Yoli Ouiya is passionate about sustainability and wellness, and is best known for her eco-lifestyle portal Yoli’s Green Living, which earned her the moniker “Queen of Green” by Black Enterprise Magazine. Her self-professed “first passion,” though, is food, and when COVID struck the world in early 2020, she turned her focus to food equity, co-founding The Food + Wellness Equity Collective. The collective is a diverse group of content creators and entrepreneurs committed to being change agents for equity, diversity, and anti-racism in the food and wellness industries.
In this episode, Monica and Steve reminisce with Yoli about their kindred connection when meeting in New York at the 2017 Global Wellness Summit, and how that meeting brought Yoli to the first Biophilic Leadership Summit at Serenbe. They also talk about how Wholesome Wave, SNaP, and Rodale Institute are impacting food policy on local and national levels, how Yoli is changing the face of food and wellness by providing a safe place to talk about food policy issues, and how we can all #sharetheplate.
Yoli Ouiya is passionate about sustainability and wellness, and is best known for her eco-lifestyle portal Yoli’s Green Living, which earned her the moniker “Queen of Green” by Black Enterprise Magazine. Her self-professed “first passion,” though, is food, and when COVID struck the world in early 2020, she turned her focus to food equity, co-founding The Food + Wellness Equity Collective. The collective is a diverse group of content creators and entrepreneurs committed to being change agents for equity, diversity, and anti-racism in the food and wellness industries.
In this episode, Monica and Steve reminisce with Yoli about their kindred connection when meeting in New York at the 2017 Global Wellness Summit, and how that meeting brought Yoli to the first Biophilic Leadership Summit at Serenbe. They also talk about how Wholesome Wave, SNaP, and Rodale Institute are impacting food policy on local and national levels, how Yoli is changing the face of food and wellness by providing a safe place to talk about food policy issues, and how we can all #sharetheplate.
0 (1s):
Hey guys, it's Monica here. I wanted to tell you about a new podcast that I've started with my very good friend, Jennifer Walsh called biophilic solutions. Our last season of ceremony stories, building a biophilic movement was so popular that we decided to dedicate an entire podcast to it every other week. Jennifer and I will sit down with leaders in the growing field of biophilia. We'll talk about local and global solutions to help nurture their living social and economic systems that we all need to sustain future generations more often than not. Nature has the answers. You can find biophilic solutions on apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, subscribe and follow us today. So you don't miss an episode.
0 (41s):
All right, now let's get back to ceremony. Stories. Ceremony is a place where the innate connections humans have with nature and all living things is celebrated through work and play. And we're here to tell the stories of those who have been inspired by this biophilic way of life in our community and across the country. This is ceremony stories.
2 (1m 24s):
Yolie. We is passionate about sustainability and wellness and is best known for her eco lifestyle portal. Yolinda green living, which earned her the moniker queen of green by black enterprise magazine herself professed first passion though is food. And when COVID struck the world in early 2020, she turned her focus to food equity. Co-founding the food and wellness equity collective. The collective is a diverse group of content, creators, and entrepreneurs committed to being change agents for equity, diversity, and anti-racism in the food and wellness industries in this episode, Yolie Steve and I reminisced about our kindred connection. When we met in 2017 in New York at the global wellness summit, which has been brought ULI to our first biophilic leadership summit at ceremony, we talk about how wholesome waves snap and the Rodale Institute are impacting food policy on a national and local level.
2 (2m 16s):
How ULI is changing the face of food and wellness by providing a safe place to talk about these issues and how we can all share the plate.
0 (2m 24s):
That first ceremony stories is brought to you by the, in it ceremony. The Inn is nestled in the rolling countryside of bucolic ceremony, where guests can walk on the 15 miles of trails through preserve forest land, the wildflower meadow, and the animal village. You can relax by the pool hot tub or in rocking chairs on the wraparound porch, play on the croquet lawn swings and in-ground trampolines connect with nature and each other all while staying in luxurious rooms on the, in ground or within the community of Seren B book your stay today@sarahambien.com.
2 (2m 54s):
Welcome back everybody to Sarah B stories today, we have a special tree we are talking with Weah. Who's a very good friend of ours, and she's also known as the queen of green. Thank you. I try. And then I've got Steve Nygren here. I see that he's in you kids can't see it, but he is sitting in his backyard recording this, which sounds, it looks lovely. Always looks lovely. High stakes. So good to see you again. Hey, new times new adjustments. I know, right. The world is on zoom. So here we are. And you're in New York right now. That's where I live. But you have been to Sarah and B before, but we met you at the global wellness.
2 (3m 35s):
I think summit press event in 2017. Is that right? Yes. And I think it was a 2017 and maybe 20. Were you there the year before as well? We were there in 17 and 18. Okay. So yeah. Then when I was 17 and, and then we invited you to the biophilic leadership summit and I believe you came in 2018. Yes. But I wanted just to say welcome back. It's so good to see your face. And then I ran into you in New York. Yes, we did randomly at, I want to say raising the green bar event at the Hearst, building up another horse to building event, but we wanted to have you on and find out everything that you've been up to.
2 (4m 23s):
There's a lot of exciting news, but also talk about your background and our theme for this whole season is biophilia. And so that is something that we want to talk about as well, but really wanted to, just to kick off with, like, how did you get involved with the global wellness summit, I guess, you know, how did you come into our life to begin with, how did you end up that day in January at the Hearst tower in 2017? Well, someone did their thorough research looking for a sustainable and wellness focused content creators. And I believe I got an email from, I believe it was probably Beth saying, Hey, do you want to come to our global wellness Institute press event?
2 (5m 9s):
Or your find out the latest and greatest in terms of the wellness industry as a whole. And I said, absolutely because data is super important to at least be able to curate content and keep people informed about things that are coming up in the, in the wellness industry. And they have a really thorough process and creeping these case studies and white papers. So once I knew about that, I was hooked and enjoy a lot of the events that they typically put on. So it was a, it was a good opportunity for me to get more information back at all is being utilized in some capacity. Are you planning to go to the breakers in Florida at their Institute?
2 (5m 49s):
They're a big summit this year. No, nobody's traveling. Yeah. Yeah. We know people who are traveling. I know a lot of people actually personally traveling for both personal and for vacation and leaving to take a, you know, take a break someplace else for me right now, because I have like immune compromised issues at times and they, you know, they come and go, but right now they've been pretty stable. I'm not in a position I'm like, I'll just defer like any travel outside of New York. Like I'll go to New York upstate, but any outside of New York I'm going to defer to next year. I'm like Florida. Well, maybe Florida will still be there next year.
2 (6m 34s):
They're optimistic. So I think we'll definitely have a good number of people going, but I totally got it. Tell us how you got the moniker queen of green. I want to hear your background. I want you to tell our listeners sort of, were you always interested in wellness or what was your journey? I was always interested in food cause I love and I, one day I had a bet with, with my partner and he bet me, I couldn't be vegan for two weeks and my ego was highly inflated back then at the time. And I said, well, I bet you, I can.
2 (7m 14s):
So I changed my diet for two weeks, noticed, you know, a difference. I said, well, let me keep going to see what else will come of this process. And it's two weeks turned into a few months, turned into a few years. So I was eating for like over 13, almost 15 years. And then now I say, I'm, plant-based not plant exclusive because as with any mature thinking person, your body is always changing and the needs of your body is always changing. So now I adapt. I say, I'm plant based, not plant exclusive for that purpose. I'm with you on that. I th I sort of liked the idea that I can eat whatever I want, but I'm just very thoughtful about it and more focused, right?
2 (8m 3s):
And the majority of my food is always plants, grains, vegetables, like that's highly an integral part of the process, but if I need menuca honey to heal a wound, I'm going to use it. So as a result of all of this and me having a catering business, I started the blog called Yola is being, living within a year and a half or two years of me starting that blog. And it actually started out as my name yolli weah.com. And then I transitioned to yogis green living because it's like, oh, let me document, like how I'm going about this whole sustainability thing and my own personal development around that. I was already doing it for catering business and food, but I wasn't necessarily talking about my process in my everyday life.
2 (8m 46s):
So within the year and a half, two years of me starting a blog black enterprise magazine named me as one of their top 20 bloggers of that year, and the person who wrote about my profile wrote my profile, refer to me as the queen of green. I love it. So that's where that whole moniker comes from. So I was like, oh, that shouldn't be my new mantra. So I will gladly wear the crown of sustainability in any given moment. I love it. Well, and we love monikers when re reporters bring those out. I know Steve in an article with men's health UK called him the Willy Wonka of wellness. That is such an accurate description.
3 (9m 30s):
Either we need to dance and have a caption, you know,
2 (9m 32s):
There's the queen of green walk of wellness. I love that. Thank you. Just like you could have no, you know, you'll, you would have never named yourself that, but only fits. So when you came to the biophilic leadership summit, had you known or really were aware of what that term meant of biophilia at all? Not at all. So that was a great educational process for me, in terms of understanding what we're coming to comprehend, what bio felt like meant and how it is such an indigenous thing for cultures prior to, to modern times, and how urbanization kind of pulled us away from that form of natural living.
2 (10m 20s):
Like it's the most natural form of living that you could have. And it is in accordance with equity, if you will. Machel law and actual law of living is being in, in full respect and honor of nature, living in accordance with the environment and not trying to push it in the way that you want it or bend it to your will, but being in harmony. So I, when I learned about the term biophilic, I was like, ah, this is what I've been like. This is what my, what I've strived for in my own personal life minus, you know, we lack of trees and really integrated into nature, but this is all the other aspects of my life fit this paradigm.
2 (11m 14s):
So that's why, when I learned about that, and then I also learned about nature deficit disorder from Steve. So when I heard about that, I was like, oh, that's my condition. I'm losing it. I'm, I'm, I'm make sure deficient, this is, I understand it. Now this would this comprehend. This would explain why I'm so excited when I travel and go to other places. But I'm also in my envision is a background of my same vision as my father's son wants to Africa. Our tribe has, has some nomadic tendencies in our background. So I love traveling. I love going to other places.
2 (11m 54s):
I love integrating myself and being immersed in, in the culture of wherever I am. And I'm really, even though I'm like, what's the new term for like, it's an Omni Burke. I have my introverts. I mean, I'm at home. I'm I'm here. I'm sustained. I am. Well, when I'm outside, I will talk to a stranger in a heartbeat. So nature deficit disorder was, became like gifts, like my, my calling card. And also I talk about Sarah and be like, I invented it myself literally all the time.
2 (12m 35s):
Like it's, it's ridiculous. Especially people who live in it, especially people who live in Atlanta. I have a lot of friends, CEOs of wellness and food companies. I've introduced people to Sarah and B, we a couple of people every few weeks. So it's, it's my go-to example of this is how we should be living. This is the best means of creating community, if you will. And I'm always amazed at the advancements that you keep making in terms of building this community that is very integral in, in tune with nature.
3 (13m 22s):
We really noticed during the pandemic it's, it's, it's become more obvious and, you know, people have been able to stay connected and how important it is to connect to nature in these times. How are you dealing with, with this now being in your New York apartment?
2 (13m 38s):
That's a great question. I have always been kind of like a fake plant mom, but for my birthday, which was a month ago, one of my co-founders sent me a beautiful plant and I was like, huh, I need more bees. And I also had committed to starting to grow my own and documenting that process of growing my own in an urban environment. So that's one of the ways I am like coming to terms. And I'm also considering moving like everybody else, because I think it's just like, if you're going to, one thing that has come out of this pandemic is you should have an opportunity to do the things you're passionate about and enjoy your life the way you intend on enjoying it.
2 (14m 24s):
It shouldn't be focused on the parameters of what success looks like or what other parameters are socially constructed. Like your social contract should be of your own making. And I said, well, my own making would be kind of super hippie homesteader live off the land. Be surrounded by nature, have access to fish, streams of water in some capacity. So in looking, make that transition, I still have to be where I am in the moment. So make the best of it. So plants adding more plants, eating well is super important. I eat mostly everything.
2 (15m 4s):
Organic, I'm grateful and privileged to have access to a food co-op here in the city. It's the only food co-op in the city where we get a lot of local produce for street food. Co-op I've been a member there for over 15 years, and those are the things that are keep like, those are my moments of serenity is eating well, preparing good food, keeping in touch with family. I was my sister's doula about, about three weeks ago. Is it three weeks? Yeah, about three, three and a half weeks ago. So that was, I'm like, this is my third time being an auntie, but first time being a doula for any of my siblings, it's a big deal.
2 (15m 45s):
So seeing new life still being able to come out of all of this is, has just given me like a little chicken, the butt to be like, just keep going. And you're going to have moments or I have moments in being totally accountable. I have moments where I'm like, oh, I want to do anything. And that is okay. Yeah, that's right. If you don't want to do anything in that moment or that day, that is your mental health, trying to tell you, take a break, stop trying to be super woman, super, super person, and just relax. And then, because if you are in good health, I mean, you have tomorrow, like we have be blessed and be grateful that, you know, if you're in good health, you have tomorrow.
2 (16m 34s):
I love that. That's perfect. I love that. Yeah. I do think that we, we don't give ourselves enough time for us, you know, that it's such, it's been such a go, go, go culture that we're in or society. And I think, you know, the COVID and this isn't a new, I felt it at all, but it has made everybody stop and think and really say, you know, what is it that I wanted to be doing? Or, or really, how do I want to be spending my time? Right. And so doing those things that are important, but I still think that there's a huge need for an a in the word, like self care, maybe seem strange, but like, for that, for like, what do you need and not having that be a selfish thing, have it be okay to take the time, to do nothing for a walk for an hour and everything will be there when I get back and it'll be yes.
2 (17m 30s):
And I have so much empathy for parents right now who are juggling this new paradigm. I was just talking to someone, one of the family members from my collective, she has four kids from between the ages of one and nine. Wow. And traversing, this whole new part of like homeschooling and food and mommy, mommy, not like there's a lot of things. And you know, her husband works during the day. So it just trying to find the balance of all of these new paradigms. I comprehend that when you have a moment to yourself or if you live by yourself, just be grateful because it could be different.
2 (18m 12s):
You can have a whole different reality. And there are people who I know who've had COVID and been affected by it months ago and are still being affected with it to this day. Yeah. Like there's a lot of different things and that optimism I have on the other side is we have an opportunity to make a difference by choosing the, the public officials that we have and office who care and want to make sure that we are well and taking moments to do what you can for people in your local neighborhood and shopping locally and supporting smaller businesses.
2 (18m 52s):
It's so sad when you see like restaurants that you've known for years start to close because of all this. So the, there is a light at the end of the tunnel and some proverbial way, and I'm looking forward to it and I'm creating it at the same time. Well, and I think that's interesting because you've sort of birthed if you will, right. With a co right. You and another woman, a brand new collective just a past month or so. Right. The food and wellness equity collective. So absolutely you're putting goodness out there. Tell, tell us about that and where that idea came from.
2 (19m 34s):
So my co-founder and I were on the phone, just having a random, like ketchup conversation about all the craziness that was happening in the world from the killing of George Floyd, to be on a tailor, to a pandemic, to adjusting to new life and all the craziness. And I had mentioned this idea of bringing together content creators, who had an opportunity to utilize our voice in really positive ways for change. And she also, he said, well, wow, I had literally had the same thought and we had synergy just meeting in person at another event.
2 (20m 14s):
And to have this like moment where we both had a similar vision, we that started working on it that day. So it went from having a conversation about really like everything going on in our personal lives to, well, we're going to birth a collective and knowing that we'd have no ownership over ideas, we can't patent this idea of bringing people together and letting go of ownership of like a concept that we realized we needed other people to really push us along. So collaboration is, has been a mantra of mine for the last couple of years.
2 (20m 57s):
And I realized, well, if I'm going to really make this happen, then we need some people who are just as passionate about anti-racism equity, diversity, and inclusion. So we started doing our massive search for different content creators who were in the same mindset as us. And it was really easy for us to find all the people that we had. We got recommendations. We look primarily what we did is we went on people's social media pages and see just to see how they were using their voice in that moment, without anybody spurring or being performative, because there was at different times, cause they've always been performative posts, but it was so blatantly obvious in different times.
2 (21m 40s):
Are you using your voice to create justice and equity in your community by talking about it? Are you using your capacity to, if you have a large platform, how are you utilizing it? Are you posting about everything you post about every time, even though, you know, outside right now is not the normal that we know, or are you being aware, are you being empathetic? Are you having some kind of moment where you're using that empathy to address things that are happening? So that made it so much easier to like, okay, this person and that person has Ms for us. So we have a wonderful collective about 20 and there's about 2120 of us in total.
2 (22m 26s):
And we just opened up our community to add more members. And right now I think we're at 150. Okay. Thus far, we only opened it up two days ago in G can people join, tell us how they can get involved. Oh, you can just go to food, wellness, equity.com. There is a join us tab. And then the instructions will leave you. So we're primarily focused on content creators of all kinds, health professionals and solo entrepreneurs. We just announced our digital summit, our first digital summit, which is happening October 15th. I saw that. Yes. Tell us all about that. Yeah. So we wanted to find a way to bring all these content creators that have a safe space for us to talk about all these different issues.
2 (23m 11s):
So we're going to have a myriad of panelists and speakers just to help content creators and entrepreneurs and health professionals have an easier time of having these types of more challenging and difficult conversations, but also provide resources and support. Because as for a lot of content creators, we have one sole job. You do what you do. You do what you do. Well, you take great photos. You make wonderful dishes, you talk health and wellness. Now people look to us more so than ever because everybody is home for the most part, the health and wellness sector and food is not going away.
2 (23m 59s):
In fact, that is thriving at this very moment, unparalleled amount of money being spent in the wellness space. So with that being said, well, our content creators being equitably treated in the space. That was our first concern because a lot of the content they work with brands are, are men and women getting the same pay are black women and Latino women and Asian women and Muslim women getting the same pay. So they're kind of parts. And we were discovering, no, there's not like there isn't like a standard. So there are many different areas where you see, as we would call it, I call it my come to Jesus, Buddha, Allah moment where everything is coming to light and some capacity, the positive, the negative and people are exposing their experiences because now they feel like so much chooses being put out into the world now is the time to right.
2 (25m 8s):
Put the ship in the right direction. Definitely. So that's where we're trying to tackle all the lease things. And the beauty of the collective is it is transformed in so many beautiful ways that we didn't anticipate because you have more than two people building this community. Yeah. So one of the things that we decided on to start focusing on and one of our areas, well, there's two areas. One is food policy. Okay. Because that's super important food policy is part of, can be racist and there's environmental racism. So then we're like, okay, now we, this is something else we get to add to our agenda.
2 (25m 52s):
So food policy, environmental justice, being a resource, also being a helping dieticians and registered nutritionist and nutrition specialists find the voice because I did not know less than 8% of nutritionists are people of color. And that's interesting so, well, we were like, well, people need information. I have. So how do we help people feel comfortable talking about the things they eat and finding healthier options. And it's always imperative that people see representations of themselves and in all spaces so that they feel a level of comfort or they feel a level of being understood in some capacity, especially with various cultural norms.
2 (26m 41s):
So two of the women on our one is a Haitian American and the other one is Jamaican American. And I think that's wonderful because in the Caribbean community, you don't necessarily always see people in the health and health profession in terms of nutrition. So to have these varying vantage points where there are different ingredients that we use and different spices that different communities use. So it's have someone who can be able to speak to that helps everyone else be seen and heard. And I think that is just as important in terms of mental health to be seen and heard is super imperative in our existence because once people start not to feel seen and heard, that's where you, that's where the line is drawn, and then you have conflict.
2 (27m 31s):
And when you feel ignored, there's nothing but rage and anger and disappointment and hurt and acknowledgement of like, this is how we have always felt, but no one was listening. We were listening because we heard, but it, and it shouldn't be something that people can get accustomed to. It's very similar to the nature deficit disorder. Yeah. There was a, there's an acknowledgement or lack of acknowledgement. And the person's human existence is control the, the life out of someone, literally,
3 (28m 9s):
What are some of the big issues you're dealing with with food policy?
2 (28m 14s):
So there's the farm bill that one of our collective members brought up. Agatha action do love her. One of my favorite people, founder of yummy spoonfuls, really she organic food company for toddlers and children and saying how important that bill is in terms of allocation of funds, having supply of good food. Another issue in the food world is lack of funding for actual good food. Not all this genetically modified pesticide ridden things that also contribute greatly to disease and, and poor health.
2 (28m 59s):
Frankly, another issue that I've seen many times is food deserts. That's a big thing. There are so many, and the, the beauty of some of the work I've done in the past, especially when I was working on the campaign with Toyota for over five years is setting up community gardens in different places and helping in supporting community gardens in places where their work with that. So I believe those are the three main, the main components is lack of funding for the stuff that matters, which is farmers small and large investing in good, clean, equitable food places and food deserts and food disparity in general, like people don't necessarily have access to stores.
2 (29m 51s):
I'm I understand that I'm privileged. I live in Manhattan, I'm in the middle of a city where I can literally walk out my door and have 10 stores at my disposal. That is not the case in every place in the world. And I've been there, especially in the United States, but these are just some of the imperative issues that we're going to have to address because a lot of us are going to be home. We eat more when we're home. I know I did. I was
3 (30m 18s):
Going to say, have you found a good programs that are models too?
2 (30m 24s):
Who's doing it right. There is one cool program. I did see recently. And then this is the free food refrigerator. Don't I can't say exactly who started it, but I've seen instances of it where people will have like on a block and then in the middle of a block connected to a store where there's a refrigerator and people can put food into the refrigerator for people to get for free. Are you familiar with wholesome ways? No. Oh, hold on. Waves waves. That company. It's a
3 (30m 56s):
Nonprofit Michelle. And then
2 (30m 59s):
Yeah. I'll send you information on it. It started out, yes, please. Saturday night in New York, but they do a couple, I mean, they do amazing a bunch of different things, but one of the things that they do is they take the snap dollars and they double them at farmer's markets. Oh, like the green market. Yeah. They've been integral in getting absolutely. Yeah. Oh, I know about the green market. I live not far from a green market. It's one of my favorite places to go. And that's another thing that we, one of the things we're going to address is my dream project is to do something with snap because a lot of people don't know that you can go to the farmer's market, trading your snap ballers and get more money to spend on produce. And the like, so one of the things we wanted to do is possibly, if anyone's listening, who has a connection to the snack executives is we wanted to do some digital programming specifically for snap and WIC recipients.
2 (31m 53s):
We also,
3 (31m 54s):
We can connect you with wholesome wave because they're the ones who, who instituted this program and then fought in Congress to get that money into the,
2 (32m 3s):
I think that is absolutely fantastic and absolutely necessary. And, and I think on our side, we wanted to be the change makers to provide this information to people because a lot of people didn't know when I was a nutrition specialist for a children's after-school program, I had 400 or 400 students between grades one through 12. And one of the programs that we had was giving them, taking like a field trip to the farmer's market and explaining, Hey, if you get snap, you can use your money here. I remember one student in particular, who's a senior, his mom had to leave for a month to go back to, to go back to her country to handle some things.
2 (32m 43s):
He's a senior. He's like, I'm going to be home for a couple of weeks by myself. And I, and I was like, well, you going to cook? He's like, yeah, but like too. So we took a trip to the farmer's market. I gave him some like snap, that ones that we had received to disperse to the community, he bought a bunch of things. He had never used, never cooked in his life. A week later, he started showing me all the dishes and the new things. He was cooking because he gets, he didn't know. He's like, I didn't know this stuff was here. So just being, creating awareness and giving people options and letting them know that they have a welcome space, a welcome opportunity to go into these spaces because sometimes you go to the farmer's market and you're like, oh, I didn't know. Like, I don't know if this place is for me.
2 (33m 24s):
Yep. And that's a, that's a thing where representation matters. People assume because it's something looks what it looks like on the outside that they may not be welcome there. I mean, they feel safe in that particular environment. So that's the blessing of New York. It's such a hodgepodge of different people and communities and cultures and genders and preferences that when I hear about things happening outside of here, I, it, it, it's not surprising, but at the same time, it's baffling because that's not how I grew up. So it's just interesting to see these different things evolve.
2 (34m 4s):
Of course, ceremony in your farm, love your farm. The Sam bee farm is like one of my favorite places like the compounds from the competency machines and the mushrooms. It's, it's a good framework.
3 (34m 18s):
I also look at Atlanta because Atlanta is the first major city to have an ag commissioner reporting directly to the mayor. And the way they're dealing with food deserts is they're going in and putting community gardens and farms into these communities and teaching people how to grow the food and what some of these products are. And they, they own their garden. And that pride that comes into the community. So that's a great model. More cities need to look at Rodale Institute is doing a lot of things with training farmers and soil health. And in fact, their big award when I was a, a woman of color who was the outstanding farmer, who's really moved these things forward in south Georgia.
3 (35m 4s):
So there's, there's really some great things that we'll try to connect you with to help push out these models
2 (35m 10s):
That are out <inaudible> from Yami. Since she's been here. We, I swear we did like a workshop with her like four years ago. Oh yeah. She probably has. Her work has been phenomenal, you know, trying to get good food into kids. And I think one of the, one of the great things is that community gardens can be kind of eye opening experience for everyone. Even the people who have the education and the know-how. And there's a, an organization in Nashville, Tennessee, by a colleague in front of mine called track garden.
2 (35m 52s):
And it's turning the concept of a trap house, which is, it doesn't necessarily have positive connotations turning it on its head and saying, well, let's do a garden instead. And educating millions of people, how to garden and creating programming around that and giving people opportunity to learn how to grow their own and providing resources and doing curriculum in schools and so forth and so on. So I thought his model of creating it, we call him Rob veggies, Horton's his name? And he created this program really just out of it because he lived in the food desert and he was tired of being in a food desert.
2 (36m 32s):
And he said, well, let's learn how to grow some of this stuff ourselves. So that way, and he loves, and he does love his middle name and veggies because he really does love that school
3 (36m 45s):
Thing we could do be doing it in, in our schools is anyone who graduate should at least know how to grow and prepare their own food. And we have really failed our society. And, and as citizens, we need to get involved with school boards and start demanding that change. You know, home-ec is no longer for sissies. It's something that everyone should take and, you know, let's maybe rework it for today, but you know, that's an essential piece.
2 (37m 10s):
Absolutely. It's, it's, it's imperative that people have an opportunity to, to know how we live before modernization, to know where their food comes from. Because once I think that's one of the biggest growing things I had is once I started eating differently and being more conscious of my, like what I was ingesting, then I became more curious about where my food was coming from. Then I delved a little bit deeper into that. Like, okay, well, well, how far is my food traveling? Okay. What is it made me comfortable to ask farmers at the farmer's market when I was first moving into a more holistic focus lifestyle? Like, what are you using to like your pest control?
2 (37m 51s):
And when you ask an honest, like, and having an honest conversation with a farmer, they'll be like, oh, I use such and such for a part of the year. We're very like very minimal, but at least you have the information and that's the, the transparency is key. And that's, I think is what's missing heavily in the industry where there are moments where people like, oh, we all have non-chemo lane labeling. And there was pushback on that because, but why would you push back from people knowing if you have a genetically modified organism that you're consuming, there's only one reason. Yeah. So if you're in most of our food sources very much so. And I remember taking a trip to, I believe it's Idaho.
2 (38m 31s):
And just meeting with farmers who hadn't been kind of, you know, misinformed about what they were. They thought they were doing good. Yeah. By doing this work. And it was so like this heartening to see like the people who are growing food for the masses, like are in debt, like the cost of like industrial farming is just atrocious. Like why do you have to be in debt and spend millions of dollars to grow food that is going to feed the entire country? And the crazy part is they had been sold into this vision of growing food export to other places.
2 (39m 11s):
Yeah. And we had repurpose that land did some soil revitalization. Like we would have millions of pounds of food just for us domestically. So it is just the whole reformatting and restructuring of what food integrity means and what that system looks like. And I hope through the food and wellness equity collective that we can begin to have some of these conversations and my kids, I'm tired of talking. I want people to put money, put their money where their mouth is and support these initiatives. And it doesn't mean the general population. The we're calling to task the food and wellness industry well support us in making a difference in these communities.
2 (39m 57s):
And all of our members want to do on the ground programming in their particular cities, right.
3 (40m 4s):
The market with their buying power. They're going to change this. All the talking in the world is not going to do it. And even policy has trouble, but buying power will change
2 (40m 12s):
It. Yeah, absolutely. And that's one of the things we were exploring is like, what do we fare better as a nonprofit, will we be able to take funds and allocate them to like places where, where it's needed? Like, there are so many different organizations out here doing some of this work. And I just want to be the change I want to see in the world. And that's why we started to collect them. Because instead of me just talking about it and being a content creator and talking about these issues, yes, I'm providing a resource in terms of education on people send me notes all the time, asking me, Hey, do you have a suggestion for this? Or for that I want to also do on the ground work where people are actually seeing an impact versus me talking about being impactful.
2 (40m 55s):
I think that's where we're all influenced. This comes in real influence, comes from being able to help people make a difference in their lives and not just surface the surface rhetoric, if you will good for you. Yeah. I think that I, I do another sort of, you know, COVID silver lining. If there is such a thing, is that more of that is happening. You know, people like yourself are coming together, banding together with people saying we're all gonna do this together. Like, cause we'll have power in that collective. And I know you guys, you know, definitely getting on the ground and doing the work, but I will say like coming together and doing a narrative and trying to tell story whether that's snap dollars exist or here's how we can, you know, combat food deserts, like even getting that information out to the general public is so important.
2 (41m 44s):
And when you have content creators and influencers across all these industries, like you do, I, I think that that important, it's so important. And you know, like I'm excited to share, you know, that story with our listeners. Cause it's it. We can't do it alone. You know, we can make steps, but we have to do it all together. Thank you so much. I think there's two there's, two-fold, I'm a content creator, but I'm also a business owner. I'm an entrepreneur. I understand that Pete money needs to be made because it also needs to go back out. We need to create an ecosystem that is a healthy balance of all of these things.
2 (42m 26s):
It's not just the gift. Just give to give, to help people. No, let's create a system or people. If people are supporting your business, show some support back to the consumers who are supporting and helping your business thrive or stay afloat or whatever the case may be. Let's have a healthy ecosystem of give and take on both sides. And also let people feel like their investment and their belief in your product is worth something. There have been brands who I've seen, do amazing things. And as a result of them making those verbal commitments and putting their money where their mouth is, I've seen people make statements like, oh, I'm going to buy this, this brand of this product from this company exclusively from now on.
2 (43m 11s):
That makes a difference. It makes the whole difference because people feel like you've invested in them personally, even though they may not be the, the personal recipients, the recipients of your, of your giving, they feel like you're investing in their community or onto people may be close to them in some capacity. And they see that you're actually trying to make a difference. So you're not just doing it for surface for surface purposes. And I appreciate that. And then on the other side of that conversation is yes, invest in all that stuff, but is your inner organization equitable? Yep. Like you can do all this stuff that's outside of the company, but is there equity within your company or is there enough people of color?
2 (43m 58s):
Are there enough women in executive roles? Are there diversity in terms of just the pay structure and making sure people are getting paid, what they need to live and thrive and not just survive. And that's the biggest thing people are, there are so many of us and I am not taking myself out of that equation that we have gone an ebb and flowed out of survival mode. And that's not just the like financially, that's emotionally, that's psychologically. That's all of these things where it's like a constant flight as it fight flight or fight or fight and flight essentially. And that's not, yes.
2 (44m 41s):
That is part of the human experience in terms of like, when we live in, in amongst nature, we'd be like, okay, is that Bayer coming back to take her food? But in these times I don't feel well. It's not necessarily a feeling. I don't believe people should have to live like that. Right. And I think that's the beauty of biophilia is bringing it all back to how do we live in accordance with each other? And with nature, if we can move from that place, it will find some type of equilibrium without those, like, without those central paradigms of our existence, it makes it a lot more challenging to find the, the silver in my instance, the gold lining.
2 (45m 34s):
Yeah. I don't even know what else to say. You've been so articulate and put that so beautifully at the end here. I don't really have anything to add, except that I completely agree with you. And like, just love that we all know each other and hopefully we're trying to put the good out into the world. Absolutely. I'm a fan of Sarah and B have been for a while and it definitely shifted my paradigm of what is possible in terms of living and living fully, but also living in harmony. And I think if we aspire to that, we'll make a major shift in what is happening from all things. Some climate change to how we deal in race relations to just having more equity for everyone.
2 (46m 22s):
Yeah. And we should always remember, you know, sustainability, equity, inclusion. These are not extras. These are not the frosting on the cake. These, these are the things, these, those are the norms. They're the plotter for the cake. Yes, yes, yes. And I'll share your hashtag is share the plate is your house. But I love that. I love that in so many ways, share the plate. Absolutely food brings us all together in some capacity, if you don't like food, I apologize. I don't know what food did to you.
2 (47m 2s):
Good food is the, the, the, the, and I remember that's one of the best times of having a term B is us sitting around food and just having these types of conversations. And it makes it easier people, relaxed people reminisce, and it brings them to a place of just, Hey, we're eating well. This is like a good starting point. Where else can we go from here? Well, we hope to have you back around the dinner table or any table, listen, we need this pandemic. And we get to go away, go back from wherever, like underneath the ground and gives me dormant for the next a hundred thousand years and never come back.
2 (47m 45s):
And that way we can go back. So having community and dinners and his being in a space where we can love each other and it will happen, people will look forward
3 (47m 58s):
To that day. And thank you for your voice and in so many of these important issues.
2 (48m 3s):
And thank you, Steve, for being an example of the possibility that existed in this world. So thank you for having me. Thank you.
0 (48m 19s):
Thank you for listening to Sam bee stories. New episodes are available on Mondays. Please rate and review the podcast and visit our website to learn more about upcoming guests, episodes and everything by Ophelia at ceremony, stories.com.