It Could Happen Here - Food Justice & Mutual Aid with Melissa Acedera

Episode Date: October 8, 2021

We talk to organizer Melissa Acedera about her experience with Polo's Pantry, Home-y Made Meals, food justice, and the difference between charity and mutual aid.https://www.melissaacedera.com/https://polospantry.org/https://www.homeymademeals.com/ Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You should probably keep your lights on for Nocturnal Tales from the Shadowlands. Join me, Danny Trejo, and step into the flames of fright. An anthology podcast of modern-day horror stories inspired by the most terrifying legends and lore of Latin America. Listen to Nocturnal on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Curious about queer sexuality, cruising, and expanding your horizons?

Hit play on the sex-positive and deeply entertaining podcast Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Join hosts Gabe Gonzalez and Chris Patterson Rosso as they explore queer sex, cruising, relationships, and culture in the new iHeart podcast,

Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Sniffy's Cruising Confessions will broaden minds and help you pursue your true goals. You can listen to Sniffy's Cruising Confessions, sponsored by Gilead, now on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Thursday. The 2025 iHeart Podcast Awards are coming.

This is the chance to nominate your podcast for the industry's biggest award. every Thursday. it's time to get rewarded for it. Submit your podcast today at iHeart.com slash podcast awards. That's iHeart.com slash podcast awards. Welcome to Gracias Come Again, a podcast by Honey German, where we get real and dive straight into todo lo actual y viral. We're talking musica, los premios, el chisme, and all things trending in my cultura. I'm bringing you all the latest happening in our entertainment world and some fun and impactful interviews with your favorite Latin artists,

comedians, actors, and influencers. Each week, we get deep and raw life stories, combos on the issues that matter to us, and it's all packed with gems, fun, straight-up comedia, and that's a song that only nuestra gente can sprinkle. Listen to Gracias Come Again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Fuck!

Well, that wasn't very good. I'm Robert Evans, host of the podcast you're listening to and ashamed of, probably, because that was Jesus Christ. Garrison, come in here. No, I refuse. Save this. Fix this. I refuse to fix the date. Fix this, Garrison. This is It Could Happen Here, a podcast about the fact that the world is falling apart, as embodied by me falling apart when I try to introduce the show. See, I tied it in. Yeah, good job. Thank you. Thank you. Falling Apart of Polo's Pantry, a mutual aid food distribution project in Los Angeles, California. Melissa, thank you for coming on and talking to us. Thank you so much for inviting me. A pleasure to be

here. I apologize for the introduction, but I honestly, it's better than I usually do. Sophie can back that up. Yes. Okay. So I'm an LA native and I've been doing community organizing for probably like close to a decade, doing a lot of community work for a long time. And a few years before the pandemic, actually, I started to organize with a lot of grassroots organizations in LA, working with a lot of houseless folks all over LA, and kind of clocked pretty early that a lot, you know, a lot of groups were burning through their budgets, spending it on food. And so since I worked in kind of the food industry, I started to kind of poke around and figure out that we could get a lot of

these things donated to us um and pretty much started building a roster like building kind of like a rolodex of um other organizations nonprofits um food banks that we could rely on so almost kind of created sort of like an alternate system for these groups who are working with houseless folks to get food every week. I just wanted to figure out a way to make a steady and reliable system so that our unhoused neighbors would get food and that organizers across LA wouldn't have to worry about it and so that's pretty much how polo started officially it started in 2018 uh i was organizing with a group called k-town for all and uh they do a lot of political advocacy and mostly rooted in like um kind of you know human

rights for our house's neighbors if you don't know k-time for all look them up they're awesome follow them fantastic organization yeah and you know i actually was because i was already doing a lot of mutual aid work in skid row around that time and really kind of felt at some point um that you know, like, yes, it was great that I was going out there with teams, getting hot meals out and hot beverages, whatever people needed to people, but I just was so down on what the conditions, seeing all the conditions that they were living in. And I just wanted to meet other activists and other folks who could really figure out how you connect people to services and, and just really, you know,

anyone working in policy that's, that's really changing things for people out there. And so I wanted to take sort of my advocacy and like my work a step further and connect it with activists all the way. So that's sort of like my org is really rooted in a lot of activism and organizing. So I see a lot of, I'm not sort of your standard kind of org or nonprofit. I really see things in the lens of as a community organizer. And so that's why our work just pretty much exploded during COVID.

exploded during COVID. I'm kind of interested for, for starters, because you, you're, you know, this is a mutual aid project as opposed to kind of a charity project. And what do you, what do you see as being the dividing line there? Yeah, well for, you know, for a lot of, for us, you know, it's very easy for, for folks to kind of see the work that we do as part of the kind of the charitable food system, because obviously we're, you know, mutual aid, it's the difference really is that obviously,

you know, there's a reciprocity between the two of you, between neighborhoods, between individuals, between organizations of sharing resources with each other. And charitable, obviously, is like there's only one way, right? There's only like one person giving. But for us, the way we picked our partners, I mean, we were already part of this nucleus of kind of a coalition of orgs doing this work and so it was just really very easy for us to kind of share resources with each other so i was doing food and some folks were doing hygiene kits other folks were doing tents other folks were doing tarps or whatever and so there was so much you know kind of mutual aid and activity going on. And so that's why we're really kind of rooted in that thinking as far as like, as opposed to charitable orgs

that basically just set up somewhere and give, you know, give stuff out to people. And so we have, like in part of my advisory circle are a lot of houseless neighbors, houseless leaders in our community. I also take a lot of advice from indigenous organizers, Black community leaders in different neighborhoods that we work in. So our work is really informed by the community.

And so we basically ask folks, hey, you know, like, what can we do? informed by the community. And so we basically ask folks, Hey, you know, like what can we do and plug into to work that already exists in those, in those areas. I hope, I hope that makes sense. But that's kind of how I feel about what we do. And as an, as an organizer, because I think we get a lot of questions from people who are interested in starting mutual aid projects in their own areas. And one of the questions we often have is like, how do I do that? And yeah, I'm interested in like, if you could kind of walk us through the

steps when Polo's Pantry got started, like what was the kind of order of operations that you had to go through to get this up and running? i think the first thing to do is really to for me it was already kind of being part of grassroots org so i was part of a few of them um and so it's really important to to um to kind of identify the needs of a community first um before setting up your. So I feel like I already had an idea of, you know, of what certain orgs needed, which areas, how many. And so kind of identifying the needs first kind of number one. And to do that, you really have to connect with grassroots organizations, local ones in your area. So, you know, I recommend really just kind of doing research. There's always folks doing that kind of stuff all over.

If you're into political advocacy, there's folks that do that. If there are folks who are more food justice oriented, like I would recommend going to a local food bank or soup kitchens too have also, like I've been doing that for years and I've met a lot of people with kind of similar values mine um so just kind of pretty much identify one what you'd like to do what you're good at um and then essentially research um you know kind of opportunities to tap into a local org doing that work and then essentially start organizing with them right i don't i don't recommend to build like to build an org prior to not having this kind of knowledge because i feel

like it's really crucial to sort of kind of map out first what the community needs instead of you building mutual aid organization based on, you know, whatever. Because I feel like it's important to work through things from the ground up. That way you feel like the work is impactful. That way the community is leading and informing your work. And so that's kind of like how I approach the line. So look for a local org. So kind of sit and organize it for a little bit.

And then from there, once you guys identify what it is and start to kind of have an idea of the demand or the need in that area, to reach out to say for me for for food a lot of local um local chains will will will pretty much if you if you tell them what you're doing um a lot of them will support you so i actually have i started with just going literally to my local ralphs and telling the manager they're like hey this is what i'm doing i'm starting this or you know was it ralph's being a local grocery store in like los angeles area yes sorry a lot of i didn't know what ralph's was before i moved to la so i just wanted to be like she's not just like rolling over to her buddy ralph's house you guys you got some food yeah sorry yeah so that ralph's out here in la most places yeah it's more or less Kroger. Yeah.

I will warn folks that not everyone is down for that kind of stuff, but somehow you'll really end up on one that's really, you know, that is really kind. I think most folks have to realize that this kind of work is not, it doesn't happen overnight. Like building, like building

a, you know, like a reliable network of people to donate to you takes time. But I think if you hit larger chains, you'll start to get a steady supply from them. Welcome, I'm Danny Thrill. Won't you join me at the fire and dare enter? Nocturnum, Tales from the Shadows, presented by iHeart and Sonora. An anthology of modern-day horror stories inspired by the legends of Latin America. From ghastly encounters with shapeshifters to bone-chilling brushes with supernatural creatures.

I know you. Take a trip and experience the horrors that have haunted Latin America since the beginning of time. Listen to Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows as part of my Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jack Peace Thomas, the host of a brand new Black Effect original series, Black Lit, the podcast for diving deep into the rich world of Black literature. I'm Jack Peace Thomas, and I'm inviting you to join me and a vibrant

community of literary enthusiasts dedicated to protecting and celebrating our stories. Black Lit is for the page turners, for those who listen to audiobooks while commuting or running errands, for those who find themselves seeking solace, wisdom, and refuge between the chapters. From thought-provoking novels

to powerful poetry, we'll explore the stories that shape our culture. Together, we'll dissect classics and contemporary works while uncovering the stories of the brilliant writers behind them. Blacklit is here to amplify the voices of Black writers and to bring their words to life. Listen to Blacklit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Curious about queer sexuality, cruising, and expanding your horizons? Hit play on the sex-positive and deeply entertaining podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions.

Join hosts Gabe Gonzalez and Chris Patterson Rosso as they explore queer sex, cruising, relationships, and culture in the new iHeart podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Sniffy's Cruising Confessions will broaden minds and help you pursue your true goals. You can listen to Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Sniffy's Cruising Confessions will broaden minds and help you pursue your true goals. You can listen to Sniffy's Cruising Confessions, sponsored by Gilead, now on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Thursday. Hola, mi gente. It's Honey German,

and I'm bringing you Gracias, Come Again, the podcast where we dive deep into the world of Latin culture, musica, peliculas, and entertainment with some of the biggest names in the game. If you love hearing real conversations with your favorite Latin celebrities, artists, and culture sh musica, peliculas, and entertainment with some of the biggest names in the game. If you love hearing real conversations with your favorite Latin celebrities, artists, and culture shifters, this is the podcast for you. We're talking real conversations with our Latin stars, from actors and artists to musicians and creators,

sharing their stories, struggles, and successes. You know it's going to be filled with chisme, laughs, and all the vibes that you love. Each week, we'll explore everything from music and pop culture to deeper topics like identity, community, and breaking down barriers in all sorts of industries. Don't miss out on the fun, el té caliente, and life stories. Join me for Gracias Come Again, a podcast by Honey German, where we get into todo lo actual y viral.

Listen to Gracias Come Again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Do you have any kind of advice for when you're actually approaching, you know, a manager at a Ralph's or something? Somebody who works for, like, what do you have? Like, I don't know, like a script, but kind of a a rough guide to like here's how i try to start these conversations here's some ways i try to phrase things because that could be useful for folks you know i actually have like a form letter so i could share later maybe you can show yeah that would be great yes yeah um that you know that they can use to um you know if they're if they're going to to solicit folks with that stuff.

And I think a lot of mutual aid organizations do have that kind of literature, that kind of forum. So I think just basically kind of letting them know who you are, who you're serving, how often, which demographic it's going to. That's usually really important. What helped me, though though was I was, as I started to get more serious about doing the food work, I connected to, you know, some community partners and I actually turned Polo's into a fiscally sponsored org. So we moved from being just fully grassroots to being fiscally sponsored. That basically means we're operating under the 501c3 number of another organization, of a larger organization.

So that opened so many opportunities for us. It really allowed us to be able to access larger amounts of food and really help out a lot of smaller orgs that needed to get their food programs off the ground. And so that is something I recommend if people are serious about it, to find a community partner who is an established 501c3 that they trust to see if they can sign on to be a physical sponsor. That I think is one of the quickest ways to be able to really kind of establish yourself as far

as getting larger amounts of food. And by that, I mean getting pallets of food, not just cases, but literally pallets of food delivered to wherever you are. As soon as we did that, that completely changed the game. And, and I think I did that because I knew I had so many friends who were doing mutual aid that needed so, you know, just so much stuff from, you know, from groceries to, you know, fresh produce. And it wasn't, and it wasn't, to fresh produce. And it didn't stop in food. We were getting hand sanitizer.

We were getting tents. We were getting all sorts of stuff. And so, yeah, that's what I recommend for folks who are serious about food is to really, again, start to build a relationship with local businesses um uh that they that they like the businesses and really telling people this is what i'm doing if you're if you know if you're if you're um you know if you are willing to support us you know like this is um you know these are these are the days that we need food or whatever these are the times that we'll need food and just let them know that, you know, you're, you're happy to like pick it up, uh, or that you're happy to, uh, because there's, there's, I think at least for California, we're, um, we're starting to change law, like policy and law behind food waste. And so I think, um, something's going to change in January of 2022,

where a lot of food waste basically going to decrease because it's going to change in January of 2022, where a lot of food waste is basically going to decrease because it's going to be much more difficult. The city is going to make it much more difficult for, um, for businesses to just carry this stuff. Um, they're, they're really pushing them to, uh, um, to separate them. But anyway, regardless, you're helping the business really move, you know, move food waste. And most of them, and a lot of employees too, that I've talked to, just, you know, just are heartbroken every time they have to clear out, you know, a full tray or just trays and trays of, you know, a perfectly fine food. So yeah, there's a video going viral on Twitter right now of someone working at Dunkin' Donuts

and just dumping hundreds and hundreds of donuts into the garbage. Yep, and that happens every single day. I have friends who used to work at Whole Foods and they would tell me just how heart-breaking it was, just the amount, just the massive amount of food that's being wasted out there. Yeah, it's evil.

It's evil. It's a thing that in the more difficult days ahead as, you know, things like, well, like wheat in a lot of areas, like the crop was half of what it normally is this year. That's going to continue. One day we will look at videos of Dunkin donuts dropping an entire day's worth of donuts into the trash and use it as a pretext to

bring executives to trial and it's going to be like like like a war crime uh yeah it really is i mean i mean honestly though as someone in food um you food, the food system is changing massively in so many ways. I feel like the one good thing that happened in the pandemic is that lawmakers were able to identify that the way SNAP or CalFresh, pretty much food stamps, were not know, to feed families and feed people. It's not nearly enough though, but at least it kind of pushes the needle to where we need, where we needed to go. And I think, I think having, having been so focused and so like in the center of mutual aid work in LA,

I'm able to kind of broadly tell, you know, tell, really tell lawmakers to that, hey, you know, there's so much, there's so much need out there, but the community themselves have built alternate food systems to be able to, you know, to care for themselves. I feel like my hope really is to be able to kind of hyper localize our food systems that way neighborhoods and really like communities are are essentially dictating their own you know their own needs they're basically bringing in the resources that they want they're bringing in the kind of food that they want you know and um and really just working towards a real kind of food sovereignty where people are able to you know to get the resources themselves and

and for me i feel like mutual aid scares a lot of people because again it really is the sort of like um the reason why we were able to a lot of communities were able to to survive covid you know we're still doing it and we still are yeah we still are so deep in it and and even like i try to tell students too like you know um mutual aid isn't just food or whatever it's also like say your dad has a pickup truck and your neighbor needs to move, I don't know, their dining room table across town. Like that is a form of mutual aid. Or like there's so many things that, especially a lot of immigrant communities that I work with, this form of care, community care, you know, has existed forever. And it's just somehow elevated itself during the pandemic because, as we know, the safety net just wasn't enough.

It really didn't help a lot of communities. And so this system essentially kept people afloat. And now we're trying to figure out how to really create better ways to sustain it and to really create better ways to get the resources directly to communities that need them. So that's kind of where I'm at. I'm working with other folks trying to figure out how to keep this sustainable and really have more agency over what kind of food and what kind of aid they want. Welcome. I'm Danny Thrill. Won't you join me at the fire and dare enter Nocturnum, Tales from the Shadows, presented by iHeart and Sonora. An anthology of modern-day horror stories inspired by the legends of Latin America. From ghastly encounters with shapeshifters to bone-chilling brushes with supernatural creatures.

I know you. Take a trip and experience the horrors that have haunted Latin America since the beginning of time. Listen to Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows as part of My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jack Peace Thomas, the host of a brand new Black Effect original series, Black Lit, the podcast for diving deep into the rich world of Black literature. I'm Jack Peace Thomas, and I'm inviting you to join me and a vibrant community of literary enthusiasts dedicated to protecting and celebrating our stories. Blacklit is for the page turners, for those who listen to audiobooks while commuting or running errands, for those who find themselves seeking solace, wisdom, and refuge between the chapters. From thought-provoking novels to powerful poetry, we'll explore the stories that shape our culture. Together, we'll dissect classics and contemporary works while uncovering the

stories of the brilliant writers behind them. Blacklit is here to amplify the voices of Black writers and to bring their words to life. Listen to Blacklit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Curious about queer sexuality, cruising, and expanding your horizons? Hit play on the sex-positive and deeply entertaining podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Join hosts Gabe Gonzalez and Chris Patterson Rosso as they explore queer sex, cruising, relationships, and culture in the new iHeart podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Sniffy's Cruising Confessions will broaden minds

and help you pursue your true goals. You can listen to Sniffy's Cruising Confessions, sponsored by Gilead, now on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Thursday. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and we're kicking off our second season app or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Thursday. hinged look at the underbelly of tech from an industry veteran with nothing to lose. This season, I'm going to be joined by everyone from Nobel-winning economists to leading journalists in the field, and I'll be digging into why the products you love keep getting worse and naming and shaming those responsible. Don't get me wrong, though. I love technology. I just hate the people

in charge and want them to get back to building things that actually do things to help real people. I swear to God things can change if we're loud enough. So join me every week to understand what's happening in the tech industry and what could be done to make things better. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever else you get your podcasts. Check out betteroffline.com. how have people that have been needing to access mutual aid in the food how have they been learning about your organization um i think honestly all this stuff really happened by word of mouth i

think because i was i was already part of this huge coalition um that's part of of the Sophie knows like K-Town for all there's a group called Street Watch there's a group called Brown Game there's a group called like there's all these different folks that basically are in our wide coalition I haven't had to really advertise much like people just sort of like just kept telling others like hey you know like Melissa at Polo's and her team are doing this. And also as a COVID response, I created another like COVID initiative called Homemade Meals. And that is in partnership with another organization called E-X. And so as of today, I think we're close to 75,000 meals.

Wow. That's all community led. Yes. So we, so we, since March of 2020, we essentially created a system where we, we work with people who are, who are cooking homemade meals in their homes and connecting them to drivers. And so we have about six different org partners. So one of them is obviously it's the same people, K-Town, Street Watch, Covenant House. They work a lot with homeless youth. LA Can, they're in Skid Row. And a bunch of other mutual aid groups in different areas of LA. So I recognize at the beginning of COVID, a lot of my houseless neighbors were telling us that they were scared,

like because a lot of businesses were closing, a lot of corner stores, restaurants, the food access completely shut off for them during the beginning. And I started to freak out. I was like, how are we going to get food to people? And so some friends who run, basically, they're one kind of like a youth, kind of youth-focused org, wanted to activate their, you activate their community they're like hey how can we help what can we do so we created this program basically that you know figure out like okay well a lot of people want to volunteer but they can't leave home so why don't they

cook meals at home and then we'll just pair them with drivers we could pick it up safely and so we just started doing that. We created this system to, and I think we honestly, I thought we were just going to do it for two months, but now we're what, like 19 months later, 70. Oh,

geez. 75,000 meals, over a thousand volunteers. Like it's been wild. Actually, Jamie, a friend of, Jamie Loftusus friend of the

pod and a hot dog expert she'd be angry if we didn't state that so jamie um jamie actually is um is one of our og like like cooks like she started with homemade meals from the very beginning um she's kind of one of our um that's kind of how we know her, is because she found, she found that program. And it's been wild. It's been, it's been so amazing to really activate so many people across LA to cook for our houseless neighbors. And so I haven't even fully digested, our team hasn't even fully digested the real impact of that, but it's been 75,000 meals made by the community for our, for our house's neighbors, so, so, so that's, yeah, so that, I don't know, like, I feel like, and I truly believe there's just so much, just so much power in the people, and really trying to figure out ways to continue to you know to create um

better systems where where we can redirect those resources you know um to us to us and um you know like really kind of break down these systems where you know because because even people were telling me like folks who systems where you know because because even people were telling me like folks who are like you know these sort of big institutions food institutions who've been around for decades or even folks um from like yeah from like running food orgs since the 80s were like you know how are you able to move so fast i'm like that's mutual aid that's like that's mutual aid then our ability to not have to run through so much bureaucratic crap and red tape is a reason why we were able to you know to to to create such huge impact because people believed in what we did and you know and helped support us funded us um and we essentially just

you know just hit the ground running we're able to figure out what people needed on the ground and just just got it to them that's that's it you know and we'll figure out if we don't have it we're gonna keep you know we'll ask around for folks who have it. There's a group called SELA. They're in Silver Lake. And my friend Kat, who's one of the co-founders, they also work with houseless folks. And they do incredible work, like providing showers, providing hot meals, providing wraparound services for folks.

She was great at getting hygiene kits and so that's that was our mutual will between each other like she needed hot meals so i gave that to her on saturdays and then i needed like hygiene kits and so and that's kind of like the basis of mutual aid yeah exactly like i literally will give her 200 meals she'll give me 200 hygiene kits and that was like that throughout the pandemic. Like we just would share resources and people thought we were this huge org. But essentially, it was just, you know, really like our friends and I talking to each other, like, hey, what do you have today? What do you have coming in today? we just essentially kind of built this sort of cloud like sort of inventory right so it's like polos has a thousand meals and like silas got 500 hygiene kits and like you know street watch has like 50 tents and like 100 tarps so it's like we all were like hey you know there's there's a houseless man on the corner of like sunset or whatever that needs like blah blah blah and so we essentially just you know just grab and go like polls has meals and like street watch has tents like k-town's got like the tarps so y'all

just again beautifully just sort of started to like build this sort of sort of cloud-like inventory of stuff and it just worked and it's still working so um and it's consistent like is what we're bringing up or at the beginning is talking about how consistent you've able to you've able to have done this work which is yeah if you're an la resident you know that you, the city's support is never consistent. So having that consistency is so vital. Yes. And impressive. Yeah.

No, thank you. It's a lot of hard work. There's so much that people don't see, obviously. There's so many things that people don't see. There's a lot of organizing behind it. There's literally a lot of community building. A lot of organizing behind it there's literally a lot of community building a lot of meetings yeah i think like again like the bulk of mutual aid is relationships and trust you know like that that's that's really it that's how you breathe life into your system and it's like you know you have to you have you have to continue to like nourish

your relationships you know between yourself and other organizers between yourself if you're running an org between yourself and another org um and and really that's how we've been able to you know to to reach so many people is because we focus on making sure that you know um it's so easy to to burn out in this but again, we also have to make sure that we take care of each other. And we focus on making sure that we're checking on each other too. And so I, you know, it's hard to fully explain what, how to even teach that, you know,

how to properly build relationships, but I feel like that's such a key part of creating a really robust mutual aid network. And that's at least the experience that we had. Yeah, the work that you've done and what you've been able to accomplish is very impressive and is something that a lot of people can aspire to.

Is there any resources online that you can point to if someone there any like resources online that you can point to if someone's wanting to get into this type of work um or any any yeah like any kind of like uh advice to get started in your own city or to like look for stuff that's doing the similar that's like that's doing a similar thing um uh wow let's see who has, um, gosh, that's a really, really, really good question. Um, well, well, first I hope that people have read mutual aid by Dean Spade. Um, that's a really good book. Um, and, and from there I would read, I would read the Black Panther social programs. I get a lot of my inspiration from there.

And really, that's really those two things to kind of start as sort of like your primers. And then if you want to kind of get deeper into food justice um uh there's a really good book i read years ago it's almost i think it's literally called food justice 101 okay let me see it's literally called yeah it's literally called food justice 101 yeah there's there's quite a few but but one that's one and then there's another there's a one book um i read called more than just food um and then it's uh it's by yeah i'll give you guys my top five and that really kind of helps sort of um like shape my thinking on food justice so it's written by a guy named garrett broad and he essentially like kind of lays out

sort of how the industrial food system kind of created this huge crisis that we're in and you know like how there's there's really kind of an abundance of food everywhere but you know obviously it's just not getting distributed yes exactly and so and and it also kind of lays out how food justice activists who are in mostly low income communities of color help really build community based kind of solutions to these problems. Because I am a child of LA, I'm able to understand what different neighborhoods need based on because I either grew up there, work there, have family there, you know, went to school there but I have friends who did. And so like, if I'm trying to build out a food program or mutual aid program in Boyle Heights, I'm not going to just walk in there and be like, all right, we're going to do it at, you know. Yeah. You're not going to take over their, their, their thing. Exactly. But I think that's one thing I think I really want to, to for people to really, especially for, for,

for young people who want to get to food justice is like you really have to really honestly do your research first and let media leaders lead um lead lead your program with you right and there's a difference between like making community connections and then trying to like take over right you know it's very very two very different things exactly yeah you don't want to be extractive right you don't want to be extractive you don't want to be coming in and you know and and really like you know try to like show up with like you know solutions where they weren't informed at all by the community. And I keep trying to stress that. Yeah. Is there anywhere that people can support or at least follow you online to keep up with the work?

Yes. I'm very active on Twitter. We're at Polos Pantry. So it's P-O-L-O-S-P-A-N-T-R-Y. And then I'm also tweeting as myself as an organizer. It's under M-E, some L-E music. So it's M-E-L-L-E music. And that actually, that handle for me everywhere,

it's like my personal. So I tweet from there a lot. I tweet a lot about food justice work. I feel, and all our work in LA, I retweet a lot about food justice work. I feel, and all our, all our work in LA, I tweet, I retweet a lot of our movement work and coalition work. Yeah. Just thank you for coming on to the show to talk about food justice and the work you've been doing. It's great to hear more examples of people from around the country and then hopefully, you know hopefully around the world getting involved in this type of work. Anyway, I think that wraps up us today.

You can follow this show on Twitter and Instagram at HappenHerePod and CoolZoneMedia. Subscribe to the feed, leave a five-star review, whatever. Anyway, that's the show. Bye-bye, everybody. Say bye, everybody. Bye. Bye, everyone. Bye, everyone. Bye, everyone.

It Could Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website, coolzonemedia.com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find sources for It Could Happen Here updated monthly at coolzonemedia.com slash sources. Thanks for listening. You should probably keep your lights on for Nocturnal Tales from the Shadow. Join me, Danny Trails,

and step into the flames of right. An anthology podcast of modern day horror stories inspired by the most terrifying legends and lore of Latin America. Listen to Nocturno on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Curious about queer sexuality, cruising, and expanding your horizons? Hit play on the sex-positive and deeply entertaining podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Join hosts Gabe Gonzalez and Chris Patterson Rosso as they explore queer sex, cruising, relationships, and culture

in the new iHeart podcast, Sniffy's Cruising Confessions. Sniffy's Cruising Confessions will broaden minds and help you pursue your true goals. You can listen to Sniffy's Cruising Confessions, sponsored by Gilead, now on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Thursday. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and we're kicking off our second season digging into tech's elite and how they've turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search,

Better Offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech brought to you by an industry veteran with nothing to lose. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts from. The 2025 iHeart Podcast Awards are coming. This is the chance to nominate your podcast for the industry's biggest award. Submit your podcast for nomination now at iHeart.com slash podcast awards. But hurry, submissions close on December 8th. Hey, you've been doing all that talking. It's time to get rewarded for it.

Submit your podcast today at iHeart.com slash podcast awards. That's iHeart.com slash podcast awards.