Ep 21: Satchel's with Satchel & Gracy

Thanks for joining us for another episode of Patrons & Partnerships, presented by the Library Partnership Branch of the Alachua County Library District.

Our guests today are Satchel Raye, the founder of Satchel’s Pizza and Satch2, and Gracy Castine, their Public Relations Administrator. We continue our discussion of the Satch Grant and talk about some of the organizations Satchel's has partnered with.

The first half of this interview was be posted on February 24th.

Satchel’s Pizza: https://www.satchelspizza.com/
Grant blog: https://satchelsgiving.blogspot.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/satchelspizza/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/satchelspizza/ 

Visit the Alachua County Library District website to browse our collection and to find other resources and services offered at your favorite, local library!

You can view a transcript of this podcast on ACLD's YouTube Channel.

Transcript

0:00

Hi, thanks for listening to another episode of Patrons & Partnerships. Today we spoke with Satchel Raye and Gracy Castine of Satchel’s Pizza about the history of Satchel’s and the grant program they run for nonprofits in Gainesville. This interview was edited for length and clarity and was posted in two parts. The first episode was posted on February 24th and can be found anywhere you listen to podcasts.[Music]

Satchel: 0:33

It doesn't mean that we can't pull out of our own pockets some more profits to send to charities as time goes on, too. Because now we're more established, you know, it went from two to three, you know, instead of going from three to four, we can just put aside a few more $1,000 for charities.

Eleanore: 0:48

Would you be open to the idea of letting people donate directly to the fund? Do you think-

Gracie: 0:53

Oh, yeah.

SatchelI: 0:54

I think that's a good idea. Because - and we would have to - it would, if we're going to do that, too, it'd be a good way to try to promote that idea, like, donate now on the website, you know, where you could actually go and Venmo the money.

Gracie: 1:06

Donate now and you can sit in the van or something.

Satchel: 1:09

I mean, a lot of times, well that's true. We could have perks. I mean, a lot of times, they do GoFundMes and things nowadays to raise money for things like that. But there should just be a way to donate. And we would just have to figure out the logistics on our end.

Gracie: 1:21

Right. It would be hard to tell the public who they're giving to because you don't even know who it is at a certain point.

Satchel: 1:27

Right, they're trusting us to do that vetting. I mean, there is a certain amount of vetting. When you read the grants, you can tell a lot about what they're doing. And nowadays, we know all these - we know what these people do. You them follow on social media. You know Current Problems, every weekend they're gonna be out there, Gracie: They come to lunch. pulling stuff out of the river, you know.

Eleanore: 1:46

If they're in the restaurant, they're a captive audience; they can't go anywhere until they eat their pizza.

Satchel: 1:50

Well, it's true, if we had a way, if we were promoting donating to our grant program at the restaurant, those are all great ideas. $10, $20 bucks here, and there, you're gonna get $100 bucks here and there, all that's great. And, and, you know, bottom line is, there's like 100 things like that, that can make the restaurant better. And I have, you know, I only have so much time and energy for that stuff. I'm making stained glass, I'm making tiles, I'm painting houses, like, you know, I have other hobbies. We don't - we don't do all the stuff we're supposed to do. It's like, that's why we're not Papa John's. Just one place, two places now. Eleanore: You're pretty successful for all the things you're not doing. Well, this success is honestly a part of the large group of people who work there. And these are dynamic people, like we don't just have just anybody. I mean, these are people who like, are smart, and they're dedicated to their jobs. And the success comes from like, I'm really good at finding those people. That's one of my strengths, but I'm not really good at, you know, being CEO, as good at that. But I mean, and the CEO has different jobs, and one of them is building a team. But I feel like when Gracie became available to work, and we had - didn't know each other that well, but we were, you know, we're the same age group, same - we're a small town. So I jumped on that chance. And I think that - [Gracie laughs] because I knew that she would be a good fit and, we have so many good people. And that's really what makes Satchel’s work, from the guy booking the music, to running the store, and booking the store, to making the prep every day, to washing the dishes every night. Like, there's not a part of that restaurant, you can't go to from the office, to the plants to the maintenance where you don't have people that are dedicated to their job, and want to make the world a better place.

Eleanore: 3:31

Mhmm. Satchel: And so, you know, the success is really that. That's what really the success is like, all these people come together for this common cause, which is I mean, it's kind of pizza, but it's kind of art and - Community space. Satchel: Community.

Satchel: 3:44

It's really community, you know, which is all those things.

Eleanore: 3:47

How did you get involved with Satchel's, Gracie?

Gracie: 3:50

I have been in restaurants and catering my whole life. And I grew up here. I met Satchel in a pool in Homestead for a friend's wedding 20 years ago.

Satchel: 4:02

Ohh.. is that where we met? And he said, "What do you think? What do you think? Should I open a restaurant over here on the east side of town?" Well, yeah, go for it. Sure. And I was all about it. I just was in between jobs. And he got word and… She'd been doing catering.

Gracie: 4:17

Yeah. And the last job I helped open The Wooly.

Eleanore: 4:20

Oh, okay.

Satchel: 4:22

So yes, she was in the business already.

Gracie: 4:25

It's been a great job. I love it.

Satchel: 4:26

She can make her own hours. But she's like, prompt you know, like, she never misses her- like, we have people that can make their own hours, and they make their own hours [laughing] They make their own! [Laughing] You never know where you're gonna see them! But not Gracie. Gracie can come and go as she pleases. But she sticks to a pretty, pretty tight schedule. I was not surprised when I got here 10 minutes early and you're already here.[Laughing] I like that in an employee, honestly. I like to give people freedom but I like it when they're…

Gracie: 4:53

Well, yeah. And in catering, it's nice to know that they're gonna show up.

Eleanore: 4:57

Yeah. Satchel: Yeah.

Satchel: 4:57

Well catering requires that sort of planning,

Gracie: 4:59

Yeah, mhmm.

Satchel: 5:00

a person like you who is like“Okay, let's get all the details written down." Catering’s come a long way. There's a lot involved in catering. When you have big groups-

Gracie: 5:08

And people say "do you cater?" And I'm like, "Well, yeah, it's a big pizza delivery and salad and desserts."

Satchel: 5:13

It's a big communication effort.

Gracie: 5:15

It is!

Satchel: 5:16

Because like how many gluten free? How many vegan?

Gracie: 5:18

Where are you going?

Satchel: 5:19

How many tables are you going to have? What is your service gonna look like? We're not coming to setting up everything, you know, we'll bring the stuff but-

Gracie: 5:25

And now he has a party space in the back that you can reserve.

Eleanore: 5:29

Oh yeah. Next to Lightning Salvage?

Gracie: 5:31

That’s right. Under the plane.

Satchel: 5:33

Yeah. We can do like 50 people basically.

Eleanore: 5:35

Are you getting busier now that COVID is- everyone's sort of like adapting to COVID?

Gracie: 5:39

Yes. Satchel: Yeah, yeah. The beginning was a little rough, of course. But we did do a lot of to go orders because, obviously, we're set up, you know, pizza and salad-

Satchel: 5:50

Easy to-go.

Gracie: 5:51

Yeah, It's hard if you have a fine dining place.

Eleanore: 5:55

Sit down and- that really doesn't work when you know, there's a deadly respiratory virus going around. Gracie: Pandemic.

Gracie: 6:02

He opened another restaurant during a pandemic, so..

Satchel: 6:04

Yeah, but take-out.

Eleanore: 6:06

It seems to have worked out just fine.

Satchel: 6:08

It's take-out, it's take-out. Yeah. It's been going good.

Eleanore: 6:11

When you have enough applicants, how do you decide who gets the fund?

Satchel: 6:15

So it's Gracie, and me, and my wife. We read the grants, and we talk about it. It's pretty easy agreement for the most part.

Gracie: 6:25

Sometimes we all have different ideas, but we work through them and come out with one goal.

Satchel: 6:32

Yeah, I mean, sometimes somebody's really advocating for something like, I really want to do this. And they're like, okay. You know, so there's a give and take there, because and then we try to-

Gracie: 6:43

We try and keep up with what's actually going on in the community right now, you know, currently. So it's not some kind of like far fetched idea about what this nonprofit wants to do. It's about who are they going to address with these funds now,

Satchel: 7:00

Right. Because and sometimes we'll get these grants that are part of a much, much larger grant. They might be asking for $5,000 and it's a million dollar project. And you know, and sometimes it's just like, well are they- one of the questions we might ask is, are they going to be able to get this money somewhere else? And if the answer to that is yes, then that might be another mark on the side of not giving it to them, because there are organizations that aren't going to get the money anywhere else. And when the Repurpose Project was starting out, and they were trying to raise- they needed $850 to file for their 501c3, they're not even a nonprofit yet, and they're trying to raise money. They probably didn't have a lot of places to get that money. And so that's where like, the Civic Media Center, Current Problems, we try to really focus on some of these smaller groups-

Gracie: 7:48

And Bread of the Mighty.

Satchel: 7:50

And that tends to be our mission is more like small groups. Always LBGTQ issues are important, mental health, homelessness. So we just talk about it.

Gracie: 8:03

Sometimes we'll go back and ask questions.

Satchel: 8:05

Yeah. And we go back and say,"Tell us more about what you're trying to do here." I mean, it's, I thought it was gonna be so fun. But it's not! Because there's so many people you can't get to, you know, like, you can't spay and neuter damn dog and cat in the country, you know. And so and you want- and whatever there's, like, you want to be able to help. That's just a dumb example. But like, there's so many organizations that need money, and we've got $1,500 to give away, you know, We've got 10 grants here,$15,000 worth of need. So you think it's fun, and it is you get to give away a few, but you don't really, you're not Elon Musk.

Eleanore: 8:48

Yeah. And you only have a limited amount of money. You want to make sure the money that you give away does have like, an impact on the community. Satchel: Well and that's the fun part!

Satchel: 8:56

But it's also - Eleanore: Stressful? outweighed by the part that you can't give money to the other people, that you think "these people are deserving." Sometimes we just keep that and just say we'll look at it next time around.

Gracie: 9:06

Yeah. Especially if it's not something that's needed specifically for that time period.

Eleanore: 9:10

Something that could be just as useful down the road, Gracie: Right. As well as right now. Can you think of like, the most notable program or organization that you've donated to recently? Satchel: Gracie’s putting on her glasses, that’s a good sign. She's getting serious! Gracie: One that I really like and thought was very interesting is One Love Prison Meditation. Uh-huh?

Gracie: 9:29

And it was started by this guy, Tim, who used to work at Satchel's.

Satchel: 9:34

Yeah. Oh, he was a good employee too. He was always in a good mood and fun and funny.

Gracie: 9:40

So he started a program where he's in the prisons, teaching meditation practices.

Satchel: 9:46

He started his own nonprofit, Gracie: Yeah, yeah. I think it's just him at this point, Gracie: Right. teaching prisoners to meditate. and the prisoners have have been receptive to it. Gracie: Right.

Gracie: 9:55

And so we raised three grand in the RUFC for May and June for his program. And he sent us some t-shirts.

Eleanore: 10:04

What is your relationship with Repurpose? Do you have like a relationship with them? Because it seems like they sort of overlap with Lightning Salvage a little bit.

Satchel: 10:11

Right. Well, Repurpose came around and was downtown on Main Street, South Main, or the old, near the old fire station. And they had this warehouse, and it was just a junk shop, you know, and I love junk shops. And so I would go there. And I noticed that over time - and it didn't take long - But every time I went it was more organized and more organized and more organized. And I was like, wow! And it was just got more inspiring, because it's one thing when you see a pile of junk, it's another when everything's like in jars and boxes and together -

Gracie: 10:45

Right, you're going to look for an old lamp. And there are all the old lamps right there.

Satchel: 10:50

Right. And so I was like, wow, there's this place. And so I guess I met the owners - and then - I'm never good at remembering like, how I met somebody. And then what happens is because we use recycled stuff, people bring us junk all the time. Like, here's all my lids that I've been using for the last 10 years, and I'm like, we stopped using lids like a few years ago, but we'll take your lids. So they needed to move - they were getting kicked out because of the fire station. And it's really hard to find things in Gainesville and a good place for them was hard too, and so two doors down from us was this, very large property was for sale. And he was trying to sell it, and... He was Mallard’s Furniture. And I had been in there talking to him, because he's a neighbor. And he wanted to sell it and they didn't have enough money. And it was going back and forth. And I just really wanted to see them there. Because we don't have enough stuff happening out near Satchel’s. The more stuff happening by us, the better. If you're coming out there to go to Repurpose, you're going to get pizza; if you're going out there for pizza, you might go to Repurpose. Everything's South Main, Downtown, Sixth Street, there's all these areas in town. But we kind of have to make our own world out there. And so when there's a property for sale, I'm like, I really want this to happen. So I offered to fill the gap between what the guy wanted for the property and what they had. And, you know, it was a substantial amount of money, but it wasn't like buying a new car, you know. And so they were able to get the building - that went through. And so having them, when people bring me junk, I can take it to them. And now if I need it, it's there, and if it's gone, that's great. But at least I can go over there and get inspiration and get stuff. And we have a lot of junk coming through. People want to bring us all their old collections. And sometimes that works, and sometimes it doesn't. So they're great. And then I just - it happened to be that day, we started to get to know Sarah, who's the owner, and her husband, Brian. And they have two little kids. And we started to get to know them a little bit, me and my wife, and they - they have, they bought 10 acres, kind of across the street from me. I live out in southeast Gainesville, and they're a few minutes away on 10 acres. And we're out in the country and they're in the country. So we started to get to know them a little bit. And then our relationship just got better from their business being next our business and, the back and forth that went with that. And so it's been great. And then with, they wanted to do a new place. And when I saw that it was on Waldo Road, I was like really excited because, another thing on our part of town. I love the idea that their two places would be close to each other. You could go to Repurpose and Reuse Planet. I love that they're recycling. We don't have a good used furniture store, honestly, in this town really at all. I mean, it's hard if you - and they, that's what they wanted to make. And it was a great building. So early on, I just said, Hey, I'll give you 20 grand, you know, for that project. And they... you know, they needed a lot more than that. But Sarah says that that was a good start to get her to start to raise the money. She thought oh, this might be possible. That's 10% of what I need or whatever. And so she started the process and miraculously was able to get the money she needed and raise the money and open. I just liked them so much. They're like - they really remind me of my wife and I, you know 10, 15 years ago. Because they're, you know, they have little kids - our kids are older - and they're a little bohemian. We were a little bohemian back then.

Gracie: 14:19

Hippies?

Satchel: 14:20

Maybe, pretty much. [laughter]

Eleanore: 14:23

Okay, I was wondering because I do sort of think of that stretch of 23rd as like, the Satchel’s and Repurpose area.

Satchel: 14:29

Yeah.

Eleanore: 14:29

Sort of Satchel’s and Repurpose, Repurpose, and Satchel’s, so I'm glad to know that you do have a relationship with them.

Satchel: 14:35

Yeah, that's - I think that there's a lot to be said for like... So when the apocalypse comes, and everything blows up, the great emergency, if we all meet up at Repurpose Planet, we're gonna be fine because we can build, we can build like anything we need. Radio transmitters, LCD screens -

Gracie: 14:52

Podcast equipment.

Satchel: 14:53

Whatever we need. We can even have a radio station out of there. Eleanore: They've got anything you need. Like, you can build like, like three wheeled motorcycles like Mad Max style, like, everything's there.

Gracie: 15:05

It’s great for teachers.

Satchel: 15:07

Is it?

Eleanore: 15:07

Oh, yeah, they have all sorts of crafting supplies.

Satchel: 15:09

It's great for artists. I mean, if I - I always need little things, and they usually have them, and weird things too. Like, I need a six foot bar or whatever. But if I'm just like, I need some inspiration, I can go in there and like, Oh, I'm gonna make a mobile from this, like, there's just - it's a great resource for the community. I think it's like, it makes our community unique. And most communities have thrift stores, but they don't have places like that. I mean, they'll take a lot of junk, you know, and then organize it. Their lids now are organized in this like round metal bin[Gracie laughing] between like blue, green, white, orange, red. And it has like five layers and they spin. It's like an old nails bin. And it's all lids and they're all sorted by color.

Eleanore: 15:47

The reorganization they did during COVID is really impressive, like everything is - if you need it, you can find it so easily in there now. And like the craziest stuff, too. Is there anything else you'd like to talk about today?

Satchel: 16:00

I want Gracie to talk.

Gracie: 16:01

What do you want me to talk about?

Satchel: 16:03

I dunno. What did you have for breakfast? Gracie: I'm just -

Gracie: 16:04

Thank you for asking us to do this. And hopefully, the word will get out that we do give away grants. And we want to find other nonprofits that we don't even know about in Gainesville that need help getting going like the Repurpose Project.

Satchel: 16:19

Yeah, we're looking for new, we're looking for up and coming startup, nonprofits. And if you could get this onto Seth Rogen, that would be - [laughter] help us get our word out. Actually, I've never listened to Seth Rogen. I really don't know anything about him. Except that - you know, what you see in the headlines.

Eleanore: 16:35

I'll take a leaf out of your book and just text him and DM him on Twitter until he calls me. [laughs] Satchel: Yeah, just DM him on Twitter and see

Satchel: 16:42

if he gets back to you. Eleanore: Yeah. Yeah. Thanks. I hope it works out for you.

Gracie: 16:46

Thanks, Eleanore.

Eleanore: 16:47

Yeah, Thank you for joining us. I know you're both really busy. So we appreciate you coming in for this today. Gracie: Sure! Thank you! Thank you for spending a whole hour of your day talking with us. Gracie: Yeah! A whole hour!

Gracie: 16:57

It's been fun. Satchel: Alright, try getting 15 minutes out of that.

Satchel: 16:59

Good luck!

Eleanore: 17:00

Yeah. Thank you. Have a good day.[music] Thanks for listening to Patrons & Partnerships. If you know of an individual or organization you’d like to recommend for an interview, email us at lpsfprogram@gmail.com. To listen to more episodes, find us on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or Spotify. And be sure to check out the Alachua County Library on Spotify while you’re there for chill playlists to read to, hand-picked by our librarians. Storytime on the Green is back for the new year starting January 11th. Visit our site at aclib.us/storytimeonthegreen for a list of times and locations for all branches. Partnership staff hold storytimes at Smokey Bear Park

off of 15th every Thursday at 10: 17:51

30am, weather permitting, and we have a representative from the Dolly Parton Imagination Library to help you sign up. The Dolly Parton Imagination Library provides preschool children with a free book every month until age 5 - if you have a child under age 5 in your household, it’s a great opportunity to encourage their love of reading. Have you heard the news? Your library card now grants you access to hoopla, a music and video streaming service with thousands of albums, comics, and movies you can enjoy on any device with the hoopla app. There's no need to place a hold - all of the content is available on demand at any time. To check it out, go to aclib.us/hoopla. Looking for a way to encourage your child’s love of science and technology? Then place a hold on one of ACLD’s STEM kits, courtesy of the Rotary Club of Gainesville. Each kit includes hands-on educational exploration of a STEM topic, with an interactive toy, book, and DVD on topics ranging from electricity to physics. Check out the full listing of kits at aclib.us/stem-kits!