Ep. 54 Big Green DAO 2024 Annual - Power Plant Podcast: Our Space World

SSG Lacy "Mc" McDonald is joined by Nicole Reese and Jae Flower. Our Space World has a mission to cooperatively educate, organize, and support squads of land stewards and Earth healers. They do this by helping systematically disadvantaged farmers, builders, healers, and educators attain sovereignty and sustainability. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Yo, here we are, Denver, Colorado, mile high up. Yes, it's dry. Yes, it's hot. But we are unstoppable growth with Big Green Dow. You're sitting with the Power Plant podcast that is offered here. My co-host Stephen Lucky is out there right now, probably talking about agro tech, you know, trying to inspire folks to get down with that. But today I have two amazing guests with me that are all about food, but not about just food, about community and just giving, man. Can you introduce yourself and your organization?

SPEAKER_00 0:41

Absolutely. So I'll go first. My name is Nicole Reese. Um, I work for R Space World Inc., it's a nonprofit in the DC, Maryland, and Virginia area. Um at R Space World, I am the Farm to Food Sovereignty Academy Coordinator. I know that that's a mouthful, but we do a lot. So in that role, I do a lot of um training up young farmers and getting people acclimated to the land.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

That's fresh. Yeah, that was fine. And who is this co who's your co-conspirator over here?

SPEAKER_03 1:16

All of a sudden, I am not shy. Um, but I'm Jay Flower, pronoun she, her, and I am also a part of the Ourspace team, and I like to call myself a farmer-friendly admin. Um, farmers do a lot on the land. Uh, they're out there, it's hot, it's raining, they're sweating, they're doing manual labor all day, and sometimes checking their emails or sending a message or getting something printed or writing a grant, those sorts of things um can be hard to manage. So I'm the person that's like, all right, I got you. What's up? What you need?

SPEAKER_01 1:50

That's dope. That's dope. So chocolate city.

SPEAKER_03 1:54

Chocolate city.

SPEAKER_01 1:55

Chocolate City.

SPEAKER_02 1:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

You know, I it was a culture shock for me when I went to uh Washington, D.C. You know, I come from Denver, Colorado. Okay, and if you haven't noticed, there ain't a lot of black folks here. Yeah, uh, or at least here in this area. What's crazy is that this is a gentrified part of Denver. This was the Harlem of the West, and it's uh five points. So, like we had the most physicians, black owned businesses west of the Mississippi was right here.

SPEAKER_03 2:21

Oh wow, wow, yeah, and now you have coffee shops.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

Now we have coffee shops, yes.

SPEAKER_03 2:26

Yeah, gotta have your caffeine. Yeah, when we were on the flight here, um I stood up and I was we I was on the very front of the plane, and I looked back as we were getting luggage and stuff, and I said, Oh, Nicole, I think we're the only ones on here. She's like, the only ones. I was like, the only one, you know, I'm just trying to be subtle about it. The only ones.

SPEAKER_01 2:46

No, I think that is it's very important to say because there's a lot of spaces. Well, I'm speaking for myself, uh, there have been many a situation where I was the only blackface in certain spaces. And uh that can be quite intimidating. And uh in fact, before we start getting off into your organizations, because you know, we're here to highlight your work, right? But I also want us to be real while we're talking in these podcasts, especially as we highlight your work. Like, how difficult is it when you go into spaces where you're the only black face? How how like how does that make you feel? How do you operate in those areas? Because some folks don't understand that.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

For me, I think I I have a I think my my perspective is a little different. Because I grew up in the DC area, and I grew up um specifically in Prince George's County, there were black people everywhere. Everywhere, right? And you would go to the grocery store, see black people everywhere, all different types of shades, hues, everything. And you know, when I went to college and I was the only black girl in my class at Pittsburgh, I was like, oh, this is a culture shock. But because I had had that foundation of who I was, going into majority uh white spaces is not intimidating to me. I I'm wondering what your perspective is.

SPEAKER_03 4:14

Um, the people here in Denver are very nice. Especially in this country and in our political climate, just depends on what part of town you're. You know, like if you're in the hood, you might be nervous if it's not your hood. Like, yeah, like I just I feel very safe and okay in Denver. I just I just like yeah, I like y'all folks out here. Thank you. Everyone's very friendly. The culture here is very, and one woman was just like, it's the Midwest. It was the Midwest. But if it was like Alabama and I just came from Alabama, maybe I would be a little give people, but I'm also very confident and secure and just like understand the history of this country and that we're all human first and just have I try to lead with grace and assume the best of people, but um not necessarily in Alabama. Um they just they need to do some rebranding, like Mississippi, Alabama, Texas just needs rebranding.

SPEAKER_01 5:11

What my grandmama's from Carthage, Mississippi. Okay, no, okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:17

But you know, like if I was in an all-white space in Mississippi, yeah, it would be a different kind of consideration. I know I I do I need to I have to squat up like in my body, you know. But in Denver, I feel like, hmm, hey.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

Well, that's good, good, good.

SPEAKER_03 5:35

Can I have some cobra? Like, it's nice. It's just nice.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

Well, good. That's glad. I'm glad to hear that my city's repping out there and you feel comfortable coming into these spaces. Um, well, let's get started off with the the work that you do. Okay. This year, give me some goals. Like, what do you what's your dreams this year? What are y'all trying to do this year?

SPEAKER_03 5:56

You know what? I have a question for you.

SPEAKER_01 5:57

Yes, ma'am.

SPEAKER_03 5:58

What is your name?

SPEAKER_01 5:59

I'm Staff Sergeant Mac.

SPEAKER_03 6:01

Hi, Staff Sergeant Mack. Nice to meet you and yours. Hi, Mark Marcus. Marcos. Marcos. Nice to meet you both.

SPEAKER_01 6:10

I'm like, yeah, we just talking about Marcus straight out from uh Texas, Gardopia. Okay. I'm from Denver, Colorado. My nonprofits called Outer Haven. I am one of the original six members of the Dow. In fact, I'm one of the last ones that's rotating off of the committee. Okay. And uh one day I'll be uh we call them heirlooms. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 6:33

So uh I farmers are so corny, it's just when you think there's no other word play possible, you get on a podcast and it's called PowerPlant. That's right. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

And you know, luckily, yes, I you know, I have some pretty decent confidence because I was surrounded by powerful, beautiful women of color uh taking this spot as one of the six members. I was the only dude holding that spot, uh, surrounded by folks that have been doing the work, like legends in their community, you know, Wande, uh Vero, Catherine, Ade, like just a full different spectrum. And and Diana, of course, representing uh Big Green in her seat. So like it's it's been such a beautiful, amazing journey. Uh and I've learned that I'm not alone in this work, which I feel is extremely important. Uh, we get siloed far too often in the work that we do, and uh we tend to forget that there's other folks out there that are doing that too. Yeah, and how can we collaborate together to make it happen? Yeah, and that's uh I'm hoping something that you can take from your time here with the DAO is like how can you utilize and leverage the DAO to improve your work and also create new pathways of uh collaboration and networking.

SPEAKER_03 8:03

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I feel like the biggest takeaway or one of the workshops, we just walked out of a um that it was like the tail end of a fundraising workshop, but there was another one yesterday. Um and what she presented was this idea of how nonprofits are funding, and nonprofit does not mean free. Nonprofit does not mean struggle. Um we don't have to give away the food, give away the labor, give away the resources like that. It has value and like just value valuing ourselves as an org. Um just because we're doing good work from this hard space doesn't mean that we can't be sustainable to make sure that we can make the impact that we want to make. And so the biggest note from that one was just like um 50% of organizations that are like really making money and really sustainable, they're like getting most of their money, 50% of their money from um selling goods. And that 12% of them are grants. And I was like, I just feel like so many nonprofits are like dependent on grants. Yes, and so my biggest takeaway is coming out of here, going to our ED and saying, All right, how can we get off of this grant train? This grant gravy train.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

Well, I got a question for y'all. Seeing though, because that sounds like that is a goal, yeah. Right?

SPEAKER_03 9:22

Um, not my department, but something for the suggestion.

SPEAKER_01 9:27

It sounds like a goal to me. And uh as we go into goals, what is your goals uh as far as your organization? Like where are y'all going? What what do you want to accomplish this year?

SPEAKER_00 9:39

Yeah, so this year we have um so we have an initiative called the Ujima Initiative. Um, Ujima means collective work and responsibility. Um Swahili.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

Yeah, Swahili, okay exactly.

SPEAKER_00 9:55

And so we have really been working to um utilize every single person that is a part of the farm space, right? So that means um collaborating with a lot of different farmers, that means um getting young people interested, that means talking to builders, talking to chefs, talking to all of these different um players that are in the food scene and working together collaboratively in order to really make a change. Because what we've noticed is that a lot of farmers work in silos, as we were saying earlier. They work in silos, it's it feels heavy, it feels like all this responsibility is on me. I'm responsible for this whole thing, this is overwhelming, right? And so, what we have done in our um initiatives is we have showed that you can have squads of land stewards go to a farm and make something shake. And at the end of the day, we'll spend four, six, eight hours there. At the end of the day, every single farmer is like, wow, like I have been doing this by myself this whole time, and I don't have to do that. And we have been very adamant on being on letting them know that they have community, that if they just keep in touch, we'll keep in touch with them. We're all gonna be working together, we're all gonna be considering each other in our day-to-day, and that's gonna make the farm life a lot more easy, and that's gonna that's gonna allow us to all collectively move towards food sovereignty.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

Okay, sounds like some unstoppable growth going on.

SPEAKER_03 11:31

Yeah, we're growing. Um, one of our guiding principles are is an old Kenyan proverb that sticks in a bundle are hard to break. And so it's about collaboration, it's about coming together. So we have our academy um where it's a workforce development program, and you come in not knowing anything about farming, and you come out, you are a production farmer. Um entry level, but a production farmer, and we're helping you to find placement with other farms and other jobs, and then also kind of making sure that you know there's other ways outside of just not just, but being a production farmer where you can work in the ag space. We also go are launching our black food truck um on October 16th, maybe October 12th. Shout out to Jimmy, um, where the farmers in our co-op uh will give us their produce, we'll buy their produce, and then we'll like an ice cream truck go around DC and Maryland to sell produce. So, really making sure that the food spots at. I know, but not my department.

SPEAKER_01 12:33

How can we be there for that?

SPEAKER_03 12:35

I would love to have you there. We should drive to Colorado. We should do like a road with a black food truck. It's gonna be like it's a really sick truck, and it like it has all the refrigerated and you open it up and you play the music, and you know, ah, that's great.

SPEAKER_01 12:52

That's dope. That is dope. So I heard a lot just now, just different ideas and things that you want to do. I already hear like economic ideas happening that you're implementing. Um, how do you think you can leverage the DAO to and whether it be the collective knowledge, like what you just sat through, or even some of the partnerships or potential, you know, uh networking collaboration opportunities maybe here that you've met? Can you kind of talk about that? Like, who did you meet here? Who was like, yo, the I'm I'm inspired by, or you just get struck a light in my head on this, and how can we collaborate on that? Like, can can you kind of walk me through that a little bit?

SPEAKER_00 13:35

Yes, I met this wonderful woman, um, Jeanette Lewis. I think that's her last name. Jeanette Lewis. Out of St.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

Louis, Missouri. Is she out of St. Louis? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:46

Yes. Okay. And she's phenomenal. She's the ED of her organization. I can't remember what organization she's from right now, at the top of my head. But she um was just telling me the day-to-day operations and and you know, the goals that she has, and one of her goals is to have um to empower her staff to recognize that they are in a cooperative, they're in a collective rather than a um where all of the power is lateral instead of hierarchical. And we have been playing with that in our organization as well and trying to figure out how we're gonna make that sustainable and how what are some resources and and things that we can look to in order to make that dream a reality. And so I am um, I'm excited to keep in touch with her and others who are trying to kind of reinvent the wheel when it comes to how we work um and changing those those um the structures that the powers that be, you know, the the things that we have been doing in society for hundreds of years and flipping it around and making it work for us. So I would say that that's that's my biggest uh thing that I want to do.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_03 15:02

I don't know, I'm really shy, man.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

You just you just said you weren't that shy, so no, but I am like people shy.

SPEAKER_03 15:10

I'm not like camera shy, huh? Um but I am people shy. So I can really speak to that. I just feel like for me, the presenters and the knowledge I'm getting from the presentations and meeting people and hearing what they do. But after we get past that, um, you know, how who are you? What do you do? Who am I? Then I I I politely check out I am shy. So I can tell you a bunch of people I've met. I'm gonna tell you this.

SPEAKER_01 15:36

Shout out the rest of the groups, but I'm gonna tell you this right now. Like it within the DAO that you're a part of, like, follow-through is gonna be everything for us. Yeah, and for this idea of like flipping philanthropy, like we've already done that. We flip philanthropy, we put it on his head. We've got frontline grassroots organizations over here deciding on how money is distributed, right? But now it's look at this tool now that you have, and instead of when you're going out for them grants or you're trying to get things, you know, maybe a federal whatever or some foundation out there, now you have the possibility of having like 80 to 100 organizations come together to help boost your numbers to grab, you know, whatever that particular grant or movement that we want to do, right? Like we started off with six members that had their hands on that wheel to drive this thing, right? And as I step down, my hands still gonna be on that wheel, just like your hands are on that wheel right now. And I and that's what I really want, I would want you to take home with you is that you have a vehicle that you can steer with the rest of us on what we want to do collectively. So, like your time being here, you talked about we talked about infinity groups, we talked about synergy, we talked about networking, partnerships, you know, all these things for sure. But at the end of the day, I could talk to you till I'm blue in the face, but if there is not action that goes with my words, then it means nothing, right?

SPEAKER_02 17:10

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 17:11

So, like for us after we leave from this space, like I really want us, I want us to work together in some form or fashion, you know what I mean? Like, if that's us collectively coming together to put our data together, like you know, granted, I don't have a huge operation, that's for sure. I got three little bitty places that I steward here in Denver, Colorado to grow food in, okay? And uh I I'm my own little mom and pop shop, but we recently produced a thousand pounds of food with three different areas that we grew food in with kiddos from West Colfax. So, like whatever I can do to help improve whatever numbers or letting know letting folks know as they go for grants, like not only will it affect this area, like we're in 42 different states, right? Yeah, as an as as a collective, exactly, and we need to leverage that. Like, we we are making change.

SPEAKER_02 18:04

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 18:07

So, how do you see yourself within the Dow? And how can we collectively have you reach your goals and potential out there in Chocolate City?

SPEAKER_03 18:18

Bad pitch. Okay. So bad pitch is this thing I do in our staff meetings, um, and wherever, where it's like this is an idea, and it's not necessarily the best idea I've ever had, but here it is. It's bad pitch. Um, what if of these 42 states? You know, like because I'm on this whole I don't eat mangoes kit, because I'd be like mangoes aren't local. So I'm trying to like eat local produce. Like, I'd really be like, when I say pineapples, I'd be like, disgusting. Um I can't really. If if it didn't come from down the street, I don't want it. I'm like all about apples right now. Um, anyway, from those 42 states, like some I might want an avocado from California. And I don't know what you grow in the mountains, but for the food truck, thinking about the food truck, the same kind Yeah, we got peaches yesterday.

SPEAKER_01 19:14

Grapes.

SPEAKER_03 19:15

You better know your producer. So the same way that like big egg has these huge trucks and these huge things and this like distribution network, like we pull for black food truck, we pull from our farmers and local, of course, right? Like all the farmers in the DMV. Um, but what if we also pull from the Dow and was like, here are some Colorado peaches in Southeast DC? That pitch.

SPEAKER_01 19:42

That would be dope. I like that pitch. That's pretty dope.

SPEAKER_03 19:45

And then we'll get another truck and another truck and we'll go on a tour and we'll have concerts and we'll just sell food. I'm all about selling the produce, I'm all about training the consumer or teaching or converting our consumers to understand the value of eating food from local farms. Um, and that's gonna take work. When people give away food, I just not not to those in need. I'm not like that person, but just like I think there are a lot of people out there who have the means to buy local, but have don't have the interest, and they don't see why why is this kale seven dollars when I can get three dollar kale? And Trader Joe's is like, because that's disgusting. And and because my friend grew this, and so rhyme, my money. You you bought those shoes, you know what I'm saying? You could buy this kale. So I'm interested also in that. Like, how do we change the way nor consumers consume food? Bad pitch.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

I like that pitch. That's pretty fresh. That's fresh. That's fresh. What about you? What's your what's your vision? You don't know yet?

SPEAKER_00 20:53

I don't even know yet.

SPEAKER_01 20:55

You're kind of trying to still trying to understand it all, or what's up?

SPEAKER_00 21:00

I'm not sure. I think um I think one thing is that of course to continue to stay in touch and to network, right? Stay in touch with one another. Um I think also sharing resources and not hoarding those resources. You know, if something um comes across my desk, if a grant comes across my desk, making sure to spread that word, right? Because I think a lot of people are like I think we need to get out of the mindset of like, oh, this is my money and like hoarding, this is my money, this is my grant, da da da. And we need to collaborate more on grants and other opportunities.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

Um I also That's not a very capitalistic mindset. That is a very seems like Eastern We're very cooperative. African village type of uh economic structure.

SPEAKER_03 21:54

Yeah, it is. Our program is called the Ujima. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 21:57

It is, and and you know, I think I think for me it's like um we have to do something different. This food system that we have right now is not working. It's not working because like Jay Flower was saying, you go to the farmer's market and get kale, that kale is seven dollars. It really should cost $37 if we're gonna be serious. Yeah. If we're gonna look at all of the things that we're doing.

SPEAKER_01 22:28

Exactly the growing, to maintain the safety, the transportation, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:34

Everything. And so we have to start looking at our food system differently. We do. And that's gonna take us changing our mindsets. It's gonna take us stepping outside of the box in ways that we have never thought about before.

SPEAKER_03 22:47

And that's how we empower our urban farms. Like it's not by here's a subsidy and here's a grant so you can make some money. Like you sell a valuable product. So we need to get our consumers to get with it. If we keep, you know, I don't wanna enable these businesses that have the potential to grow if the consumer just would purchase. Like we just need a we have the supply. We don't have the demand.

SPEAKER_01 23:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 23:14

But all the money and all the intention is about the supply. How do we let's hold these farmers? I wanna like that.

SPEAKER_01 23:21

So so we've been tackling, you know, uh the economic uh uh viewpoint and some of the challenges that we've come up against. There's no doubt about that. Uh but I I've also had a deep interest in just like the mental health aspect of working in the nonprofit area, um, being a leader in your community, being women of color, and dealing with the stresses that come with balancing, you know, all of that. Like, how how do you guys balance that? You know what I mean? How do you balance like running the biz, doing your thing, and then you know, obviously regul regular life stresses come, there's no doubt about that. But it's to me, sometimes it seems it could be overwhelming when you have the demand of like uh you're feeding folks. So like there that that comes, that's like life or death as far as I'm concerned. You know what I mean? That kind of hangs over me a little bit when I know that like, man, I got these babies out here and they starving. You know, how can I, you know, help them out? It could be very overwhelming. And that's just one aspect besides like just getting finding grants to you know pay yourselves, pay the the you know, your the folks that are involved with you, and ensure that you guys are thriving and not struggling. Like, how do how do you address those those stresses? How do you de-stress? How do you how do you do that?

SPEAKER_00 24:43

I I'll go first. Okay. I will say I have worked in previous jobs where I have run myself to the ground and I have made it a com made a commitment to myself to never do that again. And so I know how to say no, right? I think that um there are, especially in the nonprofit, in the philanthropy space, there's this idea that I can fix everything, right? For me, I have told myself years ago, I cannot fix everything by myself. I cannot. And I can't put that on my shoulders. I can't say to myself, oh, I'm gonna feed all of DC. Absolutely not. It's unrealistic, right? And I'm not going to set myself to those state to that standard. But what I am gonna do is come up with some realistic goals and execute those. What I am gonna do is use my community and collaborate with one another in order to make the greatest impact. Um, but I think that what that was was it was a choice that I made years ago so that I wouldn't burn out.

SPEAKER_03 25:48

Yeah, yeah. Thanks, thanks. I'm glad you came to that. Some people don't have that like. Yeah, yeah, that's true. Um I like to say first and foremost, I don't identify as a woman of color, black woman first. Like it's a part of who I am, but I'm a creator, I'm a God, and it's very important to pull from understanding that we're spirit first, that we are just like that. That's it first. All the other stuff is just dependent on where you are. Um so I think pulling from that gives me what I need to make it in any situation. Um, and I do want to say shout out to Ida. And with the work that her and Kwab are doing, those are our directors at Our Space World that they're doing, we have a workplace culture that is so not white. Like they really mean it when they say it in every single way. Money is not the point. Nine to five is not the point. Like, I'm like, I gotta get this done. I gotta, she's like, Yeah, get it to me when it's done. Yeah, everything I learned, and because I came from the startup world, corporate startup stuff, like everything I learned there has been flipped. The urgency. The urgency. She'd be like, uh-huh, okay, girl. But we still get it done, you know. We we just applied, put a grant in yesterday, you know what I'm saying? We just we're training eight academy members right now as we speak. Well, I don't know what time it is in DC. Yeah, but just as we're working up over the day, you know, the workday is wrapping up, but we're training young people. We just had new academy members, we got a food truck that launches in a week. Um, what else? Oh, we have Ujima Collabs, we have a co-op, a membership, we have a uh partnership with a food bank, you know, that's a paying client, you know. Like we're winning and we are not, nobody's trusting me. I don't know if you ever feel stressed, but nobody's trusting me.

SPEAKER_01 27:52

And I just she just said nobody's gonna stress her out. She made that commitment to herself a long time ago.

SPEAKER_03 27:57

And that kind of like that's probably why our space even came to you because you made that decision, so you attracted an org like our space. Like we, it was a workshop today. I'm telling you, it's workshop. Um, that was about organization.

SPEAKER_01 28:10

For those who didn't see that, that was a okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:13

And it was on um organizational resilience and that kind of thing. I was like, I don't have those kind of problems. Like, we don't, we don't, we don't do that. We don't do that. Like, money not the point, like we as black people, as people as a part, as land stewards and people who are supporting land stewards, like if we have five farmers, it's seven admin people specifically to support our farm team. Like, who who does that?

SPEAKER_01 28:46

So uh that leads us into our next question.

SPEAKER_03 28:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 28:50

I walk into your gardens. What's your garden sign gonna say?

SPEAKER_03 28:54

Oh, oh, that's private technology. What is it gonna say?

SPEAKER_01 29:03

Yeah, what is it gonna say?

SPEAKER_03 29:05

What okay? Is this ours, our literal garden? I'm like, we don't know. No, that exists. Yours. Those are two different answers. Uh, but mine would say if you could feed yourself, you can free yourself. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 29:21

That's it. Feed yourself, free yourself.

SPEAKER_00 29:24

Mine would say there is no culture without agriculture.

SPEAKER_03 29:28

And that is Elder Baba Aduno. Yes. Aduno Tariq. Rest in peace. He passed away last year, but he is a great ancestor that we lost last year in the DMV area, who's a farmer and just full of knowledge and just also a walking library in that way. Wow. Um, I mean, this man had four memorial services.

SPEAKER_01 29:48

He had four memorial services.

SPEAKER_03 29:50

Four memorial services. That's how it was like one for the family, yeah, one for the farming, one for both the family and the ag world. Like he's that guy, and just rest in peace, Baba.

SPEAKER_01 29:59

Wow, rest in peace. So, how in the world can we follow you? How can I be a fan? How can I donate? How can I get involved? If I'm in DC, where do I go? Like, how do we get in contact with y'all?

SPEAKER_03 30:13

Uh, you can follow us on Instagram, Ujima DMV. That is U J I M A D M V. Um, you can definitely volunteer. We do something called Ujima Collabs where we partner with farms and bring out folks um work and learn. Like, so it's definitely an exchange of information. Um Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:33

Yeah. Yeah. You could also donate. You can make a monetary donate donation. Go to rspaceworld.org and you can donate from there.

SPEAKER_01 30:41

Yeah. You know what? It's uh been a privilege to sit down with y'all and uh get to learn a little bit about where you come from and what y'all do.

SPEAKER_03 30:48

And lastly, um you could also hire some of our graduates. So we just started the academy training program this past year and we're on cohort number four. Um, so we've graduated about 10, 12 people, and it's about once they now they have the skill. If you are hiring and looking for skilled labor, um, you know, are they down to move though? I don't know. I'm not, you know. I'm just saying. What's up? Maybe, you know, if it's in the mid-Atlantic, because we know farming like regions, climates, but mid-Atlantic folks, please hit us. Um, we want to make sure that our folks, when they graduate, that they can get job placement. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 31:27

Well, that's fresh. That's fresh. Again, like, thank you for sitting down with me. You know, I came out of the literally out of the blue. You know, I've been I've been eyeballing everybody. So I've been trying to get as many folks to sit down and share their stories because I feel like storytelling, especially for the work that is done here and what we do, like getting those different perspectives are extremely powerful and important.

SPEAKER_02 31:50

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 31:51

Um, and I love to hear about organizations that are like down like y'all's man. Like I wanna I want to go work for y'all. Yeah, you know what I mean? I want to give my little farming degree with y'all, you know? Me too, sure. Well, don't let this be the last time we sit down and we talk. Absolutely. Um, and if I ever get have the chance to go out to Chocolate City, I am going there and I'm gonna visit y'all, see your work, see the folks that you you affect and and the great works that you're doing it. Because yo, y'all sound like superheroes to me right now. And I know the work is being done because you're here. Um, and don't just don't forget, let's get that follow through. Let's let's work together. You know, let's make this thing happen. All right. This is Staff Sergeant Mack.

SPEAKER_03 32:41

This is Jay Flower. This is Nicole Reese.

SPEAKER_01 32:44

And you're listening to the Power Plant podcast. We'll see you next time.

SPEAKER_03 32:47

Awesome.