Food, Fun, and the Holidaze
Regina Harmon of the Food Recovery Network shared her organization’s success in recovering over 18 million pounds of surplus food and offered resources for large-scale food recovery events in Baton Rouge.
Tonya Gordon, founder of Valley House on the Go, described her pivot to a mobile market model to serve food deserts. Her efforts focus on distributing nutritious meal kits and fostering deep connections with the community.
Angell Jackson Kennedy of the East Baton Rouge Council on Aging detailed their work providing meals through senior activity centers, Meals on Wheels, and the Lotus Food Pantry, ensuring seniors have access to nutritious food and social engagement.
Jason Hughes, founder of Project 70805, highlighted his organization’s work in community development, education, and affordable housing, while expressing plans to address food insecurity more directly in the future.
Key Themes
Mindful Food Distribution: Panelists emphasized providing healthy, culturally appropriate meals, avoiding high-sodium or low-nutrition options.
Community-Centered Solutions: Personal connections and a grassroots approach remain central to identifying and addressing local needs.
Collaboration and Resilience: By working together, organizations can amplify impact, overcome challenges, and create sustainable change.
Opportunities for Engagement
Attendees shared ways to support local efforts, including:
Chili Giveaway at Scotlandville’s Christmas Tree Lighting
Project 70805’s Christmas Shopping Experience for Families
Sow Good Saturday: A community event featuring farming, yoga, and fresh food demonstrations
MLK Fest Volunteer Opportunities in January
Looking Ahead
This meeting reinforced the power of collaboration and intentional action in addressing community challenges. As the holidays approach, it’s a time to connect, support, and plan for a stronger, more equitable future. Whether through volunteering, donations, or simply spreading awareness, everyone can contribute to the collective effort to make Baton Rouge a more inclusive and resilient community.
Notes
Casey Phillips: Open up the doors. Yeah. The question is, does God exist?
Tia Fields: See, now you're starting stuff. Okay. You know what? Hold on one second.
Casey: There's nothing starting. I said, this is what I spent my morning time thinking about. Yeah.
Tia: Wait a minute. Hold on. Let me get to where I'm trying to go. One second. How do I open the doors before I even answer that question? Because I want you to ask that question to the masses. So give me a second.
Casey: Oh, I think everybody will be able to figure it out.
Tia: Yeah, you hold on one second Casey Phillips.
Casey: No, look, it fed into the reason why I asked the question. It fed into what I was saying before. It's since the election for my own self, I've taken the space to make some changes around the edges, and one of which is not consuming BBC News, AP News, CNN. I can pretend that I read Fox News. I don't and but all the local news, and I don't do that in the morning anytime. And it's freed up again. Because look, Regina was talking about her yoga practice. Sometimes I would go to yoga. A lot of these at five in the morning. I'm not going to lie. I'm I'd for me to do yoga aerobics at five o'clock in the morning. A couple of my friends do, but it does give me a chance to meditate. And instead of worrying about all of this dissonance right on a local and state and federal level with politics, it gives me some space to like actually, think about the bigger things. During my time, I was just really contemplating the whole concept of the higher power as said, whether it exists or not. And I was thankful for the space this morning to be able to just think about that and not worry about who the Senate is going to confirm, right? Like these are the things that really matter on a deep level. And yeah, that's why I asked the question to you. So what do you think? This is always fun. Whenever people, they open the doors in the middle of our conversation that we're having behind the scenes. And and then Tia did hit me on, right on time. So Tia, please come off mute. What'd you got? You're still on mute.
Tia: Look, I'm live. Good morning, guys. And welcome to One Rouge. Casey, I literally don't know how I clicked off my entire Zoom, but I don't know, you gave me a little bit of anxiety with the initial question, right? But all is well. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to friday. Today we are with some fantabulous organizers, activists, directors, they work in the food and community space and we just want to keep this might this might real light as we get ready to go on your holiday. Vacation status. Just to be respectful of everybody's time, everybody's going to have five minutes to introduce themselves, tell us a little bit who you are and what they do. And we'll go from there. I want to first start off with Regina chiming in all the way from Virginia. Good morning, Regina.
Regina Harmon: How are you? I'm doing so well. Good morning, everyone. Happy holidays, Casey. Thanks for the great question. Oh, and I'm sorry. Did you want me to do my five minutes now? I did want to say very quickly Casey, you might appreciate this. I have a really dear friend and she, many years ago, introduced me to Bell Hooks. And today I wore my all about love t shirt. Because I wanted to just start off this conversation for all of you with so much love and Health and supporting the kinds of relationships that you want to have, though. I know sometimes we can't always have those kinds of relationships. Casey, I am locked in with you today and so just well, wishes to everyone in your day today and beyond. And I do have a really quick, oh, so Tia, did you want I don't need the slides if you're going to, if you're going to share that with everyone later on.
Tia: Yes, ma'am. I want to share it with them.
Regina: Okay, great. So I run a nonprofit called Food Recovery Network, and I actually know about One Rouge because of Manny several years ago, inviting me to come. And, I have tried to come to some of your Friday gatherings. But just really quickly, Food Recovery Network, we're a national non profit and historically we've worked with college students all across the United States. To recover surplus food from the college dining halls and surrounding food businesses. And then we donate that food locally to what we call hunger fighting nonprofits. So these incredible nonprofits on the front lines supporting communities experiencing hunger. So these are our soup kitchens, our homeless shelters. Our domestic violence shelters after school programs there are so many different locations where people are gathering to ensure people have access to food and our students way back in 2011 when it was started knew that. There's all this. Amazing perfectly good food on their college campus. That was just being thrown away. That was just because that was what was always done. And they knew from their volunteering efforts and just trying to be part of their community. That people were experiencing hunger unnecessarily. So we teach everyone how to handle the food safely. We give that dignity and respect that is often lacking for the people in the back of the house who are actually making the food. Who spends their time making all this food and at the end of their shift are asked to throw this food away. We said, we see you. We don't want that to be. The process and today we now have about 200 chapters all across the United States including at Louisiana State University. They started their chapter in 2016 and then had a little bit of a transition and then they just reestablished April of this year. But we've recovered more than 18 million pounds of food through this process. And we also help businesses, we go into farm fields, everywhere across the food system. We're here because when we throw away food, we're throwing away the resources of our precious earth. And we must stop that, especially considering. Right now, 44 million people are food insecure. So really excited to spend this time with all of you and get some tips. And I love the topic of being inclusive. And so just thank you all for letting me be here with you.
Tia: Thank you so much for that, Regina. When I hear you share the stories about our food industry workers who have to throw their food away after they cooked it, we know food is a labor of love. Cooking is one of the things that even whenever I travel back home to California, the first thing I want to do is eat. something that's familiar to my home state or something that's familiar to my childhood. And that's something that I want to take with me when I'm coming in contact with people during this season, that I'm just mindful of the ways that people show their love that is not monetarily monetary, like their acts of service. And things of that nature speaking of labor of love, I want to give Miss Tonya Gordon an opportunity to introduce herself and talk about the ways that she's loving on the community through food and service. Miss Tonya.
Tonya Gordon: Good morning, everyone. So I am Tonya Gordon. I started a nonprofit called Valley House on the go. Originally we were opening a grocery store called Valley House Market on government street That was going to do delivery to food desert areas only and then that project abruptly ended by the guy who owned the building. One day we passed by and there was a sale sign on the building. So we didn't even know that the project was scrapped. So we Had to pivot, which I already had a plan B which was to do a mobile market, a mobile grocery store slash food market. With that initiative, I started doing some Pop ups in Scotlandville area connected with Scotland Saturday founder and North Baton Rouge now founder Byron Washington. I am now the executive director of North Baton Rouge now from that connection, which I'm excited about. I've also been now elected to be the LRPA Louisiana parks and recreation district chairperson. So with, and I do outreach for justice and accountability center. So with all of that combined into one, I am now able to bring a variety of experience and knowledge of what the community needs to these different areas. And so we've been fundraising every 200 that we raise sponsors, a different Free market. And what we do is we work with local farmers and whatever we can't get restaurant Depot supplies, our the difference, and we go out to the communities and actually give out pre food bags with the money that we raise.
Tia: What's a pre food bag?
Tonya: A free. Oh, a free food bag. Okay. Yeah, a free food bag is what we give out to the community. And it contains, we usually have a bag of rice, bag of red beans. We have the seasoning for them to be able to cook the red beans and rice. We also have a side up in there. What we do is we try to give out a full meal bag, no, disrespect to the food bank, you might have peanut butter and some spaghetti noodles, that doesn't really Go together. It's a necessity in a home. But what we try to do with our nonprofit is actually provide a meal bag to the community. The only thing I don't put in it is meat because we are usually outside giving it out for a long period of time. But that's what we have been focused on is actually giving out free food bags to the community. And we've got Other people who own stores getting involved for 2025 to do just as we said, what excess food at the end of the day, instead of throwing it away fruits and vegetables instead of, and they get old or, start to ripen instead of throwing it away, we take that and like right now, my freezer is full of chopped seasoning. I go home, I peel it, I chop it up, I put it in bags. I have chopped onions and bell peppers and celery and stuff that we can actually use to either give out or cook. for the community.
Tia: That's awesome. I guess I would want to know if there was some type of seminar where it's teaching us how to communicate with restaurants and grocery stores. Like, how do you establish those relationships with these food vendors to instead of scrapping, the food that they can give it to? Is that something that we have to go individually? Or is there a process?
Tonya: So the key to that is number one, getting to know that person. I researched the people on their Facebook, their Instagram. I try to look at other interviews they've done to get to know that person, to know, where their heart is, what is it that they like to do? So that when I do go and meet with that person, which they are one on one When I do get to go meet with that person, I know how to talk to them, what to talk to them about, how to be able to, tug on that little heart string to say, Hey, I noticed that you're very into this or into that. And I would like for you to assist me. Emails are a cool introduction. If you want to send an email to introduce yourself to say, this is who I am. But as far as discussing an actual collaboration or partnership in person, it's always the best. That's typically how I deal with it. Sometimes it. Dealing with grocery stores is kind of the hardest to deal with if they're it depends on the manager of the store. Like I've tried to deal with Calandro's. It's hard to deal with them. Some of the smaller grocery stores are easier to deal with. I've also dealt with Lowe's and Home Depot. Each of those stores are individual. You go in and. Deal with it. I actually got my boost of confidence and how to deal with things from Casey. Casey and I met last year earlier last year over there at Red stick got some coffee together, some breakfast and discuss some things. And from there is where I got my boost of confidence to move forward and meet with people and, how to talk to people and what, and I've been running since then. I'm going to tell you in person is always better.
Tia: Thank you for that. Ms. Tonya.
Casey: Tia, just for a second. I just want to acknowledge Tonya's kindness and say, thank you, my friend. And I'd come off mute a second ago. And then I went back on because I wanted the conversation to keep flowing. Tonya, thank you for those sweet words. And I very much remember our coffee together. And when, as you started talking and in Regina, I just, I want to also acknowledge your vibration, and I'm so glad to connect the dot that you're the person Manny has been telling us to talk to for years. And Manny, thank you for joining from India. Man, these Friday calls have really taken an interesting cosmic turn, and I think my question earlier is actually even more apropos in this moment. But Tonya, isn't it interesting? You have so many nonprofit leaders and community leaders on this call right now. Can we just pause for a second? And talk about when you have those moments of incredible letdown, especially when it comes to a physical building or a big project that you have your heart set on Tonya had a vision for that space that would have totally changed the frequency of the old South neighborhood. So in that immediate area, however, how interesting the universe is when it closes the door and then it opens the one that now you're impacting the Scotlandville community on a entirely different level, which would have been very difficult to do from being on government street. And of course, if you're standing next to Byron and Janelle Washington, that vibration started getting stronger and now you're stepping into your power as a leader, as well as an entrepreneur and still doing even more social good. I just want everyone on this call as we take a year of taking some lumps on our heads and heavy on our hearts when it doesn't work. That sometimes the answer is right around the corner. And Tonya, I don't use the word resiliency because I, after Katrina, I'm sick of that shit. I don't want to use that word anymore. I said, you are a warrior for good, my friend, and my respect to you.
Tonya: And it was just so that, a quick briefing, we were going to open a store across from Red Stick Social. Store was based off my main vision for that store. We had different sections there was a shop local section. There was a section that said, "The wall of freedom on the wall of freedom” with everything that was free, sugar free gluten free, we tried to make every section of the store as easy as possible. So you didn't have to go running through the aisles and checking all the peanut butters to find the sugar free or going on this aisle to find gluten free. We were going to have everything. In each section we had the training wall cause it was right next to the train track. So we call it the training wall which was Casey's idea because it was next to the train track to have all of our protein bars and protein shakes and stuff like that. So it was a boutique style. grocery store that we were going to be working with. And they had the fruit and vegetable section and we also had other stuff, but it was going to be so far across the store that you'd have to literally walk to go get the bad stuff, but you had to go through all the good stuff to get there. And, just one day we were driving down the street and there was a sale sign on the building. Nobody knew that this would happen and I was mad. I was so mad. There was no communication. There was nothing. And my daughter sat me down. She was like, Mom, she said, think about it. She was like, your vision is bigger than a brick and mortar. She was like, you did not need to be tied down to one location anyway. And so I was looking at her and she was like, pivot, like pivot. And so then I was like, you know what? You're right. I want to be in multiple locations, but as you say, yeah, but multiple mobile location. And so that's when I redid my business plan and decided that instead of going for business, I went nonprofit. That's just where my heart was. It was into nonprofit and I would, I still come to work every day crying I really want to quit my job cause I want to be more into it. And but I keep coming here every day because I work at brick and I get to go out in the community, reach people, see people, talk to people. I have now a spreadsheet of over 400 vendors. That I have met over the last two, three years from pop up shops to events and stuff that I constantly reach out to that are constantly telling me, keep going we got you, let us know if you need anything. And like I said, the community is just pulling me. It was pulling me. So I come to work still some days and cry because it's I want to be out in the community today. It's cold. I want to see, what can I do? I saw a guy today laying on the ground. I wanted to turn around and go home and grab a blanket, and bring it out. That's who I am. It's a lot. I'm sorry, everybody. I probably went over five minutes.
Tia: No, you're absolutely fine. You're absolutely fine. Sharing the story in the passion. It's like the go ahead.
Tonya: No, I'm just saying it's a lot. And just like I said, two weeks ago, I got elected to L. R. P. A. To be the district three chairman, so I'll be traveling to other parishes and stuff getting information from them on how they deal with their food insecurities and seeing how they do their markets and stuff. And I make, I'm overwhelmed, not stressed, overwhelmed, but excited to start to do some, Things in the community just have to start rallying up the support. And my focus is trying to learn more about grants and opportunities right now to be able to fund some of this stuff.
Tia: Yeah, sure. So we'll be sure to be sure we connect intently after this call. I do want to go ahead and because we have two others that we want to introduce and get into this Q and A so next is Miss Kennedy with the council on aging. And then I will, I think I seen Jason after Miss Kennedy. Jason, you can hop on if you don't mind. Just tell us a little bit about yourself. Miss Kennedy.
Angell Jackson Kennedy: Thank you. Good morning. Everybody. My name is Angell Jackson Kennedy. I am the chief marketing and information officer for the East Baton Rouge council on aging and I'm really glad to be here. Thank you for having me. The East Baton Rouge council on aging is a non profit quasi governmental agency. That caters to the needs. Senior citizens in our parish. And our focus is supporting their independence and serving any of their needs to allow them to age gracefully. And one of the key things that we are known for here in the city is our nutritional services. So we have 18 senior activity centers in the parish and four feeding sites. And through those locations from Monday to Friday, we are feeding about 2000 seniors a day. Freshly cooked meals allowing them to have at least one nutritious, hot, delicious meal that they can look forward to during the week. And in addition to that, they get an opportunity to fellowship and engage and work on their Cognitive and physical health within the Senior Activity Centers. So it's a combination of our mission that no senior should go hungry. Combating senior hunger is a huge component of what we do. But also Ensuring that there's no senior isolation and that they have the opportunity to engage with other people, which helps them to stay healthy on a whole body level, as far as their mind and their body. In addition to that, we also are over the Meals on Wheels program here in East Baton Rouge Parish. So we prepare Meals on Wheels boxes that go out to Over 2000 homes across the parish that ensures that our homebound seniors and their caregivers are able to have also nutritional home cooked meals that are flash frozen that they can take out on a daily basis to ensure that they have at least one nutritional balanced meal that meets all their daily needs. Requirements for their age, because seniors do have a particular set of dietary requirements that they need to maintain their health, their nutrition, their vitamins, and we make sure that all of our meals fit into those requirements. We're also still being delicious and keeping them interested on a daily basis. So that's really our spiel as far as nutrition and food. We also have a Lotus food pantry. Which is a free pantry that seniors can come to once a week. It's set up like a mini grocery store, they get a little shopping cart, can walk up and down our aisles, pick up their meals. And they're able to come and do this once a week at no charge. It's to offset their cost of daily living, help them with purchasing groceries. Their groceries and their meals. We also track what they're picking up and what they're getting from the pantry so that we can help also again, monitor that they're getting nutritious staples for their pantry and that. Is kept in their records so that their care managers or social workers can also ensure that they're keeping up with all different areas of their health. And keeping them independent and healthy and here with us as long as possible.
Tia: Thank you, Angell. I do have some questions for you, but I'm going to wait till we get to the to the next session just to give Jason an opportunity to speak. And I'm not sure if Corinne is still on, but Jason, good morning.
Jason Hughes: How are you morning? How you doing? I'm trying to find out how to get myself off from you. I'm doing on a phone instead of the computer, so I'm sorry. I'm traveling. Yeah, good morning. My name is Jason Hughes. I'm the executive director, founder of project 70805. My relationship. Goes back with several of you guys, seeing you in and out the community in Baton Rouge Casey and I have had several phone calls and meetings that we share the same interest in trying to make a better Baton Rouge by pretty much any way possible. I listened to you guys talk about food insecurities, food deserts. Obviously, that's something that's been plaguing our community for such a long time. My hats off to you guys for hitting that mission head on. I see many of you did actually. know by name, some by face and then some by social media that we maybe may have not connected in person but just follow each other. And again, like lines always thinking alike can always solve a problem or create opportunities for those who are less fortunate than ourselves. But for sure, Project 70805 is a backbone in North Baton Rouge. The mission started about nine years ago when I opened my collision center there. I was born and raised Baton Rouge specifically North Baton Rouge. My father grew up there. And I also spent a lot of my early elementary all the way into almost high school years Meadowbrook apartments, Eastbrook style. That's where I grew up at. And so I'm very familiar with the lack of opportunity, the lack of resources that exist in that area. And I know that it's just not that 1 area in Baton Rouge that has those issues. Again, it's more of One Rouge 1 community type thing. I like that name and the mission that you guys have. But if you're not familiar with projects, 70805, we're socially and economic. Growth drivers in our bedroom, which we do a lot of things to education, community development, affordable housing. We do a lot of the big focal point that we've done. As we took a deeper dive into education, we do lead test prep, we do courses, we do summer enrichment, and all of which we've tapped into state, local, federal dollars to help drive our mission grants, you name it. If you will, we're not new to the nonprofit space, but we are new and that we've grown and we've seen the things that we want to focus on.And obviously food is 1 of those things, which had me on the call just to listen to some of the things that we have and maybe I can help. I'll be sure to share my information. If anybody wants to have a follow up, I'd be more than happy to to assist in any way I can.
Tia: Thank you so much for that Jason. That was short and sweet, right? I am not sure. Corinne, were you on the call representing the organization? I just didn't want to skip over you if you were. Okay. Hearing nothing back. I do want to move into something a little fun, and I'm going to ask for Miss Regina to kick us off with some fun tips for the holiday as it relates to just checking on our friends and family that may be food insecure.
Regina: Yeah, thank you so much, Tia. I I have to say, one of the things that I let go of for myself a long time ago was The fear of Oh, my gosh, I haven't been in touch with this person. Oh, my gosh, I haven't been in touch with this person. And just knowing that even if it's been a little while, we can always be in touch with people and you know how it is when you've received a text message or a call from somebody that you maybe haven't talked to in about a year, a couple of months or whatnot, and you just immediately feel Oh, that was so nice. And so just getting into that mindset of, it's always just really nice to be in touch with folks and to shed some of the guilt that we just auto feel if we haven't been in touch with people. And then just depending on how we know the individuals or the families that we know that are food insecure because food insecurity comes from so many different places, loss of a job, a medical event food prices are rising, rent, mortgages are rising, and what might have been a full circle for a family now is not, always a complete circle. And so one thing that I love to do. Is it just when I can another thing that I've let go of is my house is not going to be pristine, but come on over for a little meal. And let's just share a meal and spend a little bit of time. And for all of us, knowing that we are so busy, I also put time limits on it. I want to spend time with all of you. Come on over between three and five. So these are nice ways that we can be ourselves, know that we have a lot happening in our lives as well. But just normalizing, I care about you, not your financial status, I think is something that I'm bringing forward in terms of checking in on my loved ones and neighbors who might not be That's financially secure as I am.
Tia: And when you say that I love the fact that you say put time limits on it. So you went, personal to say that you depend on your relationship with the individual. You may invite them over or just check in with them on a broader level. For me, when I'm thinking about organizations that are touching individual people, maybe they are clients or maybe they're considered just community members. What are some of the ways that we make sure that we don't forget community during this time? Because I think in all my years of service before I got into a more broader, like operations and nonprofit role I was a service. Or is it individual where I have people? I knew people by name and I guess I'm just curious. And this question may just pivot a little bit to Tonya and maybe on jealous. That when you guys are interfacing with people like 1 person to say, okay, Mr Johnson comes in once a month and he's always, You have community, you share community with these people. What are the ways that you, Tonya or Angell are able to when serving community, that you have the list of people that you know, that are always going to be present, like just making sure that you're checking in with them and that's from a community standpoint, Tonya or Ms. Angell.
Angell: Community is huge. What we do on a day to day basis. And I tell everyone we're counseling on aging, you're going to want a dozen extra grandmothers grandfathers, godmothers people who are checking on you, checking on your family and you form these relationships, these close knit relationships, and no matter how what event we're having, or if you're just stopping in at a senior center, you're looking for certain familiar faces, and they're looking for your face as well. And informing those relationships, you can't help but making sure, okay I stopped in at the senior center today, and I didn't see Mr. Johnson. I know Mr. Johnson is always there. We're going to call. We're going to call and check on him. We're going to make sure that he is okay. Why weren't you at the senior center today? What's going on? Is there a need that we're missing that we need to assist you with? That's one thing that's really big within our community is just checking on our seniors. And of course we have An entire department of caregivers and social workers where that's what they do. All day, but it trickles down into every department here at the council on aging, where we all have relationships with our seniors close relationships to them. And it's nothing for any of us to reach out and make sure. That a senior is taking care of, that their needs are being met, that they have that ride to the doctor's office, that they have food for, to make it through the weekend. So community is huge here. It's much more than just serving a senior roster. We are most definitely giving back to the community, giving back to the seniors who have spent their entire lives pouring into us. Helping raise this community, nurture this community. And now it's time for us to uplift them and make sure that they have everything that they need to make their golden years as possible and as comfortable as we possibly can.
Tia: Thank you for that. There is a message for you inside the group chat asking for your information. Tonya I'm curious on how often when you are providing meals in the community, are you able to call individuals by their first names?
Tonya: Okay, I'm gonna be first to be honest. I am great with faces. I am horrible with names. Okay. But. Everybody who, so I have a team. So on my team are responsible for certain people. So I couldn't, whoever I see them connect with, that is now your responsibility. For me, I have certain people that instantly come to me. They all have nicknames. So I can be like, Hey, where's my dancing buddy? My dancing buddy is not here. They'll be like, Oh, Mr. Such and such, or I'll be like, where's the class clown. So all of my. People have nicknames and they know their nickname. If I can't remember their names, I have a nickname for them, but my team keeps up with everybody who they're like real name is their information. And I'll be like, I haven't seen my dancing buddy. My dancing buddy hadn't called me in, in, in a couple of days. Can you reach out to, and then she'd be like, Oh, that's Mr. Johnson, I'll call him. So I do have a team who helps me keep. In touch with everyone who I cannot, personally, because I have so much on my plate but my team keeps in touch with them. And, As far as like the holidays, really, we constantly have a list of, like you say, extended moms, grandmoms who, when they cook and it was like, I cooked this big old pot of gumbo and only six people showed up, y'all come get it. And we'll come get it. I have three deep freezers at my house. And so we get it, we deep freeze it, and that way we're able to, okay. Soon as it gets cold, we're pulling out this gumbo or, whatever it is that, that we have. That's, that, that's done. And then we'll reach out to the people. I actually, me personally. I prefer feet to the ground. I'm a walk the neighborhood type of person not knocking on doors, but just observing where I see elderly people coming in and out of the house and out of community. And I note that Hey, there's a person in a wheelchair at this house, have, and I'll have my person see if you can reach out to them and see if they need anything. So I'm a little different. With, I actually go out into the community and look for people to help.
Tia: Okay. I have a follow up question for that. Asking like, so how you have people that go out in the community, and this can open to anyone on this call. How can one person or an organization help support the efforts that you're doing right now? Like, how can we get involved if we wanted to volunteer some time or donations or anything?
Tonya: I am actually right now in the process. Hopefully I can launch it on January 1 of getting our website set up. I'm also doing a Google form for now that I will once we get it completed. But it's, if anybody, the two forms, one is for people who want to get involved. The other form is people who know people. In the community that need help, which was one of the things we did for Christmas. I post on my Facebook and Instagram, we, on my birthday was November 26, two days before. Thanksgiving and that day I spent the entire day actually going out and dropping off meal bags to people where my friends and family donated stuff to to put into bags to give out to people. We gave them the turkey. I baked them an up cake. My friend did the sweet potato pies. We gave them the red beans, the rice, the seasoning, green beans, soup, like we, and I spent my entire day doing that. And so it's not so much as always monetary donations. It's, like I say, hands on, feet to the ground just going in the community and introducing yourself to somebody who possibly has a need, getting to know them, then connecting them to a resource that they may not know is available to them.
Tia: So just being intentional about connecting.
Tonya: Being intentional about connecting and I had the biggest fear of talking to people like my first real conversation with somebody was Casey like everything in my life pivoted after talking to Casey and so now I have no fear of Walking up to somebody And saying, Hey, my name is this is what I do. And I noticed that this, and this. Can I help contact you with someone you know and from there they may say no, I'm good, but I know and person such and such, and they really need assistance.
Tia: And I say this, that I met you a couple months back during, right before the first, the primary voting, early voting, when we did the event in Scottlandville, and I was really impressed and moved by not only the food bags, but just to see you, how you connected with everyday community members. I know a lot of spaces where we are in nonprofit organizations. Some of us may not be, we may become removed from being boots on the ground that not that we've necessarily lose humanity, but just seeing the interaction that people are just people and just being passionate to want to help and move people forward in any way that you can. It's something beautiful. I found out about your work. Jason, We've talked a lot about helping elderly or noticing those who may not have the mobility to make sure they get the services. But what about the Children in the youth? Jason, how is your organization helping address youth or adolescents that may be facing food insecurity?
Jason: To be honest, we have entertained ideas. We've done more support and more donating than we have hands on. Experience with dealing with food insecurities. So I don't really have an honest expert answer as to no we've seen it. We can say that we've seen it definitely in Scotlandville and around Scotlandville. We've seen it through when, which is coming up next week. We do our annual Christmas shopping spree. And which we go to Walmart. And so we did a pivot from. Giving out toys to really focus on household items and obviously food items. And these are some of the things that I think a family can appreciate long past, that 1st day joy of getting a toy. We pivoted from annually doing the toys to focusing on families and their needs and I've seen it over the last 3 years since we made that pivot. That food has become 1 of the number 1 things that they show up to the register with. And obviously, that's what you can say, as a community person with being in the community and understanding the needs. That's 1 of the things that I recognize. Hey, I'm glad that we did take the suggestion to pivot towards helping families as opposed to just, giving out a couple of 100 toys in 1 day. And again, that hasn't been something that we've directly addressed are that it's not 1 of our current missions, but we have donated. We have provided volunteers and we have seen at our events where, People have expressed to us that this is something that is needed and they're very thankful that we're able to at least donate our address that issue. But, directly. No, we have not focused on that. But again, getting on this call. And when I saw the topic, I actually wanted to learn more and more specifically who were the stakeholders to keep the key players. And addressing this. And again, like I said, I've seen some of the people on this call and by name and in face our personal relationship and again, just understanding that helps me move forward in going into next year, understanding that it is actually a thing.
Tonya: I want to say something. Just touching on with the kids. One of the things that I found too, with those people who do Help with the kids. Like we, when we did back to school, we did a back to school event at when I was high school where they were doing haircuts and all that stuff. And we gave out back to school snack bag. The thing that I noticed too, and even with parade, they're throwing out packs of ramen noodle and kids love ramen noodles, but that is not a healthy kid option. The sodium in that it's so bad. And kids love it. I get it. They love it. But when we're doing stuff that deals with kids, we have to be very mindful of what we're giving them. Yes, giving them food. A box of ramen noodles is 2 and you get about 200 packs up in there. It's a cheap and expensive thing to give to a family, but that's not good for a fact. So whenever we do give back, we need to make sure that what we're giving them is something that is non perishable, but also healthy. I'm not saying it has to be, wheat this and, low fat that, but we need to also watch the things that are destroying our community. High blood pressure, sodium. Stuff like that. So before we go out and actually donate meal, let's plan the plan, what we're giving them instead of just, I said, when you go in the store, hungry, when you start shopping, you throw anything in your bag.
Tia: So I hear you saying just being health being health conscious about our donating things.
Jason: I just want to say one thing. I didn't mean to cut. I didn't want to, I want to say one thing about what time you say. I agree a hundred percent. And when we do all of our educational programming, or we host events, we try to keep that in mind. Obviously, as a father, I'm very aware of what my kids eat and what I provide for them to eat. And I will say that I am guilty of providing pizza every time we do some type of event. And I saw the draw. We did a program in Scotlandville for 2 years over the summer where we fed them every day, and we utilize local food vendors, local restaurants, and we were a lot more conscious than just shoving pizza down their throats. Every time we did something. To speak to her point, that is 100 percent true. But again, it's all about educating right and being educational and if you. We just did a can drive at my son's school, my son and my daughter's school, and you look at it and you're like, Hey, I'm going to give this can good. It's gonna make me feel good. But what am I really, injecting into the community? Correct. So I think I can appreciate that.
Tonya: Pizza is not bad. You just get one meat. That's it. You only get one meat. You're not going to get pepperoni and beef and we're going to have, we're going to have one meat on this pizza. That's it. And then what about pineapples? Pineapples? You get, no, you get one meat. You can pick one and not pepperoni. That is the greasiest, worst thing ever piece of meat to put on a pizza.
Casey: So if I had to hear all these years of people talking about how Brussels sprouts are actually edible, I'm standing up for pizza today. I'm standing up for pizza today.
Tonya: Roasted, air fried Brussels sprouts. I love them. I'mma cook you some, Casey. I'mma cook you some. I'mma change your mind.
Tia: When Jason, when you were mentioning just saying that you were happy to hop on a call to learn who's out here and who's the stakeholders. That was my hope, right? To ultimately make sure that people are being connected, even if it's not a service that your organization is directly giving we're going to come across it. Whenever you work in community, there are so many intersecting challenges that community members are facing, and you should always know who is where. Okay. Even if it's something that you can't do, I know someone which brings me to my next question. And we shift into community announcements after this was with Regina. How is it that what kind of support can you guys provide to us here in Louisiana? I know that LSU has their program going with the, With their cafe. But is there any other services or resources that your organization is providing assistance in that can be beneficial to us here in Baton Rouge?
Regina: Yes, thank you so much. And how we typically work is if any of you know about events that are happening, large scale events, I'm talking like, a jazz festival or something at the convention center, like that level. If you have any connection there at all, let us know because we have some room in our budget to support these large scale events. So we can come down and help capture food that we know would otherwise most likely be thrown away. And what we try to do within communities that we already know is working so hard to support the people who live in those communities. We never come in to say oh, this is what you need community. No, we understand you are all working so hard, but what we try to do is work alongside all of you to expand. The capacity. So if there are large scale events where there isn't recovery happening, let me know. Because if we have enough of a runway, we can come down and make sure that food is captured and that it is brought to nonprofits in the Baton Rouge area. That can support that quantity of food, and it might be more than one place. So I'm heading off to the Super Bowl and NOLA and February, and we will work with the nonprofits in that area to recover what looks like will be probably around 2,300 pounds of food to 4,000 pounds of food. So we really get in there and do all of those logistics. If any of you have connections with other higher ed institutions, including community colleges in particular, Another way that we can help is soon enough in February, again, everything happens in February, we have a grant opportunity for community colleges, specifically that we will work with you to have, in solution so either starting a chapter there, which is a little bit difficult, with community colleges, because the 4 years. I don't want to say traditional because community colleges are traditional. But meaning people work have families and their time on campus is a little bit different or setting up large scale events or fresh produce market. We have started these in Baltimore, St. Paul, and we've been in Atlanta for the past almost 4 years. To work with the community college to get to stand up 1 or several of these interventions. And again, we have the funding to help support that and the staff capacity, because we know people who work at community colleges are over asked underpaid.
We need to make sure that they have the financial resources to get the solutions up and going. So that's another thing that we would love. If any of you have connections to community colleges. And then, for those of you, this one's a little bit harder, but I do want to make the offer that if any of your locations need food we have a section on our website where we can put your name up there so that, if our chapter knows about you because, again, it's all about the relationships that there might be a way To begin putting in a pathway for food that's being recovered to go to that particular location. It's a little bit harder, I wish that was like the easier way, but, the offering is there because we don't know what we don't know. A lot of times in the community. So those are some of the ways that we would love to help supplement what all of you are already doing in your incredible community.
Tia: That's absolutely amazing. And I really hope that this information will be useful to someone on this call and making sure that we're staying in community with one another, not just during the holiday season, but 365 I want to.
Casey: If I just jump in for a second, because I was coming up with separate emails, but I have all these amazing humans. We have them right here in front of us. So Miss Kennedy, Regina, I know it's going to be a little bit more challenging from the East coast. But we'd love to have you a part of as much as possible. And Tonya and Jason, we want y'all to get involved. In the capital area food equity coalition into cafe, starting in January let's go let's get y'all involved with all of our folks that are working on from a systems level, but as well as direct services to collaborate more effectively, right grants together. I said, ultimately, just bring amplify the impact and multiply. Tristi, thanks for lifting that up. I was already on the frequency to hit all the different emails. I'm like, I can just come off mute and ask y'all. And here is the very tangible way. Tia and Helena are your connects. Y'all are already emailing with each other and Tia would love to follow up and invite you to the next round of in person meetings, but we can schedule time to actually bring you up to speed for that work has been going on for the last four years. And it, I think it's now in a place we could really be effective together. So I go, I lean back out other than so I don't get in trouble with Dr. Bester. And I think Reverend Anderson is here. Everyone. Tomorrow morning. If you have not already done it, the first thing that you're going to do after you have your morning coffee or tea is you're going to put on your tennis shoes and you're going to walk, bike or ride a car or catch a cat's bus and exercise your right to vote. It matters. If you didn't think it mattered, I'm hoping on November 6, you realized how much it matters. So please show up tomorrow. I am not shaming you. I am encouraging you show up at the polls. Go and vote tomorrow for the mayor president election plus the four constitutional amendments that are on the ballot. Thanks so much to you. Back to you
Tia: See, I told you I mind because the voting thing is my thunder, but it's okay. It's all great. You listen well, though, you can do it better. You can do it better than me again for repetition to make sure that everyone goes to vote. No worries. So just as Katie said, just make sure that you are flexing your civic muscle and going to cast your vote on tomorrow. Now is the time we're going to open up the space for community announcements. Any holiday parties that's going on that's open to the community, any volunteer opportunities. Anything that you would want us to know and share with the masses, now's the time. Either drop it in the chat or come off of mute and make your announcement.
Tonya: We have the downtown Christmas tree lighting going on tomorrow in Scotland. And I'm going to cook chili. It's not on the list of What everyone else is doing. I'm just deciding to cook chili because I don't see enough food being given out. So I'm cooking chili. Y'all come down tomorrow afternoon to Scotland. We're doing the annual Christmas tree light.
Jason Hughes: Project 7805. We have our 9th annual Christmas giveaway in which we have Open up before the commission. As of yesterday, we had about 150, which were only able to probably service about 50 of those families. And so we provide a shopping experience at Walmart this year. It'll be on December the 14th. If you want to come out and volunteer to help families shop, that's pretty much all that you ask. We normally have enough volunteers that come and show up the day off to help assist with families, but we can always welcome more and that's going to be at the college drive. Walmart starting at 10 a. m. And I'll send the flyer. I'm looking for it on my phone now, but if not, I can send you guys the flyer. If you know anybody that wanted to volunteer to help family shout.
Helena Sato: I put in the chat too MLK Fest is around the corner. So we want everyone to be a part of this. So I the link I put in the chat, you can choose your path, how you want to be, if you want to be a partner, if you just want to volunteer. You'll be getting emails about it and. See advertisements for it, but please be a part of them. I'll keep us with us.
Tia: Thank you. Helena.
Reverend Anderson. Good morning. I put in the chat that there's going to be a driver's license reinstatement clinic on December 16th at the river center library. And I think it's super important because there are over 250, 000 people in Louisiana driving on suspended driver's licenses over 20, 000 folks in the East Baton Rouge Parish area, but some people may not have heard DMV for the first time. Is going to do substantial resettlement. And so there are people who have almost 30, 000 in debt to OMV because of the fines, fees and the escalation and the lack of caps. They are putting the caps back on and they are going to read. Adjust these things back to the actual. Fines. And so it's a very important opportunity. And with all the changes that came up because of the elections, we don't know how long that window will be open. So I can't encourage people enough. I believe that they've got, I think it's 100, 150 person limitation. So it's first first come first serve and you do have to register. And so it's on the flyer.
Tia: I was saying, and I also did put the driver's license reinstatement graphic inside of inside of the chat sharing that Lori is having their end of the year banquet. With a silent auction. So if you would like to go and support our immigrant and refugee community please come through and celebrate with us. See, it's like there's festival of lights going on tonight that he borrowed and miss Tracy dropped in the chat. Do we have any other community announcements? Okay hearing none, I would like to thank everybody.
Casey: Sow Good Saturday on Saturday. SK, you still there? If not everybody, come to the farm. Come to the farm, come to the farm. Honestly, it's so much more fun than you could possibly imagine. First of all, you don't have to volunteer and do any farming if you don't want to. You can just come out and partake in the vibes. There's yoga out there. It's going to be a It's going to be, it's a beautiful setting in North Baton Rouge at Rec Hall of Park. And I said, you come out around, I believe, Helena, correct me if I'm wrong, but people arrive at 10. And I said, yeah, 10 o'clock, you can come out and volunteer, but you can always learn something from composting to foraging to learning about how to plant winter crops. But also our partners would go get healthy and healthy BR and the American Heart Association are out there and actually cook up. Fresh food on the spot. It's just really cool times under a big oak trees and sunshine in North Baton Rouge and come and enjoy some community and outside instead of just watching Netflix and football games. So come on out, come out in the morning. Then you can do that in the afternoon. It's totally cool. All right. Thank y'all.
Tonya: Hey, Casey, on that note I've actually just taken over down Down the street at the corner of Winburn and North Foster, there was a fruit stand there, a produce stand on that corner. Yeah, I've just taken that over.
Casey: Let's connect you if you don't mind, just email us right after so we can connect you to S. K. and Mitchell so we can provide fresh vegetables and food that we have right down the street so that you can get it out to more human beings.
Tonya: Yeah, we're right literally right down the street. My daughter's boyfriend, mom purchased the property so we could take it over. Okay.
Casey: As said, see, look at your daughter unlocking all kinds of business opportunities for you in the last in the last 365 days. I love that. Thank you for sharing that. Thank y'all for listening. Yeah, appreciate y'all.
Reverend Anderson: I forgot, but I have to make this announcement about my amazing East Baton Rouge Parish Library. They have the most amazing stained glass exhibit that just went up. And it is absolutely beautiful at the Goodwood Branch. And everything the library does. It was donated. The cost is paid for, but it is amazing. And so we already had the number one library system in the country. And now we're going to have the most exotic, artistic library system in the country. So if you haven't had a chance to go to Goodwood, you got to see this thing. It is just amazing. It's amazing.
Casey: Exotic. Exotic books, my friend. It is an exotic library. It is exotic and amazing and cool. All right, Reverend Anderson. Thanks, though, for lifting that up. That sounds like a really cool way. To spend some time at one of my favorite libraries in the city, which I think there's going to be a close second when they, when they're done with the Scotlandville branch, I'm hearing good things and amazing things about the new Scotlandville library. So I look forward to spending time in both. All right. Good people. We wish you good vibes. Have an amazing weekend. Tia, thank you as we wind the year up. Thank you for the continuing the tradition of the Friday calls in a very nice and balanced way over the last few months. I heard someone say that yesterday to you. And it's been, it's, you've just done a really great job on Friday's end. Thank you. Ann, big shout out to you for always delivering the meeting minutes. Helena putting up with all the emails that have nothing to do with her, but she still always helps. And I said, I appreciate all of y'all very much and happy Friday and have a beautiful weekend.
Tia: Happy Friday guys. See you nice next week.
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