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Good evening and welcome to a special edition of NJ Spotlight News this Thanksgiving.

I'm Briana Vannozzi.

It is a day to give thanks, but it's also a day for giving.

And this past year, we've had the opportunity to introduce you to a number of people who are giving back to their communities in extraordinary ways through our new digital series, 21.

The series examines the simple question, does where you live in the state affect how you live?

21 profiles one person in each of our 21 counties and looks at the social determinants affecting that person's life.

Tonight, we'll introduce you to several New Jerseyans who are going above and beyond.

First, meet Cookie Till.

For Cookie, all things revolve around food.

Her team empowers underserved populations in surrounding Atlantic County food deserts with opportunities to work, learn, and truly appreciate the gifts of the Garden State.

- I love this area.

I love living on the island.

Even after Sandy and my house got destroyed, and my restaurant got flooded, I wasn't leaving.

So we're gonna have peach, blueberry, egg pie.

That's what we should call it.

So many things you can do around food that really can make people's lives so much better.

♪ I own Steve & Cookie's Restaurant in Moorgate, New Jersey.

We're going into our 25th year.

I love to feed people, and I love to see people happy.

This isn't just about feeding people that want organic and want to eat better that have the means to do it.

We really need to, as a community, as a society, work to educate people that just have no access to the food or any idea that what they're eating could be hurting their health.

[Music] This farm started as a dream about five years ago.

I used to come out to the farm when it was Reed's Farm.

It was a family owned farm for 75 years.

And every time I drive up here, I was just so blown away by the beauty of the place and just how close it was to the island.

March of 2020, that dream started to take form.

We were able to take this land over 78 acres and start building from there.

Just when things were starting to, you know, getting scary, three weeks later, my restaurants closed, the whole world shut down.

And it was so therapeutic because I didn't know what to do with myself, but I could be out here.

And then, you know, it just became like, wow, this is what we need.

Like this, we all need to know where our food comes from.

We need to know how to grow food.

And that's what people started to embrace during COVID.

The land is not easy.

We're finding out just how hard it is.

You can't just say you're going to farm organically after land's been farmed conventionally for 75 plus years.

Some of our crops failed this summer.

I mean, it's just really our second year.

We're really trying to regenerate this land.

This isn't soil, it's dirt.

But it will be soil.

This is our chicken bus.

The pecking and eating and pooping is magic for the land.

They're like one of our biggest helpers.

We need biomass on the land to start getting life back into the soil.

They're part of this whole regenerative process.

Now that we have a plan, it's exciting.

We could be an outreach to so many different underserved populations.

Food deserts aren't just about putting a supermarket down in the middle of a city and go, "Okay, everybody's good now.

We can leave."

It's not like that.

People are still going to eat the wrong things because there's so much advertising around sugar and carbs and dead food.

You have to start thinking about things different.

Food is a vehicle to help kids just kind of realize their potential.

We started a program in the schools called Harvest of the Month.

Every month we highlight a farm and talk about the vegetable.

And then we make something together and everybody tastes it.

A lot of these kids have never been off the island, let alone seen these animals, get their hands in the dirt, see where things grow.

Everything revolves around food.

For me, it means a lot to me to be able to acquire this farm and have this be a resource.

People that walk on the farm, you can see what the potential is when you look-- when I look in their eyes and what it does for people already and seeing the beauty of our area through the agriculture.

We have programming with special needs, autistic community has been very supportive, workforce development going on, people in recovery coming, people that need to do community service coming out, they're finding something that speaks to them here.

That's what the dream has been for this place.

- I feel that the farm is about empowering people, opening their eyes to just how cool it is to watch things grow.

It's like magic.

You know, New Jersey, we are the garden state.

We should elevate that.

That is what I would love to see in my small world of Atlantic County, us getting together and just figuring out how we can just raise everybody up.

Next, we take you to Passaic County.

When the world stopped at the height of the pandemic, Rashajon Johnson was just getting started, finding ways to serve the Passaic community in its time of need and helping those who were underserved find new beginnings with his nonprofit organization, Hope With N. Passaic is really special to me.

It's such a small city, but has so many big problems.

And I want to level it out.

Sometimes it takes one person to stand up, to make other people feel confident.

When I first got here, it was open arms.

It was, hey, how you doing?

The acceptance, the grace.

I felt like I grew up here.

It was a strong need for assistance with the homelessness and the drug addictions going on in this city.

There's a saying that goes, it takes a community to raise a child.

And that was my saying growing up in my era, community is everything.

It's not how you start, it's how you finish.

There's something I had to do.

I couldn't just sit on my hands and just say it is what it is.

[MUSIC] I was placed in the Division of Youth Family Services at the age of two weeks.

Being in about six foster homes and seven different orphanages over the course of those 19 years, it opened up a lot of things that an average child turning into a young man shouldn't have seen.

Things that were missing in a lot of my journey through the foster care system, especially dealing with families, even dealing with a lot of the group homes, it was value.

I will take my journey, take my struggles, and be able to identify better with people, and be able to give them the love and support that I've lacked in my childhood.

And hopefully I'll be able to reciprocate it in the way of giving it back to others who deserve it and desire it.

It was a lot of hoping, hence Hope With N. Right at the height of the COVID outbreak, early 2020, being laid off from my job, I was granted unemployment.

But in Passaic, New Jersey, lots of my neighbors, people I call family, they weren't given access to unemployment, or maybe they got lost in the system.

Hearing their stories, their frustration, "how I'm gonna get food?

How I'm gonna pay for this?"

And it broke my heart to watch them, whom have children, not be able to provide.

And I know that hurts as a parent.

I just kept feeling this voice say, "Start it now."

And I was talking against that voice.

I said, "Start what?

The world is stopped.

What am I starting?"

And it was just like, "Just do it.

Just do it."

The name Hope With N stimulated from my relationship early with my daughter.

And she keeps pushing me, whether she knows it or not.

She is my hope within.

Just keep trying.

Remember the saying?

Try, fail, try, fail.

But you really fail when you what?

-Stop trying.

-There we go.

I didn't want to be the average non-profit, where it's just like, "Here, take this and take that and go."

I wanted to be able to say, "Take that, take this, and if you need anything else, reach back out."

Or, "What can I do to get you where you trying to go?"

We try to do an event every month where we're giving away, whether it's food, whether it's toiletries, whether it's quality clothing, you know, just bringing people together, bringing resources, different nonprofits together.

You can have addicts there.

You can have homeless people there.

You can have families who may just need a meal for that night.

And even with the city of Passaic, Oh, you have an event?

Here's some donations.

Here, I got this.

Hey, it's just like, I'll be all over.

Like, who can I go pick up?

What's going on?

I wish if I could be a superhero, they'll call me teleportation man, because I just want to teleport everywhere and just, what you need?

How can I do this?

OK, I got to go.

Some of the challenges, speaking to a lot of the homeless and the addict community out there, they want to feel like they were a circus act.

We make them feel human, because that's what they are.

Everything you see is for you.

Take what you need.

Take what you want.

Something that I get from Passaic is just sincere help.

People there don't care about just feeding you.

They gonna ask you tomorrow, the next day, did you eat as well?

And that's what makes Passaic so, so special to me, because I have about 10 different ladies I call mama, and they treat me exactly like a son.

Gain most of my weight out here, because everybody, come through and grab a plate.

Come through and grab a plate.

You got my numbers, ladies.

Y'all know.

Once we get all that together, we're gonna get it together.

- All right.

- All right?

Love you, ladies.

Thank you.

I will always go any mile just to make sure people don't have to go through what I went through.

38 Osborne Terrace in Newark, New Jersey, is currently under various change that will be Home with N's first Women and Transitional Home.

The difference between transitional homes and a shelter, shelters are more so just sleeping areas.

I wanted to really have homes in place where you felt like it was your home.

I know most of these programs out here in these different cities are rotating doors.

This isn't just a place you're in, this is not just a place you're at, but this is a place you need to be and you want to be.

Our key is not to let you slip through the cracks.

When I was released from DYFS at the age of 19, and again, I had nowhere to pretty much lay my head, I parked outside a little bit down this road from this actual house we in, and my brother happened to walk out that morning and saw me sleeping in my car.

He knocked on the window and said, "What are you doing?"

I said, "I got nowhere to go, bro."

And he said, "Why ain't you call me?"

And I just said, "Pride, hurt."

And he said, "Go get your room together."

And this room here was one of my rooms that I was staying in for a few years to get on my feet.

Here we are now, and pretty much almost done with our women and children transitional home.

And it means a lot to me.

[MUSIC PLAYING] When I tell people when we go through things, don't be afraid to find that light switch.

Don't let people hide it from you.

Activate your light.

And what I do by helping them activate it is giving them true love, giving them what they missed.

I can probably help you locate your light switch, but I need you to turn it on.

Because if I turn it on, who's to say you wouldn't care about it going back out?

The hope is the current to turn on that light in you.

Sometimes it takes that one person or a few people to help change someone.

My goal is to go visit Passaic in the next few years and visit these homes and just keep motivating and keep strengthening the city because the people are the city.

Once we start strengthening the people, then the city gets stronger.

Now we head to South Jersey and introduce you to Christian Kane of Ocean County, where life changed instantly for his family after their infant son Gavin suffered a brain injury, leaving him unable to walk or talk.

Christian now works tirelessly to make his community more inclusive and accessible to those with disabilities.

As he says, just because you have a traumatic brain injury doesn't mean the game is over.

It just means it's a different game.

(soft music) - When you're typical, you take a lot of things for granted, a lot.

But in the blink of an eye, just like us, we went from a total typical family to now being a family that's in a world of special needs.

And you don't know when it's your time.

You have no idea.

Until you're in it, you don't really realize why this playground area is so important.

What I do?

Dad.

Hopefully a loving husband most of the time.

Mathematics teacher at Tom's River High School North for 28 years.

That's teacher of the year stuff right there.

28 years, no teacher of the year award.

I don't get it.

All right, here we go.

And the co-founder of the Tom's River Field of Dreams.

Gavin King is our 11-year-old son.

He suffered a traumatic brain injury when he was only 19 months old.

Prior to that, he was a handful, walked very quickly, not a big talker, but he was just willing to do anything.

And unfortunately when that accident occurred, it took its physical ability from him, but not his mental ability.

And I can't believe it's been this long already, because now he's 11.

He's still that fun-willing kid.

His drive, his willingness to work is unmatched.

He's very similar to his mother in that case.

He's just, he works so hard to try to be better every day.

Two, release it.

Due to the nature of the injury, Gavin cannot walk or talk.

Where does it hurt more, the wrist part?

I work on the physical part just because he's so big.

Our goal is to get him to be able to sit correctly.

Seven, eight, nine, good job.

And then, you know, be able to walk and be able to move around his home and be able to do things that we take for granted.

Open up your hand.

Yeah.

Can you try to do that with lefty?

Just try.

Yeah, that's our lives.

And it's a lot.

It's a truckload.

But it's worth it, because it's the only way that we know how to live.

You're thrown into this world of special needs that we had no idea about, because all our children were totally typical.

And now all of a sudden you realize, oh my gosh, there's nothing out here.

But when you really think about the world of special needs, there isn't a place that you can go and not be stared at and be able to have fun.

And the most important part is to be included, to have full inclusion, that people don't really care what you look like or what you can do.

You're just there to have fun with everyone else.

And there isn't a place like this in Ocean County.

We had this playground that we built here at this home so that no matter what your ability is, you can play, have fun.

And we noticed that the other equipment was tough because everything's narrow and he's got a wheelchair.

And then if you get the wheelchair to a spot in the playground, how do you get the wheelchair back down?

And then how do you get him positioned in either the swing or the slide?

And that was when he was only six or seven.

That's when he was tiny.

That's when we knew, like, oh boy, we got a problem here.

There are so many people that stay at home rather than going out.

They feel like they're getting stared at, so they stay home.

And the idea of the field of dreams is to give those people who have a special need a place to go to.

And at that time, I want to say 4 and 1/2 years ago, at that time, I didn't have anything.

The only thing I had at that time was my story and the passion at how important this is.

And people bought in.

I knew that the money was going to be significant, especially with the way we wanted to do it.

And we were having some issues in regards to paying for some equipment.

And we came up with this whole idea of this Team Gavin, quote, "on like wildfire."

I mean, we had a Team Gavin day at my high school, in which I think like over 500 people were wearing Team Gavin t-shirts.

So the field of dreams, whatever is in your head, think five times that.

Think baseball.

Think football field.

Think giant stadium.

That's what it's going to be like.

It's not going to be like your local park down the street, where it has a couple swings and stuff like that.

This is going to be immense.

That's a big task to think that, you know, one county can just simply have everything accessible.

I mean, that's impossible.

But are you at least offering places for people to go?

I have tools for you.

You have to use like a screwdriver or a little of a scissor just to make the hole a little bit bigger.

We're trying to redefine that definition that accessibility should be for everything at all times and you shouldn't be concerned about that.

We're still a long way away.

I mean, the number one issue for most special need caretakers, when you go to the bathroom, there may be an issue.

See, that's the thing about the field of dreams.

We have everything hopefully taken care of where you don't have to leave.

So if there's a bathroom issue, the caretaker can take care of their loved one as if they were home.

We have an autistic quiet corner where a parent can now deal with their child, but then also re-enter back into the activity that they were having an issue with.

You bring somebody with a power chair and all of a sudden it runs out of a battery.

We have power charging stations throughout the complex.

What are the issues and how can we make sure people don't leave?

And in Ocean County it's getting better, but we're hopefully setting the tone to fill dreams of what real true accessibility and inclusion really means.

Come to our facility and we'll show you what accessibility is.

For anyone else who doesn't have a traumatic brain injury or any kind of special need or any kind of disability, you guys take things for granted.

Brushing your teeth, getting up out of bed, turning a page of a book, you all take it for granted.

Gavin struggles with all those things.

There isn't one thing that is easy for him because of the nature of his brain injury, but the thing that he's able to do, though, is persevere and figure out ways to do those things.

And things that are challenging, he works so hard to minimize that challenge and be able to do things like everyone else can.

Good, go crazy.

Just look at his skin, he's out of control.

With Gav, 'cause of his spirit, how do you say, "Oh, Gav, I really don't wanna do that today," or, "Gav, I really don't feel like doing that."

That's impossible.

It's impossible to let that kid down.

You have to be high spirits and you have to go at 100%.

Gavin has taught me that I can be better than who I am.

Clear and simple.

He makes you want to be better.

Doing therapies or playing games or the field of dreams.

Because he works so hard and he wants to be better.

How could you not then want to work just as hard as he can and have that inspiration or that drive to be the best you can be.

So simple as that.

He's made me a better dad, a better teacher, a better person all around.

You could be a varying degree of ability and still be able to appreciate and have a great life.

Just because you have a special need, you know, in our case, a traumatic brain injury, doesn't mean the game's over.

It just means it's a different game.

Back up to Essex County, where with support from their growing tribe of community changemakers, Fallon Davis is redefining what it means to be a leader.

Dubbed a radical educator, Fallon is looking for ways to develop the tools and resources to create space for the next generation of innovators to thrive in the Newark and Essex communities.

Using expressive arts and sciences programming, I sat down with Fallon to talk about their philosophy and mission for change.

Fallon Davis, it's great to have you on the show.

Let me ask you first about what motivates you to be a change maker in your community.

- My motivations really are my tribe, my community.

I wouldn't be able to do the work that I'm doing without the educators that put in their time and investment, without my partners for believing in me, my board, my team, my family.

So when you have that big of a support system and you have people really counting on you, it really makes it better to wake up every day doing the work and being a community leader because the work is heavy.

So you gotta be able to let love and enjoy life.

- What makes the work heavy?

You are the founder of STEAM Urban.

Talk to me a little bit about that and the challenges you've come up against in getting that off the ground?

Just even the black and white legalities, trying to figure out that process was challenging because I didn't really have a lot of internal help.

I really had to do a lot of outsourcing and I wanted to do it the right way.

I wanted to make sure that when our organization came to fruition that we had nothing that anyone could stop us with.

STEAM Urban is an expressive arts and STEM discipline education program for black and brown students of all ages.

And our focuses are environmental justice, social justice, and educational equity.

And so what that really looks like is, we designed these interactive learning experiences that allow everyone to come alive, to connect back to nature, to learn about plant-based living and the lifestyle, to get connected back to our indigenous roots with gardening and farming, and really just finding innovative things to kind of combat the disparities that we're facing, but also get people to really enjoy being an advocate for their community.

One of the questions we look to answer in this series, Fallon, is does where you live affect your outcome in life?

And I want to put that question to you.

Has it and does it?

In areas without resources, without access, you really, your quality of life is really hindered.

And especially in Black and Brown communities, as I watched my family members and different people that I have, you know, met along the way, really get, you know, deterred and moved off track by the traumas and constant, you know, systemic oppressions that we're faced on a daily basis.

Trying to survive is like the most important thing.

And you can't be free if you're always in survival mode.

And so when you get out of that hustle and bustle and you really start to create an environment where life can be thriving, where you have healthy food, clean water, clothing, you know, healthcare, you are just a better human in general because you're taken care of very well.

It's really good to talk with you.

Thanks for sharing your story with us.

Thank you so much for having me.

I really do appreciate you giving me a platform to share my story.

You can experience Fallon's full story and the other extraordinary New Jersey residents profiled in the 21 film series at mynjpbs.org/21.

And that's gonna do it for us this Thanksgiving.

I'm Briana Vannozzi.

For all of us here at NJ Spotlight News, we wish you and yours a happy and blessed Thanksgiving.

Good night.

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Major funding for the 21 film series is in part provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Additional funding is provided by the PSEG Foundation.

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[MUSIC]