Recorded live on Radio Row at Super Bowl 59, this powerful episode of Stay A While with host Tommi Vincent features an eye-opening conversation with Ben McLeish, Chick-fil-A leader and advocate for food repurposing, and Sarah Parks, Executive Director of Grace at the Green Light. They dive into the realities of food insecurity, the importance of human dignity, and how small actions can create lasting change for the unhoused community. With a focus on the power of service, corporate responsibility, and human connection, this episode challenges the stigma surrounding homelessness and provides tangible ways for listeners to take action and make a difference in their communities.
Guest: Ben McLeish & Sarah Parks
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Music By: Stichiz - Big T. Music / Roj & Twinkie
Guest: Ben McLeish & Sarah Parks
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Subscribe & Follow:
Don’t miss an episode of "Stay A While"! Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform. Stay connected and get the latest updates by following us on Instagram @StayAWhileShow and follow our host Tommi Vincent @cheftommiv. Watch full episodes on our YouTube channel www.youtube.com/@ChefTommiV
Join the Conversation:
We’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode! Share your insights and stories with us using #StayAWhilePodcast on social media.
Music By: Stichiz - Big T. Music / Roj & Twinkie
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to a special edition of Stale Wild, recorded live
on Radio Row at Super Bowl fifty nine. I'm your host,
Tommy Vincent, and we are going to be hearing some
dynamic conversations with phenomenal guests here on Radio Row.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
So take a seat, get comfortable in stale will.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
This episode is sponsored by the House of Joy. Hey everyone,
this is Tommy Vincent, your host of Stay a While podcast,
and today joining me at the table. I have Ben
McLeish and Sarah Parks. Ben is a Chick fil A leader,
owner and operator, and we are just really grateful to
(00:44):
have you here so we can talk about some amazing
things that you're doing with Shared Table and other things
as well as Sarah.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
You represent you're an advocate for the un housed.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
You're the executive director of Grace at the green Light,
serving New Orleans unhoused community. So I want to thank
you both for joining me at the table.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Thanks for having us. It's a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Yeah, absolutely, So I want us to get right into
the conversation because it is a subject matter that I
believe sometimes there's a.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Stigma around on house and hunger.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
It's not a topic that you hear talked about regularly,
even in the space when people are talking about things
that we need solutions for. So, Sarah, let me ask
you first, what are some things that we can do
to remove the stigma.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
I just believe that people should realize that hunger hits
all sorts of folks. There is a lot of food
insecurity in New Orleans, there's a lot of generational poverty here,
but hunger doesn't look one certain way. And one of
the reasons our organization is open every single day and
we allow anybody to come in our doors, even if
(01:58):
they're housed and high It doesn't matter, because everybody deserves
a full, healthy breakfast. Everybody deserves to eat every single day.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
And Ben, I know that Chick fil A has a
program called Shared Table. Can you tell us what Shared
Table is and how it supports this work that Sarah
is doing at her organization.
Speaker 5 (02:20):
Yeah, absolutely, so Chick fil A partners with the Shared Table.
It's a national program that many most Chick fl as
across the country participate in.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
And I do.
Speaker 5 (02:28):
I've been We've been doing this together for five years.
Several other operators in the New Orleans market that do it.
And you know, we don't want we want to make
sure our food is fresh for our guests, but sometimes
that food will time out for our specifications, and we say, well,
we just started in the trash can.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
No, there's people that could use this.
Speaker 5 (02:44):
It's still good quality food, and so we using food
safe procedures, we freeze it, and Sarah and her team
come by multiple times a week and they pick up
chicken or biscuits or things like that that we no
longer want to sell in our restaurant, but they're still
they're food safe, they're good quality. And then every single
morning at Grace of the green Light, seven days a week.
It's the only place you can get chickpili on a Sunday.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
For sure.
Speaker 5 (03:14):
And so you know, it's a way for us to say, like,
we care about our community, right and we want to
make sure people are fit, and we certainly don't want
to make sure. We want to make sure that food
is not being thrown away in a trash can that
can feed someone who is hungry. And so for us,
it's a real it makes sense to say, hey, who
in the city is caring for people that we can
partner with that shares the same part for us to
(03:34):
serve people and then Grace of the green Light is
a natural fit for us to think about, Hey, let's
get that food in their hands, or they're going to
steward that well and get the people who have hunger.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
What are the items from the menu that are part
of this program.
Speaker 5 (03:48):
Yeah, so think about any protein, So any of our
our fried chicken, our grilled chicken, any of that stuff.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Our biscuits.
Speaker 5 (03:54):
So so if we don't reproduce biscuits in the morning, those
biscuits are are frozen, they're reheated at Grace of the
green Light.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Some of our hash browns.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
Sometimes there might be a time where you know, we
we overproduced salads, or we overproduced some of our yogurt parfase,
and so that's anything anything like that that's still food safe.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Obviously we dropped on the floor.
Speaker 5 (04:12):
That's going to the trash can, right, but anything that
is food safe still anything on our menu that that
can that can you know, withhold time as a control,
we'd give that to them and they were able to
repurpose it.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
So then I know at Chick fil A that working
with community organizations as well as just as a company,
contributing back to community is very important and as an
owner and operator. How do you get your team members
on board with that knowing that this is not just
(04:45):
a checking off of the box item, but this is
part of the fabric of the DNA of Chick fil A.
Speaker 5 (04:51):
Yeah, you know, I think about our founder true at
Kathy Uh. This was his heart from the very beginning.
He was someone who was serving his community, extremely generous.
He started our scholarship program with a jar on the
table in his first restaurant and bringing setting kids to college.
He started foster care works all throughout the Southeast. So
his care for the vulnerable, for those who may need
(05:13):
a little bit of extra help, has been there from
the beginning.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
So it's natural for us to take that same thing on.
Speaker 5 (05:17):
And you know, I think about as we think about,
how do we prepare our team well to engage in
things like this. You know, we are certainly about selling chicken,
but we're also in the people business, and we're about
helping develop people. So I think about Josh, who's on
my team right, Josh joined our We opened my current
restaurant about little over two years ago. I don't think
Josh was gonna make it. I was just like, I'm
(05:39):
not sure more I got to know Josh. I learned
his story, and Josh at the time was unhoused. He
was living at the Covenant House, which is basically across
the street from basically green Light as a teenager and
trying to figure out life. And began to encourage Josh,
mentor him support him. Now, Josh has been on our
team for over two years. One of our most pop
(06:00):
simply commented on team members as Josh from guests. He
knows their order, knows their name, people feel like family
when they come in. Josh was in his early twenties,
recently got married.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Oh wow, Josh is coming up, coming up right, Yeah,
and then we're living with his her mom, And I
figure out that, Josh, that's how to get your own place.
Speaker 5 (06:19):
So now Josh has is his first apartment with his wife.
He sent me pictures and throwing snowballs at each other
last week and I walked into the break room and
he was writing a love letter to her. He just
on point, and I said, Josh, like, what's your dream?
Josh like, where do you want to be? Where do
you see yourself ten years from now? He said, I
either want to be a nurse or a firefighter. He
just has a heart of service for people, Right, I said, well,
(06:40):
what would it take Josh to become one of those things?
And we began looking at it, and now we're down this,
we're sniffing down this trail of being a firefighter. So
he recently passed his Civil Service exam and then recently
last week passed his physical test with firefighters. And now
he's on a list to one day help me become
a firefighter. And so he needs to get an EMT training.
So we're's where working on next. And so when we
(07:01):
think about like why would a team member get involved?
So they've been there, they have that journey, they know
that story, and their heart of care and compassion is
one in which they can have empathy and relate. And like,
I've been there, I know what it's like. And so
to see Josh's heart of service on display, it's inspiring
for me. It goes hey man, And I think you
(07:23):
know you asked earlier, like what are things that we.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Can the stigma? Right?
Speaker 5 (07:28):
And I think so often when we think about unhoused people,
people who have hunger, we can often boil it down
and say it was a moral choice they made to
got them in that situation.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
And that is so wrong.
Speaker 5 (07:39):
That is true for some people, certainly, but it's true
for all socioeconomic statuses. It's not just the poor, right,
And if we think about the materially poor, they have value,
they have dignity, have worth, they have they have agency,
they have all these things. And I think one of
the things that we start off with saying, hey, they
are human, and I think that matters as we think
(07:59):
about how we approach and we see people who might
be unhoused, because when we make a mistake, we think
it as a one off.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
We think we just made a mistake.
Speaker 5 (08:08):
And when someone else who may be at a lower
sociacon iomic sadness, we think that's a moral choice of
the reason in that we put that lens on them
and we don't put it on ourselves in that moment.
So anyway, I think those are some of those those pieces.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
And I'll add on, even Benn's team doesn't just donate
food to us, They come and volunteer with us as well.
We are a very volunteer driven organization and have about
fifteen volunteers every single day, three hundred and sixty five
days a year, And so they come and serve with us.
Our goal is to break down the barriers between the
house and unhoused because we are all one community. So
(08:41):
we appreciate that Ben's team gets to come do that
as well.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
So now this question is really kind of like off track,
but Grace at the green Light.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
I'm assuming you're at a green light.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Yes, tell us about Grace at the green Light and
the services that you offer.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
So we were founded ten years ago by a businessman
in the community who literally was stopping at red legs
and between business meetings all day every.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Day and he just saw the need.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
He saw people asking for food, asking for money, and
he was like, you know, why doesn't somebody help these people?
And he heard a voice in his head that said,
I want you to do something about that. So Grace
of the green Light was formed. Green going forward, moving forward.
We all deserve to give grace to everyone moving forward.
(09:29):
So we have a lot of different programs. Our meal
program is our main program.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Every day.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
We started between two hundred and two hundred and fifty
individuals every day. Majority of those are un housed. But
like I said, anybody can come through those doors. We
don't have any requirements or barriers so anybody can come
get a full, balanced breakfast. We also have a going
home program, so people that may get stranded or stuck
in New Orleans that end up on the streets but
(09:56):
may have a family member or a friend to go
home to, we can help reconnect them, make sure they
have a safe, stable place to say, and then we'll
purchase transportation via bus or train or plane to get
them home to their loved ones.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Oh, that's amazing.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
And we also just connect everybody to local resources. We're
part of a continuum of care about sixty five agencies
that all work with the unhoused, so working on housing programs,
housing vouchers, mental health, substance use treatment. All of those
kinds of things are referrals that we make every day.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Ben, how do you decide what type of nonprofit organizations
that you work with for the Shared Table?
Speaker 5 (10:40):
Yeah, So for me, I've lived in New Orleans over
twenty years. Sarah and I've actually know each other for
fifteen years or so through various channels that we've worked in.
Before becoming a CHICLI operator, I worked in the nonprofit
inner city Ministry World Okay, and so we were running
across each other quite often and so normons is that
a city full of relationships. So for me, it was
(11:00):
just like, hey, who who's doing this well? And who's
close by?
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (11:04):
And there's other great organizations.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
Uh there's an organization uh called giving Hope out in
the organ disease. They feed, you know, hundreds of people
every day. There's other ones that you know where they're
stuffing backpacks for kids to go. But I knew Sarah
she was close by. It made sense for my team
in terms of being able to invest in them and
for them logistically to get that. And so we just said, hey,
what who's Who's someone that's doing it well? Grace the
(11:26):
green lights doing it well? Not again, not just feeding it,
but it's saying, hey, this is a whole person and
they need more than just food or something. They're gonna
need some additional services back on their feet. And so
that kind of holistic approach to say hey, how it
was that it was a meaningful way for us to
get I've been able to go, hey, operator down the street,
you should?
Speaker 3 (11:44):
You should operate down the street. You should. And so
that's why seven days a week you can get sick
click to the green light.
Speaker 5 (11:49):
It's just not me, it's other operators officer saying, hey,
this is a this is a worthy investment, UH, to
put our resources in that in that pool.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Well, Ben and Sarah, I want to thank you so
much for or the work that you're doing and the
contribution you are making here in New Orleans. And to
your point been everyone deserves dignity. Dignity and when we
are able to look at people and recognize that we're
all human beings, like and so like you start there,
(12:18):
just like that's like the basics, like we are all
human beings, I think that we'll get much further as
a world community. And so I'm grateful for the work
that you're doing. Is there anything else that you believe
we should know about the un housed and really being
part of the solution for hunger that you believe is
(12:40):
information that people may not be aware of, but that
we need.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
And I'll start with you Ben.
Speaker 5 (12:45):
Yeah, you know, I think in general, obviously you have
listeners from all over the country, maybe even the world
right right that is happening in your city, you know,
when it's something like super Bowl shows up, when the
Olympics shows up, when the World Cup shows up. Often
cities kind of kind of push that out of the
way so you can't see that, right, But it's a
reality in New Orleans every day.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Right.
Speaker 5 (13:04):
If you had come here during a normal time, it's
not like this, you would see unhouse people everywhere, not everywhere,
but many, many concentrated places. And so I think it's
important wherever you're at to say, like, hey, like I
have a responsibility to see that.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Right.
Speaker 5 (13:18):
Sometimes people just if you pull up to a red
light and you don't have something you don't want to give,
at least acknowledge the person as a human being saying hey,
good morning, good evening, how are you right? Acknowledge that
when you don't look at yourself, don't acknowledge them. Maybe
you might even care go to Costco and you'll get
a pack of peanut butter crackers and some and some
(13:38):
juice boxes and put them in your car, and like,
maybe you have some anxiety about giving someone money, fine,
that's great, hand out some some peanut butter crackers and
some juice boxes. Right, and you maybe you cint sanitation
packs that have dealderant and toothpaste and whatever. There's a
way for you to be intentional so that when you
come to that green light. You don't have to go
oh I feel yeah, No I'm not. I'm not doing this.
(14:01):
You go hey here, hey, hey, And then you might
actually get to know somebody, and then you get to
know them by name and they become a human being
and not just someone who's a beggar. Right, And then
I think in the midst of that, I think about
my friend Joey and the old neighborhood I used to
live in. Joey was sort of the neighborhood alcoholic. His
whole family had pushed him away, right, And Joey was
(14:22):
squatting from house to house. He'd become unhoused and he
was squatting in different abandoned houses. Well, a bank needed
him to get out because they had foreclothes on this house,
and they paid joe money to get out of the house.
What did Joey do with that money? I have a
fam My family is a family of six. Joey took
my family of six I was to dinner, right, I mean, like,
I don't know if I had that kind of generosity. Yeah, yeah,
(14:44):
he took the only financial resources he had.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Nobody takes a family of six out to dinner. Associate
we're gonna have and Rice Joey took us.
Speaker 5 (14:57):
Out to dinner, and the dignity he had in that
moment that we could affirm it him as someone in
that moment. So I think there's those moments where you know,
sometimes God uses the fullest things of the world to
shame the wise.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Yes, right.
Speaker 5 (15:09):
And I think if we give ourselves the privilege of
stepping into the life of someone who is maturely poor,
we'll see where they are not poor, where they are
rich in mercy, and rich and resilience, rich in faith,
all these things that we get to benefit. I had
the privilege of living in a poor neighborhood here in
(15:29):
New Orleans for over twenty years, and the lessons I
got to learn from mothers who lost their boys to
murder and then shut up the church the next day
saying God is sovereign of my life?
Speaker 3 (15:42):
Right? Or you know the.
Speaker 5 (15:45):
Woman who owned the house down the street because she
had been a housekeeper her whole life, and the lady
she was housekeeper for gave her her house. But when
we had kids, she was putting bringing us clothes and food.
Someone who had very little, who is showing us abundant
So I just think there's these moments where if we
are willing to step in and pursue relationship, there's a
(16:07):
mutual indebtedness that happens that says I need you and
you need me. Yes, I'm not the power keeper or
the power broker. You have things that you can teach
me and I can teach you. And that mutual indebtedness
is this beautiful thing that happened. So I think that's
really important.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Yeah, yeah, it's beautiful.
Speaker 4 (16:23):
I would just recommend for people to get involved in
their communities. There is homelessness everywhere. Homelessness has been.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
On the rise.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
Everywhere nationwide. Our numbers have gone up so much that
we have increased are feeding amount by forty percent just
in the last year.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Wow. So it's devastating it is.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
And the highest population of unhoused folks right now are
the elderly people that have never been homeless before because
of the lack of affordable housing because the government programs
are getting cut like left and right. So get involved
in your community. There are people doing the good work everywhere.
You just have to find that community and get involved.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Thank you for that, Sarah and Ben.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
I think that when we have more information we're more
mindful and aware that can spark a movement where people
get involved. So thank you for sharing that with us.
And I'm so grateful that you took time to join
me at the Stairwild table. And just know if I'm
ever back in New Orleans or if you're in my area,
(17:30):
you are welcome at my table anytime.
Speaker 5 (17:32):
Yeah, well, thank you so much. If they wanted to
grace the green Light, what's the website?
Speaker 4 (17:35):
Yeah, you can go to Greece at the green Light
dot org or find us on Facebook and Instagram Grease
at the green Light.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
And remember Sarah said that it doesn't matter if your
house or un housed, the services are available for everyone.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
For having us, absolutely, thanks so much, pleasure, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
I hope you felt the love and connection in today's conversation.
Every woman you heard from has faced the impossible and
emerged stronger. This is your personal invitation to stale while
longer at Tommy V dot com. That's t O M
M I V dot com for more inspiration for your mind,
body and soul and let's not forget your belly. You're
(18:18):
always welcome at my table. Please be sure to subscribe
make yourself at home and stale, wild gone stale,
Welcome to a special edition of Stale Wild, recorded live
on Radio Row at Super Bowl fifty nine. I'm your host,
Tommy Vincent, and we are going to be hearing some
dynamic conversations with phenomenal guests here on Radio Row.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
So take a seat, get comfortable in stale will.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
This episode is sponsored by the House of Joy. Hey everyone,
this is Tommy Vincent, your host of Stay a While podcast,
and today joining me at the table. I have Ben
McLeish and Sarah Parks. Ben is a Chick fil A leader,
owner and operator, and we are just really grateful to
(00:44):
have you here so we can talk about some amazing
things that you're doing with Shared Table and other things
as well as Sarah.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
You represent you're an advocate for the un housed.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
You're the executive director of Grace at the green Light,
serving New Orleans unhoused community. So I want to thank
you both for joining me at the table.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
Thanks for having us. It's a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Yeah, absolutely, So I want us to get right into
the conversation because it is a subject matter that I
believe sometimes there's a.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Stigma around on house and hunger.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
It's not a topic that you hear talked about regularly,
even in the space when people are talking about things
that we need solutions for. So, Sarah, let me ask
you first, what are some things that we can do
to remove the stigma.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
I just believe that people should realize that hunger hits
all sorts of folks. There is a lot of food
insecurity in New Orleans, there's a lot of generational poverty here,
but hunger doesn't look one certain way. And one of
the reasons our organization is open every single day and
we allow anybody to come in our doors, even if
(01:58):
they're housed and high It doesn't matter, because everybody deserves
a full, healthy breakfast. Everybody deserves to eat every single day.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
And Ben, I know that Chick fil A has a
program called Shared Table. Can you tell us what Shared
Table is and how it supports this work that Sarah
is doing at her organization.
Speaker 5 (02:20):
Yeah, absolutely, so Chick fil A partners with the Shared Table.
It's a national program that many most Chick fl as
across the country participate in.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
And I do.
Speaker 5 (02:28):
I've been We've been doing this together for five years.
Several other operators in the New Orleans market that do it.
And you know, we don't want we want to make
sure our food is fresh for our guests, but sometimes
that food will time out for our specifications, and we say, well,
we just started in the trash can.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
No, there's people that could use this.
Speaker 5 (02:44):
It's still good quality food, and so we using food
safe procedures, we freeze it, and Sarah and her team
come by multiple times a week and they pick up
chicken or biscuits or things like that that we no
longer want to sell in our restaurant, but they're still
they're food safe, they're good quality. And then every single
morning at Grace of the green Light, seven days a week.
It's the only place you can get chickpili on a Sunday.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
For sure.
Speaker 5 (03:14):
And so you know, it's a way for us to say, like,
we care about our community, right and we want to
make sure people are fit, and we certainly don't want
to make sure. We want to make sure that food
is not being thrown away in a trash can that
can feed someone who is hungry. And so for us,
it's a real it makes sense to say, hey, who
in the city is caring for people that we can
partner with that shares the same part for us to
(03:34):
serve people and then Grace of the green Light is
a natural fit for us to think about, Hey, let's
get that food in their hands, or they're going to
steward that well and get the people who have hunger.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
What are the items from the menu that are part
of this program.
Speaker 5 (03:48):
Yeah, so think about any protein, So any of our
our fried chicken, our grilled chicken, any of that stuff.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Our biscuits.
Speaker 5 (03:54):
So so if we don't reproduce biscuits in the morning, those
biscuits are are frozen, they're reheated at Grace of the
green Light.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Some of our hash browns.
Speaker 5 (04:00):
Sometimes there might be a time where you know, we
we overproduced salads, or we overproduced some of our yogurt parfase,
and so that's anything anything like that that's still food safe.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Obviously we dropped on the floor.
Speaker 5 (04:12):
That's going to the trash can, right, but anything that
is food safe still anything on our menu that that
can that can you know, withhold time as a control,
we'd give that to them and they were able to
repurpose it.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
So then I know at Chick fil A that working
with community organizations as well as just as a company,
contributing back to community is very important and as an
owner and operator. How do you get your team members
on board with that knowing that this is not just
(04:45):
a checking off of the box item, but this is
part of the fabric of the DNA of Chick fil A.
Speaker 5 (04:51):
Yeah, you know, I think about our founder true at
Kathy Uh. This was his heart from the very beginning.
He was someone who was serving his community, extremely generous.
He started our scholarship program with a jar on the
table in his first restaurant and bringing setting kids to college.
He started foster care works all throughout the Southeast. So
his care for the vulnerable, for those who may need
(05:13):
a little bit of extra help, has been there from
the beginning.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
So it's natural for us to take that same thing on.
Speaker 5 (05:17):
And you know, I think about as we think about,
how do we prepare our team well to engage in
things like this. You know, we are certainly about selling chicken,
but we're also in the people business, and we're about
helping develop people. So I think about Josh, who's on
my team right, Josh joined our We opened my current
restaurant about little over two years ago. I don't think
Josh was gonna make it. I was just like, I'm
(05:39):
not sure more I got to know Josh. I learned
his story, and Josh at the time was unhoused. He
was living at the Covenant House, which is basically across
the street from basically green Light as a teenager and
trying to figure out life. And began to encourage Josh,
mentor him support him. Now, Josh has been on our
team for over two years. One of our most pop
(06:00):
simply commented on team members as Josh from guests. He
knows their order, knows their name, people feel like family
when they come in. Josh was in his early twenties,
recently got married.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Oh wow, Josh is coming up, coming up right, Yeah,
and then we're living with his her mom, And I
figure out that, Josh, that's how to get your own place.
Speaker 5 (06:19):
So now Josh has is his first apartment with his wife.
He sent me pictures and throwing snowballs at each other
last week and I walked into the break room and
he was writing a love letter to her. He just
on point, and I said, Josh, like, what's your dream?
Josh like, where do you want to be? Where do
you see yourself ten years from now? He said, I
either want to be a nurse or a firefighter. He
just has a heart of service for people, Right, I said, well,
(06:40):
what would it take Josh to become one of those things?
And we began looking at it, and now we're down this,
we're sniffing down this trail of being a firefighter. So
he recently passed his Civil Service exam and then recently
last week passed his physical test with firefighters. And now
he's on a list to one day help me become
a firefighter. And so he needs to get an EMT training.
So we're's where working on next. And so when we
(07:01):
think about like why would a team member get involved?
So they've been there, they have that journey, they know
that story, and their heart of care and compassion is
one in which they can have empathy and relate. And like,
I've been there, I know what it's like. And so
to see Josh's heart of service on display, it's inspiring
for me. It goes hey man, And I think you
(07:23):
know you asked earlier, like what are things that we.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Can the stigma? Right?
Speaker 5 (07:28):
And I think so often when we think about unhoused people,
people who have hunger, we can often boil it down
and say it was a moral choice they made to
got them in that situation.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
And that is so wrong.
Speaker 5 (07:39):
That is true for some people, certainly, but it's true
for all socioeconomic statuses. It's not just the poor, right,
And if we think about the materially poor, they have value,
they have dignity, have worth, they have they have agency,
they have all these things. And I think one of
the things that we start off with saying, hey, they
are human, and I think that matters as we think
(07:59):
about how we approach and we see people who might
be unhoused, because when we make a mistake, we think
it as a one off.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
We think we just made a mistake.
Speaker 5 (08:08):
And when someone else who may be at a lower
sociacon iomic sadness, we think that's a moral choice of
the reason in that we put that lens on them
and we don't put it on ourselves in that moment.
So anyway, I think those are some of those those pieces.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
And I'll add on, even Benn's team doesn't just donate
food to us, They come and volunteer with us as well.
We are a very volunteer driven organization and have about
fifteen volunteers every single day, three hundred and sixty five
days a year, And so they come and serve with us.
Our goal is to break down the barriers between the
house and unhoused because we are all one community. So
(08:41):
we appreciate that Ben's team gets to come do that
as well.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
So now this question is really kind of like off track,
but Grace at the green Light.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
I'm assuming you're at a green light.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Yes, tell us about Grace at the green Light and
the services that you offer.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
So we were founded ten years ago by a businessman
in the community who literally was stopping at red legs
and between business meetings all day every.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Day and he just saw the need.
Speaker 4 (09:09):
He saw people asking for food, asking for money, and
he was like, you know, why doesn't somebody help these people?
And he heard a voice in his head that said,
I want you to do something about that. So Grace
of the green Light was formed. Green going forward, moving forward.
We all deserve to give grace to everyone moving forward.
(09:29):
So we have a lot of different programs. Our meal
program is our main program.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Every day.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
We started between two hundred and two hundred and fifty
individuals every day. Majority of those are un housed. But
like I said, anybody can come through those doors. We
don't have any requirements or barriers so anybody can come
get a full, balanced breakfast. We also have a going
home program, so people that may get stranded or stuck
in New Orleans that end up on the streets but
(09:56):
may have a family member or a friend to go
home to, we can help reconnect them, make sure they
have a safe, stable place to say, and then we'll
purchase transportation via bus or train or plane to get
them home to their loved ones.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Oh, that's amazing.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
And we also just connect everybody to local resources. We're
part of a continuum of care about sixty five agencies
that all work with the unhoused, so working on housing programs,
housing vouchers, mental health, substance use treatment. All of those
kinds of things are referrals that we make every day.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Ben, how do you decide what type of nonprofit organizations
that you work with for the Shared Table?
Speaker 5 (10:40):
Yeah, So for me, I've lived in New Orleans over
twenty years. Sarah and I've actually know each other for
fifteen years or so through various channels that we've worked in.
Before becoming a CHICLI operator, I worked in the nonprofit
inner city Ministry World Okay, and so we were running
across each other quite often and so normons is that
a city full of relationships. So for me, it was
(11:00):
just like, hey, who who's doing this well? And who's
close by?
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (11:04):
And there's other great organizations.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
Uh there's an organization uh called giving Hope out in
the organ disease. They feed, you know, hundreds of people
every day. There's other ones that you know where they're
stuffing backpacks for kids to go. But I knew Sarah
she was close by. It made sense for my team
in terms of being able to invest in them and
for them logistically to get that. And so we just said, hey,
what who's Who's someone that's doing it well? Grace the
(11:26):
green lights doing it well? Not again, not just feeding it,
but it's saying, hey, this is a whole person and
they need more than just food or something. They're gonna
need some additional services back on their feet. And so
that kind of holistic approach to say hey, how it
was that it was a meaningful way for us to
get I've been able to go, hey, operator down the street,
you should?
Speaker 3 (11:44):
You should operate down the street. You should. And so
that's why seven days a week you can get sick
click to the green light.
Speaker 5 (11:49):
It's just not me, it's other operators officer saying, hey,
this is a this is a worthy investment, UH, to
put our resources in that in that pool.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Well, Ben and Sarah, I want to thank you so
much for or the work that you're doing and the
contribution you are making here in New Orleans. And to
your point been everyone deserves dignity. Dignity and when we
are able to look at people and recognize that we're
all human beings, like and so like you start there,
(12:18):
just like that's like the basics, like we are all
human beings, I think that we'll get much further as
a world community. And so I'm grateful for the work
that you're doing. Is there anything else that you believe
we should know about the un housed and really being
part of the solution for hunger that you believe is
(12:40):
information that people may not be aware of, but that
we need.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
And I'll start with you Ben.
Speaker 5 (12:45):
Yeah, you know, I think in general, obviously you have
listeners from all over the country, maybe even the world
right right that is happening in your city, you know,
when it's something like super Bowl shows up, when the
Olympics shows up, when the World Cup shows up. Often
cities kind of kind of push that out of the
way so you can't see that, right, But it's a
reality in New Orleans every day.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Right.
Speaker 5 (13:04):
If you had come here during a normal time, it's
not like this, you would see unhouse people everywhere, not everywhere,
but many, many concentrated places. And so I think it's
important wherever you're at to say, like, hey, like I
have a responsibility to see that.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Right.
Speaker 5 (13:18):
Sometimes people just if you pull up to a red
light and you don't have something you don't want to give,
at least acknowledge the person as a human being saying hey,
good morning, good evening, how are you right? Acknowledge that
when you don't look at yourself, don't acknowledge them. Maybe
you might even care go to Costco and you'll get
a pack of peanut butter crackers and some and some
(13:38):
juice boxes and put them in your car, and like,
maybe you have some anxiety about giving someone money, fine,
that's great, hand out some some peanut butter crackers and
some juice boxes. Right, and you maybe you cint sanitation
packs that have dealderant and toothpaste and whatever. There's a
way for you to be intentional so that when you
come to that green light. You don't have to go
oh I feel yeah, No I'm not. I'm not doing this.
(14:01):
You go hey here, hey, hey, And then you might
actually get to know somebody, and then you get to
know them by name and they become a human being
and not just someone who's a beggar. Right, And then
I think in the midst of that, I think about
my friend Joey and the old neighborhood I used to
live in. Joey was sort of the neighborhood alcoholic. His
whole family had pushed him away, right, And Joey was
(14:22):
squatting from house to house. He'd become unhoused and he
was squatting in different abandoned houses. Well, a bank needed
him to get out because they had foreclothes on this house,
and they paid joe money to get out of the house.
What did Joey do with that money? I have a
fam My family is a family of six. Joey took
my family of six I was to dinner, right, I mean, like,
I don't know if I had that kind of generosity. Yeah, yeah,
(14:44):
he took the only financial resources he had.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Nobody takes a family of six out to dinner. Associate
we're gonna have and Rice Joey took us.
Speaker 5 (14:57):
Out to dinner, and the dignity he had in that
moment that we could affirm it him as someone in
that moment. So I think there's those moments where you know,
sometimes God uses the fullest things of the world to
shame the wise.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Yes, right.
Speaker 5 (15:09):
And I think if we give ourselves the privilege of
stepping into the life of someone who is maturely poor,
we'll see where they are not poor, where they are
rich in mercy, and rich and resilience, rich in faith,
all these things that we get to benefit. I had
the privilege of living in a poor neighborhood here in
(15:29):
New Orleans for over twenty years, and the lessons I
got to learn from mothers who lost their boys to
murder and then shut up the church the next day
saying God is sovereign of my life?
Speaker 3 (15:42):
Right? Or you know the.
Speaker 5 (15:45):
Woman who owned the house down the street because she
had been a housekeeper her whole life, and the lady
she was housekeeper for gave her her house. But when
we had kids, she was putting bringing us clothes and food.
Someone who had very little, who is showing us abundant
So I just think there's these moments where if we
are willing to step in and pursue relationship, there's a
(16:07):
mutual indebtedness that happens that says I need you and
you need me. Yes, I'm not the power keeper or
the power broker. You have things that you can teach
me and I can teach you. And that mutual indebtedness
is this beautiful thing that happened. So I think that's
really important.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Yeah, yeah, it's beautiful.
Speaker 4 (16:23):
I would just recommend for people to get involved in
their communities. There is homelessness everywhere. Homelessness has been.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
On the rise.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
Everywhere nationwide. Our numbers have gone up so much that
we have increased are feeding amount by forty percent just
in the last year.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Wow. So it's devastating it is.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
And the highest population of unhoused folks right now are
the elderly people that have never been homeless before because
of the lack of affordable housing because the government programs
are getting cut like left and right. So get involved
in your community. There are people doing the good work everywhere.
You just have to find that community and get involved.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Thank you for that, Sarah and Ben.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
I think that when we have more information we're more
mindful and aware that can spark a movement where people
get involved. So thank you for sharing that with us.
And I'm so grateful that you took time to join
me at the Stairwild table. And just know if I'm
ever back in New Orleans or if you're in my area,
(17:30):
you are welcome at my table anytime.
Speaker 5 (17:32):
Yeah, well, thank you so much. If they wanted to
grace the green Light, what's the website?
Speaker 4 (17:35):
Yeah, you can go to Greece at the green Light
dot org or find us on Facebook and Instagram Grease
at the green Light.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
And remember Sarah said that it doesn't matter if your
house or un housed, the services are available for everyone.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
For having us, absolutely, thanks so much, pleasure, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
I hope you felt the love and connection in today's conversation.
Every woman you heard from has faced the impossible and
emerged stronger. This is your personal invitation to stale while
longer at Tommy V dot com. That's t O M
M I V dot com for more inspiration for your mind,
body and soul and let's not forget your belly. You're
(18:18):
always welcome at my table. Please be sure to subscribe
make yourself at home and stale, wild gone stale,
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