CT FOODSHARE'S Jakubowski Counts Down to Stuff-A-Bus

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let me get the paperwork right here so I can
do things right. And my man, I'm gonna do it
right this time. Jason jack Bowski.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
There you go.

Speaker 3 (00:08):
That's good, all right, all right, enough with the we
buried the joke like eight years now.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
So I'll tell you you are really becoming I don't
want to say, because there's I'm sure there's a lot
of ct food chair of a Connecticut food chair. How
many people do you have on your stay?

Speaker 3 (00:23):
One hundred and twenty people, Yeah, I mean sixty seven
hundred volunteers.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
But you're the face of it, and a handsome face
of it.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
But you are to be seeing you everywhere far too
kind there.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
You are the face of it at this time of year. Right,
you're the what is your position exactly a million.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
Times president and CEO but it didn't come up with
the title.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
But you're the president and CEO. But also like the spokesman,
the spokesperson. Yeah, no, it's not usually the case.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
No, it's it's not. I mean, look, we have a
great team of people doing all sorts of different things,
and I figured, my what I've realized is that they
don't want me there. Like in the warehouse messing around
with anything. So they send me out to talk to
guys like you and have to be the face of
the organization. Yeah. I could do all the external stuff,
but they don't let me drive the forklifts or load
the trucks or anything.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
Yeah, but this is your busy season.

Speaker 3 (01:12):
This is a really busy season. Thanksgiving is always you know,
November is always are our busiest time of the year.
And then on top of it, you know, we're usually
thinking about Thanksgiving throughout the entire month of November. We've
been in emergency mode the last couple of weeks dealing
with the you know, dealing with the shutdown. You got
the TSA agents up at Bradley and down it at

(01:32):
Tweed that we've been providing food to. We've had additional food,
you know, because people.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
Because I call you on the news a couple of
we've been.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
We've been all We've been all over the place because
the lines were really long the last couple of weeks.
So it's kind of like we're doing Thanksgiving, but it's Thanksgiving,
you know, or it's Thanksgiving on top of you know,
coming out of a crisis, which you know, we're we're
glad We're we're moving on, but it's still it.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Can effect it. Think it will effect that that's stagnant
October that long stretch of time.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
Yeah, I do.

Speaker 3 (02:05):
I think there, you know, it was it was forty
something days. I think, you know, it's it's one of
those things like there if they have it, if you
have the cold long enough, there's.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Some structural damage, you know, to the lungs.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
Sure, and I and I think that that's what we're
going to see over the next couple of months. For us,
it's like, all right, let's get through Thanksgiving, let's get
through the through New Year's let's get to January and
kind of see how things look. But there was the
up and down the roller coaster for people. Do they
have their benefits so they not have their benefits? So
they have their benefit you know, I mean every five minutes,
it's something different, and you know, people just want to

(02:36):
go to the grocery store buy food. That's all, that's
all they want to do. So it was uh so
we'll see what the longer term effect is. We'll see that.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
In any event, we'll be out there next week Stop
and Chop Plaza, Dixwell Ave and Hamden Friday Saturday, and
we'll be looking for the frozen turkeys to cash donations
non carriage.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
It's warmer in here than it's going to be outside,
I think.

Speaker 3 (02:58):
Yes, I worry about that.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
Yeah, well, this studio is either it's either a freezer
or a sawna it's never in between. This year, though,
I've noticed that. I'm to say you can donate online
to nine sixty w eli dot com, which I would
imagine those.

Speaker 3 (03:19):
Your website ctfoodshare dot org. It goes right into the
ctfoodshare dot org website. You know, people can go online.
You know it used to be you had to you know,
the old one. You've been there for years, you mean,
had to lug a fro a couple of frozen turkeys over.
Now you want to sit in the comfort of your
own living room, you can make a monetary donation. We'll
go buy the turkey for you. Yeah, so just don't

(03:39):
give them money to VINNI though we don't. We don't,
we don't want to do that.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
No, And I hate to say it because I do
think that's great. And have you been seeing any action?
Have you been monitoring?

Speaker 3 (03:49):
We definitely, I mean people have been been eager to help.
I mean, because I think they see so many families
that have never experienced hunger experience. Like again, I go
back to the TSA agents. These are guys. These are
the are men and women who have to work and
have been working for forty days without getting a paycheck.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (04:05):
I mean, people see those stories and it's like, you know,
that's terrible. And here in Connecticut there's still about five
hundred and fifteen thousand people that don't know where their
next meal is coming from. And it's not just the
cities everyone thinks, oh new Haven, Bridgeport, Hartford, Avon, Simsbury, Farmington, Greenwich, Cornwall, Sprague, Union,

(04:26):
All one hundred and sixty nine towns have at least
one family that's affected by this. And you know, one
of the reasons that you guys are out there every year,
one of the reasons we're out there every year is
that that's unacceptable in the state of Connecticut.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
I'm thinking of you know, you guys have done this
so long.

Speaker 3 (04:41):
I mean, think of the thousands and thousands of turkeys
and Thanksgiving meals that you've collected.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
Over the years. Yeah, and oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (04:48):
And we're going to add to that this year. We
do you know stuff of Us brings in about a
thousand turkeys and several thousand dollars and that goes to
help us throughout the whole holiday season.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
And that's what I su going to say to you
too much as it is great and convenient, and like
you said, I do. I even hear from people who
are like I would love to come and see that.
You know, I'm not as mobile as it used to be.
I can't get there, So being able to donate online
is great in a long time coming. At the very
least my saying, hey, you can go to nine sixty
w ELI dot com and donate there. But uh, I

(05:23):
just have too many fond memories of watching, especially when
it's kids. They come on, they're holding the bag. They
when when schools make it like a field trip a bus.

Speaker 3 (05:34):
Yeah, they bring a bus of like a bunch of kids.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
And they create the what do you call it, like
a turkey train, like yeah, and they passed the bags
in and I have vivid memories of the stacked turkeys,
you know, one on top of the other on top
in the refrigerated truck. I don't even know if we
do the refrigerated.

Speaker 3 (05:54):
No, we have a refrigerated truck. We got to put
the turkey somewhere of any I mean, I'm in the
trunk of your car. We got the refrigerated truck there.
And stopping shop is so great to us. They had
coffee and donuts out there last year. You know, you
walk in and you know they're encouraging you to, you know,
buy a turkey for yourself and do your your holiday shopping. Yeah,
but they're also telling you, hey, grab a turkey for

(06:16):
these guys outside too, and go drop it in the
and drop it in the bucket.

Speaker 1 (06:19):
Yeah. Absolutely. And it's just the people who roll up
and pop the trunk of their car and the volunteers
run out and grab it.

Speaker 2 (06:27):
There something like turkeys in there something.

Speaker 1 (06:29):
Yeah. I just have the fondest memories. I'm actually working
on a project involving Glenn Back and.

Speaker 3 (06:37):
Who was there was who was there in the in
the in the yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
Stuff his baby in nineteen ninety And this project that
I'm working on for him, it's a little top secret
right now, but Stuff of Us is central to it
all because it was such a big thing that he did,
and so many of the stations, I don't know the
station and orbited the universe of stuff a Bus in

(07:02):
the nineties so much so there's a lot of stories.

Speaker 3 (07:04):
He should be happy to know the thirty five years later,
it's still up and row. Yeah, it's still in all
the iHeart stations are are are are supportive of it?

Speaker 2 (07:12):
You're rould here.

Speaker 1 (07:13):
I can't believe it.

Speaker 2 (07:14):
I mean, you know he used to sleep there.

Speaker 3 (07:17):
So now that you and I have never I don't
think we haven't done that.

Speaker 1 (07:21):
I'm not.

Speaker 3 (07:21):
I'm not sleeping out in the in the bus. I
mean we have our standards.

Speaker 1 (07:24):
Well that that cost that cast.

Speaker 3 (07:26):
Slept out there.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
That caused us our first fight.

Speaker 2 (07:29):
He slept back the bus.

Speaker 1 (07:32):
His thing was so he needed he would go at
it with the because he would have liked make it
a big deal. He's like, this is what I need.
A refrigerated truck. We need this. And he had a
trailer that he stayed in and slept in, and he
would say, I remember when I first started working with him,
and it was springtime, so stuff a Bus was ways off,

(07:54):
but stuff a Bus was always talked about, and we
were always working towards it. And he'd be like, I'm
there all night, so people roll up two three o'clock
knock on the door and they're giving their third shifters
or whatever overnight ors and I'd be like, that's not
necessarily the safest I don't know. So when the first
Stuff of Us came around, I'm like, all right, you know,
I'm there all day into the at eleven o'clock a night,

(08:16):
I'm like, I'll see you in the morning. He's like,
you're not sleeping. I'm like, when did I say I
was sleeping in that trailer with you for Stuff of Us?
And he would and he got mad, He's like, you're
not going to sleep here all. I'm like, I'll be
I'll be here first thing in the morning. I'm going
to go home to my at a waterbed, which probably
doesn't shock you.

Speaker 3 (08:34):
That doesn't shock me at all, not one bit.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
I was like, I got to get home to the water.
But yeah, he would sleep there, and he was the
one he would say, I want this by this time.
I want X amount of dollars by four pm. And
I remember he'd say, it's eight minutes till four and
I want to I have this goal. And you know what,
it was a lot of the time, Jason, which this

(08:58):
I think I told you before and again when I'm
with Jason Jakobowski from Connecticut Food Chair President CEO was bikers, bikers.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (09:08):
Big givers.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
No, big givers, they don't they don't.

Speaker 3 (09:12):
Trusts absolutely, yeah, and it is. I think that's what
people got to understand too. It's like, you know, it's
not like waiting in line at an amusement park. I mean,
it's a drive through. You don't have to get out
of your car, pop you pop the trunk. We have
volunteers there. You guys, iheartbreak you guys bring volunteers. They
run out, they get the stuff, they put it back
in it. It's it's seamless. Some of them jump out

(09:33):
and want to take a selfie with you and your
cardboard cutout and the rest of the the rest of
the radio, the rest of the radio crew.

Speaker 1 (09:40):
It could be tough, but no.

Speaker 3 (09:41):
I mean it's simple, it's it's easy and it's and
the fact that we're located right there at stopping shop
is helpful too, because people go in and do their
shopping without even knowing that we're there, and they.

Speaker 1 (09:50):
Actually the timing were you know, and weak out from things.

Speaker 3 (09:54):
People are doing their Thanksgiving shopping and they come out
and they say, oh, we grabbed a couple of things
for you, and.

Speaker 1 (09:58):
They lot of cars and a lot of a lot
of cards, gift cards.

Speaker 3 (10:01):
A lot of people bring out gift cards. So it's
it's a real community activity. So he should be happy that.
You know, it's still thirty five years later, we're still
going strong. I'm not sleeping out. You're not sleeping out.
That's just let's just make that that that that clear.
We do have our we do have our limits.

Speaker 1 (10:17):
I love the one. Well, I shouldn't put it that way,
but give me the because it's always mind blowing the
X amount of dollars can give this many meals.

Speaker 3 (10:28):
It is because we have so many volunteers and because
so much of our food is donated by the grocery industry.
Every dollar you donate to a food bank, basically we
can provide two meals for the people of Connecticut. So
every dollar, every every dollar. So here's the example I
always use is this. You take a dollar, you go
to the store. You could buy one can of soup.
You give us a dollar. I could buy twenty cans

(10:50):
of soup with that dollar. Because I'm buying it by
the truckload. I'm buying it in in books. So it's
a real economy of scale. You want your dollar to
go far, you know, you're always food banks are one
of the best investments that people can make with their
philanthropic dollars because we're purchasing at such a high rate.
And again, we couldn't do what we do if it

(11:12):
weren't for the grocery stores that donate food and money,
and stopping shop is our number one donor in terms
of both dollars and in terms of in terms of food.
But we also couldn't do what we do what the
people in Connecticut.

Speaker 2 (11:24):
We are not.

Speaker 3 (11:24):
People are always like, oh, the government must give you
a lot of money. We're less than five percent government funded.
This is this is the private sector. Ninety five percent
of our funds come from sixty five percent comes from
individuals and the other thirty percent comes from corporations and
philanthropic organizations. They step up to the plate and that's
what sustains us. And look, I worked. I worked at

(11:46):
a hospital where we were eighty five percent government funded.

Speaker 2 (11:49):
I don't want that.

Speaker 3 (11:50):
You live and die by whatever happens in Washington and
Hartford I mean, that's that's now. That's not the best
thing in the world. We're at the mercy of average
people in Connecticut, and they always step up at Thanksgiving time,
they always step up in times of crisis. They're what
they are, what keeps us going.

Speaker 1 (12:06):
And it's important to acknowledge. Uh Toyota of Wallingford, Steve
Sion could do stuff us without him Connects Credit Union two.
It's a week from today. You and I will be
sure to be there.

Speaker 3 (12:17):
We'll be out We'll be out there.

Speaker 1 (12:19):
We'll be for me and Jason. That handsome basket jack.
That's a new joke.

Speaker 3 (12:24):
That's a new joke.

Speaker 2 (12:26):
My staff likes that one. They asked if we were friends.

Speaker 3 (12:28):
They can't see. They said, do you know this guy?
I said no, I said I've never know. I said,
I've never met him before.

Speaker 1 (12:34):
Yeah. I love it and it's my favorite time of
the year. I truly look forward to it. The official
kickoff to the holiday season for me and I just
love seeing people come out so stuff a bus stopping,
chop plaza and Jason. Always a pleasure, always a pleasure.
I'll see you Friday, my man