Plenty #38

John Woods:

I am proud of who's in the tent. I'm thrilled with the people that have come to support us, but I have to think about who's not in this tent, who's not here, where is everybody else? I'm telling you, there are 69,000 kids in Maine that need our help. If they were here in the room, we would open our lunch bag or take them down for a sandwich. I'm telling you that these kids don't have access to nutritional meals. If you're a corporation in Maine, how do you not find us? How do you not get involved?

John Naylor:

The thing that changed for me was the actual person to person relationship. It's loyalty and we're more willing to be like, all right, so we can help you here and what else do you have? And how can we become more of a part of the relationship between us and you as a farmer and then take that and move it off to the next step, which is where the in between people from the farm to the community.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Jen, you and I, well, we talk plenty, that's for sure.

Genevieve Morgan:

We do talk plenty, don't we?

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yes. And we seem to enjoy eating plenty, which is kind of what we're talking about today. We're talking about the fact that we live in a state that has lots of farmers and fish and resources, but also has some significant problems with hunger.

Genevieve Morgan:

It's pretty shocking when you actually look at the numbers of how many people in our state are food insecure, which means that they don't know where their next meal is coming from and that

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

is why we've asked John woods, the chair of Share Our Strength, Maine, and Jeff Landry, the chef and owner of the Farmer's Table, and John Naylor from the Rosemont Market and Bakery to come in and talk to us about all of this local plenty that we have and how we could perhaps make it more available to the children in our state who don't have the plenty that we experience and also how we ourselves can continue to bring locally grown foods onto our tables. Continuing a theme that we began the year with.

Genevieve Morgan:

Really, I think it's a really important topic for people to pay attention to because children, the children who are children today grow into the adults who are going to run our country in the future. And there's a lot of problems with kids who are not getting regular, a lot of cognitive problems, a lot of physical problems with kids who don't get enough to eat on a regular basis. And I don't know if you want to go into some of the specifics of that, but.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, when you talk about, we've talked about sort of the levels of need that people have, you know, you need food, you need shelter, you need emotional connection. And these are, are things that psychologists have been dealing with for years. But really, food sustenance, you can't go too long without something to eat, something to put in your belly. And when you don't have that very basic foundational something in you, it makes it hard for you to even function in your life.

Genevieve Morgan:

Well, I think kids nod off at school. They can't pay attention. Certainly if they're not getting enough protein, they can't build muscle. If they're not getting enough carbohydrates, their brain, the glucose to their brain starts to suffer and their actual neurodevelopment suffers. We have problems here with lead poisoning in some of the older homes. And part of that is because kids aren't getting enough nutrition, the right nutrition that actually keeps lead from binding to their molecules in their blood. And so the lead, they become at much higher risk for actually manifesting very lifelong problems with, from lead poisoning. So I think hunger in an age of abundance is one of those chronic and under reported problems.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And it's also, you talk about hunger, I mean, we've seen this rise in overweight and obese children in our state and across the country. And people then start to say, well, what's the issue? You know, obviously, how hungry could they be? They're fat, right? But just because children are overweight or obese does not mean that they're not hungry. What they are suffering from is a different sort of food insecurity, and that is the inability to access the types of foods that will get them learning correctly and having strong, healthy bones and growing properly.

Genevieve Morgan:

Well, and isn't there a correlation between food insecurity in youth and then a propensity for diabetes later on because of the way that your biochemistry works? If you're eating food that lack nutritional density and eating a lot of white food and white flour and white processed sugar, that's kind of. It wreaks havoc with your biochemistry, right?

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yes, that's absolutely true. The things that you do when you're younger in your life set you up for whatever's going to happen later in your life. And I don't know how much of this has been proven, but we know that the adolescent brain, for example, when it's exposed to alcohol and drugs, it changes the patterning and it makes it that much more addictive. Alcohol and drugs. I suspect the same thing is true in childhood with regard to the types of foods that you eat and additives, processed foods, the high fructose foods. I suspect the long term exposure to not the right type of foods can lead to problems down the road. And we know that childhood obesity leads to diabetes in adulthood. So I think you're right. Whether it's hunger for better foods or whether it's hunger for any foods, it's a significant issue. It's one that we need to address. And whether we're addressing it by feeding the children who have nothing, or whether we're addressing it by exposing our own children to locally grown foods like those at the Rosemont Market, it's something that is going to be, it should be on our radar screens always.

Genevieve Morgan:

Well, I'm glad we're bringing it to everybody's attention today.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yes. And those of you who are listening to the doctoralisa Radio Hour and Podcast this week will enjoy our interviews with John woods, the chair of Share Our Strength, Chef Jeff Landry from the Farmer's Table, and John Naylor from the Rosemont Market and Bakery. So keep on listening. The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is pleased to be sponsored by the University of New England. As part of their sponsorship, we offer a segment we call Wellness Innovations. In this week's Wellness Innovation, we find that new research underscores the health benefits of fibers, including bone health. For years, fiber intake among the global population has been extremely low, setting the stage for potentially serious long term public health implications. New research presented at the 2012 Experimental Biology Conference in San Diego adds to the body of emerging research on fibers, including additional support for the role of soluble corn fiber in bone health. Years of research point to the health benefits of fiber for cardiovascular health, blood glucose control, digestion and gut health, yet average intake is approximately half the recommended amount. For more information on this wellness innovation, go to www.drlisabelisle.com. for more information on the University of New England, go to une.edu

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Hour and Podcast is about something that's pretty near and dear to my heart and it has been for a long time. The show is called Plenty in the recognition that there is plenty out there, but also in the recognition that it may not be evenly distributed. So there is also hunger. And in the studio with us today we have John woods, who is the chair of Share Our Strength Maine. And I've heard John's personal story. I'm familiar with the story of Share Our Strength. I've been to these events and I think it's something that our listeners that you who are listening are really going to want to hear about. So welcome to the studio, John.

John Woods:

Nice to be here.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And then we have Genevieve Morgan sitting next to me. And Genevieve is our she's my co host, she's the wellness editor for Maine Magazine. So she has spent a lot of time thinking about food and how food impacts health. And I know that I do this and we've talked about this on the show a lot. But the interesting thing is you're coming at it from a different direction, that food impacts health and sort of the lack of food really impacts health and overall well being. So tell me a little bit about how you came to be involved. You personally tell me your story because it's fascinating. It's a great story.

John Woods:

I probably have three versions of this answer, but the one I probably go to the most is about the children in Maine. So my wife and I, my wife who's from Cape Elizabeth here in Maine, we moved here just about 10 years ago. And Diane, my wife, works at Timberland and they're a national sponsor of the organization Share Our Strength and at the time they did not have a presence here in Maine. And so when they started here seven years ago and she found that out, we decided to attend the Taste of The nation. So that was out on Great diamond island where it'll be again this year for the first time since. And in all the information that we're receiving about the organization, it came to our attention that in Maine alone There are over 69,000 kids who will go to bed tonight likely without a good nutritious meal. And as a father of four, we thought, how is this possible? How in this country where we have so much, the wealthiest country in the world, in a state like Maine, can this be? How can there be so many children that are going to go to sleep? And we found it unacceptable. So the next question was, alright, so if we're going to attend this first event and see what it's all about, is that the right place for us? And so over the last seven years, my involvement has changed from being someone who attended the event to someone who now oversees it and helps execute it so that we can raise as much money as we possibly can. What I liked about the organization or the reason I decided to get more involved is it is an all volunteer effort. So there's no office here in Maine, there's no place where we can that we have to spend a lot of money on. In fact, all of the money that's raised for the Taste of the Nation is then given back to organizations here in the state that do the hard work of finding these kids, these 69,000 plus kids, and getting them the food they need to live a healthy life. So three years ago they asked me to become the chairman of Taste of the Nation. And I tell the story. I'm told not to tell the story, but I tell the story like everyone took a step back and I was the only one standing out front. But that's not true. I really was looking forward to it because my background is hotel and restaurant management. I've also started a successful company that is in sales and marketing. And there are other ingredients in my background that say I think really I'm the right person for this job at this time.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So it's those ingredients that I think people are going to be so interested in. And when we talk about food insecurity, because that's what you're talking about. It's hunger, it's food insecurity, not knowing where the next meal is going to come from. You have a very intimate knowledge of this.

John Woods:

Well, yeah. Growing up outside of Boston, I grew up in a family of five and my father passed away quite young. He was 42 years old. My mom, like many moms out there, found herself in a situation where she had to feed five kids. You turn to your left and your right and you try to get your family to help out, but people are living their lives. And my grandmother was great and my aunts and uncles were great and they helped out, but all that together wasn't enough. And so my mom had to turn to public assistance for some period of time until she figured out the best way forward. But during that time I can remember personally and again, this is probably my second story that I tell about my involvement. I can remember ketchup sandwiches at night, but being a 10 year old boy coming home from school and being able to make a ketchup sandwich personally, I thought that was terrific. Hey, where's mom? She's out somewhere. Oh great. Awesome. I'm going to get have a ketchup sandwich for dinner. So I, you know, I'm kind of a glass half full person. So I'm gonna figure out how to make the best of these things. I think if you talk to some of my siblings, they may not have that same, you know, memory.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

They didn't like ketchup sandwiches quite as much as you did.

John Woods:

I guess they didn't. You know, I think there are some that thought that things were a little tougher. But you know, through these things for me there were opportunities. I went out and I started to work at a young age. I worked in restaurants and it led me to all these great experiences where I worked for Sheridan Corporation and then ultimately for Ritz Carlton hotels for 10 years and learned from the best. And so the idea of throwing this one day event where we can go out and try to get as much as we can donated to the event so we don't have to spend and then taking all the proceeds from the event and giving it back to organizations again like the Good Shepherd Food bank and the Preble Street Teen center and cultivating communities and the Opportunity Alliance. I think that all those ingredients we talked about led me to that place where I think we are very efficient. You know, beyond just throwing this great party, this great event, creating this marketplace in which we can raise money to then apply those dollars to end childhood hunger in Maine is only possible because of my life experience.

Genevieve Morgan:

Have you seen in the three years you've been chairing this event, the actual manifestation of some of your dollars? Have you seen kids get meals based on what you've done?

John Woods:

You know, I try to stay connected to our beneficiaries. I know the folks at the Good Shepherd Food bank very well. I know the great work that they do. Mark Swan at Preble Street, Gary Craig at Cultivating Communities. Yes, we have become closer, I think, than we had been. I think if I could, I'll share one story, and it's about our Cooking Matters program. So Share Our Strength is the overall organization. But within Share Our Strength, we have very specific platforms in which we try to either raise funds to end childhood hunger or we have an educational program. Because what we found out was, okay, so we're going to give our dollars to the Good Shepherd Food Bank. They're going to go purchase food items that allow families to supplement their groceries for the month. And what we found out very quickly was the families that are coming in to pick up their groceries often don't know how to cook what's in the box. You know, if you think of the life of a mom like my mom with five kids, it's pretty busy, and so she didn't have the time in her day to go back and prepare this great meal. So I have to think, if I searched my memory, that we stopped at a McDonald's or we stopped places where the food is not as nutritious as we would like to think kids can get access to. So at the Good shepherd, we see that every day. I don't see it because I'm not at that location, but when I do go there, I know that when families come in, very often they can't identify what a potato is. They don't know what a tomato is because we're removed from that. For those families who haven't been passed along the skill of cooking, oftentimes they get the end product. They don't get the raw product. And so when the families come through, they'll say, we'll say, you know, take these home. These just came in from the farm. Well, what are those? Well, those are potatoes. I don't know how to cook those, you know, or even further, they don't have the facilities to cook them. One of our chefs, you know, all of our chefs, by the way, without whom none of this would be possible, participate in not just the Taste of the Nation, but in the different programs that we run. So Cooking Matters is this amazing program where we put a chef together, volunteer chef together with a volunteer nutritionist, and they go to food pantries around the state. So when the families come in to pick up their supplemental groceries, those the chef and the nutritionist teaches them how to cook, cook what's in the box, in some cases to identify what's in the box. So one of our chefs, I like to circle around behind them sometimes and make sure things went well. And so I went into Chef Matthews, Larry Matthews, down at the Back Bay Grill. And Larry's, you know, a quiet guy, anyway. But I walked in, he says, john, what are you doing here? And I said, well, I know you had your first class last night. I thought I'd check in and see how it went. His head kind of went down a little bit, you know, it sunk down a little bit. And I thought, oh, my gosh, I hope it was okay, because Larry's such a great supporter of Taste of the Nation, and we're introducing him to this new platform. And he took a minute or so, and when he raised his head, he said, you know, John, I'm going to do this for a long time. Those families need our help so badly. He said, I had a mom who had two small kids with her, and I thought, I went in thinking, I'm going to teach them how to cook a whole chicken and make four meals out of it and make it last. And when, as part of the program, we interview, ask some questions about what are their facilities at home. And this mom was living in a cabin at Old Orchard Beach. Single mom, two young kids, and she could only afford something that was a seasonal cabin. There's no kitchen. So how do you cook a chicken when you don't have a stove? So she's working either out of a crock pot or a microwave, and that changes everything. Even though think about just the cleanup. You got to clean everything up in the sink and the bathroom. There are obstacles out there for families, moms, kids to deliver those nutritional meals, not just access to the food.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So you really have to go where people are coming from. You really can't even assume that they know what a potato is. You can't assume that they have kitchen facilities. You can't assume. You really can't assume anything.

John Woods:

We cannot.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You're starting from ground zero.

John Woods:

We cannot.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

That sounds like one of your challenges. Tell us about some of the other challenges you've encountered.

John Woods:

Overall, I'm pretty thrilled with how things are going. The Taste of the Nation is approaching a sellout this year. Our sponsor, support from companies like Hannaford and Bill Dodge Auto Group and many others. The list is long has been very, very strong. This year, still plenty of room for others to come. I often say last year I was interviewed at the event and they said, john, amazing event. How did it go? And I guess I paused and someone said, why the pause? And I said, because I am proud of who's in the Tent. I'm thrilled with the people that have come to support us. But I have to think about who's not in this tent, because we do our event in a beautiful tent by the water. Who's not here? Where is everybody else? I'm telling you, there are 69,000 kids in Maine that need our help. If they were here in the room, we would open our lunch bag or take them down for a sandwich. I'm telling you that these kids don't have access to nutritional meals. If you're a corporation in Maine, how do you not find us? How do you not get involved?

Genevieve Morgan:

Well, in my research, what I think is so startling about hunger in Maine is that we are only a population of 1.6 million people. That is not even the population of a major city in this country. And we're only talking about children here. There are also elderly and several other walks of life that are food insecure. It doesn't seem hard for a population of 1.6 million people to feed everyone.

John Woods:

Well. Billy Schor, if he were here, he founded Shore Strength 27 years ago. He's a Kennebunkport part time resident. And what Billy often says is ending hunger. Hunger for all people is hard, but feeding a child is not. This is a winnable fight. We know where these children are. We know that we can get them the food or access to the food that they need to live a healthy life. Billy, who's also written several books, one of which is called A Cathedral within, writes about. And the premise which kind of inspires me always is that in ancient times, when people designed a cathedral, they knew the day they started that they would never see the completed product. So seven years ago, we started building our own cathedral and we call it the no Kid Hungry campaign. And I know that there will be someone after me that'll come in and lead this. I have no question. I hope I'm around to see the completed product. No Kid Hungry. And we're going to build this cathedral. And we're going to find a way to make sure that the kids in Maine have access to the food they need to live a good, healthy life.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

This show is airing on June 3rd, which is right before, actually several different things that are happening that will raise awareness and money for Share Our Strength Maine. One of them is the Kennebunkport Festival. Genevieve Morgan is with Maine Magazine, and they sponsor this event. They put it all on. And I don't think people realize that Maine Magazine doesn't make money off of this. The money that is made goes to your organization. Talk to me about this.

John Woods:

Well, I think this is the radio Hour. I don't know if I have enough time to talk about how grateful I am to Maine Magazine and Kevin Thomas and Susan Grisanti for what they're doing with us. It is a great example of a perfect collaboration. It has also inspired me to collaborate with other events. So if you think of the Kennebunk Port Festival, they bring together like the Taste of the Nation does, our own event, the best chefs in the state, and they celebrate food and get together for this in this marketplace to bring these chefs together. When I first met Kevin and Susan and came in and introduced them to Share Our Strength, Kevin, who can be a little bit quiet, sat at the end of the table. And I said, kevin, you know, we have thousands of children in the state, and in the past, at the time, four years, I've been educating myself about this. I think I can do something about that. And I want to know if Maine Magazine would come in and help support that effort. So we chatted more about it, and at the end of it, he said, so what do you need from us, John? What do you need from Maine Magazine? I said, kevin, I need everything. I want your writers to write about us. I want your photographers to tell our story in pictures. I want you to introduce us to your advertisers and sponsors, because I think if people understand what's happening out there, we're going to get together, we're going to find a way, right? I know in my career with Share of Strength, and again, I'm a volunteer, but in my experience with Share of Strength, if there are 10 things we need to be successful in what we're doing, we're probably really strong with five or six of them. Our chef, the culinary community, understands it, gets it. You tell a chef that a kid is hungry, it is completely unacceptable to them. They say, what can we do. The volunteers in Maine, people are very giving of their time and energy, and they come and help us out. But with Maine Magazine, what they said to us is, we're going to throw a festival. We're going to throw this festival. We would like to donate proceeds to share our strength. So with us, it's two things. It raises funds that we desperately need to support programs like Good shepherd and Preble Street Teen center. But it also creates this awareness. They touch people that we don't necessarily get ourselves in front of or haven't to date. And we. So we're able to rally those individuals who go to the festival to this issue of childhood hunger.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So it really is sharing of the strength. It really is. This idea of plenty is very integral to what you're trying to do, is that there is plenty out there, but you're trying to sort of more equitably distribute it.

John Woods:

Well, I would say that it's really about access to food. In today's political climate of Democrats and Republicans, the one thing that I know they have agreed on is that a child being hungry is unacceptable. And that's why they've put a program together like Free and Reduced Meals at School. And so every child of every household in this state who lives at or below the poverty line has access to free meals or reduced meals at school. In many cases, we have not reached 100% involvement in those programs. So in that case, too, it's also letting those families know that they have access to good, nutritious meals at their schools so their children can live that healthy life. And so it's a collaboration from the federal government. And by the way, those dollars are already set aside. So the way the federal government spends their money is they say, well, we're going to fund. We're going to assume that those 69,000 children in Maine and in every state are going to take us up on this offer to pay for their lunch at school. And then it's up to the local government and both state and local, to let those families know about access to those programs. And when they do, the federal government sends those dollars to the state of Maine, which, of course, has a multiplying effect because the food that they're served is purchased locally. It's spent at the local farms and distributors and producers. And so one of our goals is to make sure that the families out there just know that Washington, this has been in place for many years, set aside these dollars. And if you have not taken advantage of this because new families that are growing up through the program may not be aware of it. If you just sign up, your children will get access to those meals.

Genevieve Morgan:

And just to be clear, this is a program that's available throughout the state in every public school.

John Woods:

That's correct. In every public school across the country.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

In a minute, we're going to bring in Jeff Landry, who is one of your chefs, and we're excited to have him talk about the work he's done with you. But first, I want to get a little bit personal. How has this impacted your family, your four children, your wife, the life that you're living?

John Woods:

You know, we're very blessed. We are fully employed. We have healthy kids in our house. When they come home off the bus, because my kids are all young, I make them a snack plate, and I'll cut some apples, and we'll sit around the kitchen table a little bit. And I know that these kids are well fed. There are times when they'll say to me, dad, what's the share of strength? What's. What are you spending? I know you're up late. I know you're doing all this work. Tell me more about it. And I share with them some stories that I hear, you know, and I think I love to tell stories, so I'll tell it to my two boys who are 13 and 11. My two girls are younger, so I'll get to them. But one of the stories I shared was From Chef Aaron McCargo of the Food Network, who's one of our national sponsors. And I heard him speak one time, and I'll never forget it. But he grew up in a hard place, too, in New Jersey, and he was a little boy, and he was telling the story about how his son said, hey, dad, what's that orange band you have on? Because it says, no kid hungry. Or, you know, the Livestrong armbands that everyone likes the kids love so much. And he said, well, son, that's that organization I'm helping show our strength. He's a national spokesperson. And. And he said, well, what's that about, dad? He said, well, there are kids that we know don't have food, and so we're going to try to find a way to get them access to food. And the son didn't pursue it any further. But a day or two went by, he tells the story, and the son came home and he said, you know, Dad, I think Kevin's hungry. One of his buddies at school, and Aaron McCorgo stopped right away, and he's like, really? Why do you say that? And he said, because I could hear his stomach rumbling at lunch, and he didn't have a lunch bag with him. He said, oh, really, son? So what'd you do? He said, well, Dad, I hope you don't mind, but I shared my lunch with him. And so the chef said, no, that's fine. That's fine, son. That's the right thing to do. And he said, I also gave him my snack to take home because I don't think he has any food at home. He said, why do you think that? He goes, because his mom. He said, his mom and his brother and he just moved into a hotel, and they don't have any food at home, dad. And so I gave them some of mine. And chef goes on to talk about. That's what drives him, right? Because it's easy. We see comments sometimes that kids don't need food, they're overweight. But the truth is, obesity is the opposite side of the same coin of hunger. I know children, even in my life, that are overweight, but they're overweight because they're not eating the right nutritious food. The mom is a single mom. The dad is gone, or vice versa. And when that child gets home, the mom's working two jobs, so she's not there, and she has to pay the bills. And so that child eats a sleeve of crackers or a bag of chips or cookies or, you know, the things that young kid's gonna do, but it has no nutrition. It's totally void. And so they become overweight from that.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Joining our conversation now is Chef Jeff Landry, who is the owner of the Farmer's Table. The Farmer's Table I've been to down near Commercial street, and. And it is focusing on fresh local foods. I know you do a lot with fresh, local foods, and the interesting thing to me is that you're doing a lot with fresh local foods now in this organization that John woods has been talking to us about. Share Our Strength main.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So tell me how you came to be involved with that, Jeff.

Jeff Landry:

You've been talking about seven years ago when all this started. Well, we were the. There was an original band of us that we've talked about, and I don't have children of my own. Never had, I guess, the time or whatever excuse I can make. But when the situation was presented to us that, you know, these numbers were staggering, and John was absolutely correct. You know, when you talk to a chef about hunger, especially a child being hungry, it's not acceptable in any form. So I think the initial gut reaction Was, you know, let's get involved with this. Let's see where it takes us. And the nice part about the whole organization is that John has taken it to a level that, you know, we could not have ever imagined back then. And our first, like you said, our first event was on Great Diamond Island. And I just remember myself being water taxied over with extra utensils and people forgetting stuff on shore. And it was raining right up until the time the ferries arrived. And it was just, you know, the stories were endless, you know, just trying to get stuff to the island. And it was my first time backing a box truck onto a barge to get stuff off the island.

John Naylor:

So there was a lot of, you

Jeff Landry:

know, there's a lot of great memories, there's a lot of, you know, a lot of great stories that went along with the first event. But, you know, I think the general feeling coming off of the island was this made a difference. And so second year rolls around, third year, here we are in our seventh year. Every year it gets better and better and that the people that are associated with the. The entire event are just phenomenal people. And John being the leader of the band, basically. So what we concentrate on at the restaurant, again, you know, we talk about nutritious food, we talk about making sure people are fed. Well, we are a business, obviously, and we are in the business of being a restaurant. But we also recognize that there's at least my focus is on local foods. And so I know that there are people in Maine growing these nutritious foods. They are available to everybody in the state. But it's. How do you get this food in front of people that don't have enough, they just can't afford or they don't have the. As John said, you know, they just. Sometimes it's just a matter of it's time. And there's also facilities to cook. And I've employed people on my own at the restaurant that don't have these facilities cooked. They have no kitchens, no anything, but they survive. We feed them at the restaurant, obviously, to make sure they're all set. But there's so many facets of this problem. You always wonder how you can get it into one neat little package. And it's difficult for all of us, I think.

John Woods:

I Try to tell a compelling story and say to people, if we can't help the children, if we can't figure this one out, then I think we're in bigger trouble. Maybe, you know, we have to figure out how to end childhood hunger here. And I think there are a lot of, you know, and I've met many, there are a lot of very smart people in this state. And once they hear that this is an existing problem and that we're coming to it with really long term sustainable solutions, they're going to come and help us out and we will end this.

Jeff Landry:

That's the truth. And I couldn't say it better. It's hard to throw money at a problem when you don't know that you have to go to the root of the problem. And I believe that, you know, through Share Our Strength and through the programs that we participate in, we're getting to that point where we understand where it's coming from and how do we. And the monies that we do raise and the classes that we do teach are all part of just making this come full circle and make sure that every kid's taken care of. I've had the good fortune of teaching two classes now for Cooking Matters, one being an adult class, Adults at Risk, and also who had children at home and then also teaching a grade school class. And I think both of them, both classes were fulfilling in different ways. I found that teaching the Adults at Risk class, where some had diabetes, some had children at home, was more difficult because these people already had their way of life set. They've had these habits. This is where they are. And there's not a lot of way they can get out of it, unfortunately. Whereas when you're in the classroom with the children, they were able to take these basic skills and this knowledge home with them and talk to their parents about it in a great way. And they were required to do some basic homework. You know, cook a meal at home for your parents is what we'd send them home with. We'd send them a bag of food and they'd have to cook the meal that they cooked in class with their parents. And they were really, they were excited about it. They were, you know, we had, there was a waiting list of children to get into this particular class because it was. And we could only take so many because you can only teach so many at a time, effectively, aside from the Taste of the Nation, the great party and everything else. I think, you know, when you see the grassroots of what this organization's about, it really, it Gives more definition to what we do on a daily basis, for sure. Our strength.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Where are the Cooking Matters classes offered?

John Woods:

The Cooking Matters classes are really a function of the Good Shepherd Food Bank. And so we're going into our second full year. And the way that Cooking Matters came to Maine is we were fortunate enough to find ConAgra Foods. ConAgra Foods is the sponsor, nationwide sponsor for Cooking Matters. They provided a grant for the first three years of Cooking Matters to begin here in the state of Maine. So we went over and talked to our good friends at the Good Shepherd Food bank and said, we have an educational program that we want to bring to Maine. We will staff it with one person. It's our only full time staff person here in the state, and we already found someone to pay for that person. So ConAgra is going to fund it for the first three years, and then we have to figure out how to do that ourselves. Will you house them here in Good Shepherd? And they said, of course. You know, they looked at the program and said, we deliver food to over 500 pantries around the state in every corner of the state of Maine. And if you can offer classes to those pantries and put a chef together with a nutritionist and teach the families who come in to those pantries that pick up their supplemental groceries, how could we possibly say no to that? It is an answer to a question they've had for a long time. So Cooking Matters, although it's a share of strength program, is housed here in Maine at the Good Shepherd Food Bank. And so they work directly with the good folks over there, and they make these classes available to pantries around the state. What I can tell you about that is that last year we did 29 classes. This year we'll do four times that. The demand is as great as we thought it would be. And so now we're rallying sponsors around this program to make sure that we have the funding to support it.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So how do people find out more about Cooking Matters?

John Woods:

I think for Cooking Matters, certainly they can go to the national website, which is www.strength.org, and at that site, you'll find out more about all of our programs locally. We have a Facebook site, of course, and you can always email info infosme.org and we'll make sure we get you the information that you need.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Tell us about some of the other events that are coming up that benefit Share Our Strength mean.

John Woods:

Well. We talked about the Kennebung Port Festival. We're really excited for that to come up. We'll be in attendance at all the events. And personally, I'll be down there to help support it in any way that I can. Of course, we have our big flagship fundraiser we call the Taste of the Nation this year. It's happening on June 24th on Great Diamond Island. We've been very fortunate that it's being hosted by the Diamond's Edge restaurant and Marina. The Prentice family has offered us their facilities. And so we're going to bring 20, 22 of the state's best chefs out there, put them alongside their chefs from both the Shebegin and Diamond's Ed, and throw this pretty amazing event. And tickets for that can be found at www.strength.org portlandme. So, yes, volunteers, event managers, chefs, and of course, sponsors, you know, organizations around the state that say this is something I think our organization, our company can get behind. We look for those guys every day.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And people can make a direct donation as well.

John Woods:

Yes, of course, you can do that directly through the national website, strength.org well,

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

we've been talking with John woods, the chair of share our strength, ME, and Chef Jeff Landry of the Farmer's Table here in Portland, who is also a chef chair, I believe, an honorary chef chair. Is that what I.

John Woods:

It is, yeah.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Is this what I read? And indeed it is. Very honorable what you're doing. We appreciate your coming in today and talking to us about this idea of hunger and the flip side, this idea of plenty, because we do have plenty and we all have the ability to share our strength. So we encourage our listeners to do just that.

John Woods:

Thank you for your time.

Jeff Landry:

Thank you very much.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

we just spent time speaking with John woods from Share Our Strength and Chef Jeff Landry of the Farmer's Table. And both of them brought in this idea of local food and the importance of local food, which has become a hot topic across the country as we all seek to eat better. And with us in studio today, we have a champion of local food long standing actually, within the Portland, Maine, area, John Naylor of the Rosemont Market. And give me your official Rosemont Market and Bakery, Rosemary.

John Naylor:

Yeah, Rosemont Market and Bakery. And then we have a new entity which is called the Rosemont Produce Company, just down on Commercial Street. Now, we just opened.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yeah. And that's right next to a new coffee place as well. Crema.

Genevieve Morgan:

Yeah.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So, John, how long has the Rosemont Market and Bakery been in existence?

John Naylor:

Oh, God. We started, I think, nine years ago. Eight.

John Woods:

Nine.

John Naylor:

We're on our ninth year. We're just coming into our ninth year right now. So it's. And previous to that, Scott and I, Scott Anderson is my partner, baker extraordinaire. We worked at the Portland Greengrocer. So it really came from that, too. So it's been a while cooking.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Why is it that local foods are so important, in your opinion, to health

John Naylor:

and, well, being, freshness, nutrients, I mean, that whole food aspect of it, how, you know, the energy you get from those kind of things. I also think it's healthy for the local economy. I think it's healthy for the community. And, you know, my experience over the last couple years is that it really has developed even more than, you know, the food benefits from it. It's the community benefits from it that I've come to really enjoy.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Earlier, we were speaking with John woods from Share Our Strength, Maine and Chef Jeff Landry from the Farmer's Table on Commercial Street. And they both talked about the importance of relationships as you attempt to bring plenty to people who, children, adults who don't have as much in terms of eating. And it's all about the relationship building. Tell me your thoughts on this relationships

John Naylor:

with farmers and what they produce. You know, coming from a, I guess a regular market kind of situation dealing with farmers, the Thing that changed for me was the actual person to person relationship. You know, it's loyalty, you know, it's, it's, you know, you've got somebody out there who's doing a production, and sometimes that production works well. We want to be there to actually get that production, to put it in our stores, because, you know, for us, that's important as far as an economic engine, but also to get that to the community. But sometimes, for instance, a crop, you know, won't do as well. And I don't want to put the bigger stores on the spot here. But, you know, a bigger store will be like, well, we can't deal with that. And they'll move along and kind of leave these guys hanging. And we're more willing to be like, all right, so we can help you here. And what else do you have? And how can we, how can we become more of a part of the relationship between us and you as a farmer and then take that and move it off to the next step, which is where the in between people from the farm to the community, we fill a role that's more of an individual role at this point, because we're selling one piece of fruit, one bit of vegetables to an individual. Whereas for instance, our new entity, they're selling 50 pound bags of potatoes to a restaurant in one sale. So the distribution you see is a little bit bigger. It's a little bit, you know, the relationship is different.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And this is the Rosemont Produce, that's

John Naylor:

the Rosemont Produce Company. And you know, these are some of the things that I've kind of learned from Martha, which is that, you know, there are farms in the community in Maine, which, when you think about it, there's three different tiers of farms that exist in Maine. A, the big commodity farmers, which are your blueberry farmers and your potato farmers, and they sign big contracts and they move a lot of stuff. And then there are the smaller farmers who do their, you know, their farmers markets. They do a little farm stand and there are a couple acre farms and they're really kind of happy doing that. The one farm issue is that middle guy who is, you know, years ago, before, you know, he got involved with interstate system and big farms. There were a lot of these farms that existed that were 20, 30 acre farms and they were truck farmers. And what they would do is actually they would get their living from growing a medium amount of acres of produce, bringing it to the city. Here, Commercial street was a great example where you see some of these old buildings that have the produce company and where the old greengrocer used to exist, that was an old produce company. Or they'd go to Chelsea Market. And once those big ag farms started to produce from the Midwest and the west and cheap produce could be had, all these farms kind of went by the wayside. And it's interesting to see because now that's starting to change, because the idea of transporting that stuff from the west coast to the east coast has gotten to be so expensive that it's now opened up a market for local farms to actually participate and be able to make money. What we do with our relationship is, is I'm not dictating to these guys at the farm. You know what we're going to pay. They tell me what they need to get for their produce. And that is a bit of a different switch in the marketplace.

Genevieve Morgan:

The name of your company, Rosemont Market, speaks of a diversity in your wares that really is tantalizing when you go into the store, because there's so much there. And I think it's a constant discovery for people when they walk in because they. This week it'll be one thing, Next week there'll be something new. One thing we were talking about earlier with John and Jeff was there's a disconnect between actually buying whole foods and the ability to cook whole foods. And one of the things that you do so well at the market is prepared foods that are actually really good for you. Can you speak, I mean, to some of the things that you have available that people can.

John Naylor:

You know, part of the. You know, when Scott and I got together for this market, the initial idea was we're going to have a kitchen, and we're going to do bread, and we're going to do some value added products. And how we did that was it kind of guided the way that our actual market developed, because when we first started out, we didn't have a lot of money, and we wanted to make our best efforts. So we would sell things that we could, if it didn't sell, could go back to the kitchen and we could value at it. So we kind of started out, you know, with chicken pot pies and different kinds of salads and things that made sense for us. And, you know, our kitchen was good enough that these things started to catch on. And so eventually what happened is instead of having the seconds, as we would say, go back to the kitchen. Now the kitchen comes out to the front and actually just takes things right off the shelf. And we. Our production has grown so much in the areas like soups we make great soups, for instance. Our soups are made with real chicken stocks, real beef stocks, real fish stocks, and that all comes from the store, the kitchen. After we, for instance, at our butcher shop, take apart a bunch of chickens, all the bones go to the kitchen, and they make a big batch of chicken stock. Chicken stock gets put in a container, put in the freezer, but also many gallons of it go back to our soup maker, and she makes, you know, chicken noodle soup or whatever with a really good chicken stock, really good ingredients. You know, we don't skimp on any of that stuff. A good example last week is the bakery and the savory kitchen switched over to Kate's butter, which is the main, main product. So instead of using Cabot's, which Erin didn't really, she had some questions about, she did her research, and she found that Kate's butter was a much better product made in Maine. And that's the product we're going to use. So that's why our products, I feel like a talented people. Good ingredients. And part of our motto at the store is we want to get the best products to you. And cooking. That's an interesting thing about cooking, because there are a lot of great chefs here. And a lot of these good chefs would tell you more times than not, it's sourcing really good product, and don't screw it up on the stove. Just Simply cook it. Let the freshness come out of that product. And that's an important feature, I think, in my cooking, for sure.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Is there also an educational component to the work that you're doing? Because I was in the store this past spring buying fiddleheads and buying ramps, and I brought them home. My kids know what they are because we've eaten them before. But not everybody does. Not everybody knows what some of the things are that are available locally. And even John woods was saying that some people in, say, farmer's market, in soup kitchens, which is a different demographic, but they don't even know what potatoes are. So is that a piece of what you need to do in order to get your locally grown foods to people's tables?

John Naylor:

Oh, yeah. You know, I think if any of the stores that you would go to, you would find people that work for us are very skilled in the food area. They. We try to hire people who are very skilled and then teach staff. You know, everybody who comes in. I think one of the things we're most looking for is a. That they are interested in what we're doing. That Rosemont attitude. It's like, you know, we're looking for good ingredients. We're looking for interest in food. We're looking for people to get all charged up about that. And, you know, that kind of culture has come from Scott and it's come from Dan up in Yarmouth and Joe and all these guys who are our managers. You know, when they hire people on, they're always looking for these people who are, like, interested and wanting to learn and wanting to come along. And they all teach them, you know, about food, about cooking, about all that stuff. And so it's. It's. Yeah, that's a. That's a learning and teaching thing right there. And then on top of that, you're going to get customers that are going to come in and, you know, they're going to find that it's a. You know, this is the kind of place they want to come to because it's. They're going to find things out, they're going to find good products, they're going to learn about all those things. And I would say most of our staff are capable of. Of, you know, passing that kind of information along.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What's interesting to me is that Whole Foods came into town, and we like Whole Foods. They at one point were sponsors of our radio show. They brought a lot of good things in. But we saw the disappearance of Portland Green Grocers. We saw the disappearance of Wild Oats, which of course was national. But you've been here, you've been getting stronger, you're expanding, the economy has gone downhill, but you haven't. So what are the secrets to your success?

John Naylor:

You know, I think it's our relationships, you know, which is what we started talking about to begin with. It's our relationships. If you look at where the stores are, they're located in communities that are. Our main business comes from those communities. People walk to them, you know, a snowy day, you know, usually, you know, nobody goes out to the grocery store. But where our stores are, people throw their kids on sleds, they put their boots on, you know, they walk to the store. You know, we're usually actually busier on snowy days because of that. We have staff that live in the community. It's like most of the staff at the Brighton store, they live in that community. They know a lot of people around there, and we get involved in the community. We just recently sponsored a little league team in Deering. I mean, everybody remembers their Little league team, you know, so now we have a little Rosemont Market Little League team, which is kind of cool. We get involved in cultivating community. And any kind of projects that we like to get involved with are projects that have to do with education and mostly with kids. It's important that kids know where food comes from and how to cook it and be involved in that. It's an important part of your life. You spend a lot of time eating. I think that's kind of a thing that you should be celebrating, you should look forward to. You should, you know, know a lot about. I mean, you know, it's important.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And John, just remind us one more time about where your locations are so that our listeners can find them.

John Naylor:

We have a location in Yarmouth, 96 Main street and we have another location up on Munjoy Hill, which is 88 Congress. And then we have 580 Brighton Avenue, which is out in Deering. And then our newest location is 5 Commercial street, which is the Rosemont Produce Company.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

We're glad that you're bringing the locally grown foods to the local tables. Jen and I can both attest to your success. We've had your delicious food, your delicious soup. My Sophie loves your pretzels. So does John McCain. So if you're out there listening and you are in the area, please do stop by and visit one of your Rosemont markets and maybe meet John. Thanks for coming in today, John.

John Naylor:

Thank you.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Today's guests include John Woods, Chair of Share Our Strength, Jeff Landry from the Farmer's Table and John Naylor from the Rosemont Market and Bakery. We at the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast encourage you to find ways in which you might share your strength with the community. Visit their website and find out how you can help decrease childhood hunger in Maine. Also, find your way down to the Rosemont Market and Bakery and make an effort to enjoy the local foods which are so bountiful this time of year. This is Dr. Lisa Belisle. Thank you for listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hourm Podcast. Be sure to download our past podcasts on itunes, like us on Facebook or visit.orlisa.org for additional information about our guests. Thank you for being part of our world. May you have a bountiful life.