An Army of Normal Folks - She Heard One Podcast and Drove Nine Hours to Volunteer

Episode Date: June 5, 2026

For Shop Talk, the extraordinary story one Army member inspiring another one, which inspires us and hopefully you! Amy Crenshaw's nonprofit ComeUnity Cafe where you can donate money or work for your food inspired Lisa Fox to drive 9 hours from Wellington, OH to Jackson, TN to volunteer there for several days and explore if she can do something similar in her community. Listen to this episode and think: Who can inspire me to do even more? Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/#joinSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey, everybody. It's Bill Courtney with an army of normal folks. Welcome into the shop. Hi, Alex. Hello, Bill. We got to buy some merch today. We do. Well, I've already bought mine. You need to buy yours. Well, I've got to buy some for me, but I got to buy some Terry. Yeah, we're going to do it right after this. Yeah, we are. Terry, if you're listening, merch is headed your way. I swear. Actually, I think we're buying one for the subject to today's shop talk, too, given she you submitted it. Oh, I got to buy two merches? You're not buying it.

I'm buying Terry's. Yeah, but Army and normal folks is buying the rest in the future. Okay, perfect. As they should. Shop talk number one. Whose idea was how to reverse the things? All right, so I got the number here. No, no, but who's idea?

I got it. So from Hunter Cowan, or hopefully I'm not butchering his name. He said, I have listened to all of your podcast since the beginning. I love this guy. Amazing. They are light and all the bad news that comes our way every day. by listening to your shows, y'all have inspired me

to try to make a difference in my community. I have started the local Sleep and Heavenly Peace chapter outside of Richmond. Where to go, Hunter? How cool is that? Yay, he got a bell. Yeah.

All right, it says, now the reason I'm writing to you, I have an idea for you with these shop talks. You could do the shop talk number how many years ago. Yeah, because basically zero through 99 we were doing jersey numbers. And then once we got to 100,

you and I kind of looked at each other like idiots. There's not any of stuff to do. So he clearly recognized that you and I ran out of ideas on the shop talk number thing. And he sent this to us. So Hunter gets merch. Actually, it's a really cool example to. But Hunter gets merch. Sure, he can get merch too.

It actually kind of reminds me a line. William F. Buckley once said, whatever you think of his politics, but he said, I'd rather be governed by the first 100 people on a phone book than any politician or any Harvard faculty. But like the genius and the wisdom of the American people, like us idiots couldn't figure out how to do this, but Hunter's listening in and he figured it. Well, so here's the deal, y'all. If you've been listening to Shop Talks, how long, or if you're new, you know,

zero through 99 shop talks, we just said, who's number, I don't know, 32, and we'd say, OJ Simpson. That's probably a really bad example, but who's, number, whatever, and we'd say the number and just what that number meant to you. Well, once we got to

100, we started grasping. So now what we're doing on Shop Dogs is this is Shop Talk 107. So here's the question. What happened 107 years ago? Which would be the year in 1919. So what happened in 1990?

You're not having a guess. 1919. Hold on. That was the advent of the roaring 20s. So what would have happened? I don't know. What happened in 1919? I actually got a bunch of things.

Before we get to that, and I had a lot of fun with chat Chubit on this one. I bet you did. It got pretty wild. So ChachyBT called out. actually 107, you can break it out, 107 means out of service in like emergency codes. Okay. A 107 when people say that. So ChachyBTBT said, a 107 means out of service, but episode 107 is about getting back into service.

Are you kidding? It's so cheeky. That is so weird. All right, here you go. The Grand Canyon becomes a national park. When did that happen? In 1919. 107 years ago.

The Grand Canyon became a national park. The first transatlantic flight happened. Really? Two British aviators flew nonstop across the Atlantic for the first time. In 1990. The Green Bay Packers were founded in 1919. Wow. I'm going to give you an example of the kind of things Chad GVT was writing.

It said the Packers were founded 107 years ago by a couple ordinary guys working at a packing company. I knew that. I actually knew that. Turns out a lot of great things start when normal folks decide to do something together. That's what this thing said. That's what Chachyvici is. writing stuff like this. Are you kidding?

For all of them. They wrote like, yeah. Turns out normal folks can do something. Prohibition started, which I hate. That's the worst thing ever. The American Legion was founded. After World War I, thousands of veterans came home asking, how can we keep serving?

That's really what today's episode is about to, according to Chat Chivity. Okay. Chat JVT is getting a little cheesy. But it's awesome. Babe Ruth hits 29 home runs and change. baseball forever. All right. Last one, 107 years ago, 1919. That's it. That's it. I mean, first commercial radio experiments were taking off. It said there too.

107 years ago, people were discovering new ways to share stories. Today, we're talking about what happens when one story reaches one listener at exactly the right moment. That's a good to you end of the episode. All right. So here's the deal. The title of this thing is Shop Talk Number 107. She heard one podcast. drove nine hours to volunteer. It's going to be an auto recording from one of our Army members who will introduce that and play you this right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors. Pride is like love.

You feel it in your heart. IRRadio, Canada's number one streaming app for radio and podcasts, including IHart Pride Canada, your favorite hits and must-have party bangers, plus personalized And curated playlists, like back in the day pride. Come together, celebrate. Take pride with you anytime, anywhere. Just ask your smart speaker to play IHeart Pride Canada. Stream us on your phone or listen now at iHeartRadio.ca.

Number one hits, millions of records sold, awards, sold out tours. You think that Jonas Brothers are satisfied? Nope, it's podcast time. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Hey, Jonas is available now. and their first guest is a big one. Paul Rudd. You know, Steve Carell is a great singer.

Can you tell you not to audition at the office or something? I told him. Whoa. We were filming Anchorman. Clearly, I was the idiot. Thank God he didn't listen to me, right? Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I love the sounds. The buzzing from the stadium, the chanting from the fans, the announcers calling the place soccer, football, at home. Why do I watch the World Cup? That's like asking me, why do I breed? I inherited that fandom from my mom. I like watching it with my dad. It's a connecting force.

From Futuro Studios, I'm Fernanda Chavari, and this is American Football, a show about soccer culture in the U.S. and its underdog roots. We go beyond the game to the people and the stories that make it great. A soccer game is a festival. It's a game. It's your culture. I took an elbow to my head, which cracked my skull. It is an American game.

The Brazilians don't like hearing that, though. Are they the only ones that don't like that? Nobody likes that. As we get ready for the Men's World Cup this summer, listen to American Football as part of the MyCultura podcast network, available on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Mainstream media is full of cruel depictions of the unhoused.

stories that shame and blame and paint the unhoused as a monolith. We The Un-House is the podcast that's changing that. I'm Theo Henderson, creator and host, and for years I've created a space where the un-house and their advocates can tell their own stories. In the last few months alone, I've interviewed Un-House parents, immigrants, mutual aid organizers, veterans, the LGBTQTIA plus community, and the policymakers who make the laws that, impact the unhoused existence.

Whedian Houses a two-time Webby and Signal Award-winning show with many exciting guests on the horizon. Tune in this week for my interview with Dr. Jill Wichler, a street doctor turned influencer whose work with the unhoused community has made a huge impact online and in her community. Listen to Weythian Housed on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

Everybody, welcome back to Shop Talk 107. 1919, first transatlantic flight. Green Bay Packers were founded. American Legion. American Legion. Grand Canyon. Grand Canyon. The title of today's podcast is,

she heard one podcast and drove nine hours to volunteer. It's an audio recording from Army member Lisa Fox, who lives in Wellington, Ohio. We're going to go to Lisa. You're going to hear the recording. And then Alex and I will talk a little bit about it once you hear it. I think you will find this vastly interesting. You're going to love it.

About a year ago, I first heard Amy Crenshaw's interview on the Army of Normal Folks podcast. She was the founder of a concept called Community Cafe. After listening to the whole episode, I started looking deeper into the concept behind Community Cafe in Jackson, Tennessee. The idea stayed with me. As someone who loves baking, grew up around farming communities, and has always believed food brings people together, I couldn't stop thinking about the possibility of creating something similar someday. So instead of just reading and researching about it online, I drove from Northern Ohio nine hours and spent several full days volunteering at the cafe to truly immerse myself in how it worked. I came to Jackson to volunteer at community cafe, not for the glory or to feel good about myself, but because I already had an idea quietly sitting in the back of my mind for years called farmhands.

Originally, farmhands started as a simple idea. During COVID, I had a small bakery side business, and I loved making hand pies and bake goods. Growing up around farming communities, I kept thinking about the people in tractors during harvest season, eating gas station food, fast food, or sometimes nothing at all because there just wasn't time. I wanted to create wholesome lunches using local produce and local meats that could be delivered directly to the farmers in the field. At the same time, I kept wondering why communities with farms and gardens and farmers, markets and hunters and bakers and local growers still had people going hungry.

Food has always meant community in my family. Growing up, our doors were never closed. Holidays were huge gatherings with turkey, homemade food, desserts, cards around the table, and enough food to feed anyone who walked through the door. When I had my own family, that tradition simply moved to my house. Food was never. just food. It was connection. I had seen pay it forward cafes before, but community cafe felt different. Something told me I needed to physically come here and immerse myself in the environment instead of just reading about it online. I wanted to see how it actually worked. I felt drawn here spiritually. God put this in my life story for a reason.

Walking in the first day, I was nervous. I honestly expected more of a soup kitchen atmosphere. Instead, within the first hour, Tina had me chopping fennel, oranges, and lemons, while Austin talked to me about food and social work and family and community. Lori came up behind me excited because both of our names started with an L. Everyone immediately made me feel like I belong there. The first thing that hit me emotionally was the mission itself. To love, to feed, to dignify. This wasn't about charity for charity's sake. It wasn't about handouts.

It was about dignity. What makes community cafe unique is that it functions like a real local cafe, because it is. Customers can donate towards their meals by paying the suggested meal amount, pay it forward for somebody else, or they can volunteer their time in exchange for food. The goal is not simply feeding people. It is preserving dignity, purpose, and community. But what struck me immediately was that nobody was cutting corners just because it was nonprofit. The meals were fresh, thoughtful, seasonal, and beautifully prepared. This wasn't charity food.

This was real food made with care. Honestly, that fact shocked me in the best way possible. The mint and blood orange salad was one of the freshest and most flavorful salads I've ever had. It wasn't soup kitchen food. It was nourished both the body and. the soul. Everything was fresh, thoughtful, seasonal, and made with care. Leftover fruit even became infused water instead of being wasted. There were rarely cans in sight and virtually no processed food of any kind. Austin told me immediately, this isn't a soup kitchen. It's a working cafe

where people can work for their food. That sentence stayed with me. People often misunderstand places like this. They assume it's simply charity, but what I saw here was an environment where everyone contributed in whatever way they could. Some people wash dishes, some wiped tables or chairs or windows, some rolled silverware or stamped the wrappers with the cafe logo, some people cooked or served, some people cleaned, and some simply greeted people weren't. Normally, there was a job for everyone. And nobody was treated differently. It was not just a community. It was an entire ecosystem. Garden included. One of the moments that impacted me the most was watching a retired neurosurgeon proudly washed dishes alongside volunteers with addiction histories, developmental disabilities, mental health struggles, retirees, and working professionals. Amy's husband Jim, a cardiologist, had built the tables that everyone sat around together. At the end of a meal, volunteers and paying customers sat side by side as equals.

That sense of equality changed me. The first day, we did over 80 tickets, and that was considered a slower day. The second day, Taco Tuesday, we did 91 tickets. attorneys, medical offices, regulars, volunteers, everyone came in together. It ran like any other successful local cafe. And that was the moment that I realized, this works. And it has been working for almost 13 years. Before coming here, I honestly wasn't sure that farmhands could really exist outside of my imagination.

But volunteering here showed me what happens when a community comes together around dignity, food, and purpose. Suddenly, my own background started making more sense. Growing up around farms and farmers markets, knowing local growers, knowing people who raise beef and pork and eggs and honey and maple syrup and sweet corn and produce, learning canning and preserving and dehydrating and not wasting food. Even my veterinary background and years spent in agricultural communities suddenly felt connected to something larger. I realized farmhands is not really about hand pies.

The hand pies are just the vehicle. To me, hand pies are filling wrapped in a warm hug. Every culture in the world has some version of stuffed dough or handheld comfort food. They can be savory or sweet. They can use seasonal ingredients or preserved ingredients. They're portable, nourishing, and communal. What I really want to create is a place where people feel like they are walking into an old episode of the Walton's, where everyone contributes what they can, everyone sits down together, and everyone deserves a good meal. I want to be a good meal. I want to be a kids to learn about gardening, sustainability, fresh food, preserving food, and community responsibility.

I want people to understand that needing help does not make someone less valuable. Dignity means that everyone contributes in the way that they are able. My grandparents would have loved this place. My grandfather would have been organizing things and coaching kids while my grandmother made potato soup to feed every. who walked in the door. Another grandparent would have been making homemade grape juice while someone else made stuffed peppers and started a lending library in the dining room. This type of community care used to be normal. I think that's why this experience hit me so hard emotionally. I came to Tennessee hoping to learn how a community nonprofit cafe functioned operationally.

I'm leaving with friendships, ideas, inspiration, and the realization that this kind of place really can exist. And it deserves to exist in every community. Maybe even someday in my own hometown. That's Lisa Fox, everybody. And she visited, as you know, Community Cafe in Jackson, Tennessee, which was one of our very, one of our early interviews. Like six months in. Yeah. Yeah, so if you go back, if you're interested, you can go back to about six months from our beginning, and you can find the interview with Amy Crenshaw.

We said to say hello to you. And it was good. What? When did you see her? So, Lisa reached out, told me about her trip, asked if we can get together. When did Lisa go? Like, this is probably three weeks ago. Oh, this is that current.

Yeah. She asked to have lunch. And number one, I was excited at lunch with her. I hope this is not weird. I'm saying this. But it's like two hours from Oxford. Sorry to drive two hours, have lunch, drive two hours back. You know how busy.

So you drove up there? Yeah, yeah. So we both are. Like, it's the last thing I need. But number one, Lisa's awesome. I don't know if you remember. She sent us some baked goods to those buck guys. I still have the little half moon knitted little smiley face.

She said. So, so sweet. And with a lot of service things like this or building community, like, yeah, you feel like, oh man, I don't want to do this. I'm so busy, but it's like the most enriching thing possible. Like, it makes your week and like. So you had dinner with Lisa and Amy? Yeah, and then I didn't know Amy was going to be there, but she was there. So the three of us got to have lunch for an hour. That's awesome. It was my first time finally seeing community cafe. I went by on the way to Nashville twice and both times Amy wasn't there. So Amy, if you're

listening, I have tried to come visit you and I'll catch you eventually on the way to Nashville. Yeah. And it was awesome. I mean, it's obviously it's, obviously it's. really cool for us seeing fruition of it, too, of putting this out there and people get inspired and taking action and even just building this. I mean, it's amazing that she drove nine hours and she spent like three or four days there volunteering. So one of the things we talk about, and I probably hadn't said it enough lately, and I don't want to be overly repetitive because, as Alex points out, some of my stories get boring if I tell them too many times. Oh, so you read my email the other day.

Uh, anyway, guys, the magic happens when things that you are good at and that you're passionate about intersect with opportunity. You've heard that. Here's the other thing. We really encourage people to keep listening because while each episode, we work very hard to make inspirational, informative, and entertaining. Because at the end of the day, we're creating a podcast. If it's not entertaining, we're not going to have an audience. But the goal is that ultimately, if you listen long enough and we do a good enough job of having a diversified enough storytelling base that eventually will tell a story that collides with your passions and your disciplines and helps you to think about how you can employ those passions of disciplines at opportunity in your community by virtue of hearing a story. that is close to your heart.

And I think this also tells that story because clearly Lisa has an affinity for food and good food and curated food and how important food and love and community is. And so Amy's particular episode struck her and she drove nine hours and volunteered four days to find out about it because she listened long enough to finally, I mean, it doesn't sound like

Lisa's going to go be a volunteer firefighter. So she heard that one, and that was interesting and entertaining and inspirational, but that's not something that made her act. But this one made her act. And so all of this is to say, keep listening. Go back and listen to all of them. And eventually, your passions and your disciplines will be inspired and energized by an episode we do because the content of that episode will ring true to your ethos.

And the beautiful thing about that is the episode itself provides a blueprint, a roadmap for you to go have success in your community doing those same things. And that's exactly what this is. And so one of the reasons I almost got choked up listening to it is this story is the very fruition of what we set out to do in the first place. Yeah. I'd say to not only to listen long enough, that's true, but you can also scroll back to the archive, find ones that relate to you. Feel free to email me too. If you want to email me at Armyanormalfocus.com. I'm happy to recommend ones for your passions and your abilities.

And then our new website that we'll be going live in about a month bill. A new website? Yeah. What's wrong with our old website? This one's a lot more beautiful. Oh, okay. And a lot more capabilities on it. So, like, with that, too, you could actually search by topic.

So you'll be able to search food and pull down all the ones related to food. That's pretty awesome. Yeah. That's really, really good. How are we doing on the local chapters? They're growing? Yeah. Well, we should actually talk about that in the next shop talk because we're going along on this.

And we'll everybody, y'all can tune in next week to hear about that. That was a teaser. Yeah. All right, if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with friends on social. Rate it, review it. Join the Army at normalfolks.us. Buy some merch. Wake the kids, phone the neighbors, tell everybody about us.

That about right? That's good. All right. Shop Talk number 107, a tribute, candidly, to Amy Crenshaw and Army member Lisa Fox. Thanks for being a stud. really appreciate you guys. Until next week, we'll see you. Do what you can. Do what you can. That's it. Shop Talk Number 107. We're out.

Leads of records sold out tours. You think that Jonas brothers are satisfied? Nope. It's podcast time. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Hey Jonas is available now and their first guest is a big one. Paul Rudd. You know, Steve Carell is a great singer. Can you tell you not to audition at the office or something? Whoa. We were filming Anchorman. Clearly, I was the idiot.

Thank God he didn't listen to me, right? Listen to Hey Jonas on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's that time to put on your jersey and wave your flag, whoever you root for. Why do I watch the Walk Up? That's like asking me, why do I breed? And it's beautiful. The guys are young and cute and fat. It's not just a game.

It's your culture. I like watching it with my dad. It's a connecting force. From Futuro Studios, I'm Fernanda Chavari, and this is American Football, a show about soccer culture in the U.S. and its underdog roots. Listen to American Football on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Every family has its secrets. But what happens when you discover that your dad has been living a double life? That is not the look of an innocent.

sent man. Is everyone lying to me about who they are? I felt such desperation. I felt it was what I had to do. Listen to deep cover the family man. On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Saigon,

the story of my family and of the country that shaped us. From IHeart Podcast, Saigon. You don't think I'm serious about a free Vietnam? One city, a divide. country and the war that tore America apart. This is for Vietnam. They're pouring patril all over here.

Freedom for Vietnam! There's a fire coming to this country and it's going to burn out everything. Listen to Saigon on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.