(bright music) (upbeat music) - Welcome to this December edition of "10thirtysix."

I'm your host, Portia Young.

During this holiday season, we want you to meet someone who just might inspire you and perhaps lift your spirits.

His name is Julian.

A husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, industrial engineer, and even a poet.

He's also a World War II Navy veteran.

Ship's Cook First Class, who still does a lot of his own cooking and baking.

As producer, Maryann Lazarski, found out, he caress deeply about the stars and stripes Honor Flights to Washington DC, where vets visit the memorials and experience a day of honor and thanks.

And when they return, 100-year-old Julian is there to welcome them home.

(planes zooming) - Look who it is!

Hi, honey!

Hi, dear.

I got you a chair.

- Oh, I forgot to bring the cookies.

- Oh man.

- I knew I forgot something.

- Oh my.

- Yeah.

(indistinct chatter) - How you doing?

- Good to see you.

- How you doing?

- Good, good.

- Good.

- Hi.

- Is your birthday September 9th?

- Yep.

- September 9th.

- That's the same as mine.

- It is?

- Yeah.

I saw that on, you know, I thought we talked about that when I saw it on Facebook.

They had it on there.

- So we're both 100.

(crowd cheers) - Perfect.

- Thank you, sir.

- Thank you, I enjoyed myself.

- I'm Julian Plaster, World War II veteran.

I'm 100.

- [Maryann] How many Honor Flights have you been to?

- I only missed one since they've been coming in.

I was in the hospital.

- [Maryann] But I heard that you also missed one 'cause it was your 100th birthday.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- That's right, I did!

I'm glad you reminded me.

Yeah.

Yeah.

- You had a big party.

- [Julian] Yeah, for some reason there was a big party going on at my house.

(crowd cheers) (cowbell rings) Welcome home.

- Hey.

- Welcome home.

- Thank you, thank you.

- Welcome home.

- You served a long time before I ever did.

- In the Navy, World War II.

I'm still around, some of us.

(crowd cheers) To me, it's an honor to welcome them home.

I feel privileged that I can greet 'em.

I feel honored that these guys are out there doing their job.

I did a job and now they're doing their job.

(soft music) What do I feel?

I feel very small.

It's huge.

It's beautiful.

It was built to last a long time.

(soft inspirational music) I think when I first went in, you all had that gung ho idea, you know, you're gonna be a hero in the war.

And I got a real abrupt awakening.

I was given a shovel, a pair of gloves, and said, "You're on burial disposal unit."

It really hits you when you see bodies, dead bodies, not only Americans, but also Japanese.

You realize that you're not as big as you thought you were.

- [Maryann] What's your secret to living to 100?

- I think when you have faith in God, you have positive thoughts, you're thinking love for fellow man, extending a hand to everybody that needs help.

I think it had to be for my Sunday school teacher who taught me how to pray.

I don't have to be on my knees to pray.

I think all of us pray at one time or another.

Well, I think through your life, you begin to pray for different things.

When I was younger, I remember praying for a good meal.

(laughs) When your children get sick, you pray for them.

I got my son when he was dying.

It was a blessing when he passed away 'cause why ask for another day and live in pain?

(gentle music) When your wife gets sick, you pray.

(gentle music) When you're in service, you don't have too much time to pray, except when you're in the foxhole, and then you're praying that the bombs that come down will miss you.

(gentle music) I don't want to live with a machine.

I'm ready to die.

Like my son, he accepted death.

Can you just imagine, when you die, you don't have to worry about all your debts.

(laughs) Kiss 'em goodbye.

(laughs) - [Maryann] What have been your dreams and your accomplishments over 100 years?

- First of all, that I got married and I had a wonderful wife.

We were married 60 years.

I had two nice children and I was there for them.

- [Maryann] When did you start writing?

- My wife and I got married, I'd get cards, I would write something nice in there.

And then you may not believe this, maybe people won't believe it, but there were times when I would think about writing something for my wife, and then I'd go to bed at night and about two o'clock in the morning, I'd wake up, and the words had come to me.

To me, I feel very strong that it was the Holy Spirit that was helping me with those words.

(gentle music) I'm very proud of that book.

When they brought that book over, it was just overwhelming for what they did.

- [Maryann] What's your favorite poem?

- [Julian] "Hold Tightly My Love."

I was thinking of my wife- - Okay.

- I was a guard at the bank and while I was walking, these words were coming to me.

"Hold tightly my love.

Hold tightly as we walk through the valleys of despair, sorrow, broken dreams, and heartaches.

Hold tightly my love.

Hold tightly as we walk together.

So full of stress and hope.

Hold tightly my love.

There's another hand holding tightly.

It's God's hand.

Hold tightly my love for God will give us the guidance through all the valleys.

Hold tightly my love."

- [Maryann] You still do any writing?

- I haven't done it for a long while.

I'm getting lazy in my old age.

(laughs) - [Maryann] Tell me about this old man.

Where did this nickname come from?

The old man.

- Well, instead of writing a poem with, "Well, Julian did this or Julian did that," I picked out the old man, because I could do anything I want with the old man.

I had a good life with my grandfather.

- [Maryann] What was your grandfather's name?

- Julian, I was named after him.

Yeah.

My grandfather, (laughs) he was wonderful.

He was an old man and he was still working when he was 92 years old.

And through my life, I've had a lot of families.

I've met a lot of people, a lot of nice people.

The Honor Flight has been a complete family to me.

They've done so much for me.

Well, I'm proud of myself.

But I don't like to be put up on a pedestal.

That's not where I belong.

I'm just like any anybody else.

And I think every one of us has certain talents at one time or another.

"As the year comes to the end, we look back at the sad events, as well as the happy ones.

As the year comes to an end, we all make a wishlist.

One wish should be that we still have a hope and a childlike Christmas spirit in our hearts.

Maybe we never ask for wants, but ask for needs, not only for us, but for all mankind.

Let us take a few moments of spiritual quietness.

Let us watch the streaking heavenly stars descend upon a child whose only purpose was to bring peace and salvation.

Let us watch as a reindeer pulling an old man whose only intent was to bring happiness.

So as the year comes to an end, let us hear 'Ho, ho, ho!

Amen and amen!'

For all of this from a happy, contended old man."

("Silent Night" plays instrumentally) - Merry Christmas to you, Julian.

By the way, Julian says he still enjoys cooking, especially beef stew, and making his famous oatmeal chocolate chip cookies he often shares with his Honor Flight family.

Thank you for your service and for your inspiration.

Unfortunately, not everyone has food to enjoy on a regular basis.

It is this time of year when we hear more about our food insecurity crisis.

But it's a year-round problem.

The US Department of Agriculture defines food insecurity as limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate foods or uncertain ability to acquire these foods in socially acceptable ways.

Poverty and unemployment are frequently predictors of food insecurity in the United States.

Milwaukee's Hunger Task Force reports that over 150,000 Milwaukee residents are living in poverty.

Nearly 50,000 Milwaukee County residents under 18 are living in poverty.

Nearly 30,000 people visit local food pantries in Milwaukee County every month.

We wanna talk more about hunger in our community with the head of Hunger Taskforce, Sherrie Tussler.

Welcome, Sherrie.

Thank you so much for being here on "10thirtysix."

I just wanna start with this question.

You've been part of Hunger Task Force since 1997.

You've seen a lot, you've experienced a lot.

What has changed with the face of hunger or what has stayed the same?

- I would say what's stayed the same is that it's still a chronic problem in our community and that's a problem for me, that's wrong.

More people, I think, are aware and maybe more aware of the causes of hunger, specifically.

Poverty, lack of access to food.

- What was it like in 1997?

- It was a struggle.

We were low on food.

We had just reformed welfare in the state of Wisconsin and a lot of people had lost their food share.

So there was a huge demand for emergency food from food pantries across the city.

- And when you started at Hunger Task Force, what drew you to the organization?

Because it had been founded in the late '70s, correct?

- Right, 1974.

So we're coming up on our 50th anniversary right now.

What drew me to Hunger Task Force is that they were working on ending hunger and not just feeding hungry people.

And lots of food banks across the nation will just supply food, Hunger Task Force wants to end hunger.

And I believe that that's possible with well run federal nutrition programs.

- Right, we talk about COVID and how it's still impacting our lives.

It certainly impacted those who are hungry.

Can you talk about ways that COVID changed hunger or impacted hunger in the state of Wisconsin?

- It was interesting, was it actually initially increased hunger dramatically because people lost their jobs and they didn't know what to do.

But later it decreased dramatically, almost by 50%, because the food stamp program, or what we call SNAP nationally, provided emergency allotments to families and people signed up for SNAP and it no longer became sort of a bad thing to be on food stamps.

And so lots of people were able to go to the grocery store and buy their own food.

- What effects from COVID, though, are we still seeing rippling through the system, perhaps in the population that's vulnerable?

- Senior hunger is still a significant issue.

And with the loss of those emergency benefits, seniors are now back to $23 a month in food share.

And so they're really struggling to make ends meet.

Their medication costs are high, their utility bills are high.

And the cost of food, frankly right now, is very high.

- All right, so what programs, though, do you consider that Hunger Task Force has had a hand in perhaps spearheading across the state?

What programs really work?

What is working?

- Well, what we found during the pandemic was that we were able to purchase foods from farmers and food cooperatives that were from Wisconsin and we could buoy them up during the pandemic by purchasing their products.

And then we moved them across the state to rural and remote spaces, as well as urban spaces, like Milwaukee.

And we were able to not only purchase those foods, but feed the hungry and solve sort of a multitude of problems in our economy.

- Is it still going on today?

- Unfortunately, it's not.

I wish that it were.

It was a great program.

It was called the Badger Box.

- Okay.

Well what else is working?

- Our farm is working.

Hunger Task Force operates a 200 acre farm in Franklin, and we grow more than a half million pounds of produce that we distribute absolutely free of charge to local food pantries, soup kitchens, and homeless shelters.

- Talk more about the farm.

That's kind of a unique way to go about solving hunger.

Do other organizations that you know of have something like that?

Or are we unique here in the state of Wisconsin?

- It's pretty unique.

There's one near Detroit as well that's also a food bank.

And we employ farmers.

They farm the land for us.

We grow 26 different varieties of produce, both fruit and vegetables.

And then we are able to harvest them and get them out to local food pantries literally within a day or two of harvest.

- [Portia] Is it year round?

- No, but it's mostly year round.

So we actually have things in our hoop house right now.

So we're able to grow things like carrots and radishes and lettuces.

But the season really starts in June and it'll go through November.

- Okay.

Let's switch now and talk about your advocacy.

You've been a leading voice.

I think people turn on the television or see different news broadcasts and see your face.

You're kind of known in Milwaukee to be that voice.

You've also been invited to the White House because of your work.

Can you talk more about why you're an advocate?

- It's important to me not just to help people, but to change their experience so that they don't need that help anymore.

And so having a voice for people who maybe haven't been invited into the room, expressing concerns, especially with important decision makers, community leaders, so that you can influence change and as a result, end poverty and hunger for people.

That's really in my soul.

- Mm-hmm.

So your White House visit, what was that about and what was the outcome?

- It was pretty cool.

I got invited to go to the White House.

They had the first ever conference on homelessness and hunger since the 1960s.

And it was organized by President Biden.

They called advocates from across the United States and I represented Wisconsin.

- All right, so you got to bend the president's ear.

I guess, let's talk about that.

Will we ever solve hunger?

We've been fighting it for years and years and years.

- What I always say to people is that they should think about, here we are in Wisconsin, we grow enough food to feed developing nations.

We export food.

But still, one in four kids in the city of Milwaukee doesn't have enough to eat.

And so it's an issue of access.

There's plenty of food.

We just have to make the political decision to end hunger.

- How do we do that?

- Intentionally, making sure that wages are living wages that parents can afford to put a roof over their head and feed their children.

Increasing access to food in certain neighborhoods or rural spaces across the state, where people don't have access to healthy, fresh, and affordable foods.

There are lots of things that people could easily do that are just policy decisions that we just haven't done.

- [Portia] What can folks do if they're watching "10thirtysix" right now at home?

What can we do on the ground?

- They can go to the Hunger Task Force website.

They can figure out how to get involved.

Sometimes they wanna volunteer, sometimes they wanna donate, but eventually they might wanna have that voice to work with us to help end hunger.

- Okay.

Well, let's talk about, too, this battle.

Why is it so persistent within communities that are, I guess, on the edges of society?

Why does it seem to always be there?

- That's a really good question.

It's about equity.

It really is about everyone having a reasonably equal chance to be able to take care of themselves and their family.

And I don't know that we have still achieved that social norm that we all say that we value, which is inclusion.

Which is equity, which is respecting other people for who they are, and bringing everybody up when we choose to bring anyone up.

- What do you say to others about the people who visit Hunger Task Force or who are hungry?

What do you say?

- [Sherrie] Well, people are hungry because they don't have enough money to buy food.

And it's as simple as that.

They're often gonna choose to keep a roof over their head or to make sure that their children have clothing, pay their medical bills, that sort of thing.

And so your tightest budget is always gonna be your food budget.

So remember always that people are hungry because they don't have enough money.

And if there's something that we can do to help them to have enough money, including increasing their wages, they're more likely to be able to live independently and be successful in our world.

- [Portia] But there are people that think, "Well, why can't they just go get a job?"

- I think there are a lot of people with jobs.

About three quarters of people on food share are employed.

The question is, why is it that their job doesn't pay them a wage that would lift them out of poverty?

One in four kids is living in poverty.

We've got 13% of the total population's living in poverty.

People are struggling.

And we should always remember that within a half mile of our house, there's somebody who's not making ends meet, who may not have food on their table, who may be worried about homelessness, who doesn't have their basic needs met, and we should be concerned for them.

- Sherry Tussler, executive director of Hunger Task Force.

Thank you very much for your time here on "10thirtysix."

- Thank you.

- And again, if you would like to learn more about Hunger Task Force, you can visit our website, milwaukeepbs.org.

That'll wrap up this edition of "10thirtysix."

All of us here at Milwaukee PBS wish you and your families a very happy and healthy holiday season.

We leave you with the Marquette University acapella group, the Gold 'n Blues, singing a holiday classic inside the historic Joan of Arc Chapel.

(distant siren wailing) ♪ Was to certain poor shepherds ♪ ♪ In fields as they lay ♪ ♪ The First Noel ♪ ♪ The angel did say ♪ ♪ Was to certain poor shepherds ♪ ♪ In fields as they lay ♪ ♪ In fields where they ♪ ♪ Lay keeping their sheep ♪ ♪ On a cold winter's night ♪ ♪ That was so deep ♪ ♪ Noel, Noel ♪ ♪ Noel, Noel ♪ ♪ Born is the King ♪ ♪ Of Israel ♪ ♪ They looked up ♪ ♪ And saw a star ♪ ♪ Shining in the east ♪ ♪ Beyond them far ♪ ♪ And to the earth ♪ ♪ It gave great light ♪ ♪ And so it continued ♪ ♪ Both day and night ♪ ♪ Noel, Noel ♪ ♪ Noel, Noel ♪ ♪ Born is the King ♪ ♪ Of Israel ♪ ♪ This star drew nigh ♪ ♪ To the northwest ♪ ♪ Over Bethlehem ♪ ♪ It took its rest ♪ ♪ And there it did ♪ ♪ Both stop and stay ♪ ♪ Right over the place ♪ ♪ Where Jesus lay ♪ ♪ Noel, Noel ♪ ♪ Noel, Noel ♪ ♪ Born is the King ♪ ♪ Of Israel ♪ ♪ Noel, Noel ♪ ♪ Noel, Noel ♪ ♪ Noel ♪ ♪ Born is the King ♪ ♪ The King ♪ ♪ The King ♪ ♪ Born is the King ♪ ♪ Of Israel ♪ ♪ Of Israel ♪ ♪ Of Israel ♪ ♪ Israel ♪ ♪ Born is the King ♪ ♪ Born is the King ♪ ♪ Of Israel ♪ ♪ Noel ♪ (soft bright music) (soft bright music continues) (soft bright music continues) (soft bright music continues)