From WXXI news.

This is connections.

I'm Evan Dawson.

Our connection this hour was made in Washington when a nominee for President Trump's cabinet was getting grilled by lawmakers.

In this case, it wasn't Matt Gates or Pete Hegseth or RFK Jr or Tulsi Gabbard, or at least Stefanik.

The nominee in question is someone you might not have heard of, but he will have a tremendous amount of power in the new Trump administration.

Russell vote was confirmed in a narrow vote to become the new director of the OMB, the Office of Management and Budget, and he arrives with a desire to make federal benefits significantly more restrictive for things like Medicaid, even food assistance.

Here's how The New York Times reports it.

Quote.

Russell T Vogt told Senate lawmakers that he supports work requirements for low income Americans receiving publicly subsidized health insurance, among other benefits.

The comments suggested that the Trump administration was likely to seek a broad overhaul of how the federal government administers Medicaid.

The joint federal state health insurance program for more than 70 million people.

They also signaled that work requirements were likely to become a focal point in Mr. Trump's approach to the American safety net and, quote, but went on to say that the 1996 welfare reform bill signed by President Clinton was a kind of model for him, which required low income Americans to prove they were working or trying to work before receiving safety net benefits.

The Economic Policy Institute almost immediately responded by pointing to their own research on the subject.

They summarized, quote, work requirements don't actually boost employment.

They just make it harder for people to access crucial food assistance and health care services, end quote.

But Vogt says that the new Trump administration policy is meant to make Americans remember the dignity and the importance of having a job.

Meanwhile, in Rochester, the number of families who are food insecure is growing, and that means the number of children in poverty and children living without consistent meals is growing.

Which is where our guests come in.

Food link is planning significant upgrades.

Programs like Bajaur Incorporated are preparing hundreds of meals a week.

Snap educators are trying to help anyone who is entitled to benefits know how to access them.

Let's talk about it with our guest this hour.

And Julia Tedesco is the president and CEO, Food Link.

Welcome back to the program.

Thank you for being here.

Thanks for having me.

Also with us is Loren Walker, who is a snap ed nutritionist, nutrition educator all around.

And I had your title, Lorenza Snap, that nutrition educator at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Monroe County.

Thank you for being with us.

Thank you for having me.

Welcome to Lauren's colleague, TJ chess, who is a natural resources educator and climate storage coordinator for Canal Cornell Cooperative Extension of Monroe County.

Thank you for having me.

Yeah, great to have you.

And welcome to Sara Hannan, who is the founder of Bodega, Inc..

Welcome, Sara.

Thank you for being with us.

Thank you.

Great to be here.

Tell us what boccia is.

So boccia is a local volunteer run organization that has been feeding community organizations for the past four years.

What started out as something like 25 meals a month by our local, temple volunteers, has now grown to 500 meals a week.

in, you know, feeding Rochester, some of Rochester's organizations.

remarkable story.

And we'll talk in a moment about how that growth happened, I'm sure.

So it was not expecting that to happen?

No, not at all.

but it's a great story and we're going to be talking about that coming up.

I want to pull back first and just talk a little bit about what we are seeing in Washington.

And I told our guests, I'll start with Julia.

You know, our guests are not expected to be experts exactly on what this new administration is going to do.

I mean, a lot of that story has yet to be written, but clearly the signal is that we could see more restrictions, a narrowing of who can get benefits.

And the Trump administration is saying they think there's a reason they think there's too much abuse and waste in the system.

What do you see there?

Well, first of all, this is no surprise.

He tried to do that in his first administration and failed to do it.

But it is a real threat.

We know for a fact that there's very little fraud or waste in Snap.

It is well documented and well researched that it is the best anti-poverty program this nation has ever seen.

About two thirds of recipients are children, seniors, folks with disabilities.

And, there's 42 million Americans that that rely on snap.

so and furthermore, I think what is lost sometimes is that it's not just about food insecurity, which should speak for itself.

It is, it also the idea that it will save Americans money is shortsighted.

Snap, reduces, medical costs, reduces health care costs.

It's shown to do that.

And it's about 24% of consumer spending in the US as well.

So the idea that we'll cut it and, and the country will be better off or that we'll see savings is is incredibly shortsighted.

I want to make sure the terminology is clear.

I think probably listeners are mostly familiar, but the term we use often here is food stamps.

I don't think that's the term.

Do we still hear that?

Yeah.

Colloquially you hear food stamps.

But Snap stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

And and really it functions the same as food stamps did in that first administration that you talk about.

Julia.

I recall more of a focus.

There were opinion pieces and this movement to say, well, we should restrict what kinds of food people can buy.

I don't like people buying soda on snap.

I don't like people buying junk food on snap.

that's different than people are gaming the system or getting snap when they shouldn't be getting snap at all.

So there's different debates about what waste or fraud or abuse would look like.

You seem to be saying most of that or all of it is overblown to begin with.

Yeah.

I mean, first of all, on the subject of what people can buy food, link believes in the dignity of choice.

And what has been shown over and over is that folks, whether they're using snap or non snap or folks that rely on Snap and folks that are not eligible, purchasing patterns seem to be about the same.

We're not seeing folks with Snap purchasing far worse or less healthy food, but more important than that is that folks on snap.

Snap has been shown to, improve, health care outcomes for for recipients.

Overall, the biggest barrier to living a healthy life for folks is the ability to afford food.

And Snap takes care of that.

So that argument is is largely false.

but there are many mechanisms, as you said, different.

I think what we'll see in this administration is, is the probably still be conversations about what people are choosing to, but really is just reducing the number of recipients.

And there's a number of ways we could talk about that, that they'll go about trying to do that.

One is the work requirements.

Yeah, that's I don't even think that's up for dispute.

The Trump administration, with the creation of Doge, the Department on Government Efficiency, which had Elon Musk in the background, was smarmy.

They've already got Ramaswamy out, but they're talking about cutting.

I mean, $1 trillion I mean, something a huge number and taking from many, many different departments.

So they certainly would look at different kinds of safety net programs.

And they're going to win vote.

Or other members of the Trump administration say that we need work requirements because we have to remind people the dignity of work before we go down the road of Medicaid, Snap or other food assistance.

What do you think?

I would say that it's really hard to, to find a job, to hold a job and to be really productive if you're malnourished.

So I'll start with that.

And I'll also say that many of these folks are living in areas of significant underemployment because there aren't jobs there to have.

So the idea that because you, as the government would define it, are able bodied or independent, don't have dependents at home and therefore can't qualify for food assistance to to help support you.

that that would be deeply problematic and I don't think would drive any more employment.

I don't think that you'd see that as the the ultimate outcome.

How much could Food Link be impacted by federal policy here?

Could be a huge impact.

We don't really have data around it, but we know that snap right now provides ten times the amount of meals that food banks do across America.

And so, food links distributing 30 million pounds, 26 million pounds of food every single year for every meal we distribute, snap provides nine for those same families.

So we there's just no question we couldn't fill that gap.

we have the capital area Food Bank, one of our fellow food banks in DC that's estimating that they'll if these cuts go through, they'll need to provide 4 million more meals a year, which would cost about $2 million, and staff and resources and food.

I don't have that estimate for food bank, but even if we are a quarter of that, I mean, that's a million more meals that we'd need to come up with for our own community.

Okay.

What's the timeline you think that you're going to get more clarity on this, Julianne?

I don't know, but we we will be ready.

We, We always are.

We are making sure that we build infrastructure.

A lot of it was depleted as we responded to Covid a few years ago.

And so as our numbers have continued to increase, we've we've found that we need more investments in our infrastructure.

We're building a $3 million cooler so we can make sure that we can store, and distribute perishable, healthy foods to our community.

So we stand ready to respond.

given how things are going so far, I, I wouldn't be surprised if we see some changes in the next six months or so.

Coming up, we're going to work through, the longer list of what Food Link is doing as part of a $15 million project to upgrade mission critical facilities and equipment.

Julia just talked about some of that.

We'll get back to that in just a second.

let me ask Lauren a little bit about how you see this.

If your work is changing with this new administration or what might be coming.

Has it been affected yet?

Not yet.

we're really a organization that goes out into the community and, we provide workshops, regarding nutrition, cooking classes.

Right.

So ways that we can make healthy meals at home, even with the things you're already have in your pantry.

so we're really focused on meeting where each individual is at, and kind of building from that.

And, do you have any thoughts, Lorena, as this country is going to debate these work requirements and who's getting Snap benefits, who's not, who's getting Medicaid?

Who's not?

Who should be?

what do you make of that debate?

personally, I don't really necessarily have an opinion on it.

but, I do know whatever you know, happens, it's it'll it'll happen.

Okay.

Well, I mean, as, as you heard Julia mentioned here.

there's still a lot to kind of be sorted out, and.

But this is administration that's moving faster.

I mean, one thing, I'll just ask Julia this.

I mean, having you mentioned the first Trump administration, one of my first observations, and Trump two is, this is a person and team that has come in much more prepared for how they think they want to get things done quickly this time.

Do you see it that way?

Yeah, clearly.

And they have a lot less checks and balances, I think, within government right now.

So this is not something that, to my understanding, no, no expert here has to wait for a renewed farm bill to and act.

I think this can be, you know, Congress can approve it or who knows what's possible with executive orders.

but that he could move a lot, a lot more quickly to reduce benefits.

All right.

So now I want to just make sure that every one of our guests gets a little bit of a chance to talk about how they see the current state of need.

Jill, you talked a little, but what's the 30,000ft?

I mean, how are we doing on food insecurity in need in this in this region right now?

30,000ft is that we had 1.8 million visits to food pantries and meal programs in our community this past year.

We, which was a 36% increase from the year prior.

We have not seen distribution levels, meaning the amount of food that we are distributing to other agencies, to food pantries, soup kitchens, etc.. this is our second highest year in our 45 year history after, 2021 when we were responding to Covid.

So, inflation, high food prices, uncertain economy, driving people to rely on food pantries right now.

Okay, Lauren, what are you seeing?

I'm seeing just going out into, the community and working more with, our targeted areas, which are the city of Rochester, gates chili.

eradicate.

so we're really going to be just looking at those more lower income, food insecure populations.

we also do have a program that we provide called the, ethics program, which is the fresh fruit and vegetable prescription program, where after every class that we do, participants will receive $15 in vouchers that they can spend on, fruits and vegetables, at different, retailers such as Wegmans.

actually, the curbside, food links, curbside, market.

so we kind of go hand in hand with that and just providing different resources for the community to kind of help with, purchasing more fruits and vegetables and still plenty of need.

Yes.

Yeah.

TJ, what about you?

What are you seeing?

I think that until we have better access to food, that being more grocery stores in these neighborhoods, rather than corner stores that just have a few bananas and oranges, then, and while we don't have great transportation, people might not be able to get to a grocery store because they're so far away and we don't have culturally relevant food for certain populations, we're not going to be able to combat food insecurity at the level that we're seeing it.

So I think that there needs to be some big changes going on with the way that, we have certain, there's big changes in terms of like where grocery stores are, what these local convenience stores are doing, and support for those types of organizations as well.

For profit businesses to be able to provide that.

Sara, what do you think?

we're seeing a lot of people who are appreciative of a hot meal that's being handed to them, even though the where we are taking our food and delivering them, they are to places like House of mercy and the vineyards and all where they have a kitchen, established kitchen, and they're able to prepare the foods, us coming in with a hot meal that's already prepared with a side dish and fresh fruit is impacting them in a way where they're so appreciative, especially when it's cold out.

there are a lot of the the clients that come there.

They don't necessarily have an address.

The or even if they do have an address there where they're living, they still come there for fresh food because they don't have access to them.

Like TJ said, there isn't a grocery store that's close by and they're not able to, you know, maybe afford, groceries.

when they can get to a grocery store.

So we are when we asked them, would you like some more food?

The answer's always yes when I think about what you do.

And I think about what food link does, I think in a society that's really functioning well, we probably always have a food.

Like there's probably not a society that's realistic without some kind of need addressed.

I would love to see the need go down and not up, but that's not the direction it's going.

I, you know, is the ideal society, one in which boccia is not needed anymore.

Absolutely.

and but here's the reality.

When you have food insecurity, when you have homelessness, there's a whole lot that's happening in the background.

And for for a person or a family.

what we are noticing is, and why they appreciate us so much is not just the food, but when we drop off the food, we spend some time talking with them, seeing how their day's going.

When I drop off food at, the YWCA women's shelter, we have ladies who come out and say, you know, honey, what's for lunch today?

And they spend a few minutes talking to us.

And because we've been consistent, it gives them hope.

This is one thing we hear.

So when you're it's so it's not just about food insecurity.

It's also about the person.

It's about understanding that they need community.

I mean, everybody does.

No question about it.

take us back a little bit about the birth of Bojan, exactly how that happened.

And, you know, the idea and how it came to be so, so a bunch of us ladies from the Rush Hindu temple out in rush.

during Covid.

we didn't know what.

You know, all of us were in the same boat.

We couldn't interact with each other.

We couldn't, have services at the temple, etc..

The one thing that I know that, these Indian Indian aunties know what to do is they love to cook.

They love to feed people.

So one of the things was that a lot of our, temple goers were were medical staff, you know, members at the, strong, strong hospital and other local hospitals.

So we were providing food for them to take in so that those workers, those health care workers could have some nourishment while they were 24 over seven, helping the community.

So that's how we kind of started.

And then we started, saying, okay, let's take some food out to the local shelters because we were providing those meals once a month.

Anyway as a temple.

We very quickly figured, found out that the need was really great.

So we we've kind of branched off from the temple, and we have our own standalone nonprofit now, and it has grown to 500 meals a week, hot meals that served directly to them.

and it's not enough.

We're finding that that's still not enough.

And then now with the current political climate, we know there are cuts coming and organizations like Food Link who are doing such a, you know, great service for our community and providing resources.

They're also going to be impacted.

What does that mean for our our neighbors?

We're talking something like 70% of our community is living under the poverty line.

That that just goes to show that if you look to your right and look to your left, chances are one of your neighbors is going hungry tonight.

Do we really want that?

No.

Can we as a community band together, collaborate and make sure that everybody in our community thrives?

Yes, we can.

We could soon be at a pretty interesting time.

I'm going to speak a little bit, school.

I don't know if I'm supposed to be talking like this, but.

Yeah, there's a lot that could happen in the next year.

Next in the next four years.

And it could affect funding streams in a lot of different directions.

Again, a healthier setup, in my personal view, is whether you are taking care of food needs in the community, nonprofits doing this kind of work.

Public broadcasting that you're not relying on, you know, an angel donor or somebody who puts you in their will because they don't want you to go away.

I not at all speaking for food link.

I'm not even speaking for XXL.

I, I don't have the authority to do that, but it's going to be a tough and interesting time if certain things go in certain directions.

And this community has been asked to step up in so many different ways, and it's hard to keep asking people, but, you know, that may happen because I know there are, you know, whether you're someone who's been supporting Food Link for years or supporting different efforts like we're talking about in studio or supporting exercise or things like that.

there's a lot that could change this.

This could be a real time of change.

And I, I'm hoping that it's not going to go that way.

And this is probably where they say, okay, it's enough of that.

I mean, it's not doom and gloom, it's just looking at what could be coming.

And, so it just speaks to the power that we have as human beings.

Sure.

Yeah.

Neighbors, friends and family to each other.

We have to help each other out.

It's not.

It's especially in Rochester.

I grew up in Rochester.

I cannot believe that.

We're like, number three and the you know, first, a size of, Rochester, the city the size of Rochester.

We're number three in the nation in childhood poverty.

What does that mean for our next two generations?

If every child is going or those children are going to school, and they're not able to focus on the education because they're hungry, what does that say for us as a community?

So we got to do something.

Well, you're at 500 meals a week.

And you said, that's not enough.

It's not enough.

where do those 500 meals go?

So right now we serve the vineyards.

Which also used to be known as the hub house of mercy.

Bethany house.

the YWCA, women's emergency shelter.

Domestic.

Willow.

Domestic violence safe house.

And we also provide a few meals to Ronald McDonald House, because we know that when parents are going through a really hard time trying to take care of the child, one less thing for them to worry about is a hot meal.

Well, and I mean, is it going to be a thousand meals?

What could you do?

We would love to scale in the next five years, to 2000 meals a day, 2000 a day, a day.

And, you know, of course we need facilities for that, but we're in a great place.

The commissary.

If everybody didn't know, it's downtown at the Sibley's building.

They're fantastic.

So it's, you know, we use their facilities, and we cook out of there so that everything's in compliance.

And we try to help as many people as we can.

Centrally located right downtown.

You exactly know that's a that is a really cool space.

If people haven't been to the old Sibley's in a while.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's that's really cool stuff happened there.

And you met TJ.

I think you guys got hooked up.

yes.

I mean, you and, group have been amazing support.

and TJ, I think TJ got to know about us through the House of mercy, and we connected and they have been really helpful in finding equipment for us when we had to scale, quickly.

And, and so programs like the, the ones that TJ and, and the, Cornell Cooperative Extension, kind of run it has been helping groups like my, you know, like bodega kind of get on our feet and help the community also.

So I think it takes all of us is going to take a food link.

It's going to take, you know, Cornell Cooperative Extension is going to take people like, you know, bodega and other groups that are doing this for all of for us to work together and bring our community up to thrive.

TJ, you want to tell us a little bit more about this partnership?

Yeah.

So the project, the program that, Sarah was referring to is called the Monroe County Food Insecurity Project.

it was money that was funded by Monroe County legislators.

And the project is run through us here at CCE.

We support our mission is to support organizations going, throughout Monroe County that help people get food today and plant the seeds for them to ensure their own sustainable food security going forward.

So we're supporting organizations that are supporting the communities, and we are supporting them with direct equipment supports such as, shelving, new stairways if they need it.

refrigerators, freezers.

we also support so we don't just support food pantries, we support community gardens.

We're supporting, neighborhood associations and organizations, and even to schools.

And this has been a lot of work, but, I think it's been well needed.

because we've had over it we've assisted over 18 organizations in the one year that we've been doing it so far.

And, if anyone wants to apply as an organization, you could just email Monroe Food project@cornell.edu or call our number at, (585) 753-2550.

Hey, we'll put that in our show notes.

And when we post the program later today and how to get in touch with TJ in the group there that he mentioned.

and by the way, as much as we're talking about what could be a challenge coming up here, I'm extremely optimistic.

This community is amazing.

And it's one of the big reasons that programs like the ones you're hearing have been so well supported.

After we take this only break and I get a little water, we're going to come right back and connections.

I'm Evan Dawson.

Tuesday on the next connections, a new documentary called Running to Stand Still takes us to the southern border.

Introduces us to individuals who have crossed without documentation, crossing in desperation, trying to save themselves or their families.

We're going to talk to the filmmakers.

We'll talk about the issue at the Southern border and more.

It's Tuesday.

Support for your public radio station comes from our members and from the University of Rochester, presenting the Upstate New York Supplier Diversity Summit and Expo with education and networking opportunities.

Wednesday, February 5th at the Convention Center.

More information available on U of ours procurement website and the Highlands at Pittsford, an independent and assisted living community affiliated with the University of Rochester, offering cottage and apartment homes, daily life enrichment activities and care assistance as needed.

More at highlands@pittsford.org.

This is connections.

I'm Evan Dawson.

Let me try to answer some questions that have come in from listeners.

Marsh writes to the program and says, A friend of mine is a volunteer at a food bank in Naples, Florida, where she lives last week, they received a donation of cucumbers from Honduras.

This makes me think if imported food is going to have a tariff, will that mean less food will be imported into this country?

Will these tariffs reduce the amount of excess food donated to food banks?

That's from Marsh.

I don't know if we know the answer to that yet.

Julia Tedesco I guess I'll give you some space there.

Julius president and CEO, Food Link.

What do you think about this one?

I don't know.

I don't think we do have the answer to that.

I think it's really reasonable to assume that that will happen.

I think something a little closer to home is that, if deportations take place, we have we rely on migrant farmers, migrant farm workers, to work the land we live in a region, a very agricultural region.

We get a lot of produce into food, like from this region potatoes, onions, cabbage, you name it.

And not just in New York State, but across the country.

If we don't have that migrant labor, we're going to see, significant challenges to our food system.

We're going to talk a little bit more about that tomorrow.

Although listeners, that will not be the only conversation on that subject.

I'm aware right now there's a lot of talk already about what's going on with ice, what's going on with immigration policy, how quickly things are moving.

There's a lot of rumor or uncon unsubstantiated stories out there, and we're going to do our best to kind of stay with it, but also not fear mongering.

We want to be addressing it directly.

And certainly, when things happen, we want to talk about what the possible impacts will be.

And Julie is just bring it up.

just one example here.

Patrick writes in with a little bit more of a jaundiced view on things.

He says, rich people and poor people, all people.

Hunger brings us all to the level of other species.

He's quoting from Frank Hurley's journal from The Endurance and a voyage to the Antarctic Circle.

And he says that, you think a lot about hunger when you're in remote parts of the world.

Patrick goes on to say, why do people want to make poor people more hungry?

Is it as simple as conflict theory?

And that's that?

They must be smart enough to know that people who are hungry don't make as good as at labor.

So, Patrick, I can't speak for why certain things aren't solved or why certain problems persist.

But I do want to read a little bit of data here, or at least a little bit of the report that comes from the Economic Policy Institute.

Again, this was published last week.

This is an organization that seeks to do nonpartisan economic analysis.

They've been doing it for almost 40 years.

Their paper says the following work requirements for safety net programs like Snap and Medicaid are a punitive solution that does not solve a real problem.

And they go on to say the following.

Proponents claim that adding more work requirements for programs like food stamps or Snap and Medicaid will lead to higher levels of employment among low income adults.

But our research shows that this will not address the underlying challenges these adults face in seeking employment.

Such requirements will only curb access to food and health care for many benefit recipients.

For low income adults, the main barriers to work are economic conditions outside of their control.

When overall employment is low, these adults can find jobs, work more hours, and earn more.

But this group tends to work in sectors that are hit hard during economic downturns.

This means that when unemployment employment rates rise, this group is the first to lose their jobs and see large drops in working hours and pay.

End quote.

So what the EPI is saying is these kind of work requirements could actually take people who need Snap, who need Medicaid, who need these safety net programs and and have less access to them.

Does that make sense to you, Julia, from your read on it.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, I think that's always the argument but that that assessment there is absolutely.

correct.

And, you know, as I said before, it ends up costing everyone more when you have folks that regardless of their employment status, don't have enough healthy food to lead a healthy life, you see, health care costs go up across the country, increase our surance insurance, costs, etc.

so it benefits everyone to make sure that, people have access to Snap.

And here's another thing to that, to to kind of make it more, accessible for a lot of us who don't, who can't necessarily connect the numbers, you can't get a job if you don't have an address.

So if you have if you're homeless, how do you apply for a job and get it?

Because one of the criteria is you need an address.

That's the reality of what we're facing every single day, 365 days of the year.

And this is what's contributing to our homelessness, our poverty, you know, and lack of, assistance from governments that should be helping the common man.

Yeah, that's the chicken and egg problem.

Yeah.

I don't have an address.

Yeah.

so let me also, take Mary's question.

Mary emails to say, Evan, what is the status of all of New York State's public schools?

Free breakfast and lunch for all students.

I think Governor Hochul mentioned.

Is that correct, producer Megan Mac, is that right?

And she mentioned the state of the state.

Governor Hochul wants to see this happen this year.

She mentioned it in the state of the state.

you know, especially in Democratic circles, with Governor Tim Walz in Minnesota on the ticket last year, in Minnesota doing free breakfast and lunch for for Minnesota students.

It's a very popular idea, especially, in states with Democratic governors.

And I don't know if where this is going on with her.

I guess we'll see.

Mary, it's a fair question.

We're going to see this year.

If it comes to fruition, if the legislature wants to do this, Dallas is saying Bill Clinton, didn't he have work requirements?

Absolutely.

Yeah.

In the mid 90s, work requirements for welfare, work for welfare, welfare to work, was was a big one in the Clinton administration.

And that's some of what Russell Vogt, the new, OMB secretary under the Trump administration, is citing as an inspiration for what they want to do.

interestingly, I think Democrats have since sort of disavowed some of that work from the mid 90s that the Clinton administration was, was doing there.

so before we get into some of the details on a pretty significant set of expansion for food, like here, I want to give, TJ and Lauren a little bit more time to talk about what they want the community to understand about this particular moment.

And, TJ, you know, what's top of mind for you?

What have we not hit?

I just want to take a moment to, go back to what Sara said in the beginning about community.

I think that's the most important aspect is that we have to build up community.

I think it's crap that we have a liquor store on every block, but we don't have a place people can get fresh food on every block.

I grew up in the city of Rochester, and it's been that way.

and it's just getting exaggerated.

or exasperate, I exacerbate it.

Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

And, Yeah, that's why when we, when we were providing intakes to the different organizations that were supporting with the Food Insecurity Project, we're not only providing direct equipment support, but also trying to build up community and relationship by, trying to provide education, whether it's just handouts that people can take or, access to classes that, our Snap educators and other educators we have at Ccea, our offering and then more support in ways that people might not necessarily think like just advisory.

Like we people sometimes need just someone to talk to about things like, how do I do this?

And then just providing those resources.

A lot of our public resources are not easily accessible online, and then you have to be online to have access to those resources anyways.

And some people don't have that.

So, I think that's the first thing on my head.

What do you think is standing in the way of solving some of that?

I think this is a deep rooted systemic issue.

I don't think we're I think we're getting into food, sovereignty.

more than food insecurity, where people.

It's a right.

You know, I, I'm a natural.

I'm a natural resources educator, and food is a natural resources.

Food is a basic human right.

and so us putting taxes and money on all this stuff that raising prices of groceries, making it harder for people to keep up, especially when the housing market is still is going up in Rochester as well.

Every it's hard to find a place to rent under $1,000, and you'll need a roommate or a partner that will support you.

and so these issues all just are, cascading impacts like one thing happens, causes a bigger wave to come later of issues.

And so I think it's hard to tackle one issue when other issues are feeding into it, making it worse, I think.

Saru, I think you talk about building these relationships.

Those are the those are the kinds of stories you hear when you're serving.

Hot meals are critical.

Critical.

We also hear from people who are well-to-do, right?

You can't eat your money.

It doesn't matter how wealthy you are.

Every it's a basic need.

Like TJ had said, having a nutritious meal is a basic human need, and we want our community to thrive.

We've got to provide those meals somehow.

So it's going to take all of us to work together from all areas, all strata, to make sure that our community has nutritious meals, where we're working together and collaborating to lift each other up.

That's how we thrive.

Well, let me turn to, TJ's colleagues.

at Cornell Cooperative Extension.

Lauren Walker is a Snap nutrition educator.

And what do what do you spend most of your time helping people understand?

What do you want to make sure listeners understand about what you do?

Yeah.

So our programs are mostly designed to meet the community's needs and support small changes.

that can make a big difference.

so this can be a big difference on saving money, eating healthy.

saving time.

Right.

When you're grocery shopping.

and then also moving more to that's, a big component is, just adding physical activity in your day.

That's another way to stay healthy.

so we do, different classes that revolve around more of the visual aspects of nutrition.

for example, whenever we're talking about added sugars versus natural sugars, we'll measure out how much added sugars are in, bottle of Coca-Cola, ginger ale, sprite.

and just seeing how much teaspoons of sugar there are is very alarming.

Right.

And it kind of resonates the point with participants even more, that they can see that visually you're going to ruin Coke for me.

but but I think this ties to so for listeners who are like, ha, see, snap shouldn't support Coca Cola.

I think Julia's point earlier was education is one thing, but telling people we're going to police every little thing you buy is another, that that's the where you don't want to go.

Is that right?

Yeah.

Autonomy of choice.

I mean, and we practice that all of our food pantries, all of our meal programs, meaning we don't get to pick what other people eat, whether it's a dietary preference, a culture preference, which you can do is, is provide empowerment through education and resources and making them aware.

But we are always careful to to honor those preferences and practices.

Anything you want to add to that part of it?

Lauren.

Yeah, I mean, I love to have a cookie every now and then, right?

But maybe not ten oh oh.

That one sitting right.

It doesn't make it a point to, focus on, moderation.

And, knowledge is power too.

So having the knowledge of what you are consuming, can really make an impact.

Well, I had a chance, last year to spend a morning at the curbside market.

that doodling provides.

And seeing how people get access to what it is they're doing.

And, what I saw was some of what Sara talked about, not only the need, but also the relationships.

People who knew each other by name, food link, staff who knew people by name could talk about what's going on in their lives.

it was pretty inspiring stuff, I have to say.

And if you read Jeremy Maul's story recently on Sky news, Food Link has launched a $15 million project to upgrade facilities and equipment, at the Mount Reid Boulevard headquarters, the Lexington Avenue Lexington Avenue Community Farm there.

Right.

So, can we kind of go down the list?

So you want you want to take through the community, through the plan here?

Sure.

What does it look like and what's the timeline?

Well, first, I'll take a moment.

Just go back and say thank you to Governor Hochul for for, keeping universal meals.

It's in her executive budget proposal.

So as a child tax credit, Food Link is also pushing for a $100 Snap minimum.

We're on the topic of snap food stamps today.

at the federal level, it's $23.

We have the opportunity to put push legislation in New York State that, that it's $100 minimum at our state level, which means the state would make up through a mix of federal and state funds.

the difference between that 23 and 100.

So we're pushing for that as well.

We are making it.

We have been making a big investment.

We've put about $3 million into our building so far.

We've been at this building, the headquarters for 12 years, have owned it for the past two and a half years, and have done a lot of, of stuff to make sure that it can be a hub to safely store, aggregate and redistribute and prepare, meals and food for our community.

So we still have a ways to go.

Right now, the biggest project that we're doing is a $3 million cooler.

And the reason we're doing that, is to triple, I think, maybe quadruple the amount of safe space we have to safely store perishable foods.

Since the pandemic, during the pandemic, we've had three tractor trailers running reefers running 24 over seven in our parking lots that keep food, at the the right temperature so that we can get it out to our 400 member agencies across ten counties.

That's not going to that's not a sustainable solution for us.

So it's not very glamorous, but this cooler from refrigerated docks floor to ceiling, we're scoped our whole whole, food bank and distribution center to build it in there will enable us to show that we can keep up with demand, growing demand, and that we can have space to support programs like the curbside market to make sure that is all pretty much fresh fruits and vegetables that we have the place to safely store that.

And increasingly, this is product that is not not donated.

We still have our grateful for many donations, but those have mostly plateaued for a number of reasons.

So increasingly food bank has to make up the difference.

By purchasing food we purchase, food we choose to purchase as healthy and diverse food as possible.

We need the space to store that.

this year we'll spend over $10 million on food.

So that's the biggest project we're also expanding some space in our kitchen.

Our community kitchen right now prepares 10,000 meals every single day.

for the children in the city of Rochester, most of these are at school sites, hot meals, that are at YMCA and rec centers and daycare centers.

We do some, school meals as well.

We have bottlenecked.

We need more ovens.

we have an opportunity to take on additional sites.

There's not many, not many people doing this.

I'm grateful to, and her colleagues because there is there is a need and there's not, as many outlets for prepared meals.

So we will be doing it some infrastructure improvements there.

And you mentioned the farm.

I could go on.

The list goes on.

But our farm, we're putting $2 million in and the construction's already underway.

It'll be done in, August.

But we're still doing some fundraising.

We have had 70 new American families, refugee families that have farm that land for over a decade.

The old subway, Bad Rochester's defunct subway.

We've made something beautiful from it.

and these are folks that are mostly Burmese Nepalese who have grown up and done subsistence farming there, and food has farmed a bit there, has grown food to sell on the curbside market, has grown herbs that we use in our kitchen.

it's time to expand.

We've had our waiting list for a long time, so we will double the amount of garden of plots we have there for community members.

We are growing a building, a greenhouse, so we'll have Year-Round growing and an Edible Education Center.

The first of its kind.

It'll be a community center, will be able to host students from our CSD and neighboring districts, teach them where food is grown, how to prepare food, etc.

so we're excited about all those and fast mints and all of them are in response to this community telling us what they need, what kind of programs they want to see.

And, certainly our response to the increased need that we've seen at our agencies, who's standing in the way of solving some of the problems that you see.

well, certainly our current administration, I don't know if I'm allowed to say that either of them.

yeah, certain.

Certainly the current, administration we have, we've had a even before this administration, I'll say we were mixed up with food in this country.

Right.

We have a farm bill that continues to subsidize, everything but fresh fruits and vegetables for folks.

So it really starts at the federal level, where it is very difficult to own and operate a small farm, or to grow what the federal government considers specialty crops.

This makes food more expensive.

But that's not a new problem, right?

It's it's not a new one.

That seems to be a bipartisan problem, isn't it?

Is I great, hunger is not a new problem either.

Yeah.

and oftentimes, I mean, the issue that we're, you know, so that's my answer to, to the issue of food, but really, when we talk about hunger, it's it's not about food.

Food is a beautiful solution.

For all the reasons my friends here have said is that there are cultural and social and physical and mental, you name it.

Implications, when you provide food for your neighbor.

but when we talk about food insecurity, we're really talking about poverty.

There's no shortage of food, there's a shortage of resources, and food is the easiest way to fill that gap.

So when you talked about folks wealthy people, or maybe seemingly wealthy people that live in the suburbs that have a nice house, well, it's a lot easier to go to a food pantry to help fill a gap that you can't make ends meet in a single month than it is to find support for your mortgage, or to take your kids out of that school district and relocate.

so we, you know, food is the the easiest solution to an economic problem.

and that's why you've seen, like, unemployment hasn't increased.

We, you know, when we talk, ask people ask why we've seen so many more visits to food pantry pantries.

it's a confluence of factors, obviously the cost of food right now and inflation.

But the answer is that it is the easiest place to go for economic relief for families, lowest, lowest barriers to go to a pantry and say, I need support this month.

I need help for my family.

But but behind the scenes, it requires a lot of infrastructure and orchestration for the Emergency Food Network.

Yes.

let me grab a phone call.

Bonnie in Rochester.

Hey, Bonnie, go ahead and, as usual, I have only a few seconds.

well, all the things that people say are very important.

And, you know, we don't have to have a competition.

Sometimes I think that's the only way we're competing or something, but that that that's there, here's what isn't there.

and don't take this personally because I'm not saying it for it.

I'm saying it from what I understand about what you know, we have to ask ourselves, what is going on with that freaking.

And I'm trying to get my language to crazy here.

That's that's the president.

and I read this morning that is I look at Facebook and I was sure grew up.

They had you know, the he's now trying to put these people who have gender issues, you know, I'm, I want a man or a woman and he's going to put people in prison, together, you know, mostly women to men, so that I guess they're going to have sex or some crazy thing, all right, by anybody about it.

Let me let me just say I know you're fired up, Bonnie, and I hear you.

I think a lot of people are fired up.

we've got to be a place on this program to be a public square.

And some of that is going to be a place for you to pour out your frustration.

We got to try to stay focused on a subject and try not to let some of that anger get the better of us.

Maybe the first thing is get off Facebook.

That could be that, you know, I don't know, that's a but, I know you're you're upset, Bonnie.

Part of what Bonnie is also saying is it's going to take a lot of education and planning to feel like you can get through these next four years.

But there's also a lot of Americans are very optimistic that the next four years, in fact, a majority of Americans think the next four years are pretty good.

So, you know, we are divided country politically and in many ways culturally.

But we've got to try to find a way, to not see everybody who isn't right with us as an enemy.

Let's try to keep talking through the solutions.

It's one of the reasons I asked Julia.

Julia Tedesco and Food Link are not like Partizan operations here, right?

I mean, so, you're being very forthright about the fact that right now the current administration is doing things that you think is going to make your jobs and our community your job harder in your community struggle a little bit more.

And that's a blunt assessment.

But that's not because you're a Partizan actor.

No.

So sometimes it's just about speaking specifically and directly in a way that isn't meant to just attack individuals.

We should be attacking ideas.

We should interrogate ideas.

human beings are worthy of respect.

Ideas are worthy of interrogation.

That should be.

And I'll say that hunger, is largely becomes a bipartisan issue.

We often we have to report from both sides of the aisle, when we talk to our, our local legislators, and when you sit down and explain the impact of these programs, we largely have support.

And, you know, I hope that does trickle up to, the federal level.

And let me squeeze in Charlie, who says, Evan is a former high school teacher in the Rochester City School District.

And as a former teenager myself, kids are always hungry.

I remember sharing a large pizza with a buddy or two after school and then eating my mom's entire Italian dinner.

My students were constantly hungry.

Solutions could include guaranteed universal basic income.

The results are overwhelming.

In every trial of G-b-i, the number one item misspent when people are given no strings attached.

Money is food.

In the city of Ithaca, the numbers are 38.45% of the G-b-i money is spent on food, far outpacing the next item in retail sales.

retail at 25% of the budget numbers are this are similar nationwide.

So he says Rochester is currently piloting a Gvi program.

That's true.

We've talked to Mayor Evans about that.

he says, you know, we need more numbers in, but give people no strings attached money.

It works.

That's from Charlie.

What do you think, Julia?

Yeah, I agree, I mean, in many ways snap operates that way.

I support GBI, but the idea that you're putting money in people's pockets, everyone spends money on food, whether it's cash, credit, snap, whic everyone needs to use money and food.

So snap in many ways is the closest thing we have to GBI.

Okay.

And so if you need more education information, how do I get in touch with Lauren Walker and TJ.

And I mean, how do people get hooked up with you guys here?

Lauren.

Yeah, you can, get in contact with us through our, Cornell Cooperative Extension, of Monroe County website.

and that's, monroe.cce.cornell.edu and just go to the connect with us option and you can send an email through that education should be empowerment especially now.

and if you, if you're interested in what just doing I mean, yes.

Are you going to expand.

What are you doing?

Well, we would love to.

And the only way we can expand is by volunteers coming in to help prepare a meal.

We meet every other Monday, evenings from 5 to 9 p.m. at the commissary downtown.

Come in.

you know, let us know that you're going to come in and help, cut vegetables and prepare the side dishes with us.

And then you can also help us monetarily by going to our website dot b h o j a.org.

And you can, you can donate some funds which will help go directly into purchasing food.

It's a remarkable story what you've done.

Thank you.

Thank you for being here to share it.

So Harold who's the founder of Bodger Inc, our thanks to Lauren Walker, TJ chest joining us from Cornell Cooperative Extension of Monroe County.

Thank you to both of you for being here.

And we appreciate you.

Julietta Tedesco is the president and CEO of Food Link.

Very busy times for the team at Food Link.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you Ivan, and from all of us at connections.

Thank you for listening.

Thank you for watching on our Sky news YouTube page.

We are back with you tomorrow on member supported public media.

With.

This program is a production of Sky Public Radio.

The views expressed do not necessarily represent those of this station, IT staff, management or underwriters.

The broadcast is meant for the private use of our audience.

Any rebroadcast or use in another medium without express written consent of WXXI is strictly prohibited.

Connections with Evan Dawson is available as a podcast.

Just click on the connections link at WXXI news.

Org.