Latest / Resource Report / Resource Report - 36 Food Source Foundation

Transcript

Resource Report - 36 Food Source Foundation · Resource Report

0:18
Hello and welcome to Resource Report, where we
0:20
share with you important information about local
0:24
nonprofits and resource organizations that support
0:27
the community we share. Produced by Pathways
0:31
to Agency. I am your host, Michaela. Today's
0:35
guest is Chris Hyde, the creator of Olympia's
0:39
Souper Sunday and the founder of the Food Source
0:42
Foundation. Thank you for joining us again on
0:53
Resource Report. Chris, we've had you on a previous
0:56
episode here. It was way back in the very beginning
0:59
of the show in Season 1. I believe it was our
1:02
fourth episode here that we did with you. Rainmaker
1:06
was the interviewer last time. That's right. But I'm here with
1:09
you now, and it's a great opportunity to come
1:11
and see how far you've come, because when I listened
1:14
to the last episode... It sounded like you were
1:16
still working out of your house, which is really
1:18
a long way to come. So if you could, please,
1:21
for our audience, reintroduce yourself and tell
1:23
us how you got started with all of this and give
1:26
us a small recap. Okay. Yeah, I'll try to make
1:29
it kind of quick. My name is Chris Hyde. I'm
1:31
the director of the Food Source Foundation. We
1:33
are a local nonprofit that is dedicated to feeding
1:37
Olympia with good quality homemade soup and now
1:42
groceries. We are now serving between all the
1:45
different groups about 1 ,100 to 1 ,200 meals
1:48
per week. And meal is kind of a funny term. So
1:51
I use the term meal portion. So about 1 ,200
1:54
meal portions per week. We are doing three free
1:58
food days downtown across from the transit center
2:01
for mostly a group of people who are homeless
2:05
or food insecure. But everybody's welcome. That's
2:09
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 6 to 7 -ish
2:13
or until the food's gone. We do a Friday food
2:16
service here at the Peace Church, which is on
2:20
Friendly Grove Road. That is hot food and a large
2:24
variety of groceries. And we have a lot of stuff
2:27
available these days from 5 p .m. to 6 p .m.
2:31
And then all the different Souper Sunday groups
2:33
are independent in and of themselves. We don't
2:37
have any legal connection to them or anything.
2:39
It's sort of our deal. This Food Source Foundation
2:41
can help to get them groceries. That's kind of
2:45
where our responsibility with them ends. That
2:47
was the original idea, so yeah, we have had to
2:50
make a real distinction, and we've talked about
2:52
it at board meetings. Just, you know, people
2:55
donating, thinking it's just Souper Sunday. It
2:58
now all goes, you know, we never took money for
3:01
Souper Sunday, so that's an important thing. Any
3:03
cash donations go to the Food Source Foundation,
3:06
and then we use that money as an umbrella group
3:10
to fund getting food to other groups that are
3:13
serving the greater Olympia area. So we have
3:17
Friday night here, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
3:20
downtown, and all of these really are for anybody
3:24
who feels like they want or need a meal. A lot
3:28
of people are making difficult choices between
3:30
gas or paying a bill and eating. And I'll talk
3:33
a little bit more later about that and sort of
3:35
how I started the Food Source Foundation. And
3:38
then our last group are the different Souper Sunday
3:41
satellites. I think there's maybe, they kind
3:44
of come and go. There's probably 15, 16 in the
3:47
greater Olympia area now. So with those, they're
3:51
not necessarily affiliated with the Food Source
3:54
Foundation. We can support them with the process,
3:57
but once they get going, they're autonomous.
4:00
There's no way that we could police those groups.
4:03
So they start and they're just their own little
4:06
entities. It's an important thing because they
4:09
really generate a lot of food for people. A lot
4:12
of times it's like in a neighborhood. When I
4:14
was doing Souper Sunday, it was the upper Bigelow
4:17
neighborhood. But I'd still have people who would
4:19
stop down from Shelton to get a hot meal. But
4:22
anyway, the Souper Sundays are really great. They're
4:25
for anybody. They're not necessarily geared towards
4:28
lower income people. It was more kind of a reaction
4:31
to COVID and the divisiveness that we're all
4:35
finding ourselves in these days. So it was more
4:38
of a community building thing. You know, the
4:40
ethos of Souper Sunday is to provide food without
4:45
restriction to anybody who wants or needs it.
4:49
Between all of those groups, we are serving between
4:52
a thousand and twelve hundred food portions a
4:55
week, which is pretty good. Wow, that's pretty
4:58
expansive. That's definitely already, I can tell,
5:00
a larger reach than when we touched base with
5:04
you last time. Absolutely. And with all those
5:06
different Souper Sunday offshoots. You did mention
5:08
in the previous episode you were encouraging
5:11
these Souper Sunday satellites to form in their
5:13
neighborhoods to serve neighborhood needs. And
5:15
now you've been budding that feature, been budding
5:18
that service out to other places, and it's sort
5:21
of been growing on its own. it sounds like it's
5:24
really been a success in terms of spreading... Goodwill?
5:27
Spreading goodwill, spreading the effort spreading
5:29
the interest and engagement of this concept.. Yeah.
5:33
..Into neighborhoods specifically. And it's incredible.
5:36
People.. it.. it's really changing people's lives.
5:38
There are a lot of people who were really stuck
5:41
after Covid and you know, like all the political
5:44
stuff and the divisiveness the social media can
5:47
just be a nightmare of kind of this false sense
5:49
of division. A lot of people have been looking
5:52
for something positive to do, but, you know,
5:55
we're all paralyzed on a certain level. And to
5:58
get out of that paralysis and depression and
6:01
isolation and to actually sort of forget about
6:04
yourself and be of service to your community
6:06
is a life -changing process. It's changed my
6:09
life. I've got lots of stories. One woman who
6:12
was coming early on, her name is Allie, and I
6:15
was giving her soup like in the first few months
6:17
of starting. So that would have been September
6:19
of 2023. And she would show up and we'd chat
6:22
a little bit and she'd drive off. And then I
6:25
didn't hear from her for several months. And
6:27
I heard from her, I don't know, about six months
6:29
ago, and I didn't know, but she had been addicted
6:32
to meth and living in her car that winter. She
6:34
said that just the idea of getting this sort
6:37
of gift of soup and goodwill from somebody she
6:40
didn't even know gave her enough of hope to seek
6:44
treatment. She got through treatment. She finished
6:47
her degree in social work. She got her kids back.
6:51
She got married. And then she got a job counseling
6:54
other people who are addicts who are trying to
6:57
get clean. She said it very much just sort of
7:00
the energy and process of being able to be recognized
7:05
as a human being as opposed to like a drug addict
7:08
really helped her. And, you know, she's one of
7:11
many. I'm not taking credit for any of that.
7:13
I'm facilitating an idea that sort of came to
7:16
me. It's really all of us together. For me, the
7:19
important thing is like, you know, there's no
7:21
religion or politics or anything like that with
7:23
a group. It is a matter of acknowledging that
7:27
we are all part of the same human family. We
7:29
call it the sacred circle of giving and receiving.
7:31
You're just as important if you're taking a meal
7:34
as you are if you're providing a meal. You know,
7:37
it's a continuum of sacred process of making
7:40
food as a group and serving it. You know, this
7:43
one thing that really has united us since time
7:46
began. Yeah, you're right. It is about being
7:48
part of a continuum. And when you are a human
7:52
being that's been dehumanized in that situation,
7:54
like you are not just down on your luck, but
7:57
you've internalized that idea that this is who
8:00
I am. Yeah. Having care given to you helps you take
8:04
care in yourself. To take that care that you
8:07
can feel like, there's a play on words here that
8:09
I'm going through, but to be a part of that concept
8:12
of I'm being cared for, I can then know what
8:16
it's like to care for myself. It helps people
8:18
when they are in situations when they don't seem
8:21
to have resources, physical resources or emotional
8:25
resources. It does start that chain again of
8:27
participation again in being a human being with
8:30
other people. People forget the humanity part
8:33
of it. It's been... really a master class in
8:36
suspending judgment, working with the downtown
8:39
population. You know, there's every kind of person
8:42
there. It's mostly homeless people, but now more
8:45
than ever since food has gotten so expensive,
8:47
there are more people who are actually housed
8:49
who are showing up for food. It's been very eye
8:52
-opening for me to hang out with those folks.
8:56
You know, I always encourage the people who are
8:58
serving to not come from any place of, like,
9:01
being better. than or judging these people because
9:04
you know, there but for the grace of God, go I.
9:06
At some point any of us could be there any of
9:09
us could be there. When you treat somebody horizontally,
9:13
neighbor to neighbor, heart to heart, they.. they
9:17
get it, you know, it's not like people who are
9:19
proselytizing to try to where they're being fed
9:23
as conditional on them hearing, you know, like
9:25
a sermon or something. It's like, you deserve it
9:28
just because you're on this earth and you're
9:31
part of our greater human family. And when you
9:34
treat people like that, everything changes. I
9:37
don't have any patience for people who are rolling
9:39
their eyes, judgmental, because like I said,
9:41
we could all end up there. And just take a step
9:43
back and realize that these people are just as
9:47
valuable as a human as you are. Make eye contact
9:50
with people. Ask them their name, shake their
9:53
hand, acknowledge them on that level. It really
9:56
makes a difference, and you can tell in their
9:58
affect and the way that they treat you. It also
10:01
builds in this kind of reciprocity where I often
10:04
see people who are in line who are like, here's
10:06
one last item, and they'll kind of look around
10:08
and like, hey, does anybody need this more than
10:10
me? That happens all the time. That community
10:13
really does take care of itself. It's got a lot
10:15
of rough edges, but it's like any other human
10:17
community. My perspective is anything I can do
10:21
to make their day better, I'm going to do, of
10:23
course, within reason. Feeding them good quality
10:25
food. Do you make better decisions when you're
10:27
hydrated and well -fed? It's just a fact. Yeah,
10:30
your brain actually can work to what its capacity
10:33
is. Yeah. Your body can start healing. You have energy
10:37
to make it to a next point in your journey, wherever
10:40
it's going to go. And you also have more ability
10:43
to deal with changes and unexpected events as
10:46
it comes to you. You're more stable. just from
10:48
a physical standpoint. Absolutely. And you're
10:51
going to be making better decisions all the way
10:53
around. You know, this is all looking towards
10:56
the potential of somebody. All of these folks
10:58
have some potential. And it's weird when I say
11:01
all of these folks. I always feel uncomfortable
11:03
because it's like stereotyping these people.
11:07
Every single one of the people who are down there
11:10
have got a different story and come from a different
11:13
place. There are people who are completely sober
11:16
down there who have fallen out of hard times
11:18
and are homeless. There are people who are actively
11:21
addicted. There are people who are mentally ill.
11:24
There are people who are mentally ill and actively
11:27
addicted, and they all have a different story.
11:29
And I have to fight those base human emotions
11:33
as much as anybody else. I have to remind myself
11:36
every day when I'm encountering things, you know,
11:38
we have these weird knee jerk reactions emotionally
11:40
sometimes. In your past interview, you did mention
11:43
that you did want to see more people who were
11:45
not necessarily houseless or homeless. You wanted
11:49
people that were just regular people that had
11:51
a form of stability to also join in and connect
11:54
with the community that way. It sounds like you
11:56
have been seeing more and more of that. Yeah,
11:58
you wouldn't think so. But the hardest part really
12:00
was getting people to show up who weren't desperate
12:03
because, you know, a lot of nice people are kind
12:06
of like, oh, I don't want to take food away from
12:08
anybody who really needs it. which I totally
12:10
get that, but this is a different animal, really.
12:13
It's much more about connecting people and having
12:17
them all sit down at the table together so they
12:19
can learn from one another, people from all walks
12:21
of life, all different kinds of situations, and
12:24
everybody's in a different place. And you can
12:26
be from anywhere. You can identify any way you
12:29
want. The only thing that I really put my foot
12:31
down about is divisive narratives, you know,
12:34
no racist or sexist narratives or any of the ists.
12:39
There's no room for that here. That's not what
12:41
it's about. This is not for that. I'll just tell
12:56
you how Souper Sunday started and the delineation
12:59
between Souper Sunday and the Food Source Foundation.
13:02
Because it is a little bit entangled in the sense
13:05
that you were doing both of these at the same
13:07
time, but they needed to be some pathway separated
13:11
between the food service in terms of the Souper
13:15
Sunday giving soup and food meals, and then what
13:18
became a foundation that you manage separately,
13:21
so yes, go ahead. It almost happened backward, you
13:24
know. You think you would start the Foundation
13:25
first and then things would come out of that,
13:27
but September 10th 2023 I was sitting in front
13:32
of my computer, um, and uh, just doing some emails
13:37
I think, and I had this wave of electrical energy
13:41
come over me. It's difficult to describe because
13:44
it's a feeling unlike anything I've ever had
13:46
before, but it was palpable. Going from hanging
13:48
out and being myself to what is going on? Here's
13:52
this weird thing happening to me. And it was
13:54
totally positive. And attached to it was this
13:57
message, a pretty simple message, that I need
14:00
to start making soup for my neighbors for free.
14:02
Just start. Don't worry about the small stuff.
14:05
Don't let anything slow you down. Don't let any
14:08
minutiae get in your way. Make the soup and listen
14:11
to this idea and take it seriously. And I did.
14:15
I mean, it's the best thing I ever did was to
14:16
listen to that idea and take it seriously. One
14:28
of your goals from the beginning was to involve
14:30
money as little as possible simply because you
14:32
want it to be about food, and nutrients, and the
14:36
exchange of community rather than getting caught
14:40
up in everything that comes with the concept
14:44
of value purchasing or exchange. From what I
14:48
understood, you really wanted it to stand on
14:50
its own outside of that system of monetary value.
14:54
Has that changed at all now that you've had a
14:57
new organization to manage? Or is there still that
15:02
way to balance what you were talking about earlier
15:04
and try to keep the influence of money itself
15:08
as least influential as possible in what you're
15:11
doing? Yes and no. So those values were very
15:15
much part of the Souper Sunday groups. We wouldn't
15:20
take cash donations, partly because I didn't
15:23
want to have to deal with having a weird tax
15:26
situation for myself. That was part of the reason,
15:28
but the main reason is kind of what you were
15:29
saying. I wanted community to come together and
15:33
donate real things as opposed to just somebody
15:36
buying something on Amazon or whatever it is,
15:39
just the money part of it and the virtual nature.
15:43
I wanted somebody to bring a bag of potatoes
15:45
to my front porch, and that still is a huge part
15:49
of the Souper Sunday ethos. And this is a good
15:52
transition point where I can tell you sort of
15:55
the beginning of the Food Source Foundation and
15:58
how it started and what inspired me to do that.
16:00
With that being said, people were always offering
16:03
me money and I always had to turn it down. I
16:05
realized that it might be in our best interest
16:08
if we wanted to expand what we're doing to start
16:11
a nonprofit. My main motivation, though, the
16:14
inspiration was as people were showing up and
16:17
picking up food for the year that I was doing
16:19
Souper Sunday primarily, there were a lot of people
16:23
showing up who really needed like groceries and
16:26
food help. And their story was almost identical
16:31
from person to person. And I'll just tell you
16:33
about one woman who came and this really illustrates
16:35
it. She lives in Olympia. I think she works in
16:38
Tenino in a warehouse somewhere and she was making
16:42
like 27 bucks an hour. Rents a one bedroom apartment.
16:45
She has a car payment, no other big extraneous
16:48
bills. And when I met her, she was coming to
16:51
pick up some groceries. She was on her way back
16:54
from the blood bank. I think you can do it like
16:56
four times a month and she does it once a week
16:59
because after her bills and minimal bills, making
17:04
that much money at the beginning of the month,
17:06
she was food insecure. I heard that story over
17:08
and over and over again. The thing about her
17:11
that really makes me think about her is just
17:13
the metaphor of like, the system as a vampire
17:16
wasn't lost on me. So she's having to go and
17:18
sell her body fluids in order to be able to feed
17:22
herself and her partner. I heard that story in
17:26
various different incarnations again and again
17:29
and again. The thing is that there's a lot of
17:32
safety nets here, but not for the working poor.
17:36
You can't get SNAP benefits because you're making
17:39
too much money. If you're fully employed, you
17:41
can't take two or three hours off during the
17:43
middle of the day to go to the food bank. So
17:46
there are literally food insecure, hungry people
17:49
who are working full time and doing everything
17:51
right. So I thought I had to do something about
17:54
that. And I decided to start the Food Source
17:57
Foundation. If you go from like, all the different
18:01
larger food distributions, we're involved with
18:06
Tanino Food Bank, Jody Stoltz, who's an amazing
18:10
woman. And we get maybe 800 pounds or more of
18:14
food every Thursday delivered. That's a lot to
18:18
have to manage. It is, yeah. And fortunately,
18:20
I can take it now because we've got cold food
18:22
storage. I'll get all that together. then it's
18:26
usually earlier in the day. And then different
18:28
group members who are making food for other people
18:31
will come by and I'll distribute to them. They
18:34
will sub -distribute to other makers who they'll
18:38
pick up for them as a maker and then maybe two
18:40
other makers. And then all of those people will
18:43
make food and distribute it, and then it will
18:45
get distributed again if there's leftover stuff.
18:47
So I guess that illustrates just the level of
18:50
interconnectedness and community that a project
18:54
like this engenders. I structured it in a way
18:57
where, as part of our mission, we're able to
19:00
donate food to various different groups, and
19:04
they don't necessarily have to be nonprofits
19:06
themselves. Anyone who is legitimately trying
19:09
to feed other people. There's a woman, Jolene,
19:13
now who I'm talking to who is involved with the
19:16
Jungle. And yeah, whatever we can do to expand
19:19
the number of people that we're feeding who are
19:23
food insecure without restriction is what we're
19:25
here to do. Our motto is food is a human right.
19:28
You know, the ethos is Souper Sunday is to provide
19:32
food without restriction to anybody who wants
19:36
or needs it. Like I was saying before, it was
19:38
harder to have people show up who were housed
19:41
and fairly well off because they felt like it
19:44
was a soup line or soup kitchen like from
19:47
the 20s where you know people are waiting with
19:49
a bowl and dejected in a big line and it wasn't
19:52
that kind of model of desperation. Let's just
19:55
all reconnect through healthy delicious soup
19:58
and if you're coming to pick up you're just as
20:01
much a part of the project as if you're donating
20:03
food ingredients or whatever and then it really
20:07
started to take off. I got a lot of press and
20:09
there was that KOMO video. I don't know if you've
20:12
seen that or not. Eric Johnson from KOMO, he
20:14
used to do Eric's Little Heroes back in the 90s.
20:17
Then later he was just doing like kind of hometown
20:19
hero stuff and he heard about me and he did this
20:23
really an amazing job on this story. Six or seven
20:25
minutes and kind of a feel -good story about
20:28
what I was doing and it instantly caught fire
20:32
and this one has gotten three million views so
20:34
far. Oh wow, that's an incredible reach. Yeah,
20:37
which is pretty good. And I've heard from people
20:39
all over the country and from different countries
20:42
who've seen it, and it's really sad in a certain
20:44
way and it's good in a certain way. It has inspired
20:47
people to get out of their isolation and depression
20:50
and take action doing something. It's also been
20:54
very emotional for people who watch it. The sad
20:57
part of it is just hearing from so many people,
21:00
like hundreds if not thousands of people, who
21:02
contact me through Facebook and they're like,
21:05
You know, I've just been like lying in bed the
21:07
last three weeks, so depressed about the state
21:10
of the world and feeling like there's no hope
21:12
left. And then I saw this thing and it, you know,
21:15
just made me realize that there is something
21:19
positive out there and we can all do something.
21:21
And so I started cooking for my neighbor or whatever.
21:25
The good thing is that this project and certainly
21:31
this news story from KOMO has had the widest
21:33
reach. It's inspired a lot of people, and it's
21:36
still circulating. It is just a minor action
21:41
in the realm of the world and the universe and
21:44
time and space, but it means everything, as well.
21:48
So your sad elderly neighbor who hasn't had a
21:53
conversation with anybody for three months, and
21:56
you show up with some soup and come in and chat
21:59
with them. I've seen people like, just break down
22:03
into tears because they're getting acknowledged
22:05
in a world that feels like it is no longer for
22:08
them. So just that one thing, just like checking
22:12
in with somebody, those things seem like small
22:15
things and they are on some level, but at the
22:18
same time in the same space, they are what we're
22:21
put on earth to do. You know, it just seems like
22:23
that's the whole reason we're here is to take
22:26
care of one another. And there's so many distractions
22:29
to that. Speaking of neighborly and speaking
22:32
of that kind of activity of cooking food for
22:34
your neighbors, do you still serve soup out of
22:37
your house for neighbors at times? Up until about
22:41
a month and a half ago, yeah. I encourage people,
22:45
and I still do this to some extent, but a lesser
22:48
extent since we've gotten our brick -and -mortar
22:50
location. I love having something on the back
22:53
burner all the time. If you make a meal and you've
22:56
got the ends of vegetables left over and you
22:59
freeze them and then make that into a stock later
23:02
on, I do that all the time. So I always try to
23:04
have something on the back burner and I encourage
23:06
other people to do it too. If I make a meal for
23:08
myself, I'll often make eight portions and I'll
23:11
eat one that day and maybe save one for the next
23:14
day and then put on Buy Nothing or the Souper
23:17
Sunday group that I've got like, hey, have you
23:19
had a hard day today? I've got six portions of
23:22
this meal that I just made. And sometimes it'll
23:25
just be for one family or a couple of different
23:27
people will pick up. In the last episode we interviewed
23:46
you at, you mentioned that you had been collecting
23:48
soups as part of a food library. Oh yeah. But what you've
23:52
said now, it sounds like people are checking
23:54
out from the food library all over the place
23:57
and there's not a lot of time for it to sit.
23:59
People are getting it left and right. People
24:01
are sharing it with each other. There's a lot
24:03
of different down stems of distribution. That
24:06
sounds like it's become so successful that you
24:08
might not need the food library anymore. But
24:10
do you still have one? I do. Yeah. Yeah. About
24:30
seven weeks ago, we moved into the cannery at
24:34
Huber's Gasthaus. It's on Friendly Grove Road.
24:38
It's a really great space. It was an old cannery,
24:41
and the kind of patriarch of the Huber family
24:44
built it, I think, back in the 30s. It's been
24:47
various different things over the years. Oly
24:49
Kraut was here for 15 years. Oh, Oly Kraut. I
24:52
have heard of them. I think it's been about a
24:55
year since they moved out. But yeah, we've been
24:57
here. It's a lot of work to move all the stuff
25:00
that was donated from my house. So I have one
25:03
freezer left that was donated to us a couple
25:07
of years ago by the McKinney's, the appliance
25:10
store. I've been slowly giving this frozen soup
25:12
away because it was jam -packed full of soup.
25:14
That's the last piece of equipment that is still
25:17
at my house that we need to bring over here.
25:19
I plan on continuing to stockpile frozen soup
25:23
because it's really popular. And it's the kind
25:25
of thing somebody can just get in touch with
25:26
me or as we're expanding, there are other people
25:31
who are now kind of taking over different aspects
25:33
of the foundation from me, which is great because
25:36
I've been tired. Doing it all yourself is a hard
25:40
job. Yeah, yeah. It's impossible. But anyway,
25:44
yeah, so I've still got the soup library. I got
25:46
a request yesterday from somebody, and I'm giving
25:49
soup out to them, to Hillary, whose lovely kid
25:55
is, I think, having a procedure, so she really
26:00
needs some help with food. She's got a meal train
26:02
going on. But anyway, I still am doing that to
26:05
some extent out of my house. At some point, we'll
26:08
empty that freezer and thaw it out and bring
26:10
it over here. Since we moved in, I had the health
26:13
department by the day we moved in actually, and
26:16
just I wanted to kind of get ahead of any problems,
26:18
kind of know what we can do here, what we can't
26:20
do, and they were incredibly helpful. I didn't
26:24
think we were going to be able to do hot food
26:26
here, but the way that they've classified us
26:28
is a Good Samaritan free food classification.
26:32
It allows us to not necessarily have to be scrutinized
26:36
to the extent the restaurant is, which is really
26:38
helpful. I'm really strict about hygiene. We're
26:41
going to follow all the protocols, but we're
26:43
going to be able to do things like break down
26:46
a 25 -pound bag of rice into one -pound servings.
26:50
If you're doing that through a restaurant
26:52
kind of a situation, you either can't do it or
26:54
there's all these sort of stipulations about
26:56
it. So we're able to operate without a lot of
26:59
the restrictions that I was concerned about.
27:02
How long have you been working at it now? It's
27:06
been about a year and a half. A year and a half?
27:08
Yeah. And we've done a lot in a year and a half,
27:11
but we're at the point where we're having a board,
27:15
having all the liability insurance, having all
27:17
the legality legal stuff in place. We've got
27:21
our first couple of paid volunteers. Taylor is
27:24
our volunteer coordinator. We've got a huge database
27:27
of like 300 plus people who over the last year
27:30
and a half have asked to volunteer. It's been
27:32
outside my ability to be very effective with
27:36
that. It's worth the money to have somebody who
27:39
can organize it. And she's working with a food
27:42
bank to kind of learn how their operations work.
27:45
And the food bank has been incredibly supportive,
27:48
especially recently since John Ficker took over
27:51
the directorship of that. We've met a couple
27:53
of times and he's like all about sharing statistics
27:57
and information and his employees teaching people
28:00
how they do their volunteer coordination and
28:02
also delivering to people who are homebound for
28:05
one reason or another. We're going to move more
28:08
into that sort of a model. We need to really
28:10
get our delivery together. As we expand, we get
28:14
more organized. We get more of these systemic
28:16
processes in place. We'll be able to expand more,
28:20
serve more people in a better way. One of the
28:24
things I'm doing now is I'm putting in a commercial
28:26
kitchen. Here into the cannery, this building
28:29
right next to us? Okay. And I've been sourcing
28:32
equipment. So far got between $25 ,000 and $30
28:35
,000 worth of stainless steel tables and freezers
28:39
and chest freezers. I'm getting today, actually,
28:43
today's a really good example of, like, a full
28:46
day for me. We're doing this interview, and then
28:49
at 3pm, Clark Gilman from the city council is going
28:54
to come, and we're going to chat for an hour.
28:56
Then I've got a delivery and a pickup. And then
29:00
there is a church that is kind of in Tumwater
29:04
on Mottman Road, and they have this enormous
29:08
chest freezer, I think. It's 8 or 10 feet long.
29:12
It's the biggest chest freezer I've ever seen
29:14
that's not in a grocery store or something. And
29:19
they're donating that to us. So we just get all
29:23
this stuff. And everything that I can get donated,
29:26
that $500 or $1 ,000 or $1 ,500, is stuff that
29:31
I can keep to facilitate feeding people, either
29:34
with buying food or all the costs of operation.
29:47
And like I said, we're off to a good start. You
29:49
know, 11, 1200 food portions a week is pretty
29:52
good. But once we get situated here, and it's
29:56
going to be another month and a half of getting
29:58
more shelving units and more equipment to be
30:00
able to really start cooking here, we can do
30:03
cold food preparation. Last week, we put together
30:05
these basic boxes of non -perishables, 36 together
30:10
for community members. So at least they have
30:12
the base ingredients to be able to make some
30:14
healthy meals. And then if they've got vegetables
30:16
or meat or perishable stuff, it just takes away
30:18
that initial 30 bucks or 40 bucks they would
30:21
have to spend for food. So we can do that now,
30:23
but things are always taking longer than I think.
30:28
I kind of want everything yesterday. Realistically,
30:31
I think in two months we'll have a functioning
30:35
kitchen here and we can start having teams of
30:38
people come in and preparing food for some of
30:41
the things we're already connected with, and
30:43
I'm always trying to network and find out who's
30:46
making what and who needs support through especially
30:49
food ingredients. By the fall, probably, I'm
30:53
assuming we'll be able to, instead of 1 ,200
30:56
meal portions, have something between 4 ,000
30:59
to 5 ,000 per week. And then that will be a good...
31:02
When that happens, I'm not going to try to expand
31:04
beyond that for a while because that's going
31:07
to be a good, reasonable thing that we can do.
31:09
Having people here maybe five days a week, we
31:12
have a really good board and we've been talking
31:14
a lot about me being able to do the things that
31:17
I'm good at and not being spread so thin. So
31:20
we're actively working on that. I'm really good
31:23
at fundraising. I'm good at networking. I'm good
31:25
at creative ways to address where other people
31:29
see problems. I'm like, okay, well, we can do
31:31
this or this or this, you know, like I never
31:33
think, okay, it's at an end, we can't go forward.
31:36
But there's always something you can do. Speaking
31:38
of creative ways on how to address problems,
31:40
how's the children's book on soup going? Oh,
31:44
we finished it about eight months ago. Nice.
31:46
Yeah. Is it a fully illustrated and published?
31:50
Where can we find this book? If you go to foodsourcefoundation
31:54
.org, there's a link there where you can buy
31:56
it. That link takes more money than I'd like.
32:00
Although if people want to do it, it's totally
32:01
fine. But if they buy it from me, which they
32:05
can, you can just message me on Facebook and
32:07
I can always hook them up with a copy. It's 25
32:09
bucks. I sign every copy and it's meant to be
32:12
a book that encourages parents and children to
32:16
cook together, to teach kids how to cook. And
32:19
there's a message of community that goes through
32:21
the whole thing. It's just like sort of a cartoony
32:23
version of Souper Sunday and how that group works.
32:27
I'm glad that it was able to be completed. When
32:29
I was listening and I heard that you're working
32:31
on it, I was like, that's a great way to have
32:33
something to access to the community that lets
32:35
people start that process in their own homes
32:38
and then bring it to their families directly
32:41
that way. Absolutely. I think I've sold 250 copies
32:44
or so, maybe 300. Every single penny of that
32:47
goes directly to the Food Source Foundation.
32:49
Roxanne Groves, who's the talented artist who
32:53
illustrated it, has donated her work, so she
32:55
doesn't make anything either. What is the title
32:57
of the book? Bear's Souper Sunday Cookbook Recipes
33:01
for Hungry Animals. Bear's Souper Sunday Cookbook
33:04
Recipes for Hungry Animals. That's correct. And
33:08
it sounds very cute. It is, and it's funny. I'm
33:12
really proud of it. I can be a fairly dark, cynical
33:15
person. So let's make a children's book. Yeah,
33:19
yeah. It was very interesting and a challenge
33:23
for me to put myself in the innocence of childhood
33:28
and knowing who the audience was going to be,
33:30
not having any irony or whatever. It was hard.
33:36
It felt silly. to be that, like I said, that
33:39
innocent sort of vibe. But once I got the hang
33:42
of it, it became much easier. And it's a very
33:47
kind book. And there's like a sense of humor
33:51
and community. Like I said, each of the soups
33:54
is represented by a woodland animal. So for example,
33:59
African peanut soup is represented by squirrel.
34:14
Bear is sort of the matriarch of the book and
34:18
makes the soups, that kind of thing. One of the
34:21
kind of funny parts of it is I didn't plan for
34:24
it to be a vegetarian cookbook. You can't necessarily
34:27
make a chicken dish knowing that here's this
34:31
chicken character that you're forming a relationship
34:34
with. So it had to be a vegetarian book, although
34:37
I'm not a vegetarian personally. I can imagine
34:41
if I had a nine -to -five job and a couple of
34:44
kids, all the stuff that a parent has to go through
34:47
or a caregiver, that putting together a meal
34:49
on top of that can be exhausting. My heart goes
34:52
out to all the individuals that have to take
34:55
care of their families and that have a legacy
34:58
that they grew up with perhaps that they're trying
35:01
to keep going of providing food to their children
35:04
or cooking like their parents cooked for them
35:08
or try to cook better than that. Just holding
35:11
steady of you have to manage a household, that
35:14
work on its own is a full -time job. And juggling
35:18
that with your own full -time job, it can be
35:21
so exhausting. It can be so exhausting to be
35:24
somebody raising a family. And that's part of
35:27
the Souper Sunday idea is that it's in the founding
35:33
documents that it's available to anybody who
35:36
wants or needs it. If you're an artist who's
35:40
really like living day to day without a lot of
35:43
money, you're welcome to pick soup up. If you're
35:46
a hardworking parent who is at the end of the
35:50
day and you're just exhausted, like you can pick
35:52
three or four soups for your family and maybe
35:55
we'll have some bread too and it'll be a good
35:57
healthy meal. If you're a student and you're
35:59
working really hard, having a hard time getting
36:02
by, really scrambling to make ends meet, you're
36:05
welcome to pick food up. That was the Souper Sunday
36:07
idea. That idea is imbued in everything that
36:11
we do at the Food Source Foundation as well.
36:12
The idea that you only deserve free food if you're
36:16
homeless and you've spent your last dollar, I
36:19
think is kind of bull. It shouldn't be desperate.
36:21
We should be able to have a meal if we want or
36:25
need it. And the reality is that very few people
36:29
will exploit that system. I see us all as jewels
36:33
with all kinds of different facets. Some of them
36:37
shine bright. Some of them are dark. You'll run
36:39
into people whose facets are mostly dark, and
36:42
you're fine to not engage with that person, but
36:45
you can at least recognize that they're part
36:47
of the human family. So having an open -door
36:50
policy is the only way I could ever imagine doing
36:52
this. It's the same value system that the Thurston
36:57
County Food Bank has because food is a human
37:00
right, and it's not just for either people
37:04
who have enough money to pay for it, or people
37:07
who are getting SNAP benefits. It's for people
37:11
who are falling through the cracks in one way
37:13
or another, or maybe who just need the warm embrace
37:17
that a healthy, free soup is going to give them.
37:21
Highly processed foods are often, if not most
37:24
of the time, not only not beneficial for people,
37:28
But there's a level of toxicity. I'm a huge proponent
37:32
of whole foods. But at the same time, we live
37:35
in a world with a lot of rough edges and nothing's
37:38
perfect. So I like the 80 -20 rule. If I can
37:42
eat good quality whole foods 80 % of the time
37:45
and then 20 % whatever else I want to eat, I
37:49
think I'm doing pretty good. It's important to
37:52
realize that what you're trying to give somebody
37:54
is... not just meal or nutrients but the power
37:59
of a choice yeah sure when so many times they
38:02
may feel pushed into a corner where the only
38:05
thing they can afford for that moment or that
38:08
night is an unhealthy meal or unhealthy not even
38:12
a meal like a half of a meal giving somebody
38:15
a choice the agency to choose is important not
38:19
everyone is going to be able to have access to
38:23
the best food at all the time. Or the time to
38:25
put it together. But having that choice is really
38:28
important. Yeah, yeah, for sure. And again, those
38:31
two things can take place in the same space.
38:34
You can encourage people to eat as best as they
38:36
can and also acknowledge the fact that people's
38:39
situations, everyone is different and they might
38:42
not have the money, they might not have the time.
38:44
Being able to put a TV dinner in, it's going
38:46
to feed them to some extent. At the same time,
38:49
I really do try to point people in the direction
38:52
of how important it is to have a nutrient -dense
38:57
and nutritious diet to the best of their ability.
39:20
To switch gears a little bit, could you talk
39:23
about some specific groups that you do provide
39:25
support with with the Food Source Foundation?
39:29
You mentioned earlier the Tenino Food Bank. Could
39:31
you name a couple other groups that you connect
39:34
with? Yeah, sure. As far as the receiving part
39:37
of it, I get that big delivery from Tenino. There
39:41
is a woman, Nona, who works with a group called
39:46
The Glory Table. They bring a lot of food down
39:49
and distribute it to a lot of different places.
39:51
Every Tuesday, I get a delivery from her. There
39:54
are various different restaurants in town who
39:56
donate. Our newest one is a Gold Standard. Elise
40:00
Landry, I believe it is. Apparently, she was
40:02
on one or more of these competitive shows and
40:05
won. And she started this restaurant about a
40:08
month and a half ago. So, so far every week,
40:11
she's been giving me these two enormous tubs,
40:13
maybe 40 or 50 pounds of fried chicken. because
40:17
if you don't sell it after a certain point, I
40:20
can't remember how many hours or whatever, but
40:22
she puts it in her walk -in and once a week I
40:25
go and pick up food that I then further distribute
40:27
to various different organizations and individuals.
40:30
Another new one is Fungi Perfecti. Yeah. This
40:34
is Paul Stamets' company. I have a few friends
40:37
who work there and have known about them for
40:39
forever. They have officially now allowed us
40:43
to tell people that they're a sponsor of ours.
40:46
Last week, 12 employees came and spent the day
40:49
here helping us clean. There were some repairs,
40:52
and they also brought a whole bunch of kitchen
40:55
stuff to donate. Paul Stamets is the guy who
40:58
started it. He was a Greener. He's really brilliant.
41:01
He's become this rock star. They've been incredibly
41:03
supportive. They're really going out of their
41:05
way to help us. Um.. the restaurant that I was
41:08
trying to think of earlier, Hops and Drops is
41:10
a restaurant and they'll like over order something
41:14
or have something that is like reached the best
41:18
um best buy date and you know, we'll drop off
41:23
several cases of chicken wings or all kinds of
41:27
stuff... fajita meat And then you'll have to freeze
41:30
that right then and there or you'll have to distribute
41:32
that that day with your own network? How does
41:35
that work out? Everything goes directly into
41:36
the freezer or fridge depending on what it is.
41:39
And I'm really strict about not leaving stuff
41:42
out because foodborne illness is a real thing
41:47
and that's my main objective is to keep everything
41:50
safe. And then I guess secondly, things that
41:56
are... You know, good quality food, not highly
41:59
processed food. Because none of us need that.
42:13
You told me a story earlier of the woman that
42:17
was living out of her car when she first connected
42:19
with you with the Souper Sunday. Yeah, Allie.
42:22
Allie. That's a great success on its own just
42:24
to help one person. What are some of your favorite
42:27
success stories that you've gotten to be part
42:30
of? We interviewed three different women whose
42:33
lives have been changed by the process. One woman,
42:37
Hannah, Hannah Justis, who owns Busy Bee Automotive.
42:41
She said that starting her own Souper Sunday group
42:43
has drastically changed her life for the better.
42:47
There are just so many positive offshoots and
42:49
so many relationships that have been formed with
42:51
people who are getting together, all with the
42:54
sense of community, goodwill, celebrating our
42:57
humanity. I did get a message shortly after that
43:01
KOMO story was released, and it was a woman who
43:04
was in, I think, Nevada, and she had been really
43:08
depressed and was considering suicide one night
43:11
when she saw the story, and she said it gave
43:14
her just enough sort of hope to seek help the
43:18
next day. And I don't know what to do with that.
43:22
That's like humbling me. I'm just facilitating
43:25
this idea. I was really depressed before I started
43:29
doing this. Coming off of COVID and isolation,
43:33
and I'd lost my business a couple of years before
43:35
that, just rudderless in the world. And now I
43:38
have the gift of clear focus, something that
43:41
I'm excited to get up for every day, a sense
43:44
of purpose, and this huge sense of community
43:48
now with all the different people who are benefiting
43:50
from me sharing my story about this and being
43:54
involved, you know, boots on the ground involved.
43:57
There's this wonderful woman when we serve over
43:59
here at the church on Fridays. She brings in
44:02
table linens, and then she comes back at the
44:05
end and picks them up. That's the one thing she
44:08
does, and it just improves everything by that
44:12
much. For people to come in and feel like, wow,
44:15
this is a really nice distribution where it makes
44:18
them feel valued. Everybody's contributing in
44:21
this one way or another. Do that one thing and
44:24
it makes a difference in the world that is incredibly...
44:28
you know, we're in a dire position right now
44:31
of needing to heal all the negativity and divisiveness
44:38
and hatred that's going on. It's toxicity that
44:43
seems to have been... People are given permission
44:51
to be their worst selves now from a lot of different
44:54
places. And, you know, that can't go unaddressed.
45:00
And like you were saying, agency is really important.
45:04
And the agency we have is being able to, like,
45:08
cook that meal or... bring those linens or chat
45:14
with somebody who just needs to be acknowledged
45:19
as a human being. If people want to come volunteer,
45:31
should they contact Taylor? Should they shoot
45:33
an email? At this point still, it's best if you
45:36
just message me. On Facebook? On Facebook. Okay.
45:40
Or you can send an email to goodthingsmatter
45:43
at gmail .com, just the way it sounds. And then
45:46
I just forward that stuff to her and she plugs
45:49
it in and she's still working on the front end
45:51
of the database that we've been working on and
45:54
making that functional. The South Sound Resource
45:56
Guide also has a link to get in touch with volunteer
46:00
opportunities with you as well. That's right.
46:02
Is there a place maybe on your website for direct
46:05
donations that people can look for? There is.
46:08
If you go to foodsourcefoundation .org, off to
46:12
the right there's a donate button. It's called
46:14
Zeffy, and it's a really good system, totally
46:17
secure. It allows people to donate. Our laser
46:20
-light focus on donations now is our Many Hands
46:24
campaign. The Many Hands campaign is crucial
46:28
to our sustainability. and it's off to a good
46:31
start. The idea is if an individual commits to
46:34
donating 25 cents a day 7 .50 monthly if a lot
46:39
of people do it it can make a huge difference
46:41
there's a link on my facebook group and there's
46:45
a qr code my facebook group is soupersundayfree
46:49
soupforall If you go to that group on Facebook,
46:52
you'll be able to find a link there. That's really
46:55
important. We currently have enough money coming
46:58
in from those monthly donations to handle every
47:01
single expense associated with the new cannery
47:03
location. That's impressive. That's covering
47:06
all your expenses for this new location just
47:09
from that? Yeah, and the expenses are basically
47:12
rent and our dumpster because the landlords have
47:16
been really gracious in electricity and other
47:19
utilities. That's actually really fortunate that
47:22
you're able to have landlords that do that for
47:24
you. Yeah, no kidding. That's very impressive. Because so many
47:26
of those, like electricity alone can be so expensive
47:30
with how many freezers and refrigerators you're
47:33
running and with the costs of maintaining a kitchen
47:36
in there. That can be very expensive for people.
47:39
And I've been really clear that if those costs
47:42
go up, we'll talk and we can kick in some more
47:45
money for that stuff because they are really
47:47
helping us out. I know they're going to have
47:49
solar panels put on this summer. That should
47:51
be a good investment for them and for everybody.
47:55
Is that solar panel through Olympia Community
47:57
Solar? I don't know. I'll have to ask Christina,
48:01
but I'll find out for sure. That'd be really
48:04
cool. Yeah, that would be a good thing. They're
48:06
a great organization. Do you have any events
48:24
coming up that you want to let listeners know
48:27
about in the future? It can be next week. It
48:29
can be next month. Yeah, a couple of things I
48:32
could talk about. On the 29th, Mike Kelly, who
48:36
has got this great project, he gets and refurbishes
48:40
old computers that would otherwise end up in
48:42
the landfill and puts his own proprietary thing
48:46
on them. And they're safe from hackers and viruses.
48:51
And he gives them to low -income people in the
48:54
community for free. And we're going to do a Souper Computer
48:57
event at 3 Mags Brewery on the 29th. It's a Friday
49:02
from 3 to 7pm. He's going to give away computers,
49:06
and he's going to have a lot of them. And then
49:09
I'm going to give away soup and solicit contributions
49:12
for the Many Hands campaign. And as an aspect
49:15
of that, I have got these really nice kitchen
49:18
knives that I'm going to be giving people at
49:20
different levels as a premium for monthly donations.
49:24
Right on. That sounds like a great event. Free
49:26
computers, free soup, and then if you want to
49:30
contribute, you get some really good equipment.
49:32
Yeah. Is there anything else that you would like
49:47
to share? We could use some help. For quite a
49:51
while, I've been trying to get a delivery system
49:53
together. There are a lot of different reasons
49:54
why people are in need of delivery. It can be
49:57
as simple as like your car needs repair and you
50:00
don't have the money to repair it and you're
50:02
food insecure. There are people who have mental
50:04
health issues. There are people who had an operation
50:07
or a procedure and they can't walk for like two
50:11
and a half months. So all that is true. There
50:14
are people who are elderly and disabled and all
50:16
those people are just as deserving of food as
50:19
you and I are. So one of the things we've been
50:21
looking for is somebody who is proficient at
50:24
organizing a delivery system. We can pair them
50:28
with the Thurston County Food Bank and figure
50:30
out how they're doing it so we don't have to
50:32
reinvent the wheel. Another thing that I'd like
50:35
to mention is that I am eager to get together
50:38
with some other organizations. to be able to
50:41
use our cannery location as a food hub. We've
50:45
talked about it for a long time in Olympia, those
50:47
of us who've been involved in food sovereignty.
50:50
And we had, it's been about 12 years, we had
50:54
a big kind of food get together over a weekend
50:57
with guest speakers and breakout sessions. And
51:02
what came out of it was Olympia needed some sort
51:05
of a food hub just for... could be emergency reasons,
51:09
you know, like a volcano event or something,
51:11
or it could be distribution lines get cut off
51:14
for one of a hundred different reasons. So anyway,
51:18
I'm finally in the position where I can make
51:20
that happen. We'd like to involve other organizations
51:23
that are dedicated to issues of food sovereignty
51:26
that would dovetail with us and be able to operate
51:30
out of here. And I would love to hear from people
51:33
and network about... how to make that happen
51:36
in the best possible way. And that's it. I really
51:39
appreciate you guys. And it was a great interview.
51:42
Chris, thank you so much for your time. I appreciate
51:44
it as well. Souper Sunday and Food Source Foundation provide meals Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays from 6-7pm across from the Olympia Transit Center
52:06
at the corner of State and Washington, and at
52:10
Peace Lutheran Brethren Church on Fridays from
52:14
5 to 6 p .m., located at 2242 Friendly Grove
52:19
Road Northeast in Olympia. If you are interested
52:24
in volunteering, you can message Chris Hyde directly
52:27
through his Facebook group, SouperSundayFree
52:31
SoupforAll. or email him at goodthingsmatter
52:35
at gmail .com. You can send monetary donations
52:40
through his Facebook group link or by visiting
52:43
foodsourcefoundation .org. That's it for today's
52:56
Resource Report, produced by Pathways to Agency.
52:59
At Pathways to Agency, we are driven by the belief
53:02
that everyone should have the tools and support
53:05
to achieve their goals and thrive in their communities.
53:08
Our mission is to bridge the gaps in understanding,
53:11
accessibility, and trust by connecting individuals
53:14
to resources and sharing information processes
53:17
that can lead to personal and community growth.
53:21
Resource Report offers information about existing
53:24
and emerging nonprofits and resource organizations.
53:28
Find out more at pathwaystoagencies .org. From
53:32
there, you can follow the link to our podcast
53:34
archive and listen to any episode, anytime. And
53:38
check out our YouTube channel. KAOS Radio is
53:40
not responsible or liable for any views or opinions
53:44
expressed in the interviews conducted by Resource
53:46
Report. Till next time, and thanks for listening.