Exploring The Breadth Of Volunteer Possibilities with Tomme Beevas

There is nobody better to help us crack the limits of volunteerism wide open than today’s guest, Tomme Beevas. Tomme is the founder and Chief Strategic Officer of Pimento Jamaican Kitchen. He leads the company’s growth strategy to become the top provider of authentic Jamaican food experiences. Tomme also leads Pimento Relief Services and the Pimento Foundation. He has literally done it all, from working at Points of Light, directing Community Involvement at Cargill, becoming an entrepreneur and starting a nonprofit.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Hello friends, Welcome to Read andFinding Volunteerism, a podcast by hands On
Twin Cities. I'm Tracy Nielsen,the executive director of hands On Twin Cities,
and I'm your host. One ofthe reasons why we started this podcast

(00:36):
was because we wanted to try tochange people sometimes limited perceptions about what volunteerism
can be and to think more broadlyabout the breath and scope of what is
possible as a volunteer. There's nobodybetter to help us crack the limits of
volunteerism wide open than today's guest,Tommy Beavis. From his childhood in Jamaica

(00:56):
to now leveraging Jerk Chicken as aninstrument of liberal ration, Tommy has built
a life that goes beyond traditional volunteerism. As founder and Chief Strategic Officer of
Pimento Jamaican Kitchen, Tommy leads thecompany's growth strategy to become the top provider
of authentic Jamaican food experiences. Tommyalso leads Pimento Relief Services and the Pimento

(01:19):
Foundation. Prior to launching Pimento,Tommy held roles with Cargill the President's Volunteer
Award for President George W. Bushand the US Chamber of Commerce. Tommy's
such an inspiration. So let's digin and chat. Hi, Tommy,
thank you so so much for beingwith us today. It is a pleasure

(01:42):
to be talking with you. Oh, Trace is always great to connect with
you, and I'm so glad tobe having this conversation. Yeah. Well,
let's stick in because there's so muchthat I want to talk about.
So I guess this is a reallybig question and we'll get into more of
it, but maybe you could juststart by talking about who you are and
what you do currently at the highestof high levels. I know, right,

(02:05):
all right, cool? So Iam Tommy Beavers and as Tommy Beavers.
Oh goodness, that's such a question. Start right, Maybe just the
basics. Basics. I enjoy cookingand I happen to lead Pimento Jamaican Kitchen
right here in Minneapolis. I learnedto cook from my grandmother Babel, who

(02:25):
in Kingston, Jamaica, where areborn and raised. Um, And I
enjoy being a dad of Genesis andsoon to be Derek the fourth. Yes,
yes, I'm about to have ason. Um and I happen to
maybe married to an amazing empress Dara, who's also a publisher and an amazing

(02:46):
community leader who I learned from everysingle day. Oh my gosh, power,
family, power people. I mean, just so inspiring, so um
in amazing. In addition to beinglike a inspiring one of the most inspiring
people I've ever met. One ofthe reasons we wanted to have you join

(03:06):
us for this episode is because wewanted to give people an idea of the
breath of opportunities to get involved.That volunteerism is not a one size fits
all mold. But you can paveyour own way. You can, you
know, do what works for you. So can you share with us a
little bit about your own journey andhistory up until the last year, and

(03:27):
then we'll dive into that in alittle bit later. Yeah, that's such
a beautiful question because if as Ieven think of my own restaurant as I
sit today cooking Jamaican jerk chicken inMinneapolis, it would not have been possible
without volunteers. Literally, my corporatefriends, my beautity friends, my friends
who used to fire out to greewith me in the backyard, saw what

(03:49):
I was doing and showed up.You know, many of them who are
very closely connected with their hands onTwin Cities. Still today, you know
who helped give away food for freeon the streets of Minneapolis just to hear
how Minnesotans would respond to Jamaica andjerk Chicken. And so volunteers come in
all shapes, sizes, and formsand different purposes. And so nowadays the

(04:12):
way I'm viewing volunteers is about beinginstruments of liberation, right, and so
volunteers in my history has been wheregrowing up in Jamaica, Labor Day,
for example, isn't a day torest. It's literally the day where we
all go around the community at theend of May. That's when we have
our Labor Day and we clean ourentire community, all of the streets,

(04:33):
sidewalks. Everybody goes out with somewhitewashed paint and we whitewash the sidewalk,
that type of deal. You know, potholes in front of your in front
of your house. Everybody goes outwith a bag of cement, mix their
own and pour out and cover theirpotholes on Labor Day. That's literally Jamaica

(04:55):
every May. I think it's Maytwenty fourth where we have where that's just
who we are we take care ofour munity because that is our rock where
it is our responsibility to maintain thatrock. Right. I love that.
I feel like that something a Minnesotanshould do after the snow clears and all
those potholes are up there. Yes, I love that idea. Well,
we have to choose which Minnesota,because Jamaica Minnesota, Like please, who's

(05:15):
gonna shove for me? Right?But yes, there's the same concept,
right, Um, how do wego about taking care of our community at
all times? And you know,volunteering is in somebody that it's us versus
them, It is for all ofus, you know, and um and
so so yeah, so volunteering inJamaica was a big thing. I then

(05:36):
moved to the US, where Iwas volunteering on their grad um you know.
One of my first volunteer efforts gotme to march from Miami to Tallahassee
alongside Jesse Jackson literally in undergrad freshfrom Jamaica, you know. Um.
And then so when I moved toWashington, DC, one of the things

(05:57):
that I wanted to do was tofigure out how we can get more companies
engaged in communities through volunteering. Corporateresponsibility, corporate philanthropy and the likes and
so um that's where with the throughthe US hum of Commerce, at the
set of a corporate citizenship, Iwas able to help, um, you
know, get more companies involved,and from there got recruited to Minnesota here

(06:19):
and led volunteering for a major globalcompany. Um. So we're creating volunteer
programs and like six continents and youknow, yeah, seriously, there's some
great stuff. But again, imagineit being in that dream job off working
with folks like hands On. Andby the way, I forgot to mention

(06:40):
off all my careers, you know, working with hands On back in DC,
which back in the days was Pointsof Life Foundation, so picking up
to hands one, you know.So so I'm excited that hands On was
an amazing part of my career becausewhen I was at Points of Life Foundation,
I used to manage the President's VolunteerService Award recognizing volunteers all across America.

(07:03):
I'll be half of the White House. So it was so my history
volunteers of runs deep. And thanksfor asking that because I've never even made
all those connections. All you haveto do is look at your LinkedIn and
I'm like, oh my gosh,I am like, you know, just
at the White House giving away volunteerawards, like no big deal, and
you almost forgot that because that's howmany you're doing. Oh I'm stop,

(07:30):
Oh my gosh, I love itso much. It's it just shows how
many things you have going on.And it's just incredible what you've been able
to do to lead from so manysectors, but always with a focus on
community. And so just if youcould speak a little bit about what it
was like to approach volunteerism and philanthropyfrom like all of these different you mentioned

(07:50):
global companies, points of Light,from US Chamber of Commerce, like all
of these different things. How didthat shape your view? My view was
actually shaped by my global perspective livingon that rock called Jamaica, where when
we look around our community and recognizeis what we can do for each other,
it was a dream of imagine weactually had the resources right and so

(08:13):
in each of those rules, Ifound myself where we had the resources to
dream and to use it again asinstruments of liberation. So if it's if
it's um, if it's when we'reat the chamber, it's more like how
do we at at the global corporatelevel get folks to recognize that if you're

(08:33):
a food company, you're let's figureout how we can help address global hunger.
Let's enure that your home community isn'ta food desert, you know.
And so if we're able to getthe corporate leadership to see it from that
perspective, then we're hoping that itcould trickle down to where the volunteers on
the streets are out there and feedingtheir local community, you know. So

(08:56):
we we So that was an opportunityto work top down, because again,
the leadership in these organizations are alsoinstruments of liberation. If they're not genuine
about ways in which they want fortheir companies to show up in community,
then the results themselves won't be asimpactful as they themselves would hope, because
there's always something within each of uswhere were like, we can do this

(09:18):
for a community, and but butwe have to make sure that we're doing
alongside community. And so working nowin my current capacity, I'm able to
be deeper because you have so manydifferent layers at the corporate level, the
leadership level, getting them to serveon boards, getting them out there in
a community to work hand in handwith their neighbors to rebuild or to paint,

(09:39):
or to you know, to mowthe law of a local elderly resident.
You know. So it's even gettingthem to understand that they're not just
CEO, but they're also chief communityofficer as well, chief community member as
well, you know, And sohow can they themselves show up? And
then you have the skills based levels, So how can they even mentor and

(10:00):
court businesses and who are and otherswho are trying to build their empires as
well? Or even how can theymentor because it's not just about mentory kid
to go play basketball with them?Come on, man, he like the
kid doesn't need basketball, I guess, friends, But it's how do you
use what you have to volunteer toopen up access to that same kid?

(10:24):
How many of those kids have youhelped brought through your corporation? How many
of those kids have you helped ensurethat your ammata opens the door for them?
You know? How many of thosekids in the ensure that the scholarship
that the university is offering is providingthose scholarships for those kids who would normally
have it. And you know thatthe reason other kids get is because they

(10:45):
know you, or they are yourkids, or they are you. You
know. So each of us canbe so effective if we recognize what we
have our fingertips and we use themas instruments of liberation. You know.
So again, and that's the ceolevel example, you know, and imagine
the impact that I CEO can have. Then, Now even that the local

(11:07):
communities, street level, you knowwhat I'm saying. We're not saying up
our low are better than or youknow what I'm saying, but we're saying,
no, the real street level wherethat Now, let's say it was
a bank, right and that waswhat the bank CEO can do. Now,
imagine what that bank teller can doin influencing what that ceo or what
that company knows, because that bankis now interfacing with those on the street

(11:31):
and seeing those people with five andten dollars in their bank book trying to
figure out how to feed their families. And even imagine if that bank was
also a place of healing, wasthe place of fair, shame, disgrace,
and and that bank could also understandwhat the real needs are on that
community, the real needs of theircustomers. The tellers can serve as those

(11:52):
instruments of liberation, receiving that holdingthat because remember, those same tellers can't
even afford the mortgage is that thatbank is offering for low income families in
that community. So those tellers arealso the people on the street who we
are all trying to assist and support. Right, Just I love that perspect

(12:16):
I mean, because all of usare essentially just individual people living in existing
in community, and we all haveour different areas of power and strength that
we can use to help others.I mean, I think that's what you're
saying, is like, how dowe all leverage our and listen and listen
to others and come alongside each otherbecause I think there's so many people already

(12:39):
doing great things. I don't wantto go out there and be like,
oh no, this is the wayit must be done, because that's how
the paternalistic mindset of American philanthropy orAmerican volunteerism, or you know what I'm
saying, or even American just interactingwith each other. This is all it
must be done. But it's likewho's doing what? And how can we
support them, elevate them and bettersupport them nobody knows how to help themselves
better than so how do you learnfrom them to help them as we listen

(13:03):
to each other. Absolutely well,speaking of being side by side with your
neighbors and your neighborhood, following themurder of George Floyd, you and your
team did some incredible work. Canyou share a little bit more about your
response. Yeah, So, followingthe murder, or as some rightful referred

(13:24):
to it as the neo lynching,you know, because it's one hundred years
ago, it would have been ina town square with kids eating ice cream
on their way from church, watchinga black man being murdered in the streets
by the authority of the day.And so I, as a Jamaican step

(13:45):
back and was had to really learnfrom the history and the pain of the
African descendants of slaves in the US. The pain that that community feels is
something that I never would have everimagined just even describing what I was describing
a moment ago. Then imagine beingthe descendants of those folks, the descendants

(14:05):
of Jim Crow in America, thedescendants of Yo. Your mother literally cannot
go to school with well, yourchild literally cannot go to school with my
child, that those those children arestill walking right now as peer and so
the pain that that community feels isjust unbelievable and um. And so that's

(14:26):
what I started discovering when I startedright after mister Floyd was murdered. Because
first I centered myself, say nowI'm not gonna watch it, you know,
I'm gonna chill. But my fatherand New York sent it to me.
I'm like, wait, wait,wait, wait, wait, okay,
if they're watching this, maybe Ishould pay attention. So I went
to my garage, locked my door, and watched it all myself, the
ball right right, as every humanshould, because we saw before our eyes

(14:50):
the life of a human being rippedfrom before us, you know. And
somebody who has seen animals get harvestand you're like, oh, but you're
gonna taste good though, you knownot, you know, to trivialize it.
And yet we're saying one of ourown kill one of our own,
and we're like, wait, there'sa if you're not feeling that something is

(15:15):
one should reflect on one's self andwant that. That's that's my opinion.
Anyhow, So of course I'm like, oh my god, I know what
I can do I'm an intubut ofliberation. I'm going to connect my friends,
you know, over there, overthere or over there, and we're
gonna figure out how to solve this. And I went to my team and

(15:35):
they're like, Noah, but holdon, we're hurting. So again that
listening hearing that, oh my goodness, they're hurting. Um um, oh
my god, we're hungry. Welive in a food desert where just to
our three supermarkets closing for whatever reasonshould mean that eighty percent of our residents,
percent of our neighbors literally can findfood right right and so um,

(16:00):
and so essentially, it was beautifulto have learned that yo, healing and
hunger are the two urgent issues thatour community needed. And so we were
able to partner with our community,and you know, and everybody showed up,
and all we had to do wasjust me that vessel to be like,
yes, donate here. But thecommunity themselves ran a massive food drive.

(16:23):
We were able to collect from thecommunity roughly a million dollars worth of
products that were then redistributed back tothe neighbors in need. And again it
was simply the community volunteers decided thatthey needed that we provided them the space
and they figured out how to builda food shelf from scratch overnight, distributing

(16:45):
a million dollars of the product justlike that. And it was peace,
love, beauty, healing at thesame time, because volunteerism is healing right
right, and and that that andthen that was able to provide the healing
and the food for our community.And then that allowed us a space and

(17:06):
then be able to bring our communitytogether to have conversation about what's really needed
to help solve this. And that'swhere we learned about building permentor relief services
to support the needs of those onthe front lines of liberation. I mean,
I just want people to imagine becauseI saw some of the pictures of
what a million dollars I mean forlike pop up kind of thing. Initially,

(17:29):
I mean that was just absolutely incredible. So like I know that you're
like, it's community coming together,but like just to you know, be
able to have that listening and alsoyou know, we were touching based throughout
that of like what are the needstoday, what are the needs tomorrow?
You know, tomorrow we need diapers, this day, we need formula,
tomorrow we need this. I justloved the absolutely yes. And that's what

(17:52):
I'm talking about in terms of likebeing on the street, you get to
hear. And by being on thestreet, the bank teller is on the
street right right, beating the personwalking by on the street at the inside
of your bank. So being onthe street, we're able to hear what
people are saying. Yeah, youdidn't you don't even understand y'all could really

(18:15):
help us. We have no fireextinguishers. We're like, wait, what,
so then we can literally make anappeal to our community and then before
you know it, we have aroom full of fires. Are like,
okay, now we did a palleteto move all these I was the generality
of Minnesotans showing up yet again.You know, that's why we're number one
in volunteering, number one in givingum. You know, because we are

(18:37):
genuinely that person. They were genuinelyabout community. We're genuinely understanding that we
because we're all immigrants in Minnesota technically, you know, saying one or two
generations. We all just got herethis morning. And so it's like,
how do we build that same betterMinnesota mindset, which is how Jamaican's approach
it, Like this is our rock. How do we build our rock and
take care of our rock. That'show Minnesota's traditional view taking care of many

(19:00):
Minnesota you know. And so themshowing up like with their fire executions are
literally smoke detectors are literally AC units. Guys. They're like, wait,
oh, it finally is getting hotin Minneapolis. We need AC units in
houses. Houses don't have AC unitsin Minnesota. To where we're getting donations
of AC units to give to ourneighbors, you know, says hearing those
things on the streets. Be connectedwith the people who we are trying to

(19:23):
help versus prescribing to them what wethink they need, you know, is
how we're able to sort of getthe voice of the customer in a more
clear and crisp form. Absolutely,I just love that because you know,
as you mentioned, like the bankteller and everyone like being listeners, you
know, And I just think alot of us don't take that time to
think about where we are in communityand like to actually truly listen and understand

(19:47):
the circumstances of our neighbors. ButI just think, like that's so foundational
to the work that you've been doing. Imagine even that a supermarket you're the
supermarket cash person, cashier, youknow you you see what people's needs are,
right, No supermarkets were smart enoughto collect that information right right target

(20:07):
you see what people are buying,are having to have to buy to survive,
whether it's masks and all of that. But it's not about anticipating the
voice of the customer from simpler capitalisticsthat point, but understanding what is going
on within your community to why theywould be needing these things, to where
we can hopefully collectively solve these problems. Absolutely, so, going deeper on,

(20:30):
you know, from your initial response, can you tell us more about
how Pimento Relief Services has translated andevolved. So what we did was,
again after we did the healing andfocus on feeding folks, we brought together
one hundred and fifty of our topleaders or all the cities to talk about
the various issues that are going on. And what we've learned from that is

(20:51):
that there are a lot of peopleare doing a lot of great work,
and yet they don't have all theresources they need to get to work done,
the resources that their white Conto sotraditionally have. For example, so
if we're talking about homelessness or evenvaccines or whatever the issue is. They
just simply don't have those resources.So we came alongside. We decided that
we were going to come alongside them, and so we created a b corporation

(21:14):
because we believe that we can wecan, we can use this as a
model to help others build for thecommunity. And building for the community doesn't
mean that it always has to bea nonprofit or a losing profit concept,
right, but we've also created afive or one C three as well through
the permitted foundation to support that.But nonetheless, we want to be able

(21:37):
to provide the resources. So insteadof getting the crumbs to go solve our
community, how do we figure outhow to get our own ovens to bake
our own cake, to bake ourown breads, to feed our own community
versus waiting for the clubs. Andso that's how we're approaching it. To
provide for those wander front lines ofliberation. And we'll talk about liberation,
we're talking about economic liberation. Howdo we create more black businesses and fine

(22:00):
support for those black businesses that whitebusinesses will have. Imagine a day where
a black business fails and nobody backson eye. Right now, black business
fields like, oh my god,I'm failed to fail. Let's never invest
in them again. Every hour sincewe've been on this call, at least
two black white businesses have failed,and nobody's pretishing our press release because a
white business fail. So let's stopfunding white businesses, you know. So

(22:21):
imagine that economic liberation to where wecan derisk how we're investing in our larger
community and remove that fear and figureout how to do it's smart. And
also how do we create that equalsystem of black marketers and black accountants to
support those black businesses so that allowsus to manage the velocity of money within
that community better. And so eachof those black marketers and black accountants are

(22:47):
not growing as well. So that'sthe economic liberation model that we're addressing.
And figure out how we provide grantsand even support the black banks, create
creation of black banks, and thenover the liberation that's the important one because
that's about healing, you know.So how do we support healers, how
do we get more healers, andhow we provide support for the business of

(23:10):
healing, you know, because healersare focused on oh my goodness, let
me hold community, but not recognizingthat. Oh wait, there's also invoicing
that has to be done. There'salso insurance that has to be done.
There's also you know, so,how do we provide support for the healers
and the business of healing And thisis from us learning from healers, like
yeah, that's literally what we need. And then there's a hunger portion of

(23:36):
that where we're now officially food agencyconnected with Second Rvest Heartland, where we're
able to provide food to those umin most need on the streets in real
time. And then also we're providingcreating books through again interest enough, through
my wife's company, wy Zinc.We're publishing a series of books, are

(23:56):
supporting those who are putting books outthere to help rewrite black story articpp insert
what is needed the black voice youknow. So um so. One of
the books that's being launched right nowas Queen Amina, which is talking about
talking about um providing for a littleblack girls their own version of a black
queen, you know, and it'sa queen that we can all live up

(24:18):
to, regardless of black, whiteman or woman, because she's a warrior
queen who was both a queen anda warrior here, you know, um
and and so. So that's thesocial liberation effort, the healing and feeding
and the history. Then when yougo over to the political liberation aspect of
it, we're talking about how dowe even get people to not only show
up and vote, but how dowe get people to become community lobbyists,

(24:42):
you know, lobbying in a formalsense, you know, how do we
even create find the candidates to runfor office and provide support for those candidates
as they're running for office. Sothey're gonna need campaign volunteers, they're gonna
need marketers in their campaign, they'regonna need fundraising in their camp. So
again, volunteering is showing up therewhere we're trying to figure out how to

(25:03):
build that volunteer army to support thosecandidates as they run for office. And
then we're also building our political actioncommittee to support those candidates as well.
So that's a political liberation. Andthen one final one that we well,
I guess two others that we've evolvedinto is about capital liberation. So how
do we find out educate the ourlarger community about the different types of investors,

(25:27):
Angel investors, they impact investors,the venture capitalists, you know,
the golf course investors who just makedeals just with a slap on the back
type of deal. You know,how do we create that our repository,
a round table, a directory ofthem, and a common form to be
able to access them and you know, make it easy for us to have
that communication between capital and community.And then finally, it's how do we

(25:52):
reimagine our largest cities, Because evenif the black community is awesome and we
live in a crappy city, it'sawesome people live in a crappy city.
So how do we make the cityawesome for all of us? And we
have a Reimagine Council that is adoptinga concept from Brazil called Cities can Be.
So we're saying twin cities can bebecause we can literally be anything we

(26:14):
imagine because we have the resources,we have the capital, we have to
know how and the talent to dothis. And so with that, we're
using the United Nations Sustainable Development Goalsto evaluate our cities. How are we
how are we operating on income inequality, how are we operating on gender inequality?
How are we operating on environmental issues? A green city? And we're
using those as lens through through whichwe're evaluating our own city because oftentimes we

(26:38):
tend to see these un metrics asoh, it's for those people, But
are we living up to our commitmentof entering and we don't have a food
desert in our home community where wehave so many food companies in our home
Oh my gosh. Well, thecomplexity, it's like, you know,
when you think about all of thegenerational systems that are so in a quitable.

(27:00):
I mean I think like, oh, it sounds complicated, but it's
also got to be complicated because weare breaking down so many you know,
barriers and things that have disproportionately affectedpeople of color for so long. So
I'm so excited about all of us, Tommy, Oh my gosh. And
just of course, because this isabout volunteerism. So how can people support

(27:22):
this work? I mean, ifthey're like me, they're fired up right
now, like yes, yes,I want to do this. So how
can people support your work? Well, I think, first and foremost,
what they can't recognize that whether they'rein Minneapolis or in Mombasa, they can
again be instruments of liberation, Sothey can go out and see volunteering using
their skills in their talent the sameway I'm using jerk chicken. You know

(27:45):
what I'm saying, I'm music becauseI remember, my back girl wasn't in
restaurants. My back girl was corporate, flatvie. My backgirl wasn't volunteering,
you know, all those types ofthings. That was my government, nonprofit
and corporate. And here I amcooking jerk chicken and now using the jerk
chicken to figure out how can wefeed those in need, those who are
on the front lines, those whoare even whether they're protesting or those who

(28:07):
are literally locked in because of COVID, how we figure out how to feed
them so everybody, whether it's inMinneapolis or Kingston, can use what they
have to liberate society. But thenas we list of supporting Permento Relief Services,
we definitely will always ask for donations. One can donate by venmoing at
Pimento Relief or I'll go to ourwebsite Pimento Relief Services dot org. But

(28:33):
beyond that, as we least avolunteering specifically, we're going to be looking
to our Twins Cities volunteers, sofor examples, show up and help us
with what we're calling our Days ofhealing healing streets, So imagining the kinds
of of open streets where we blockoff the street and the businesses come out
and everybody has a big party inthe street. Now we're talking about turn
that into healing. So imagine usbeing out there with volunteers bringing healing to

(28:56):
the community. So the therapists,the physical healers, the mental healers,
the animal healers, all of thosefolks coming together to healer community. The
artists coming out to express themselves throughart. And so there are so many
different ways in which one could helphim into relieve services and in all our
efforts, and yet we know thatthey're way so many ways. We are

(29:18):
hoping that everybody can be activated asbecoming their interrument of liberation, almost like
the little thousand points of light conceptfrom back in the days. Absolutely well,
and yeah, my sort of questionto bring it back is, you
know, people are listening to you, and if they're like me, they're
like, oh my gosh, Tommy'sincredible, like he's you know, superhuman.
But when they're thinking about themselves,and you know you touched on this

(29:41):
a little bit, but if they'resaying to themselves right now, like,
I can't do this, This isn'tme. You know, what would you
say to them? I am definitelynot superhuman, is what I'll see.
But if anything, if I'm superhuman, so are you. And I'm just
recognizing my own superpower, which isusing my jerk chicken to connect our community.

(30:02):
And I've also seen my grandmother doit's I guess my grandmother's also has
superpower. Where As just as simpleshopkeeper in Kingston would donate a bag of
rice to a community that was suffering, what was going through a funeral or
something that, you know, it'sa bag of rice that could feed the
community. And so it's each ofus doing what we can with what we
have is where it's all at.Because again, at the end of the

(30:25):
day, it's it's it's not abouta superhero hero or superhuman. It's about
us helping humanity become better humanity.And if we're saying we don't have anything
to offer, that means we're sayingwe're sitting out and what's the humanity do
humanity stuff? You know, andwe need to figure out how we're going
to show up to help humanity becomebetter. And we all have tools to

(30:48):
become instruments of liberation in our ownlittle ways, sign up for local hands
on organizations, but could be astart. Absolutely, And you know,
just to kind of close things out, is there anything that you would say
to our listeners on these topics orjust how you know you've changed and evolved
over time and how those passions haveshifted. Yes, there's a lot that

(31:12):
has changed in me overtime, particularlyover the last year. I've traditionally sat
in rooms where we're making decisions aboutcommunity and we're like, oh again that
paternalistic mindset, like, oh,yes, So if we're gonna, for
example, address education, all weneed is parental involvement. Well, we

(31:32):
have to understand parental involvement isn't asas simple as we would want we want
to think about it, because noteverybody has a freedom like if little Timmy
is sick to just jump up andrun to school and go pick up a
little Timmy and take care of alittle Timmy. So that's why the economic
liberation allows us to be free,to be able to go do what we
need for our families. Right.But one of the things that has shifted
is we can simply use our oldschool solutions so the problems that we didn't

(31:57):
solve back then and we're not solvingtoday. So we have to be innovative
and where we're testing it and it'snot one way, it is always because
we are on the road to liberationand as part of that, a better
example would be us saying to folks, recognize that right now the street,

(32:17):
those are in the community, theyknow what they need to solve this.
And so even corporate philanthropists imagine ifwe said away with the RFP from the
community for us to give them funds, when it should actually be the other
way around, where the community isasking for these corporations to give an RFP
for why they should be operating intheir community. Right, So it's us

(32:42):
as rethinking and reimagining and how weshow up for each other to build better
community. Absolutely, and for thosenot in the nonprofit world, RFP is
request for proposal, all that fundspaperwork. But yes, that whole idea
of changing the way that we viewthe way that we respond to community as
a system. I love that.Um, well, Tommy, I could

(33:05):
talk to you for six or sevenor ten days. Probably Um'll get some
rum bunch and talk for days exactlywhere I was gonna say, we can't
leave without you telling us where peoplecan get your incredible food. Since you
have jerk chicken now is a liberationinstrument and I love it so interesting of
jerk chicken has always been a liberationfood because it was created by the runaway

(33:31):
slaves in Jamaica, who are theMaroons hiding up in the mountains. And
the way in which they make jerkchicken would be to cover it, cook
it underground, cover with banana leaves, so by the time it's done cooking
um and the smoke is released,they've already done eating and already moved on.
So the British couldn't even find themup in the mountains of jama So
that's the birth of jermy gosh.Yeah. But one can get jerk chicken

(33:55):
right here in Minneapolis and Saint Paulat Pimento where at twenty six at Nicolet
m in Minneapolis. We're also overthe Kacase Market in Saint Paul and you
can find our food truck rolling aroundtell and we also will come to one
deliver through our online delivery services.One can find us on Pimento Kitchen dot
com and we also do a lotof catering, so we'll come to you

(34:15):
if you can come to us.Our rumbar is phenomenal. One can come
and get some great rum punch.We have a great outdoor patio with stage
and all that. So every dayis a great day at Pimento because it's
Jamaica right here. It's the bestfood ever. I just can't say enough.
You know, definitely check it outif you haven't already, which hopefully

(34:37):
you have. But Tommy, thankyou so so much for being with us,
for sharing your story, for youknow, giving people hope and how
you know how to start from themselvesto make the kind of impact that you're
making. And we just so appreciateyou so so so much. Thank you
for having me, and thank youTracy for what you're doing, because you're
truly showing up as an instrument ofliberation every single day at hands On and

(34:59):
I'm glad to it will still bea part of the hands On family.
There's no escaping us. Thanks Tommy, huge thanks to Tommy for joining us
for this conversation. I'm feeling energizedand inspired and I hope you are too.
Tommy mentioned his efforts through Pomento ReliefServices, and you can find out

(35:22):
how to get more involved in hisliberation efforts by visiting Pomento Relief Services dot
org. As Tommy shared, thereare truly a limitless number of ways for
you to engage in community. Findingyour own jerk chicken, the thing that
is uniquely your own, your talentsand skills, and what motivates you.

(35:43):
That is part of the magic ofvolunteerism. There are opportunities and ways to
get started at hands on twin Citiesdot org. It doesn't have to start
as something big or overwhelming, andthe beauty is that you can try new
things and shift and change as yougrow into your volunteer experiences. Thank you
so much for listening. For moreinformation about hands on twin Cities and to

(36:07):
follow us on social media, headsto our website. Redefining Volunteerism is a
production of Matriarch Digital Media executive producerTwila Day and producer and editor Bess Gibs,
and special thanks to Sarah Edwards,Grace McAvoy and Ella Cochrane. From
some great people. Let's get outthere and be the change. Together we

(36:29):
can build a more equitable and thrivingcommunity