Crisis in the unhoused pt.1 - The time is now. (feat. Genevieve Riutort President & CEO of the LA Westside Food Bank)

In this two-part series on trying to somehow better understand the unhoused crisis, Maya Sykes and Rick Barrio-Dill discuss the issue with special guest Genevieve Riutort, President and CEO of the West Side Food Bank in Los Angeles. They delve into the mission critical work that the West Side Food Bank does in Los Angeles and how people can get involved to help with the growing crisis.   Rick and Maiya convince "Genevieve from the block" to play a silly game with us and they all expose their guilty pleasure food.   

And if you want to help in direct ways, UNTIL THE END OF THE MONTH, all DONATIONS AT THE WESTSIDE FOOD BANK (https://www.wsfb.org/phantomdinner/)

ARE MATCHED DOLLAR FOR DOLLAR at literally the most CRITICAL time in the food banks history.    

And BIG SHOUT out to our show sponsors, the awesome new card game @rollorbounce and https://rollwithitorbounce.com

Also, we could not have launched properly without the BEST Tequila company in the business having our backs, the incredible EL CHRISTIANO!  Thank you guys so much for the support and make sure to get you some!!!    
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As always, love yourself and someone else. 

See u next week...

Transcript

My guilty fast food that I always feel guilty about, but it's delicious, is Chick-fil-A. So, I feel guilty.
00:06 | SPEAKER_02 | I'm so sorry I'm eating racist homophobic nugget. But my bad.
00:11 | SPEAKER_04 | But they tasty and delicious,
00:13 |  | and they waffle fries are good. Yo, hey, what we gonna slap today? Yo, hey, what we gonna slap today? So, if you are joining us, thank you so much for listening to our two-part series on the unhoused crisis, specifically focusing on Los Angeles proper. We are very, very privileged to have a very special guest in our studio today. In the studio. Yes. And Rick Barrio-Dill and myself, Maya Sykes, will be discussing at length these talking points with the revered Miss Genevieve Riottort. Yay, thank you for being here. Thank you. Thank you so much. So, what does Miss Genevieve do, you must be asking. I will tell you. Genevieve is the president and CEO of the West Side Food Bank. She's also on the board of the westsideshelter.org. She is the president of the West Side Food Bank. And she's gonna talk about what the West Side Food Bank specifically does in Los Angeles, and how you, the person listening to this, especially if you live in Los Angeles, what you can do to help this growing crisis.
01:39 | SPEAKER_05 | So thank you so much Genevieve for being with us today. Thank you so much. It's my pleasure and my honor, and I'm always happy to share about the work that we're doing and how folks can get involved,
01:48 |  | because it feels great to help. Now, let me just ask right away, what does the West Side Food Bank specifically do in Los Angeles?
01:57 | SPEAKER_05 | So, West Side Food Bank is a food bank warehouse. We are, we're like the wholesaler in this equation. We have a big warehouse where we get truckloads of food that we both purchase on the wholesale market and also get donated. And then we process that food. I mean, we don't do much, but we, to process it, I mean, we. But we- I was gonna say you do a ton, but. Yes, we do many, many tons. In fact, about five million pounds of food a year. Wow. But that food is distributed to local people in need through our network of member agencies. So we have about 60 member agencies that we work with, as well as five direct service programs. But the vast majority of our food goes out through partner agencies. So people don't walk up to the West Side Food Bank to get food. We distribute it through other agencies
02:45 | SPEAKER_00 | and their food distribution programs. Very cool. And now, and once it gets to the other agencies, do you have any kind of sort of a purview or do you have a, you know how much is supposed to go where
02:58 | SPEAKER_05 | and- Oh yeah, everything is tracked. I mean, to the ounce. So we track it when it comes in. We track it where it goes. We can tell which agencies are taking which food items. And because we really focus on nutrition, we want to make sure that the people who are eating our food day in and day out are getting the wide range of nutrients. So we can track how much is high protein, how much is fresh produce, what are the dairy items. We know exactly what's going out
03:23 | SPEAKER_00 | and exactly who it's going to. That's the key too, because it's not just food. It's got to be good food, you know, food that's good for you.
03:30 |  | Well, and that forward push for nutrition is getting harder. I was just looking at what inflation is doing to donations across the board. So what are ways that just the lay person
03:44 | SPEAKER_05 | could be helpful to your organization? Well, there's so many ways to help. I mean, first of all, just, you know, going to our website, which is wsfb.org, like West Side Food Bank. And that's the best way to keep up with us. You can follow us on social media, but we need help in many ways. Obviously cash donations are fantastic. We take every dollar and turn it into enough food for four nutritious meals. And that's because we operate at scale. So we're able to buy food by the truckload. But we also love food donations. People hold food drives in their, you know, faith-based organizations, in their schools, in businesses. We love to have people do food collections for us. And, you know, the kinds of things that we especially need are high protein foods like peanut butter and canned tuna. We also do really well with granola bars and protein bars. Those are great for unhoused folks, also for students. So we'd love to do drives around, you know, bars. Breakfast cereal is also great. That's hard for us to purchase on the wholesale market, especially any kind of name brand breakfast cereals. You know, we tend to buy in bulk
04:50 | SPEAKER_00 | and we're not buying the most exciting, you know, name brand. Cookie Crisp ain't making the cut.
04:55 | SPEAKER_05 | It's not. No Fruit Loops, no. And I think also for kids, if you want to get your kids involved, money doesn't really mean that much to kids, but if you tell them, we are going to buy some food that another child is going to eat and they wouldn't have this food otherwise,
05:09 |  | I think a kid can really understand that. Right now, there is a push that all of your dollars are matched in something called the Phantom Dinner Challenge. Now, can you elaborate? Because I don't want to mess that up. Absolutely.
05:23 | SPEAKER_05 | So we call it the Phantom Dinner because instead of having a big fancy gala where we go to a hotel and have a rubber chicken and all of that, we've all been to those events, right? You know, and have to listen to a bunch of boring speeches and you know, you're pressured to buy something at the silent auction. Bunch of shitty bands. Yeah. So we do not do that because we all know that it costs a lot of money, it takes a lot of energy, and we are busy. We're busy getting all the food out. So we invite people to stay home with their families and eat a beautiful meal with their families and support the West Side Food Bank. And because of a generous match from the Johnny Carson Foundation, every dollar that's donated now through June 30th will be matched dollar for dollar. So that means one dollar turns into eight nutritious meals. Yeah. That's amazing.
06:11 |  | That is amazing. And don't worry, we will have all of this information linked in our socials so that if you miss something, you can make sure you, because we're a one-stop shop here. We're gonna have it so we can click. We got you covered. So I wanna talk to you directly about your involvement with Cornerstone Theater Company because that is near and dear to my heart, mainly because I was in a play about teaching just the world about the Muslim faith. I was specifically in a play that was directed towards diversity and teaching people about all of the different ethnic groups and their religious affiliations in Los Angeles. So I was in a play about a cousin coming to visit his Muslim family and learning about the Muslim faith. And coincidentally, our flagship episode, our guest is in a movie about this very same subject, which I mean, what are the odds? So- I love it, Kismet. Yeah, I love it. And also just because Rick is a bass player, content creator, I'm a singer, content creator, what are things that the community is doing to showcase elements about this? What is Cornerstone specifically doing in our community
07:25 | SPEAKER_05 | to showcase this crisis about the unhoused community? So, you know, Cornerstone works very closely with communities and we have a lot of different projects going right now. So one is down working with the community down in San Pedro, talking about the issues of housing, how housing is getting more expensive, how it affects people's lives, the kind of challenges that people are going through. And the way that we do that is by working in the community. So before a play ever even happens, Cornerstone actors and directors are working with the community, hearing their stories and learning from them about what's actually happening, not just from people who live there, but also going to like, you know, council meetings and learning from the elected representatives and really trying to get a whole 360 view of what's happening in community. And then that informs the play. So every play is an original play based on the stories and the voices of people in the community. And then our ensemble actors work with actors from the community who then play those roles. And it's often people who've never been actors before, who've never, you know, worked on sets. And so we give people an opportunity to experience theater from the inside out.
08:44 | SPEAKER_00 | And it's just a beautiful thing. That is a beautiful thing.
08:47 |  | They've done such wonderful projects and I just feel the need to highlight them because even if you're, aside from the community response and the need, they're just really entertaining. Like they did one that was off of the trains and that was so cool because you literally, at all of the stops, they had it so you rode one train. And then when you got off at a stop, there was like a different scene or a different vignette. And I was like, it's just so creative.
09:11 | SPEAKER_05 | That's brilliant. Yeah, they really try to make the plays immersive. We did a project at the Jordan Downs housing project because there's a whole lot of change happening there. And so they're tearing down all the buildings and building new buildings, but there's challenges around, well, who gets to stay? Who gets to go? And the play was not just telling the stories. There was a whole hall of decades. So we got to see Jordan Downs throughout the decades. You know, Eartha Kitt taught dance in that community room that we were doing the hall of decades in. And then we also had a part where we had to pretend to be the administrators trying to house people. So you would get a card saying, okay, here's a family and the father's disabled, so he needs handicap access. But there's three children. And then here's how much housing is available. And you saw how challenging it was, even for the county workers to match families with housing. And so it was really important to see that it's challenging on all sides and that a lot of these things are systemic. And so we really have to address the systems
10:12 | SPEAKER_00 | and make the systems work better for everyone. Amen. That's actually the genesis of why we created SLAP here is because it seems that certain problems are so large that only government or only a focused large effort can actually move the needle. And in so many ways, it felt like art is, we've almost gotten to the point where art is the way to almost, if we're not healing it with language. Right.
10:46 | SPEAKER_05 | Well, and art touches people's hearts because that's what's so important. I mean, we can work together on advocacy. And a couple of weeks ago, I was with my California Association of Food Banks, so food bankers from all around the state. And we went to Sacramento to advocate for policies that are gonna help people have better access to food because there's only so much that food banks can do. I mean, West Side Food Bank, we're moving 5 million pounds of food a year. And we're getting to people that maybe don't have access to government safety net programs, either because they're undocumented or honestly more commonly in Los Angeles, they make too much money. Yeah, that's a big one. There's a big gap between what would qualify you for safety net services like CalFresh, which used to be known as food stamps, and what it actually costs to live here. And so we're meeting that gap, but we can only do so much. Policy makes the big difference. Policy that makes better access to food. That's why we have to meet the immediate needs of the community by saying, look, everybody needs to eat every day, so we're gonna get you good nutritious food day in and day out. But we also have to work together to create a world that doesn't leave so many people out. And I think that art has a big role to play in that. Cornerstone Theater Company did a play at West Side Food Bank, and the food bank was literally our warehouse was the set. And so it was about volunteering and the audience members while they were watching the play happen. And at first you couldn't tell who was an actor and who was an audience member, because everyone was assembling sandwiches and bagged lunches. That's amazing. And at the end of the play, we had 250 bagged lunches at the end of every performance that we brought to one of our agency partners
12:30 | SPEAKER_00 | that helps unhoused folks. Now, when you, I wanted to touch back on the systemic issue, because really I feel like there's three lanes that we kind of do for slap the power here. Everything, all the arguments seem to wind up into kind of one of three lanes. That's either democracy, rights, or climate. It's not climate, no. Yeah, and it seems like everything just seems to wind up in one of those three cul-de-sacs. And part of it is if we're talking about a rights issue, or if we're talking about a systemic issue that is holding back, if you make too much money, but you know, have like an issue like that. What do you see as your biggest systemic challenge? And being that you've spent time up in Sacramento and you've worked with it at a legislative level is, what is, how do you feel that Newsom and we're doing on the democratic side
13:19 | SPEAKER_05 | or on the California side to get at those systemic issues? Well, California is actually a leader in this area. And I feel really lucky to live in a state like California. And, you know, because of advocacy, we now are one of a handful of states that has universal free lunch for kids in schools. I mean, there are still states in this country where if a child doesn't have enough money, they will be denied lunch at school. And that is just a crime. That is an absolute crime. There is no reason. Richest country on earth, right? Richest country on earth. And, you know, with my association of food bank partners, I led a panel on lived experience because I also know what it's like to be on the other side of that, to grow up in poverty and to need food assistance. And every single one of us on the panel, five of us who all work in food banking now, remember the shame of that free school lunch and the stigma around that. And it was just a daily reminder of being poor and no child should ever have to live through that. So we're really lucky in California because we won that fight through very hard work and advocacy, but there's still work to be done on the national level. And there's still work to be done regarding CalFresh because, you know, there's a lot of talk right now about the debt ceiling and, you know, the cuts to some of the programs. But honestly, I just feel like we need to make sure that food programs stay robust because nobody's gonna be in good shape to look for a job, in good shape to go to school if they're worried about where their next meal is coming from. So we advocate for things like a minimum. You know, we're trying to get a $50 minimum benefit for CalFresh recipients because there's so much work to do to apply for those programs. You have to be interviewed. You have to fill out a lot of paperwork. And to do all that work and go through all of that and then only get like, you know, $18 a month in food assistance, it's not worth it. So then people end up opting out. So we have programs.
15:12 | SPEAKER_00 | We wanna make them more accessible to people. Is the systemic issue so for you, you see it more as a national issue probably than?
15:21 | SPEAKER_05 | I think so. I mean, I think there's definitely work to be done in California because even though our legislators understand the problem, there's only so many dollars.
15:29 |  | And so it's important to kind of keep it front and center. It also seems like there's more of a push to make this stratification between the poor to showcase the deserving poor. I'm gonna put it in that. This notion that there are people who are poor because they deserve to be, so they shouldn't have access to the same services. And this weird faux morality that has been instituted in some of these policies, I feel like has derailed a lot of them at the national level. How do we change the face of what hunger looks like because it still seems like it's being stratified in this deserving poor categorization? I think it's storytelling. I mean, right?
16:16 | SPEAKER_05 | It's art, what we've been talking about because I think even at food banks, people often have a misconception that most of our food is going to unhoused people. That is not the case. Exactly. 90% of West Side Food Bank's food is going to people just like you and me, people who have jobs, who are parents with children, often two working parents in a home, because the cost of living is so high. So when I talk about the fact that nurses need help, that teachers need help, that gig workers, the person driving your Uber, all kinds of people need help. And when you look at the lives. Us musicians, us musicians.
16:55 |  | Yeah. I've had so many musicians that had to rely on food banks in the last four years.
16:59 | SPEAKER_05 | Absolutely. I mean, even one of the legislators told me that she relied on food banks while she was campaigning because she wasn't working. So it really is going to people who, I mean, and everyone needs food, everyone needs to eat. I think we have to remember to be empathetic. There's a lot of talk right now about people, what we call A-bods, able-bodied adults without dependents. And they want to make it so that people over 50 have to work in order to get food benefits. And most people want to work. I think there's this misconception that people don't want to work, but it is hard. And the older you get, the harder it is to get jobs.
17:37 |  | Especially here with lack of transportation options. Exactly. It's almost impossible.
17:42 | SPEAKER_00 | And let's be honest, it's gotten to the point where it's not a good faith argument. It's not that they want the work requirements for people. They think they're hurting the most disadvantaged. The most disadvantaged people. Taking the money from the people that need it the most, it almost seems like it's gotten to the place
17:58 | SPEAKER_05 | where cruelty is the point. Yeah, I mean, a lot of these policies do really feel cruel.
18:03 | SPEAKER_00 | I mean, denying people food is cruel. Because it's not the work requirement issue. Because again, you can shoot holes in a lot of that. There's people that can't, like you just said, there's people that just simply can't work. And most people want to work. That's not the issue.
18:15 | SPEAKER_05 | I think it's just, it becomes an economic issue. And you know, there's very little fraud in these programs. People talk about, there's the one case of fraud and then it gets blown up. But the truth is, 99% of the people that access food benefits, probably more than that, really need it. It's not easy. You have to jump through hurdles. People don't want to stand in line to get food. And then you don't get to choose always the food that you get.
18:40 |  | I mean, this is not easy. Can you just actually, while we have that on our minds, can you talk about some of those hurdles? Because I don't think a lot of people know how hard it is to get food from a food bank. I think that people just think like, oh, I can just drive up to any food bank and get a bag of food.
19:00 | SPEAKER_05 | And I really think that blowing the misconception off of this goes to that minutia. Yeah, I mean, I think we do everything we can to reduce barriers. So we want people to feel welcome and all of our member food pantries. And I try to make that distinction because most often a food bank is like us where we're a big warehouse and we don't serve the public directly. Whereas a food pantry is what most people think of as a food bank. A food pantry is where an individual or a family can go and get free groceries. But often, they have limited hours. 90% of our food goes out through 25 food pantries. And out of those 25, 20 of them are entirely volunteer run. So it's typically something like three 75 year old ladies in the back of a church or a handful of volunteers. And they're working really hard, but they don't always have the capacity to have what we call a choice model. So often they're pre-bagging food. And so the people who get the food, they're getting a pre-packed bag that may or may not be exactly the foods that they want. And there's often limitations. So sometimes you can only come once a week or you can come once a month for certain items, you know, the higher protein items. Some pantries limit that to once a month. So there's all these different rules. I would say most of our pantries don't require any paperwork or proof, but most people who show up at a pantry need that assistance. And especially during COVID, we really worked hard both to protect the workers to remove some of those barriers. But I think, you know, a lot of people come and they have to carry this food on the bus. Yes, exactly. So they're limited. Maybe if they're an hour away from home, they may not be able to take frozen items because there's a food safety question there. You know, sometimes people don't have bags and you know, that's one of the things that sometimes, you know, some of our pantries struggle to provide bags. You know, people are walking. Older people who may be limited in their mobility are trying to carry heavy groceries back. Even at the Veterans Administration where we do a weekly food distribution, there are some veterans who live in housing that's kind of like up the hill and it's hard for them to carry the groceries up. So we just started a pilot program where we're getting volunteers to bring little wagons and help bring the groceries up the hills for the vets that struggle with that. So even if you're, you know, only 100 feet away from where the food is being distributed,
21:34 |  | there might be other barriers. And for places like CalFresh, you know, you do have to go through a whole lot of hoops and a lot of people get denied. Oh, absolutely.
21:44 | SPEAKER_05 | So these pantries have become even more vital in this time. Definitely, and I think that there's also, there's a lot of stigma around that. Yes. And you know, I was a CalFresh recipient, you know, 20 years ago when I had young children and I was going through a divorce and a transition and I was actually denied in California because at the time I had a car. And thankfully through advocacy, that's no longer a barrier. But at the time I was literally a pregnant woman with two small children and I was denied benefits. And so now we're trying to make it easier. Like one of the things we're advocating for is during the pandemic, people were able to apply over the phone. And now they wanna take that back and make it so people have to go in person, which is really hard. I mean, a lot of low wage workers, they don't get sick days. They don't get paid time off. You know, if they miss hours of work, that directly affects their ability to support their families.
22:40 | SPEAKER_00 | What would be the reasoning for making them have to do that
22:44 | SPEAKER_05 | or walk that back? You know, I'm not sure.
22:48 |  | Well, I have a hypothesis. I think that, no, I really do. And I think that it comes down to the same Republican backed policies that were saying voter fraud was happening because people now have the option to do mail-in ballots
23:04 | SPEAKER_00 | or drop off their ballots. In Republican states, I understand that, or whatever, with us having a Democratic superman.
23:10 |  | But again, we forget that in California, the only thing that makes us Democratic is Los Angeles and San Francisco. Everything else in between.
23:20 | SPEAKER_05 | Well, and these programs are administered on the county level. So it's county by county. It's county by county.
23:26 |  | And depending on how your county decided to act that year.
23:29 | SPEAKER_00 | Sure, sure, sure, yeah. Yeah, there are definitely some red.
23:32 | SPEAKER_05 | So I think that it's a time of transition and hopefully we can make it easier for people to access benefits. I mean, one of the things that we also do is we work with our pantry partners and the county to have county workers at pantry sites to help people sign up.
23:49 |  | So that we can make it one less trip that they have to take. And we do have to admit that there is, especially through COVID, the unhoused population grew exponentially, it seemed like. And you really saw for the first time what this was. Yeah, I mean, we're seeing it in neighborhoods that we never saw it before. Exactly, and because of that, so I think that another thing is that people aren't understanding what it means to be unhoused in this climate today. All they're seeing is a rise in areas where you never had it. So it's almost like that stigma against the unhoused is growing just because now there are an inconvenience in your neighborhood. Exactly, and there's safety issues,
24:29 | SPEAKER_05 | legitimate safety issues, and I understand those concerns. And what we're seeing is that there's an incredible rise in senior homelessness, in family homelessness. And I think people wonder, well, what happened to all that Measure H money and the Measure HHH money? And the problem is we're getting people off the street, but not as fast as people are becoming homeless. And so we're trying to stem the tide. And right now I am really, really concerned because people think that COVID was the time of the emergency, and that is actually not the case. People had more resources during COVID. They had extra unemployment benefits, there were stimulus checks, there was extra supplemental benefits in CalFresh, there was an extra Earned Income Child Tax Credit. Now all of that is gone. The crisis is now. The crisis is now. This past couple of months have been the highest in Westside Food Bank's history. 42 years of distribution, and I've never distributed 500,000 pounds of food
25:30 |  | in one month. But the rent moratorium ended a month ago. Exactly.
25:33 | SPEAKER_05 | So people are gonna have to pay back rent. I mean, we just had a Meals on Wheels West client who owed $60,000 in back rent. An elderly person who is about to get evicted, someone who gets their meals delivered, and then they also get groceries from Westside Food Bank along with that. And thankfully we were able to intervene through the Westside Coalition Network to help that person, but there's thousands more like that. I think about someone like me, a single mom with three young children like I was 20 years ago. That single mom today, she lost $300 per month per child in Earned Income Tax Credit last year. And in late March, she lost $300 in extra CalFresh benefits, and she may owe some back rent. So she's trying to raise her family with $1,200 less a month in a city like Los Angeles. As one person.
26:25 | SPEAKER_00 | Than she had a year ago. Because obviously this was Karen Bass came out her first thing out the gate was dealing with people suffering through homelessness and trying to get it. It was my understanding that there was money that was blocked up, right? Especially during the Trump years, there was where it was money that was held up. And this was supposed to be flowing through, but from what I'm hearing from you, some of that has actually started to flow through, but the real problem is now, it is that we're actually not able to process
26:58 | SPEAKER_05 | as much as that is coming through. The challenge is preventing homelessness because we are being successful in getting people off the street. And especially the chronically homeless and folks who've been on house for a really long time. The housing first model is really important because it gets people off the street immediately, and then provides whatever wraparound services they need. But there are so many people who are becoming unhoused for the first time, and it's just because of economics. And so what we try to do is to prevent people from losing their housing by providing free, fresh, nutritious food day in and day out. And over 60% of the people that access food pantries are repeat clients. So this is a regular part of how they meet their family's nutritional needs. And it's a way for them to not have to spend money on food
27:48 |  | so that they can spend money to stay housed. But now most, I was looking at statistics, and because of what the rent is currently in Los Angeles, now people are spending upwards of 60 to 70% of their annual income. Even middle income folks. Yeah, a lot of middle income folks are spending, yeah, between 60 and 70% of their annual income just on a place to live.
28:11 | SPEAKER_05 | So how are they supposed to eat? Right, and you know, I used to give statistics, I've been doing this for almost 20 years now. We used to talk about what it costs to afford a two-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles. Now we have to talk about what it costs to afford a one-bedroom apartment. And if you are a minimum wage worker, you have to work 88 hours a week to afford a one-bedroom apartment. And if you're a middle wage worker, it's 52. So even at a good middle wage salary, With a job. With a job, you gotta work more than full time to afford a one-bedroom apartment.
28:44 |  | And right now the statistics for vouchers for housing are, you need to make, to get a housing voucher, right? You need to make individual $36,000 and as a family, 50, I wanna say it's $58,000. But the problem is that gives you a low-income housing voucher where most of the places require- Is it under that amount or over? You have to make under that amount. Okay, copy, copy. So that's the cap, okay? And then they'll give you a low-income housing voucher. The problem is that most of the places that are offering what they're calling low-income because of this, it was a statute that was passed a few years ago in which you no longer have to have a home that qualifies under those financial guidelines. Your place just has to be 30% less than your least expensive unit. And so they're calling that low-income housing. But the problem is in those places, they're also asking you to provide three months of income, a first and last, right? And they're saying that of these places, okay, so if you're a family and you're going to a place where the rent is $1,800, right? And you come in with your low-income voucher, right? You still have to prove that you make three times that a month to live there, but then that would disqualify you for the low-income housing voucher. So there are all these kinds of-
30:05 | SPEAKER_05 | There's all these kind of administrative hurdles that people have to go through.
30:10 |  | And then it just becomes so disheartening and frustrating. And forget if you have an eviction. If you have an eviction, this almost exes you out of the renting market, even with a low-income housing voucher. So I think that you're right at saying these are systemic issues that are nuanced.
30:25 | SPEAKER_05 | And honestly, there's just not enough housing. I mean, you asked me earlier what was the biggest issue. It's the fact that for decades, we did not build enough housing, and especially affordable housing.
30:36 |  | But now we're building it,
30:37 | SPEAKER_05 | but nobody can afford to live in it now. Well, there's high rises downtown that have been empty for years because they're investment properties. So I think on the policy level, we have to create policies that encourage, I'm sorry, but we gotta have a little bit more density. Yes, absolutely. And especially around our public transportation corridors, because that's how people can get around and eliminate some of this quagmire in traffic. Yes. And we just need more housing. There isn't enough. We need more affordable housing.
31:09 | SPEAKER_00 | Exactly. We definitely have the most empathetic mayor that we could have asked for. And I feel like a very, very empathetic governor and things. Do you find that there are things in place,
31:20 | SPEAKER_05 | it's just we can't build it fast enough? You know, I'm excited for this next period, because it's true. We have, you know, I mean, Karen Bass is, she's had boots on the ground. She's run nonprofits. She knows what it's like. She has our backs. I mean, I was just at the Center for Nonprofit Management's 501 Conference, and she came to speak to us and she basically said that, I've got your back. And, you know, we have at the head of LASA right now, the housing authority, Valisha Adams Keller, who's got her own experience with running a nonprofit that is helping unhoused people. We've got five women on the county board of supervisor, including those who have worked at nonprofits. And I think it's never been a better time, especially in Los Angeles County, for us to actually get some of this work done. And I'm excited to see what happens. I'm a little concerned, to be quite honest, because so much of the funding is being diverted to housing agencies, which it's very much needed. But for example, you know, there's been a cut in funding to food agencies. And so at a time, and we've grown more than double to what our service was pre-pandemic, and the need is continuing to rise. And yet many of our funding sources have been cut. So a good example is last year, we got a $900,000 grant from the federal government, which was, you know, unexpected, more than we usually get, which is somewhere around 200,000. This year, our allotment was 16,000. Jesus. So that, and all of that money is directly spent to purchase food. So we're looking at a funding shortfall at a time when the need is high, when inflation is high. I mean, our dollars on the wholesale level don't go as far as they used to.
33:07 | SPEAKER_00 | The price of eggs is a great example. Inflation.
33:10 | SPEAKER_05 | I mean, triple. The wholesale price for eggs is triple what it was a year ago. So you're seeing it at the grocery store, but we're seeing it on the wholesale level. And sometimes there's weeks where we just don't have eggs because we simply can't afford to buy them. So we have to try to find other less expensive protein sources. But honestly, it's hard, it's heartbreaking. That is one of the most popular foods. And when we don't have it because of a funding shortfall, or really high prices, people hurt. They feel it. That's the biggest complaint is like,
33:40 |  | what happened to the eggs? Well, I know that we could just talk to you all day long. And that wouldn't be fair because you have things to do. But I do really, I'm really grateful that we got the chance to talk to you about some hopeful options. And we just wanna kind of end on a lighter note. So we play this little game. And so we pick some cards. And Rick, I'm gonna throw it to you because you have the cards.
34:04 | SPEAKER_00 | All right, cool. What I'm gonna do is go ahead and grab any one of these. I'm gonna say, pick a card, go ahead and pick a card. You have the choice to answer that, or you can pass.
34:15 | SPEAKER_05 | But you have to then answer the next card that comes up. Who do you think is the most inspirational person
34:22 |  | alive today? Well, maybe who is the most inspirational to you?
34:26 | SPEAKER_00 | I know my answer, well, I mean, I also started seeing Barack Obama's the latest documentary that he did with his wife. I mean, I know it's Barack Obama, but I mean, the guy is just legitimately just, he walks into a room, it's just so inspirational.
34:41 | SPEAKER_05 | See, I was gonna say Michelle. Well, you know what? Actually, that's what I was thinking of too. Because there was a moment when I read her book. She's behind the scenes, inspirational too. And she, there's a great story about Michelle Obama when she was in the White House. And this is something that I really, really relate to because I was a kid who grew up in a low income neighborhood and didn't always have access to things. And she ran a program for young women from the DC community. And she insisted that the workshops take place at the White House because she said, I want these young women to walk through these halls on a regular basis. I want them to feel like they belong. I want them to feel like they deserve to be in this beautiful place with priceless art on the walls. And for that to start to feel comfortable and regular and normal. And that is it exactly. It's inclusion. How do we make people feel like they deserve and they belong? And that is one of the things that I found so inspirational about her is that not only does she try to talk about a great message, but she's actively lifting up others along with her.
35:49 |  | Well, that makes sense because that's you.
35:51 | SPEAKER_05 | That's me, exactly. I mean, I was this little girl from the Bronx, but thankfully because of a very strong social service network in New York City, my third grade course sang at Lincoln Center. Look at that. You know, I got to go to the Statue of Liberty. I eventually got a scholarship and was going to private school with the kids of millionaires
36:10 | SPEAKER_00 | and movie stars and feeling like I belong. I'm sorry, are you saying you're Genevieve from the block? I am, I'm the other Jenny from the block. Don't be fooled by the rockers, she gotcha. All right, okay, so the last question I'll ask you because this is a hard hitting question would say this.
36:26 | SPEAKER_05 | What's your favorite fast food? It would have to be the Mexican pizza, a Taco Bell, but with chicken instead of beef.
36:33 |  | Okay, word, solid answer. Solid, solid, solid.
36:37 | SPEAKER_00 | What about you, Maya, what's your favorite fast food?
36:38 |  | Okay, my favorite fast food is the chicken bowl at Chipotle, but with black beans, easy rice, and that new hot sauce that they have. They have like a hot sauce, whatever.
36:54 | SPEAKER_05 | See, that's kind of cheating because that's healthy fast food.
36:56 |  | Seriously, but you said fast food. And then my guilty fast food that I always feel guilty about but it's delicious is Chick-fil-A.
37:03 | SPEAKER_04 | So I feel guilty, I'm so sorry I'm eating racist, homophobic nuggets, but my bad. But they taste delicious and they waffle fries are good.
37:14 | SPEAKER_00 | I know, it's like the consolation we make with the homophobic Chick-fil-A is, okay, no chicken sandwich, chicken nuggets, they're all right. Genevieve, thank you so much for being here. I cannot tell you how much it feels great to shed any light that we can on this. And everything that you do is, it's inspirational. And I appreciate you coming down and telling us the story.
37:38 | SPEAKER_05 | And anyway, we can help. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate you helping to shine a light on the fact that the crisis is now. And we need your help now. So all of your listeners go to wsfb.org, donate before June 30th, so that every dollar you donate becomes eight nutritious meals. And follow us on social media. And we'll let you know what bills to advocate for and when it's time to call your legislators. We'll keep you informed. And come volunteer, hold a food drive. There's so many ways to help. Don't be discouraged because I get to see every day, not just the need, but the many, many, many thousands of people that wanna make a difference
38:15 |  | and are making a difference. You are one of those champions and thank you so much for being so. Thank you. Slap the Power is written and produced by Rick Bario-Dill and Maya Sykes, executive producer, Duff Ferguson. Our senior producer is Sabrina Seward, associate producer, Rhee Khoury, audio and visual engineering and studio facilities provided by Slap Studios LA with distribution through our collective home for social progress in art, Slap the Network. If you have any ideas for a show you wanna hear or see, or if you would like to be a guest artist on our show, please email us at info at slapthepower.com.