And so, before I get into telling you how we learn from you directly because I think it's going to open up a few concepts that are important. Do you think that this is a... And after all is said and done, given that for example, our federal budget, we have almost a trillion dollars going to the military, all right? And that we're cutting down on basics, right? The infrastructure projects are not getting the dollars that they need, you know, the safety net is just fraying. Do you think it is in fact, after all is said and done, a crisis of democracy? The people, the 90 plus percent of the people who should have a say into where the budget goes. Where do our tax dollars go? That should be dictated, you know, methodically and systematically, not chronically, right? Every single budget should be dictated by 90% the majority of the people. And the majority of people are, you know, the working class, amongst them a good chunk of them being always in a very precarious situation. Do you think that if we had an actual democracy, right? These problems would basically almost disappear over time quickly as opposed to where we are today where the decisions about just basic things like the budget is being dictated by political forces that do not represent the vast majority of the people.
Yeah. Well, I just read this morning that the Senate decided not to pass extending the Affordable Care Act credits. Millions of Americans are going to feel that very quickly. They're going to be feeling that next month when their health insurance bills double. We have the opportunity to voice our opinions at the voting polls. You know, I think my hope is that a lot of the concerns that Democrats have been raising and talking about of the costs of food prices, the cost of health insurance, the cost of housing, all of those increases that the bottom majority of Americans are feeling, it's going to hit your pocketbook. And I think, you know, electing politicians that care about these and to your point of like how are they allocating the budget, that's going to impact everyday Americans versus the elite few.
Yeah. I really believe that the core of it is it's a failure of our democracy. And the tragedy is people are not going to really get involved in their local government and all that because they're just consumed by survival, right? And so, it creates a condition of weakened democracy as a result of that kind of situation where, you know, you don't have time really to go and do... My frozen? Do you see me frozen?
Yeah, but I can hear you.
Okay. Because I thought it was just me. Anyway, it's an interesting pose I have there. But anyway, so I think it's sort of like a vicious circle, you know what I mean? To get democracy, people have to have at least a baseline of where they can actually have time to go and engage in that and attend, you know, at least have the peace of mind to think beyond tomorrow.
And so, okay. So, let me tell you how your book inspired us to act, right? So, somewhere in the middle of that chapter down, because my work has me engaged with lots of service coordinators, right? And so, I noticed this situation that I live in my bubble, you know, in McLean, Virginia, just outside of DC. So, I had no idea, to be honest with you, just how... And I don't think... I mean, I consider myself a decent human being, right? And I think the vast majority of people are decent human beings. They care about... We are social animals and we have compassion. And our society... I mean, they say, 'Oh, we need rules and all that.' The rules and all that would not work if people were not actually decent, you know, you can just look at the traffic, right? People follow not because they will be punished, but because it's the right thing to do, right? Anyway, so I have this feeling or sort of the... you know, people are decent. Vast majority of people are decent. And yet, we all live in our bubbles and I think I'm typical in terms of I didn't realize just the extent of this silent suffering that's going on. And then when I read your book, you know, that suffering is not chronic or it's not episodic... it's not like a crisis is happening all the time, right? There is just a constant hum of suffering that's going on out there unnecessarily, to be honest with you. And so in that midst, I started asking the basic questions, which is the first one that I asked like, 'Wait a minute. This is what I know... I know that this country is wealthy. I know that there is food that's being wasted, you know, talking about tons and tons of them every single day thrown away. And yet here we are. We have these seniors, most vulnerable, right? It's obscene that old people would have to choose between medicine and food, for example, or have to go, you know, and some of them were going like two or three days in a row eating just to fill their stomach. So, eating unhealthy food. Not food knowledge, you know, they go to the dollar store and they get some stuff, right? That is not healthy for you at all. And if you have a condition like diabetes and all that, it even makes it even worse. So, you can see that vicious circle. Anyway, all these things just hit me in the face, you know, as I became aware of them, right? And so, since I'm one of those people who just decide to act and act. And I have a network of people who are like me, decided to launch a nonprofit called the First Access Foundation, right? And the First Access Foundation, sort of as a result of reading your book, comes to the conclusion that in order to solve the problem, first of all, it needs to be solved permanently, almost permanently, meaning if we are going to set up a food pantry, that food pantry cannot be reactive. There has to be an infrastructure, right? Where it's part of the job of whoever service coordinator, right? Part of their job that food... you know, they have a network of volunteers. Those volunteers are not episodic. They're part of an established network and the drivers, the food bank, you know, and we created that actually the foundation mainly because many of these people in order to access the food bank, there was some paperwork. They need to show that they were part of a nonprofit or something, right? And so, that's at least for some of them, right? And some of them were not part of a nonprofit. So, they were like this roadblock, right? And so, how do I solve this, right? So, I say, 'Okay, just declare yourself as part of this foundation, right? Here's our EIN and all that. And just fill out paperwork, right?' And so, all of a sudden, folks were able to zoom through that initial hurdle, get to the food bank, right? And then, okay, well, then you have food bank, but how do I transport it? Okay. And so right now we're in the middle of launching our very first one by the end of December that has these replicable end-to-end, right? Food pantry that is sustainable, number one. Number two, that observes and respects many of your principles, which is you can't just give them... because initially we're like, 'We're going to give them like a packet, right? And they take it, right?' And then when we read like, 'Okay, well, maybe that's better than nothing, but maybe we can do better than that.' We can do better than that by just incorporating it, right? And so, like for example, for the first pantry, and it's going to be in... it's in High Point, North Carolina. There's one community I'm working with a service coordinator. And so, we found, for example, we're just about to get somebody who's donating a freezer, right? You know, so they're donating a freezer, they're going to install it there so they can store perishables there, fridge, right? Because they don't have a big freezer enough, right? And then there's a carpenter who's going to put up a pantry so that they can put the food there. These are all volunteers, right? And they're all there. It was not a big deal to find them, to be honest with you. It just requires some will, right?
And I'm curious, why High Point, North Carolina if you're in McLean? How did you find...
Well, I mean, you know, my company works with lots and lots of these service coordinators. And so, I made out the call. Somebody who wants to be the pilot. And many of them applied and so on. And this one was the one that was chosen. So, yeah. And it's actually... and one of the key important things it needs to be replicable, right? So, it's not going to be a one-off, right? So part of the sort of the deliverable there so to speak is the food pantry itself sustainable, but also here's how we did it and we need to do it in such a way that the next one... and we'll try to do as many as we can until we figure out like a template or set of processes and so on and maybe a network of people will be able to help with the processes and all that. The bottom line really is the following, right? You know, once we decided... once we realized that the resources are there, it's a matter of logistics, a matter of will, a matter of effort and once you set it up, you know, if you have people who are willing to maintain it, you know, they will. And so I'll start with the first tenant that I think was very useful to us, which is choice, right? Why is that important in your opinion?
A whole chapter in my book about choice and whenever I present and talk about my work, it always comes up. There's not hard data on this, but the data that I have and visiting many, many food pantries and talking with many, many food banks for years around the country, about half of all food pantries in the country don't offer choice. And that became very apparent during COVID because with public health precautions we had to be careful and we went to pre-bagging food. And many food pantries got used to that and it's time to bring back choice. It's time to bring folks back inside and there's a couple of things... we've done some really rigorous research with Feeding America and a number of food banks around the country. When food pantries offer what I call full choice, and that's not just limited maybe you get to select one item, but you design a food pantry like a grocery store where people can actually touch, look at the food, touch it, put it in their own bag. That's full choice. You have better satisfaction from the neighbors themselves. That makes sense. You have better satisfaction for the staff and volunteers. Many of them who were skeptical and said I don't think we can do this, were afraid people may take too much food. When they convert to full choice, they say we'd never go back. Like this is just a better way to run a food pantry and you have less food waste. So we're all concerned environmentally about food waste in our culture and when people can choose their food, they're going to select the food that they know their family can use. And that's where you can see more cultural food preferences, you can see what people are selecting. The other thing that I think is important when we think about choice, especially for seniors, is we have an epidemic of loneliness in our society. Many people feel isolated, feel left alone. Like you want a social connection and especially for elderly senior citizens, it's challenging. Many of them living alone or not having social support. When you drive up or when you go to a food pantry and they hand you a bag of food, it tends to be very transactional. We're just trying to efficiently move the food. And when you offer choice, it opens up the opportunity to have more relationship, to have conversations, to look folks in the eye, how are you doing today? And sometimes that interaction, that relationship can be like the only interaction you may have in a day where you feel seen and you feel heard. And those relationships, those conversations can open the door to other service navigation and other wrap-around supports. Like tell me more, what's going on with you? Like oh, I'm having a hard time paying my medical bills. How can we connect you with some other supports? I'm having a hard time with transportation. Let's connect you with some other services. So choice is just a game changer and from the research that I've done, pretty much 100% of the time and it's a really incredible track record, when food pantries convert to offering more choice, they just say it's a better way to run a food pantry.
