the willingness to do distribution. If you don't do this solution,
Speaker 1: that's no matter how much how many assets you have
Speaker 1: in hand, is if they don't reach the people equals
Speaker 1: zero zero relief. We'll talk about Puerto Rico this a
Speaker 1: little bit. It's amazing. Maybe apparently a lot of Americans
Speaker 1: don't even know that Puerto Rico is part of the
Speaker 1: United States. It's a territory, but as a terror tory,
Speaker 1: it has different rules in terms of how it gets healthcare.
Speaker 1: For example, they're not in Medicaid, they don't get the
Speaker 1: snap food assistance programs. They get block grants, and lately
Speaker 1: there's been a a fair amount of confusion about how
Speaker 1: much aid they've gotten. So so, I mean, we know
Speaker 1: about that. I don't want to get into politics, but
Speaker 1: let's just talk about facts. I mean, you and I've
Speaker 1: been there. I'm interested in the people. The American people
Speaker 1: need to know this. Last year, before the Democrats had
Speaker 1: one House of Congress, when both houses were Republicans, they
Speaker 1: voted to give six hundred million dollars in food aid
Speaker 1: to Puerto Rico, which has still not been released. We
Speaker 1: still need help in Puerto Rico just feeding people because
Speaker 1: of money that has been appropriated by our Congress on
Speaker 1: a totally by part of the basis has not been released.
Speaker 1: So we need to think about going forward for Puerto Rico,
Speaker 1: how they cannot be hungry again, and there are lots
Speaker 1: of other health and development issues. But this is crazy.
Speaker 1: But there are Americans. But I know that you believes
Speaker 1: as many that Probrequly is a huge opportunity for for America.
Speaker 1: It's a rich island, it is rich in human and
Speaker 1: natural resources. It's an ecological miracle and it should be
Speaker 1: a very prosperous place. And to go back to what
Speaker 1: you said, I know there have been some problems in
Speaker 1: the past, but recently we went to Puerto Rico together
Speaker 1: to look at what is being done. We're helping hon
Speaker 1: Or maybe could help on And you took me to
Speaker 1: meet this astonishing young couple who could be making a
Speaker 1: lot more money doing something else, who decided they wanted
Speaker 1: to do environmentally sustainable for me and run important part
Speaker 1: of the family. Yeah, and how much land the uthfarm
Speaker 1: fertually So we have an acre and a half of land,
Speaker 1: and we started only cultivating half an acre, and after
Speaker 1: Maria we have taken our commitment even further and we
Speaker 1: grow to the other acre. We have ability, so now
Speaker 1: we have an acre and a half. A freeman And
Speaker 1: who are your customers? My customers are basically direct consumers.
Speaker 1: So we have been growing the business on the farms
Speaker 1: through word of mouth. So now we have like a
Speaker 1: big network of people, family and people that know people
Speaker 1: that have come to support us and buy our products locally.
Speaker 1: And I think a subscriber in two years, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: uh so basically we delivered direct to them either in
Speaker 1: their houses. I thought a lot about that young couple
Speaker 1: you took me to see. Yeah, that was Franco Italia,
Speaker 1: Franco and Italia. You know the people I help in Africa.
Speaker 1: They want their children to go to school so they
Speaker 1: can do better. And all I've got is a half
Speaker 1: acre of land or an acre of land, and it's
Speaker 1: a joyful thing. But the thing that was encouraged by
Speaker 1: the Puerto Rico project is these people were young and
Speaker 1: educated and they were taking a hit to become farmers
Speaker 1: for the first few years of their married life, their
Speaker 1: family life. They won't do as well probably as that.
Speaker 1: Whatever if they done, they were probably ten of the
Speaker 1: things they could have done. They did it because they
Speaker 1: know that they had to learn to feed themselves on
Speaker 1: that island. They know that sustainable agriculture and small farmers
Speaker 1: are the future of the region, which is one of
Speaker 1: the two most vulnerable in the world to climate change
Speaker 1: and rising sea levels. They know this, and that's something
Speaker 1: you should be really proud of that you're involved in
Speaker 1: something where young, articulate, educated, far sided people say I'm
Speaker 1: gonna stay here and we're gonna make this a farm,
Speaker 1: just a place on the side of the hill, and
Speaker 1: will you selp me. Sur President is what we call
Speaker 1: Ploat to Plate, where we did in the first eight
Speaker 1: nine months UH during UH give grants between five thousand
Speaker 1: and to round forty farmers, and then just recently after
Speaker 1: your trip to Puerto Rico with your foundation, we announced
Speaker 1: with partners that we're going to increase the total number
Speaker 1: up to four million dollars to impact another two hundred farms.
Speaker 1: So those two farmers you're talking are used a big
Speaker 1: family of farmers all across the island that we hope
Speaker 1: to make sure that those farmers are part of a
Speaker 1: new Puerto Rico where Puerto Rico will stop importing nine
Speaker 1: of the food they consume. This is crazy. We're gonna
Speaker 1: try to reach at least of the foods Puerto Ricans
Speaker 1: eat to be produced in Puerto Rico, creating a local economy,
Speaker 1: creating jobs, creating an identity and make sure that in
Speaker 1: the process we keep pushing Puerto Rico forward. First, I
Speaker 1: want to thank you because I know much you do
Speaker 1: and so many places you're always there. But I thank
Speaker 1: you for also being willing to stay in places until
Speaker 1: they don't make you anymore. So bless you for that
Speaker 1: and all else, and thanks for everything you've done. Thank
Speaker 1: you for super and little farms like this show us
Speaker 1: the way for puer Rico being food independent. So right
Speaker 1: now I Wasn't a Kitchen has invested giving grants to
Speaker 1: more than forty farms. I'm very soon we're gonna be
Speaker 1: announcing many more with c AI as our partners, and
Speaker 1: I want to make sure that Wasn't Kitchen in a
Speaker 1: way exist because we've seen the work of CEI over
Speaker 1: the years how ci go is community to community, country
Speaker 1: to country and use partners with local initiatives to make
Speaker 1: them stronger. To degree with General Kitchen, what we are
Speaker 1: is a foot arm of many of these initiative CEI does.
Speaker 1: We we are chefs for the people, so we help
Speaker 1: to make sure that the places we are they become
Speaker 1: food independent after hurric or well be young Where foy
Speaker 1: is the adien of change to get farmers like dam
Speaker 1: my better future. Why Am I Telling You This is
Speaker 1: a production of our Heart Radio, the Clinton Foundation, and
Speaker 1: at Will Media. Our executive producers are Craig Manascian and
Speaker 1: Will Malnadi. Our production team includes Mitch Bluestein, Jamison cat Sufis,
Speaker 1: Tom Galton, Sarah Harrowoods, and Jake Young, with production support
Speaker 1: from Tyler Scott and LaTavia Young. Original music by What White.
Speaker 1: Special thanks to John Sichs, Tina Finoid, John Davidson on
Speaker 1: Hell Arena, Corey Gantley, Oscar Flores, Kevin Thurm, and all
Speaker 1: our dedicated staff and partners at the Clinton Foundation. If
Speaker 1: you have an idea of suggestion for the show, we'd
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Speaker 1: support the work or the Clinton Foundation, So thank you. Hi.
Speaker 1: I'm back a Courtsield and I'm a deputy director at
Speaker 1: the Clinton Global Initiative President Clinton established the Clinton Global
Speaker 1: Initiative to create a new kind of philanthropic community to
Speaker 1: address the complex realities of our modern world, where problem
Speaker 1: solving required the active partnership of government, business, and civil society.
Speaker 1: Over the years, are proven model has grown to include
Speaker 1: action networks that can quickly mobilize in the phase of emergencies,
Speaker 1: whether that's helping Puerto Rico and the Caribbean recover in
Speaker 1: the wake of Hurricanes Orman Maria, or advancing an inclusive
Speaker 1: US economic recovery amid COVID nineteen. To learn more about
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Speaker 1: Clinton and Foundation dot org. Slash podcast m H