Latest / NHA Today Podcast / 149: The Power of Plant-Based Community Support with Lianna Levine Reisner

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149: The Power of Plant-Based Community Support with Lianna Levine Reisner · NHA Today Podcast

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Welcome to NHA today, where we explore the path to lasting
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health and fulfillment through a whole food plant-based lifestyle.
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Each week, we bring you real conversations with doctors, health experts, and everyday
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individuals who have transformed their lives through food, mindset and community.
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This is NHA today powered by the National Health Association.
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Hello there.
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Welcome to NHA Today Podcast.
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I'm Justin Williams.
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And I'm Stephanie Williams, and you are a future NHA member.
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So thanks for joining us.
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If you aren't a member already, uh, Steph and I are life members of the NHA and you
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will find us as part of the NHA virtual team in 2026 for the NHA conference, and
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we'd love to see you there in person too.
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So last weekend in June.
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And, , tickets are on sale now.
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Please join us and you don't have to cook one bit when you've joined us in person.
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Everything's healthy.
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So who do we have today?
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Today we're going to be talking to Leanna Levine, Reisner of
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Plant Powered Metro, New York.
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Leanna co-founded Plant Powered Metro New York in 2019 after finding the whole
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food plant-based , movement and reversing her health conditions as well as the as.
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Well as those of her family and plant powered metro, New York is
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what's called Healthy Community through, um, the Physicians
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Committee for Responsible Medicine.
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And they are amazing.
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A big part of their work focuses on multicultural health.
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And as we know, diverse communities often have difficulty accessing, um,
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healthcare as well as healthy food.
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So the work that P-P-M-N-Y does is super important.
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In addition, they serve as a mentor to plant-based communities
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around the US and around the world that they've built is amazing.
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We talk a lot with Leanna about how PMNY does the work that they do,
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and, and I think you're going to find it really, really inspiring.
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We definitely did.
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And we have our own plant-based community here, plant-based capital region.
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And I can't tell you how much of a inspiration that P-P-M-N-Y is.
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It's just amazing.
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Which I think I'm just saying what you said now, but you know, it bears
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repeating because they're wonderful.
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So, uh, thank you so much for joining us again, and if you could please.
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Remember to like, share, subscribe, all the things.
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It really helps us grow the program and, uh, we'd love to be shared with
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whoever you'd like to share us with.
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So here's Leanna Levine Reisner.
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You're gonna love her as much as we did.
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And, uh, thank you for joining us.
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Here's Leanna, Leanna Levine Reisner.
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Thanks so much for joining us on NHA today.
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Thanks for having me.
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It's really awesome to talk to you.
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We're so happy really to have you here because, uh, you're such an
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inspiration for us, um, as the, uh, the leaders of plant-based capital region.
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And, uh, it was just so lovely seeing you in this past summer.
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You had an awesome time.
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What a great lineup of speakers.
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Always the best meals at the NHA conferences.
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You're here.
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Such a tree.
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So Leanna, thank you so much for, for spending time with us.
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And to start off, we wanted to chat with you a little bit about
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your health journey, your whole food plant-based journey, kind
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of how you found this lifestyle.
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Can you tell us a little bit about that?
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Sure.
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I'll give you a, a briefer version of my story, which could go on for a while,
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but I was really, I became interested in nutrition because of my kids.
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Um, you know, once you start to care for little ones, you start to wonder, what
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am I doing on lots of different issues?
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Right?
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Whether it's diapering or just like.
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You know, positive discipline and all those things.
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And I was like, how, what am I doing?
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How am I feeding my children?
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And I was noticing also as I was entering my thirties, how my own body was changing
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and wondering, what should I do next?
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So I took a little leap of faith at one point and like cleared up some irritable
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bowel issues with a gluten-free diet.
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And then I decided I was gonna go a step further and I was gonna try a gluten-free
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and dairy-free diet to clear up my acne.
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And then I did some crazy elimination diet on top of that, that ultimately
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made, left me super confused.
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Um, but when I found my way to a whole food, plant-based diet, which really
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took me 18 months of digging into the science and anything I could find online
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that I could sink my teeth into, um, the evidence for plant-based nutrition
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was like really clarifying for me.
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And it explained some of the things that happened as I was
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making changes to my diet.
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Along the way in all of my personal experiments, and so when I was mostly
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plant-based and mostly unprocessed, uh, I was, I noticed that my, um, the
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most traumatic thing that happened was I had a hormonal condition called
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endometriosis, and the symptoms pretty much went away very quickly.
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In the, in the process.
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Um, I later lost a lot of weight after that.
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I had been carrying a lot of extra weight from my second pregnancy.
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And then other little things just sort of cleared up as I continued on the path.
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Things like the inflammation in my toe or, you know, like seeing how, figuring
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out how to get my skin to really shine the way that I wanted it to.
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So all of those things became so much more apparent to me,
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the things that I could take.
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Into my hands and really, uh, make a difference with using plants.
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And it was that discovery of the, the evidence that's out there learning
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the world of Dr. T, Colin Campbell and Dr. Gregor, and then finding
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the National Health Association.
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All of these pieces put together really created.
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The, the sell for me, if you will, like, I, I got it then because there's
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so much confusion that we can have when we're sort of steeping ourselves in
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this or that influencer or wondering if this or that website is legit.
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And I really found, um, that my health improved dramatically
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through this way of eating.
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Wonderful.
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And um, you said you know that you have children and a family.
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Now, did your family join this kind of lifestyle at the same time that you
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did, or how did that, how'd that go?
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Yeah.
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Um, luckily my kids were little when I went through this process,
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and so it was around the time.
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I think my oldest was six and my son was three going on four.
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And it was just like, you know what, if you're gonna do it, you,
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you gotta rip the bandaid off.
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And that's what we did in our household.
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And I remember like my son crying about Cheerios on the floor one day, but then
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like that, everything was fine after that.
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So thankfully my kids have grown up and then, then, you know, we had, we had a
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third child, so that one pretty much grew up with this lifestyle and we are pretty
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strict about our boundaries at home.
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Like, you know, this is how we do things, and there's a healthy conversation about.
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You know, what, what we should be eating generally, and also what's good for
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the earth, what's good for animals.
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So we bring in all the different angles with our children because they need to
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be more conscious citizens of this world.
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And by choosing a healthier diet, they, I, I hope that they, um,
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feel that and live that every day.
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And my husband, thankfully, was definitely on board because he had started out
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as a vegetarian, which I had not.
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He was a vegetarian for ethical reasons and was really interested in learning
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that there was an even better way to live that was even more ethically aligned.
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And, um, also just was tasty and abundant.
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So I think I lucked out on that.
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Not everybody has a spouse who's fully supportive.
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Thankfully you guys do too.
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Um, but we, you know, we are as a family, uh, pretty aligned on all of this.
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That makes all the difference.
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It really does.
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I think that's what we often hear from people.
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If they're talking about a part of this lifestyle that is a
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little more difficult for them.
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It's, you know, living in a household with other people who don't, uh, eat this way.
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So I, um, you know, we agree that that is, is a huge, that that
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support system is, it's huge.
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Which, which, we'll we'll get to the support piece of it in a few minutes.
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Um, how do you navigate, um, because I know that there's a lot of parents in
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in our audience, how do you navigate your children going to school?
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I'm assuming that their school is not whole food plant-based.
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So how do you navigate, um, kind of.
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Maintaining this lifestyle for them while they're out in the world?
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Yeah, it's not easy.
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I don't think there's any reason to beat around the bush with this.
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Like it's, it's really hard.
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Um, our kids, just like everybody's kids, goes to school with lots
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of people sits and eats lunch.
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They sit and eat lunch with people and see what they're eating every day.
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Um, we, I guess, have a little bit of a benefit.
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Being, uh, we, our kids go to Jewish Day school and in their school they have
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other kids who are all eating a at least vegetarian lunch because that's what's re
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requested of them during the school day.
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Um, but it's still a challenge, uh, because there's just so much processed
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food out there, and I think that's the, the weak link for everybody.
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For every parent out there, we need convenience foods and
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it's hard to know how to do.
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A healthy diet, well, whether or not you're even eating plant-based.
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And I think, you know, I have found personally that it's hard to talk
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to other parents about this because most are just trying to get through
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the day and get through the work week and deal with picky eating.
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Um, so what I hope to do is not to preach, but to model and to insist that when there
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are healthy, that when there are events.
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Going on at the school or at our synagogue or other, you know, places
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where we show up that people have options for us, because that makes
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them think a little harder about what, where is the healthy option gonna
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come from and how can I provide it?
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So it does make mean that we're, we're the annoying people in the school.
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But I, you know, I think that they.
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Honor that they understand that every family has different
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values and priorities.
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And if we can be among the people who show up and say health is a priority,
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and, and food has to be a, a piece of, um, you know, how we think about health.
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Uh, thankfully it's on everybody's radar.
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Such a hard thing to counteract.
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Like everything.
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I don't know.
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We just, we live in such a society that rewards with junk food like.
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Hey kids, good job.
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Here's some Skittles.
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Uh, and then yes, it's like, you know, the reward becomes the sugar and the dopamine
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from that, and then processed food.
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So it's, you know, you bring up a good point, like it's really important to
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just advocate for yourself because I think it's, you know, I, you
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know, I, I at work have the tendency to, like, I just want to fade into
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background and like let everyone enjoy.
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Pizza day while I just kind of like stay in my cubicle, you know?
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But, uh, as a parent, you really wanna make that, that
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a priority, a hundred percent.
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So I applaud you for that.
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Thank you.
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Yeah, it's, I don't know.
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I feel like, um, we just have a lot of work to do to help adults
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in general recognize that what we eat is going to impact lots of
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things, including focus and, um.
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Attention, like the attention span of children and their readiness
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to learn and that kind of thing.
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And I wish, I wish that we could have more of that conversation going on in
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schools, especially as we're seeing, um, I dunno if it's an increasing number
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of kids, but an, you know, a steadily um, growing number of kids who are.
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It referred to specialists for various things or who just are put on medication
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because nobody knows what to do with them.
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And I, I do think there are lots of other options for children.
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Um, just like there are lots of other options for adults that don't
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require medication that are, you know, going back to life lifestyle.
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And have you had just outta curiosity, anyone that, any
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parents that your children of the children or kids go to school with?
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That have kind of shown interest once you've like said, Hey,
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here are some healthier options.
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Yeah, they definitely do.
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Um, they ask, they like to ask questions.
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They like to ask for ideas for recipes.
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I love having people over because then, you know, we'll serve a meal
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or we'll serve snacks and people are like, oh, that's, that seems easy.
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I could do that.
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And it's the, I could do that moment that I'm living for every day.
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It's like, yeah, you can do this.
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You can even make these really simple banana bread muffins and
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have them just as available as those junky banana bread muffins.
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You know?
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So I, I think that it's, again, it goes back to the modeling and putting
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ideas in people's heads and showing them the simplicity of what we end up
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doing in our day-to-day routines to make this viable for adults and kids alike.
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That's so important.
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And excuse me, I can't tell you how many times.
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I've said to someone, this recipe has five ingredients and
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you'll make it in five minutes.
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And they're just shocked, uh, because it tastes so good, right?
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And so healthy.
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And it's like, it really takes no time compared to, you know, how much time
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you're used to spending in the kitchen.
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I think that's, again, one of the things that people will say about this lifestyle
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is, oh, I don't have time to cook.
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But like you said.
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It takes far less time than it seems when you first, when you first get started.
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We're just used to, you know, opening a package and having it
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take, you know, five minutes.
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But it doesn't have to take that much longer than that.
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That's right, that's right.
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And I always find that, uh, as compared to my sad cooking days, the cleanup is
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way easier without oil because it's snow.
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It totally is.
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Yes.
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And it like the worst we're done.
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Right.
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The worst you have to do is like, maybe soak those starchy, you
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know, the stuff that gets caked on, but starch water, it's gone.
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Woo hoo.
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No, I have to have a pan in the, uh, the sink for like
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three days soaking, whatever.
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Exactly.
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Well, I wanted to ask you, um, kind of like, because we, we
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started our, uh, plant-based group.
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Back, well, we joined it back in 2021, but we became the leaders in 2022.
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And, uh, you know, finding that group and finding other people that could
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be like our backup support was so important for our personal journey.
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And then to find you guys and see like all of the amazing work that
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you do on a continuing basis, I guess, like what was your.
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First kind of, uh, foray in defining your community?
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Yeah, I think it was so early on.
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I mean, I read Dr. Campbell's book whole Rethinking the Science of Nutrition.
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That was my first book.
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And for anybody who hasn't read that, if you've read the China
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study and then you ha go ahead and read Dr. Campbell's other books,
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they're like, they're just beautiful.
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Um, so he, he drew me in and I found his son's film Plant Pure Nation.
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Shortly after that.
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A wonderful documentary, really telling about how to engage in community life
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with the principles of plant-based nutrition on your shoulders, and, you
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know, bringing it to other people through jumpstart, through, um, the engagement
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of local legislatures, et cetera.
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And at the end of that film, there's a call to action.
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You know, join a local group.
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So at the time, this was 2017, and I, uh, you know, I went onto
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their online platform at the time, which has now become, uh, building
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healthy communities through PCRM.
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And I joined the group that was in Manhattan, where I live in New York City
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and there were 80 people on the platform.
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And I said, Hmm.
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This looks interesting, but there was no volunteer leader of the group.
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Whoever had been involved before was no longer, and I was thinking to about,
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you know, who am I now in this moment and what might I do with my, my time?
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Um, I had been working.
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As a consultant in the Jewish community doing some work with synagogues and
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other Jewish communal organizations.
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And I was always thinking about how do we build organizations that are
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healthy and create the kind of community connection that we want to have.
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Um, so that was like my consulting work.
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And so when I found this field and the com, the potential for community
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engagement in a secular space that was all about healthy living.
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I said, I think I know how to do this.
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I think I can apply what I've been doing as an advisor to other people and now
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do that work on the front lines myself.
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And I really, um, wanted to test out a lot of ideas that I had.
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From previous experience working in the nonprofit sector as well, working
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in local community environments.
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So all of that really came to bear as I became aware of the plant-based health
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movement and I decided to take up the leadership of the Manhattan Group.
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And I called a meeting and at that very first meeting, we had 25 people come,
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which was pretty good for a group that had 80 some people on the platform.
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Right.
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Um, this was pre COVID days, so you never know what you'd see these days, but I
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think, um, there was so much energy from the people who were already believers.
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I realized that what we really needed to do most was to harness that energy and
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help more people get out and do the work.
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So I did.
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I spent a good nine months sort of building up relationships with people,
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hosting some very grassrootsy events.
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Um, we had some events with doctors speaking.
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We had some, um.
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Some potluck events and we had some restaurant based events and um, you know,
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you come to meet people and the beauty of the New York metro area is that I can be
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in Manhattan, but I can be going to work with somebody who lives in Long Island
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or Westchester County, outside the city.
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And, um, people who are in Long Island might have a family
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member who's living in Queens.
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Or, uh, you know, friends who are in the Bronx and we're all part
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of the same fabric of community.
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So, uh, we decided, I, I met the leaders of other local groups who are
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in Long Island, in the Bronx, in Queens.
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And we came together and created a metro wide organization, plant Power
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Metro New York, with the goal being to sort of bring the best of what we each
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were doing in our own, you know, local communities, uh, together so that we
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could have a bigger impact working.
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Working as a team and through that to actually create a platform for
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many other people who may not be quite so entrepreneurial as we
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were in those very early days where you throw spaghetti on the wall
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and try to figure out what sticks.
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But just to give more people who care, an opportunity to get out in community and
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talk to people, support people in dietary change plan events, whatever their skill
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sets are, sort of bringing them all in.
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So that was really the early days when we created this nonprofit
20:10
organization and we said.
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Let's not just run programs, let's actually build a network of people
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who care and through that network, activate people in a way that they
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may not have been activated before.
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To do the good work that we all need to do to raise awareness in our
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communities, to educate people, and then to bring them along a path to change.
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So that's a, that's a long story of Plant power mission that's started.
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Well, I think it's important for people to hear because you know,
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you have to do what you can.
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There's a lot of groundwork involved in trying to, you know,
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even just start community and like, find people, like-mindedness.
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Like-mindedness.
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Find people who, you know, think the same way or, or want to eat the same way
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or even just participate in a potluck.
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Um.
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That's one of the challenges that we face now is like, okay, well we've
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got kind of our core people, but like, how are we gonna like kind of,
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uh, you know, engage 'em and move forward and keep the spark alive?
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And it's, uh, it's really like, uh,
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you know, it's not easy, but it's so important.
21:25
Yeah.
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And I think what really came out of it is that.
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We've built something that feels more like a family, right?
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You have people who, and I'm sure you feel this too, through plant-based
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capital region, and the idea is we, we share certain values, we share certain
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ways of living, we share certain recipes.
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This is what actually makes community in the first place.
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And so when you create space for.
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Building that family, people feel even stronger.
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So like for me, I, I can't say that I would have fallen
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off the wagon without this.
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I really don't know because I, I've been motivated, in addition, like from
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my own personal health experiences, I'm also motivated by the fact that,
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uh, you know, I, cancer and my family history and I really don't wanna walk
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down that path if I can prevent it.
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But I'm, you know, had I not created all of this and got the constant validation
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that this lifestyle is legit and important and, um, the best way to go, I, I
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just don't know where I would be now.
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So, and I, I feel like we've created that sense of validation and accountability.
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Even for the people who care the most about this.
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And then the whole idea is that how like we pass that on to everybody
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else we meet who are helping to get on this journey as well.
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So there's something magical about that kind of way of relating to people that I
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think you probably identify with as well.
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But it's, it's, uh, it, it feels just like the most important
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work we can possibly be doing.
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Okay.
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It's true, and uh, and like you said, it's inspiring and motivating
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to, you know, to keep doing it when you see how, how, um, how much
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people benefit from the connection.
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And, you know, we have, I, you know, members who every month
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will be like, this is my favorite social activity of the month.
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Like, no matter what else I do during the month, I'm coming to the
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potluck because I would not miss it.
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And, you know, there'll be, um, it's just, uh, like you said, it's like a family.
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Um, and, uh, uh, there would be a huge hole, I think for
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all of us if it wasn't there.
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And, you know, I think the beauty of an organization like Plant
23:45
Powered Metro New York and the size and the resources that you built.
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Which is really beautiful, and again, inspiring to groups like ours is that
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you also have found a way to kind of expand, um, your reach to people like
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to groups like us in upstate New York or out, uh, in the western part of
24:08
the country, virtually, et cetera.
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Um, through your jumpstarts and, and the other things that you've provided.
24:15
Um, which is really remarkable because like I said, uh, you
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have something so special.
24:20
So for your, your willingness and, um, and excitement to share it with others
24:26
and, and help, help the rest of us out is, is um, just, uh, really wonderful.
24:33
So would you wanna tell us a little bit more about kind of the jumpstarts and the
24:37
other initiatives you have and kind of how you are connecting with groups outside of.
24:43
The New York metro area?
24:45
Absolutely.
24:46
So what's interesting is when we started doing this work back in 2019, we
24:51
said, we're an in-person organization.
24:54
We wanna get out there, we wanna talk to people in the places where they
24:59
congregate already, whether that's at a community center or at a church, or.
25:03
You know, at a doctor's office in the waiting room and find people
25:07
and help them, you know, become aware and get educated about this.
25:11
So when the pandemic hit and we had to be online, it was just like a big whew,
25:16
okay, let's change strategies here.
25:19
And I think that was really excellent actually, because even
25:24
as important as it is to go out and meet people in the community.
25:28
Um, which we have fully returned to doing in a big way.
25:31
Um, we also have kept alive this virtual presence because the region that we
25:36
serve is big and in the meantime we reach people all over the country.
25:40
And we, um, it sort of said to ourselves, okay, we have to take
25:45
what we do and offer it in multiple modalities so that people can.
25:49
Can access it in whatever way they, they can.
25:53
Um, even people who are house bound, who learned how to use a computer
25:56
for the first time during the Coronavirus Pandemic, you know, those
26:00
are folks we wanna reach as well.
26:02
So, um, I guess sort of maybe I'll culminate in the jumpstart because there's
26:06
all these things that we do and I like to talk about our work through a, the four
26:11
pillars of, of how we organize ourselves.
26:14
And the first is we raise awareness in the community.
26:16
So we want to make sure that the word is on the street, that when
26:20
you eat plants you can thrive.
26:22
And so we'll have people out tabling at.
26:25
Health fairs and festivals will, um, try to align with other big
26:29
events that are going on and make sure that we have a presence there.
26:32
And some of our virtual programming is awareness raising in and of itself.
26:36
If you happen to stumble across us while you're on Instagram or you're,
26:40
um, looking for inst interesting, you know, live events to attend
26:44
online, that's what we're doing.
26:46
Um, and also sort of showing up in public spaces.
26:49
So we don't do a whole lot of what you would call traditional advocacy work
26:53
because we feel like there's so much more, um, critical stuff that we can do
26:57
to educate people in the first place.
26:59
But, uh, there are ways to show up in community forums, whether it's like a
27:03
town hall that are borough presidents or our council members are hosting.
27:08
And then, you know, have people who are talking about plants be part of
27:13
the discussion where other people are talking about sanitation or
27:15
they're talking about, uh, schools.
27:18
So I think, you know, we're looking for lots of diverse ways to activate
27:22
people's voices, and that's a really, um, I would call it a low hanging fruit
27:26
opportunity for many people to do.
27:28
So awareness is one bucket of what we do.
27:30
The second bucket is what we call education.
27:33
It's the simplest like.
27:35
Let's make sure that the basic ideas of what plant-based nutrition
27:38
is and how to do it is out there so that we can build readiness.
27:41
Because when you hear about plant-based nutrition, you're like, okay, but
27:45
what does it, what does it mean?
27:46
What do I have to do?
27:47
How hard is it?
27:48
Does it taste good?
27:49
I don't know.
27:50
And so like, you know, you go through all of those questions and stages and
27:55
so you know, every week we have some kind of virtual programming or we
27:59
have something in person where we're.
28:00
You know, presenting a program in connection with a community
28:04
organization that we partner with and just trying to get that li like
28:08
basic level of education out there.
28:10
Because what we find is that if we want people to like jump into the deep end
28:17
with us, by either, you know, making sign significant change over time gradually, or
28:23
by making significant change all at once.
28:26
We have to get past those hurdles of can I do this and am I sure I want to do this?
28:32
You know, so that's where, you know, the, the third bucket is empowerment.
28:38
The idea that we can support people and actually learning how to do
28:42
this by themselves to build, uh, the sense of, you know, be behavior,
28:46
change the agency for change.
28:48
So cooking classes and market tours.
28:51
And then ultimately our jumpstarts, which are.
28:53
Um, like other programs out there designed to help people jump in during
28:57
a short period of time and make a full scale transition to a whole food
29:02
plant-based diet to get that immediate feedback that, oh wow, my body does
29:06
this when I eat unprocessed plant foods.
29:09
That's amazing.
29:10
Oh, I didn't realize I, that these meals were so tasty without added oils and
29:14
salts or, oh, I didn't realize that.
29:16
Um, I actually.
29:18
I have more energy when I wake up in the morning.
29:20
And so all of those pieces really come together when we do our jumpstarts.
29:23
And we've been running those since the early days.
29:26
And what's really awesome is we have taken this beautiful base of
29:30
volunteers who we now have more than 200 people involved in our work, um,
29:34
sort of officially on the roster.
29:36
Um, and a subset of those volunteers are trained as peer mentors, which I
29:40
know you, Justin and Stephanie have just done our peer mentorship training and.
29:45
We help to organize like a matching service between people who are getting
29:49
started or would like to deepen their practice of plant-based nutrition,
29:54
matching them with people who've already done it and giving them an accountability
29:58
partner, a friend, a cheerleader.
30:00
So you know, we do that on a rolling basis throughout the
30:02
year, but also in our jumpstarts.
30:04
One of the key features is that.
30:06
People get to know a mentor and have an assigned small group that they
30:10
will be a part of over the course of a month's program so that they can
30:14
have fun and they can have connection.
30:16
Because what is change for after all?
30:20
It's not just for us, it's for us in community.
30:22
It's about.
30:23
You know, finding the excitement and the, um, external motivation in, in
30:28
addition to the internal motivation.
30:30
So mentorship is a key piece of it, and that really speaks also to our
30:33
fourth pillar, which is community support, the idea that we need each
30:38
other to make this lifestyle possible.
30:41
Um, not just now, but for the long term.
30:44
So, uh, in addition to peer mentorship, you know, we're hosting dinner socials
30:48
and potlucks and things of that nature, and going out and talking to
30:52
restaurants in the local community and helping them to put healthy
30:55
plant-based meals on their menus.
30:56
Because, you know, people come to New York City especially, and
30:59
they say, I can't wait to try out all those vegan restaurants.
31:02
But if you are a whole food plant-based person, and especially if you're
31:05
choosing an SOS free lifestyle, you know, putting aside salt oil and sugar.
31:10
You, you don't have a lot of options here either.
31:12
Like there's a ton of vegan comfort food out there.
31:15
There's a lot of, um, you know, just wanna be.
31:18
Dishes out there, people who wanna make their food look like what everybody
31:22
else is eating and therefore it, you know, it really loses the health factor.
31:25
So we're trying hard to get more and more restaurants to understand that they can
31:30
be partners in health and not sacrifice their bottom line as well when they
31:34
put healthy, uh, dishes on the menu.
31:37
So anyway, it's like this huge ecosystem that we're trying to
31:40
build and it, it's hard to really explain the full extent of what this.
31:44
It really looks like an action because we're working out there trying to get
31:49
anybody in the public to learn about this, but also working behind the scenes with
31:53
organizations that call upon us to bring, you know, people in to do a demo and do
31:59
employee wellness or to have some kind of talk with their, with their constituents.
32:03
And there's just a whole lot of coordination and um, you know,
32:09
educational curriculum development, all the pieces that go into being, um.
32:14
A true educational organization, like we have to think about all of these pieces
32:18
and try to put the puzzle together.
32:20
So when it comes to like jumpstarts, to go back to your like original question
32:24
and the idea that we can, we can offer what we do to other communities.
32:28
You don't have to go down the path of creating your own program when
32:31
we have one, but you can add on you, you know, folks from the Capital
32:36
region, folks from Houston, folks from South Florida or Central Florida.
32:39
We have all these people now who are a part of our, um, our world.
32:44
Whether it's a sister organization like yours or it's.
32:47
Um, individual people who've been trained as mentors who live throughout
32:50
the country, and they all can take the core of what we do and use it
32:55
as a base for engagement with their communities and build on in their
32:59
own ways, in the ways that they see are appropriate for where you live.
33:03
So we just hope that we can, um, we always wanna collaborate.
33:07
I think that's like the end of my long-winded story here is to say.
33:11
Our field will be better served by the collaboration among the different
33:17
groups and organizations and individual change agents who are out there.
33:21
So what we can do is like weave people together, connect the dots
33:25
and um, you know, feed off of each other in this healthy kind of way.
33:29
That's where I believe the acceleration of awareness.
33:33
And change as a result of our collective actions will happen.
33:37
So, uh, you know, you can tell I love this.
33:39
I'm passionate about it.
33:40
I could talk about it for hours, but I'll, I'll stop there.
33:44
No, thank you.
33:45
It's, uh, amazing just to hear everything that you've built and all the ways
33:49
that you've found to, um, reach out, um, to various communities, you know?
33:57
Sparking a bunch of ideas just listening to you and also, um, awe at, at
34:03
what, what you've been able to build because, uh, it's really wonderful.
34:07
And one thing I was thinking, um, while you were talking,
34:11
um, that's really impressed me about plant powered Metro new.
34:18
Is, um, you're embracing of diversity and inclusion and
34:23
finding ways to touch communities that I think in the plant-based
34:28
world we sometimes struggle with.
34:30
Um, you know, um, with connecting to, uh, be for a host of reasons.
34:38
And I think, um, you know, also, um, you know, maybe again,
34:44
families that don't have, um.
34:48
Endless resources at their disposal as well.
34:51
You know, I think that's, that's another group that I've seen Plant Powered Metro
34:55
New York connect to, um, in a way that we, we wish that we could, you know,
35:01
find the key to that lock because we know that, um, people want to, uh, give their
35:09
families health and they want to have.
35:13
Give their children the opportunities, um, to, you know, have their best
35:18
life, have their brain work the best in school, like you were talking
35:21
about focus wise and all those things.
35:23
It just, sometimes they have a really difficult time
35:27
figuring out the access piece.
35:30
Um, so would you want to maybe talk a little bit about your
35:34
work in those areas as well?
35:36
Because I think it's unique and very important.
35:39
Yeah, thank you.
35:40
And thank you for first of all noticing that.
35:42
'cause it is something that I feel really strongly about and I feel really proud
35:46
of for where we are at this moment.
35:49
Um, for, you know, any, throughout the country, we have diversity, right?
35:53
Diversity comes in so many forms and I think that the ultimate challenge
35:58
that we all face is figuring out how to relate to one another and to.
36:02
Feel comfortable sitting down and having a, an authentic conversation
36:05
with people who are different from us.
36:07
So we end up, uh, by human nature mostly surrounding ourselves with people who
36:11
are like us, and that makes it hard for our movement to, to branch out.
36:15
Um, I had a really important.
36:17
Um, career opportunity when I was, um, you know, not long out of college.
36:23
I worked, as I mentioned, in another community, nonprofit organization, very
36:27
place-based and learned a lot about the idea, the very idea of like relationship
36:32
building in a diverse community.
36:34
And how we have to build bridges and how we have to sort of suspend who
36:39
we are a little bit just to be an observer and to listen and to, um,
36:43
try to understand people from whatever perspective they're coming from.
36:46
So that experience really influenced how I thought about
36:51
Planned Power Metro New York.
36:52
And one of the catchphrases that I always use for our organization is that we
36:56
are a multicultural movement because.
36:58
We have to be, this is the nature of the world.
37:01
We are connected.
37:02
We are, you know, we have to be, um, working across cultures all the time.
37:06
Whether a culture is your ethnicity, whether a culture is
37:09
even your age, whether a culture is your socioeconomic background.
37:14
And so.
37:16
What I, I think, I don't know if it was like lucky 'cause I don't luck is sort
37:21
of a funny way to think about this work.
37:22
I do think it's like things align when you know that you're on the right path, right?
37:26
And that's how I feel every day that I do this.
37:29
Um, but I did meet really awesome people early on in.
37:34
The creation of plant powered Metro New York people who really wanted
37:38
to bring this movement into the Latino community and, uh, in our
37:42
metro area, people who were already deeply working within communities of
37:47
color in central Brooklyn where some of the worst health outcomes are.
37:52
Um, people who.
37:53
We're interested in connecting with folks who are older than us.
37:57
I mean, I guess our movement overall is reaching people who
38:00
are age 50 plus mostly, and, you know, I'm, I'm younger than that.
38:03
I think you guys are younger than that, but like, you gotta be able to sort of
38:08
be a chameleon, if you will, to, to talk to people in their own milieu and to.
38:13
Um, to think about their needs and not my needs, to think about
38:16
their flavors and not my flavors.
38:19
Um, but to notice that we can all love all the things about this lifestyle and all
38:23
the inclusive flavors that we have, so.
38:26
I guess to wrap it up, um, the strategy from the beginning has been to find people
38:30
in those communities who can be champions to build up those champions, to train
38:35
them, to support them, and to give them a platform to be the ambassadors that
38:39
we need to have in these communities.
38:41
And some of it is that they can see what we do.
38:46
Writ large and model it and adapt it and translate it for their populations.
38:52
And they can also then give us guidance on how we can be a more inclusive
38:55
organization so that we're not just putting out, you know, material that
39:00
only features certain kinds of people on it or certain kinds of dishes
39:03
on it, but we're really, you know, thinking about the wide variety of
39:07
representation that we can have in all of.
39:10
What we do.
39:11
So, um, that's the key.
39:13
Find the ambassadors, build up the ambassadors from different
39:16
communities and, um, and bring them all together into the family.
39:19
'cause that's what we need, everybody working together.
39:24
So commendable And, um, thank you for, for that work that,
39:28
for all the work that you do.
39:30
It makes, it makes a huge difference.
39:32
And, um, you know, we're, we're excited to be able to.
39:37
Kind of showcase, um, not just you and, and your story, although definitely
39:43
you and your story, but also, you know, the work that plant powered
39:46
Metro New York does and the ways that, first of all, what's possible?
39:52
'cause I think that's a big part of PPM and Y is, um,
39:57
people seeing what's possible.
39:59
'cause it, it's just again, amazing, but also, um.
40:04
You know, uh, where people can find, uh, have a place to connect.
40:09
If they don't know where to start, they can go to you and you have a
40:13
million, a million directions they can go into to find, you know, the
40:18
connection that they're looking for.
40:20
We're really excited to be doing the mentorship program and, and to
40:25
learn, you know, more from you and, and the other people at PPM and why.
40:29
Um, and then to be able to bring more opportunity to our group and
40:33
to connect more people in our group to, to you as well, so that they,
40:38
um, can also, you know, benefit from, from what you have to offer.
40:42
So that's really wonderful.
40:44
Thank you.
40:46
I do have, um, I guess one kind of specific question, sort of
40:52
for my own self-interest and for our group self-interest.
40:56
Uh.
40:57
How do you go about approaching a restaurant?
40:59
Like what's the, what's the key to that?
41:02
What's the best way to try to say, Hey, we've got some people that
41:07
want to come here and you know, maybe we could do like a whole food.
41:12
Collab.
41:13
Yeah.
41:15
You know, I may be getting it all wrong, but I, I just,
41:18
no, it, it, it's a hard sell.
41:19
It's, it's especially a hard sell now with food prices having risen so much, and I
41:24
think the whole industry is just really.
41:27
Trying to figure out how do, how do I keep myself in business, right?
41:31
So we realize, as much as I want to lead with, oh, you can be part of
41:36
the public health solution, right?
41:38
Like, that's what I wanna be able to say to restaurants.
41:40
But you really have to talk about the bottom line.
41:42
You have to talk about trends, you have to talk about, you know, the people.
41:45
What we, we have this interesting moment where we were, we were realizing,
41:48
you know, if you're in a group of friends and somebody in that group
41:52
is choosing a whole food, plant-based lifestyle, that person can veto.
41:56
What restaurant people go to.
41:58
And so what we really wanna do is find restaurants that can be as inclusive
42:03
as the people in our communities are.
42:06
And inclusion doesn't mean that you have, you know, just gluten-free
42:10
on the menu, which you can't find in a lot of places anyway.
42:14
Um, it also means that you have not just a vegan option, but a
42:19
whole food plant-based option.
42:20
So.
42:21
It is a hard sell, meaning it's tough to do it, and it takes a lot of effort
42:26
from our volunteer base who are often the ones who are raising up ideas
42:31
of places they like to eat or could consider going to if they just tweak
42:37
that one thing on the menu, right?
42:39
To find the things that are more like what you, what you call low hanging fruit
42:44
that are easily modifiable to, to fit.
42:46
So you know, if, if they have a. A lentil soup on the menu, but it's
42:51
like dripping with oil and, and so salty you can't possibly eat it.
42:56
If you go and you say, look, if you make these simple
42:59
changes, this can be much more.
43:02
Health promoting and people may choose it, and you can even publicize it.
43:05
You can put it on your menu as a healthy choice, and the people who are looking
43:09
for that healthy choice will care because how many people have been diagnosed
43:11
with hypertension in this country?
43:14
Like 50%.
43:15
All of those people want.
43:17
Are told that they should be eating less salt, but then they go to
43:20
restaurants and they don't get it.
43:22
So I think it's just like a a bit of a reeducation process
43:26
that we do with a lot of love.
43:27
As you go and talk to restaurants, it takes a certain finesse, it takes a
43:31
certain personality, and it takes the ability to talk to people who are either
43:35
general managers or the chefs themselves.
43:38
Or the front of house folks who are like, you know what, I'm, I do have
43:42
people who walk away from my doors.
43:44
I don't know how people actually do that, but you, you know, you have to
43:46
find what, um, what the opportunity is and maybe sometimes those pain points
43:52
as well to open up that conversation.
43:55
Um, we do have somebody from our team who goes out and trains
43:59
people like, it's, it's on offer.
44:01
It's like if you are a restaurant in the metro area and you
44:03
wanna do this, we'll send.
44:05
Somebody from our team in to work with your line staff and show them how to
44:09
do this so that it's still flavorful and it's, it like still gets people's
44:14
palettes saying, Hmm, that's great.
44:15
I really want more.
44:17
So, you know, it's, it is not easy, but I think this whole idea of, um, you know,
44:22
you can build more business by creating healthy options because people need
44:27
it and many people are looking for it.
44:29
That is part of the, the, uh, the effort.
44:35
Thank you.
44:37
Yeah.
44:37
And the other thing, Justin, is that, you know, we say, and if you
44:40
do this, we'll bring a group out.
44:42
We'll have a big meal, we'll spend a lot of money with you, and we'll
44:45
promote you on social media, and you'll be part of a, a bigger group
44:49
of restaurants that is featured on our website because you have this option.
44:53
So, you know, it's hard for a smaller nonprofit like ours to really be able to
44:58
pitch that from a marketing angle, but.
45:00
The more critical mass we can build, the better.
45:03
And who knows, maybe one day we'll be having that whole food, plant-based food
45:05
festival featuring all the restaurants in the metro area as a result of that,
45:10
like slow unru of this initiative.
45:13
So fingers crossed
45:17
and that happens.
45:18
We'll be there.
45:18
Yes, we'd love to have you there manifesting it.
45:24
Thank you.
45:26
And well, I guess.
45:30
Wrapping up, I wanted to just kind of, uh, ask if you had, well, wrapping
45:36
up, I just wanted to ask if, uh, you had one kind of simple meal or simple
45:42
thing that you like to put together, because it seems like you're very busy.
45:47
Um, you might also have some good advice on what a quick meal could be.
45:54
Yeah.
45:55
You know, I don't, I don't have the best answers, but here's,
45:59
I'll give you an example of what happened in my house this evening.
46:03
Um, we have, we just came back from vacation.
46:06
We're about to start school.
46:07
Things are a mess.
46:08
Every, you know, there was, there hasn't been a lot of time to cook.
46:12
Um, what did we do tonight?
46:14
We made a smoothie for dinner, a green smoothie.
46:17
With chia seeds and lots of fruit, it's the best way to get greens into
46:22
kids is to make those smoothies.
46:24
My kids really love Romaine in their smoothies.
46:27
It used to be funny, I don't know if you remember when you first had a
46:31
romaine smoothie, the two of you, but it's like it tastes a very lettuce, but
46:35
over time it's become like something we all love and we don't care.
46:40
A iota that like it tastes like lettuce, we don't even notice it anymore.
46:44
Um.
46:45
So the green smoothie was part of the answer tonight, as was the
46:49
whole grain pasta with tomato sauce, which my son then like poured all
46:53
of these herbs and spices on because it takes so much better that way.
46:58
You know who needs to spend a lot of time making a beautiful homemade
47:03
marinara sauce when you can take a can of strained tomatoes, which is really
47:09
delicious on its own, and then add.
47:12
Um, Italian seasoning and we got the sun dried tomato powder,
47:19
um, uh, spice, it's salt free.
47:21
It's really good.
47:22
And, um, he put garlic powder on it.
47:25
I like Awesome.
47:26
I love that.
47:27
My son likes garlic powder and his nutritional yeast for that extra
47:31
kick and like, that's so simple.
47:33
Right?
47:33
And then if mm-hmm.
47:34
If I were him, I would've added some beans to that black beans, you know, open a can
47:38
of tofu or a package of tofu and just.
47:41
Chop it up and throw it in.
47:43
Um, that's the easy stuff.
47:44
So if I had had the time I wanted to tonight, I would've made like a
47:48
lentil bolognese because growing up I really liked my mom's meat sauce.
47:52
I was always the kid who was eating the meat sauce on pasta.
47:56
Uh, I was a pasta fiend.
47:58
And so now I love making the lentil version of this where you know, I'll,
48:02
yes, I'll spend a little bit of time chopping up an onion and carrot.
48:06
And celery and garlic and doing a saute, throwing in that strain tomato can
48:15
and lentils and letting it all simmer.
48:17
And I don't know, I'd probably add in a few other things,
48:19
but it's like, it is simple.
48:21
You don't need a recipe.
48:23
You learn some of these tricks for just how to get those flavors to
48:26
come together and there's nothing better than tomato sauce, honestly.
48:30
So that's my, that's my quick and dirty, that's an amazing answer.
48:35
Yeah.
48:36
That's amazing.
48:37
Yeah.
48:38
So good.
48:39
Now I'm hungry.
48:41
And you know what's funny?
48:42
It's just like, uh, one thing I didn't expect, uh, in this diet is like
48:46
how much I actually crave lettuce.
48:49
And like the idea of, of having a romaine smoothie right now is like.
48:54
Amazing.
48:55
Yeah.
48:56
Um, so Totally.
48:58
I know.
48:58
I've been like, I've been feeling dehydrated.
49:00
I'm like, oh my gosh.
49:01
We like, just came back from the beach yet, like two days ago.
49:04
There's so much to do, like.
49:07
I haven't stopped, and then, oh, I can have a smoothie and like,
49:11
everything feels better in an hour.
49:13
You know, I don't know what it is.
49:15
It's just that, that raw food, and that's really, I credit the NHA for being a
49:20
really good, uh, voice for more raw foods in the diet for, you know, the,
49:26
the, the cleanest way of doing this.
49:28
I love that lifestyle.
49:29
That is absolutely the way I feel my best, and I think.
49:33
You know, if we can all enjoy our romaine smoothies, we'll all have a
49:36
more peaceful and, uh, healthy society.
49:41
All agree?
49:42
Yes.
49:43
But thank you.
49:44
Um, just real quick, where can people find you in plant covered Metro New York.
49:49
You can go to our website, plant powered metro ny.org.
49:53
We unrolled a brand new website earlier this year, which, so I'm
49:57
really proud of how it represents us and the work that we do.
50:01
Um, you can find information about our jumpstarts there.
50:03
We have jumpstart programs that we offer a few times per
50:06
year in English and in Spanish.
50:08
And um, you know, there's also information about how to get involved as
50:12
a volunteer, how to donate, how to help, you know, bring us to your community.
50:17
We can do virtual.
50:18
Um, educational programs or if you happen to be a listener from the New York Metro
50:22
area and you would like us to come and be part of your community, wherever
50:26
you are, um, you can always reach out.
50:28
We love those kinds of connections.
50:31
Plus you can buy a really nice shirt.
50:33
Absolutely.
50:38
But thank you so much for joining us.
50:41
We really appreciate your time.
50:42
Thank you.
50:42
Today we couldn't do it without, without your work.
50:46
We're so grateful.
50:47
We always thank you.
50:48
It's really a pleasure.
50:49
I'm so happy to be in your community, in your orbit and in the Nhas orbit as well.
50:55
Awesome.
50:56
Thank you so much, Leanna.
50:59
Thank you.
51:00
Thank you for joining us on the NHA Today Podcast.
51:03
Subscribe and follow the National Health Association on YouTube and social
51:07
media for the latest in plant-based science and healthy lifestyle support
51:12
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51:15
And conference visit health science.org.
51:19
Until next time, here's to your plant powered health.