Food Justice
12/4/20 - How do you get more deeply involved in a cause you care about? Especially when it's an issue as challenging as homelessness? We talk with Melissa Acedera who practices mutual aid through Polo's Pantry, a mobile food bank in Los Angeles.
Transcript below.
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CREDITS
Executive Producer: Gina Delvac
Hosts: Aminatou Sow & Ann Friedman
Theme song: Call Your Girlfriend by Robyn
Composer: Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs.
Producer: Jordan Bailey
Visual Creative Director: Kenesha Sneed
Merch Director: Caroline Knowles
Editorial Assistant: Laura Bertocci
Design Assistant: Brijae Morris
Ad sales: Midroll
LINKS
TRANSCRIPT: FOOD JUSTICE
[Ads]
(1:40)
Aminatou: Welcome to Call Your Girlfriend.
Ann: A podcast for long-distance besties everywhere.
Aminatou: I'm Aminatou Sow.
Ann: And I'm Ann Friedman.
Aminatou: Hey Ann Friedman.
Ann: Hey Aminatou Sow. Are you ready to keep talking about food justice? [Laughs]
Aminatou: I am so excited to talk about food justice. Tell me.
Ann: So this episode is pulling out the lens a little bit to talk about the ways that food justice and activism around this issue kind of fits into the bigger picture of community aid, working and being in community with unhoused and marginalized people, and I also really feel like this episode is rooted in a friendship connection.
[Theme Song]
Ann: Later we're going to chat with Melissa Acedera who is the founder of a mobile food bank called Polo's Pantry and I really admire the work she's doing for a couple of reasons. One is that she comes to her activism from a place of personal joy and interest. Food is something that is so near and dear to her and brings her so much joy and the way she got into helping and being of service and being in community with people was through that. She was taking classes in health and food prep and things like that and really over time realized what a need there is here in Los Angeles for better systems to serve people who are currently struggling to not just be fed and healthy but to have housing and to have healthcare and all these other issues.
(3:42)
What I love about her work is she's really maintained this lens of food. We talk a lot about how overwhelming it can be to just kind of see in the social media scroll or see in the news headlines how bad stuff is in literally every aspect of the world and see how we so thoroughly fail to provide for people. And she's someone who really comes to mind as saying "Okay, you know what? Actually there are tons of other issues in this world but I'm going to kind of really dig in on this one aspect and do it in an ongoing way and that's how I'm going to show up and be of service."
So one thing that she noticed through her activism with unhoused communities in Los Angeles is that the pandemic has obviously greatly disrupted a lot of the ways that people normally access food and services if they're unhoused. But not only that, it has really increased the numbers of people who need those services. And she very quickly clocked that it is not usually very convenient or feasible for people to get themselves to a physical food bank location if they are unhoused. And so she devised this mobile food bank essentially to bring meals to people who need them.
(4:55)
And, you know, she works in community with a lot of other organizations. It's not like she's just on her own a woman with a van although I get the sense that that's a strong aspect of her work. So hers is also a story about being responsive to the conditions that we're seeing as a result of total mismanagement of this pandemic.
Aminatou: Ugh, I love when you do the interview so of course I'm excited to listen to it.
Ann: [Laughs] The other thing I have to say at the outset is Melissa and I have a personal connection and we have some mutual friends which is how we met years ago so we really had a true phone-a-friend style meandering conversation.
Aminatou: Yes!
Ann: Yeah, so I want to prepare listeners that it might not feel like I'm interviewing an activist specifically about their mobile food bank. It really is a much more meandering chat about the justice work that she does and how she plugs into this specific community. And I know it is very Los Angeles specific but one thing that feels so, so valuable to me is that the work that she's doing is really generated by her own passion, her own roots that she has built. You know, not decades and decades of roots but in the past few years roots that she's built with her community.
So I just want to encourage listeners who are hearing this if what she talks about sounds great Google mutual aid groups in their area or find out if a food bank nearby is doing this kind of mobile drop-offs. Do a little bit more research about not just who the Melissa Acedera in their community is or what the Polo's Pantry in their community is but, you know, finding the really specific groups and people who they might be able to plug into. Because I think, yeah, it's helpful to hear a specific story I think to figure out exactly where to plug in as opposed to hearing in big picture terms about the numbers of, you know, unhoused people or the numbers of people going hungry.
Aminatou: Ugh, I love hearing from people who know how daunting fixing the world is and still just pick one very specific lane and do their best so this is really cool.
Ann: Me too, love it. Okay, here is Melissa.
[Interview Starts]
(7:20)
Ann: First I would love to hear you talk about five years ago or before this work was really such a central part of your life what did your days and weeks look like? And was it sort of a slow transition to being so daily, weekly constantly active in food justice? Or was there a moment where things really changed overnight?
Melissa: For sure like five years ago I really started to shift working in food compliance and research basically, wanting to be more involved in community health and public health stuff, and I started to get more involved in non-profits who do a lot of culturally-relevant sort of food workshops around L.A. So I started to understand food in different ways and yeah, just kind of got super curious. I was going to health conferences and the progression was slow but I knew I was hunting for it. I'm like there's got to be some way for me to plug in with a skill set I have to make an impact.
When I met outreach groups doing this work in Skid Row, that completely shifted. That's when I was like okay this is where I want to be. I scaled down my interests kind of trying to understand the academics of health and really doing more groundwork in 2017. I started to literally make breakfast burritos in my kitchen and go out on Saturday morning with a crew and handing them out. And that's when really I started to turn because I started to see in person what was happening in Skid Row not just in food but public health-wise, just so many things kind of colliding. And it mattered that I saw it in person. It mattered that I had a team of people to bounce ideas off of so we could figure out different ways to build support.
(9:20)
You know, making homemade meals for folks out in Skid Row, that was beautiful. I was doing that for months but I started to feel there was something else that was lacking. I loved what we were doing but I felt like this isn't enough. Like I'm happy to be going out there and giving a hot meal that I love to make for folks and making them feel loved and cared for but there's got to be another piece that we can do because I was like this isn't enough. Something's got to change for them. There's got to be people out there actively trying to figure out the policy and everything else that's attached to why the city has failed our unhoused neighbors.
Ann: For people who are listening to this far from L.A. or who are kind of far from this work maybe you can talk a little bit about Services Not Sweeps and explain what is Services Not Sweeps?
Melissa: I think at this point we're a coalition of about 40-plus different organizations. We came together about two years ago basically creating a demand for the city to provide different services for unhoused neighbors and basically just not use criminalization and sweeps to take care of our homeless problem in Los Angeles.
(10:25)
Ann: Sweeps meaning literally clearing away places where people have been living, correct?
Melissa: Yes, yes. In the beginning it really was us just as a coalition of different organizations in Los Angeles coming together and it's based on the expertise of different folks within the coalition that we came up with a list of demands. Because homelessness is not going to go away any time soon and we just wanted to make it easier and also just better for our neighbors to be able to just survive while we figure out the housing solution for it and all that. It was a model created to and really led by a lot of unhoused leaders within our coalition because a lot of our work is also informed by them very much. That includes my work for sure in food. And we're still continuing right now. A lot of our work sometimes will be attached to efforts like from BLM or different folks. It's evolved so much especially under COVID. I personally feel like the city has become more harsh to unhoused neighbors and that's just been a nightmare to try to fight. I think I've also been very vocal of politicians not putting their names all over food distribution because that's almost like virtue circling like oh, I'm this good person. But no you literally are pushing for sweeps and almost violent acts against the unhoused community but then you're going to tell the community that you're trying to feed them on one hand? And you're not caring on the other.
(12:00)
So it's almost like food distribution to me feels like such a patchwork way for politicians to make themselves look better. And I mean who can say no to that, right? Who can say no to you're not doing a good thing for giving someone a hot meal or a bag of groceries? But I feel like historically politicians especially in local government have used that just so, you know, they don't do their job.
Ann: I have received more than one flyer in my mailbox from a politician with a photo of them standing over a hot tray of food and it's really interesting because it's not lost on me what you say. They're not doing clean needle distribution on these flyers, you know what I mean? [Laughs] They are not sharing the finer points of collaborating with unhoused people about when things happen.
Melissa: Yes, correct.
Ann: Maybe you could speak to that a little bit too. So you do this aspect of mutual aid work, of social justice work, that I think can be perceived as kind, gentle, apolitical, you know? It's safe in other words, right?
Melissa: Yeah.
Ann: Like merely feeding the homeless is one of these things where who's going to argue with that? Who's going to take issue with that? I'm so curious about how you, as someone who clearly situates yourself in a much more radical place than that, how you do hold people who want to support the work that you do but maybe not the holistic kind of system of activism you're plugged into, how do you bring those people along or maybe hold them accountable?
(13:34)
Melissa: For me it's important for people to see what's really going on out there. In order to be fully radicalized I feel like you have to experience it yourself in a way so I almost feel like I want to create these spaces that feel safe for people. And I first, at the top of COVID, I created a first responder sort of COVID-19 project with a private organization called Eayikes. We started a volunteer network of folks since we were all sheltered in place, so basically people who want to make meals at home, and then partnering them with volunteer drivers. And so we started to make this network of folks cooking at home and started to build a logistics of volunteer drivers picking up those meals.
And a lot of people who never were in this sort of work started to get involved and so that feels like a nice step. So now we're trying to develop programming that will help our volunteers to understand what it is they're connecting to, and so that means more information and stats about homelessness in L.A. We're getting a lot of curious folks wanting to understand what's happening. What am I connected to? I feel like that's what this program beautifully has done.
(14:50)
The urgency for me too to create this program was because everything shut down so that meant restaurants that were able to provide us with excess food, they couldn't do it anymore, and some other non-profits and charities said they could no longer run the soup kitchens. So I said oh my god, we're going to have complete shutoff of food access for unhoused and that's what happened. I tell this to people all the time, you know, people always say "Hey, I know you're doing such incredible work" or whatever. But they don't understand what drives me is that I've seen some stuff that really, really haunts me every day. [Laughs] I'll be laying in bed and remembering the things I've seen and how our electeds, people who really can change things on a bigger scale, aren't doing enough. And I wish they could see it the way myself and other activists and folks on the ground can see it because it's scary Ann. Like seeing kids with their parents living in a tent or seeing young children in RVs with their parents. These are the voices and faces that haunt me every single day and they're like "You're always doing something." I'm like how can you not, you know?
(16:10)
So I think a huge part of our work now, it's important for us to show the city of L.A. that there's another way to end this. There's another way to figure out solutions for this and I think our model feels, for me at least, I'm happy I'm part of the coalition because a lot of our solution building are led by unhoused leaders at the front. That has to be the way we should do it.
[Ads]
(18:55)
Ann: I would love for you to tell me about when you started Polo's Pantry and what Polo's Pantry does then I would love to hear about how that has evolved so quickly.
Melissa: I started Polo's Pantry in 2018 and really got involved with the operations part of it where I saw that our budget was just being eaten up by food. And so then I started to research and figure out who we could partner with to get food -- donated food to us -- and have it be consistent every Saturday or every week. Then it just grew organically.
I would meet with my friend Glen Curado who's the founder of World Harvest Food Bank and so he started connecting me to other folks and so then that's how my network grew for Polo's was it's like okay, I can help you out with a pallet of produce here and there but I have a friend here who runs this. I have a friend here who also does food rescuing that can help you with bread and all this other stuff. So yeah, it was slowly building that network.
(20:00)
Like I just really love to pinch on those things because I know if our parents were able to survive on meals for ten bucks there's got to be a way for me to figure this out. And so having that mindset I think has made me also sort of efficient in finding resources.
Even the way I think of my org, I structure it like a family. I named it after my dad who passed away like 15 years ago and so it's almost sort of like honoring him and honoring just the work of the women in my family and really using food as a structure, as a connection and as a bridge, and I'm going to continue to do it that way. I don't want Polo's to ever feel detached from what's really happening for folks. I feel like sometimes the structure of modern food banks, even giants like Feeding America which do incredible work, but they feel so far removed you know? It's like you can't see the rewards of your work at the end of the day.
I feel like when you're cooking something for someone you love for you it feels good. Immediately the reward is there, being able to see them and feel like they're nourished, and I feel like that's what I want to keep doing with my work is I don't want that to ever feel far from the work for volunteers, for folks helping run the org. That has to always feel that that's close.
I'm hoping that it's a good way to sort of inspire the people to build something like this, you know? Maybe not similar but something that works for the neighborhood. I just figured out what worked for me, you know, what worked for the people that I serve, because I think like all of us I was getting a lot of impostor syndrome like am I supposed to be doing this? Am I doing it right? Like I . . . it took a lot of work.
(22:00)
Ann: I love that impostor syndrome even works in mutual aid food work. How is this coming up everywhere? [Laughter]
Melissa: It does because honestly sometimes I'm like I've only been at this game for five years, three years, and you get sort of insecure about that. You know, you get insecure about your experience I guess or your know-how. But I think what I want to encourage people is there are so many things -- I feel like for me all the jobs, all the volunteer work, even the little workshops that I would do at LACMA or something. [Laughs] Just something creative. Or even the street team stuff that I did in college for like music publications, they almost became my Rolodex of skills that I have to pull from to survive this.
So I have experience of doing street stuff and so that also has influenced my way of organizing outreach times right? For any young people sort of hearing me right now, and I hope you hear this, if you have access to those things and can build your skill set do it. And even if you think something as far as creating art or building stuff out, it's not far from this work at all especially in social justice because if your skill set is just focused on a certain part of social justice then you're not able to connect, you know what I mean, to other groups or other people. I feel like you almost have to understand how to speak the language in different ways.
(23:40)
Like for me, I love creative. A lot of my friends are creatives and all that stuff so I've been able to sort of bring that community in too. They're like "Hey, how can we help? I can just do graphic design or whatever." But you know what? They've run fundraisers for us, you know what I mean?
Ann: I've just been reflecting on impostor syndrome and I think that people who are maybe not currently doing mutual aid work or people who do want to get more involved in advocating with and for the unhoused community in their city or town, there can feel like this big barrier of entry of okay, who's doing it right? I have to find the right person and the right way to plug in and figure out exactly which of my skills to use. You know, I think for people who do not have any maybe not deep roots in their community yet, or maybe they don't have a friend like you they can go to like I might not be super plugged in but I know someone who is, that's not true of everyone. And I would love to hear some advice for those people who are listening who are hearing what you're saying and are like yes, yes, yes. [Laughter] But, you know, not feeling very knowledgeable about their own community in this particular way.
Melissa: Honestly, really, again just kind of start small because building your community around this I think people have to really be patient, you know what I mean? The issue of homelessness is so complex, it's so huge, and folks who are new to it can feel really just intimidated. But start small. If you love cooking look for a group, you know? If you love to do graphic design, if you love to create any kind of messaging on social media, if you're good at that or anything like that, I would say start local because there's always someone. And now especially as movements grow just really across the nation there's got to be someone there that's already doing the work. If there isn't somebody I would say start with maybe volunteering at your local food bank or volunteering with, if you're comfortable, usually churches too have a lot of avenues in this sort of work because usually people who go and help in those spaces usually have a network plugged in. And just be open. Just be open to speaking to folks who already have some knowledge on doing this and just be bold and ask. [Laughs] Just be like "Hey, this is what I do. Where can I help?"
(26:20)
And I think sometimes you won't have a friend who's plugged in but there's going to be someone. You're going to land on somebody who will help you find that connection for you. But I think what's really important, and I think that's why I want to encourage people to really understand themselves and what they want to do because we definitely want to keep people in the movement. And to be able to do that we have to be doing something that feels meaningful for you and feels like you I think.
The reason why I feel like I'm so passionate about what I'm doing now and I feel like it's why I have so much energy from it is because I feel like it's me. Like I feel like everything that I do is me. Start with what you love and then from there figure out how you can use your gifts to help other people. And also just something simple like talk to your unhoused neighbor. Like that to me, people sometimes, it's so simple but just breaking that wall. Breaking ideas for yourself and even just how you're raised to think about homelessness, investigate that too. What does that mean? What have you been told by your parents or other people of who the demographic is of the homeless community? Understand your bias or anything else that you feel like why haven't you talked to your unhoused neighbor? But, you know, just change that and say hi, how are you? And sometimes you can show up with maybe a bottle of water, or if you're getting a cup of coffee in the morning get an extra cup and just give it to your friend. But build that relationship because that honestly could change someone's life. It has. I've heard so many stories. But it changes you too, you know what I mean? And that's important.
(28:15)
Ann: I do believe this is rooted in what you were saying about extending yourself on a personal level to all of your neighbors. For me the answer to all of this feels like it's kind of rooted in that. You had some really nice, concrete examples of introduce yourself or maybe offer a bottle of water or that sort of thing. But I wonder if you have a little pep talk for people who are like okay, that's where I'm going to start. I'm really going to know by name all of my neighbors. You know, in terms of how to kind of work up the courage to do that because I do think it takes courage when we are socialized that people who are unhoused are so different.
Melissa: Yeah, yeah. And I think -- I was thinking even like my mom, too, how I've kind of radicalized her a little bit just because she's had all these different ideas. But now she's like -- now she's helping me almost fight little fights I have within our family from other family members who also feel a certain way about unhoused folks. And so it's really kind of interesting to see that.
And I also have to be mindful too of like yes we're also not completely void of a situation that could be dangerous, right? We obviously don't recommend certain things like if you're doing outreach in Skid Row we don't want people going out by themselves especially if they're handing out food and stuff like that. We recommend folks go in pairs or whatever.
(29:45)
But I think again if you feel scared or if you feel intimidated again just ask. Do the research, ask someone who's been doing it for a while, and ask them "Hey, how do I do this?" You know? Or how do I do this better? And just start from there, you know what I mean? You can never ask too many questions I feel like in this. If there are things you want to know just find someone doing the work and ask them.
Just because I feel like it's important for us to keep shifting because of course every day there are situations where it's going to be dangerous and difficult and depending on how people are feeling that day, but that shouldn't keep us from wanting to help or move forward or help find solutions for people living on the street. And people like -- my mom's like "Hey, are you guys going to solve homelessness or whatever by doing this?" And I'm like honestly I mean in my lifetime probably not. I don't think we're completely going to eradicate it. But if we can move the needle further into just getting services and help that really will make their lives better that's huge. And I feel like that's what we've been doing, you know? We've been able to do that.
The work that's happening with racial justice and stuff as well and protests, that too is not too far from this work. We're really trying to show that this is all bridged. This fight is for everybody, you know what I mean? We have to link arms in this just because if we're able to -- we can't just be fighting just for one piece. Because for me when I fight for food justice it's not just that piece; there are so many other things attached to it. So, you know, it feels daunting to kind of try to learn all of that but just be curious.
(31:44)
One thing too I want to just mention is a lot of the books on my nightstand currently are reading about history of food activism, mostly folks like the Black Panthers, Fannie Lou-Hamer. I've been studying them because this isn't new. Anything that I do now or anything the coalition is doing now, it's not new. Polo's is, for me, I model it a little bit from what the Panthers did where they had their free breakfast for children program. And the way they were able to plug in and feed that many children is because they plugged into community leaders and folks already doing the work. It's like don't reinvent the wheel in different neighborhoods or going into spaces because there's already someone in there. There's already someone there that's already doing the work so you go in there and support them. Figure out how to support them because every neighborhood has different needs. Every neighborhood has different wants and resources.
And so again I think I keep trying to tell people we can't have this rigid idea of what a solution to homelessness is. You have to break free from that. But then locally just find someone who's been doing the work already and talk to them. What has worked for them? And then just plug in that way. And that feels less intimidating because we can start there. It feels simple because you can just make that one connection then just keep building on each other from there.
Ann: I want to do a little bit of a lightning round.
Melissa: Okay.
Ann: You already mentioned books that are on your nightstand.
Melissa: Yes.
Ann: I want to know what you are cooking for yourself or maybe something you've eaten lately that's brought you a lot of pleasure.
Melissa: Ooh, okay. Well basically it's like my childhood favorite, it's a Filipino dish called sinigang and it's like a tamarind-based soup base, a tamarind soup-based stew. You can basically use any kind of meat in it like seafood or whatever. And sinigang is just like home to me and so making that and making it like my grandma's style is the most nourishing thing I can do for myself.
Ann: Amazing answer. I would also love to hear about a movie or a TV show or an album or something in that realm that you have loved lately.
(34:15)
Melissa: Ooh, you guys are so good. My musical tastes are very eclectic so I feel like my playlist changes a lot lately. But I, okay, so I am a huge J Dilla fan and so sometimes when I need to relax and things have been a crazy day, girl, I will drive the stretch of Wilshire all the way to the beach. So it's like coming from downtown I go all the way to the beach and I will play Dilla's Donuts for the entire ride. That helps me sort of destress. And it's interesting because it's like, you know, being an L.A. native to kind of see how the city changes just through that main artery of L.A. and having my favorite -- you know, one of my favorite artists. Ugh, this is so nourishing to me too just thinking about it. I'm going to do that today. That album is just, yeah, I love that album so much.
Ann: And my final question is what is making you feel hopeful lately?
Melissa: Wow, very easy question to answer: all the youth-led organizations that have been hitting me up. Almost every day I get an email from a college student or a high school student asking me "Hey, how do I -- I love what you do. I found you on Instagram. How do I get involved? How do I do this?" And so young folks are getting curious about food justice and just to be able to make change.
(35:48)
And so there is a group called Venice Culver Helps (?) and they're a group of high school students from Venice and Culver City High and they found my Instagram, sent me a DM, they're like "What's up? We're starting this thing and we really need help getting food." Ann, they had everything down. They had the Zoom call setup. They had all sorts of stuff, their list ready. All I had to do was say "Yeah, that sounds good. Let's get you some food."
And so we had a second food distribution in Culver City and they're setup right next to an encampment underneath the 405. Girl, I don't have to do anything. I literally show up, you know, in my vehicle with food. All they do is grab it and I'm just watching. I'm like okay, do your thing.
And so I think, yeah, I think folks need to know that our youth -- really we're in good hands. They are thinking about solutions with us. They are watching what we do and again trying to make the world a better place. And so yes they are the ones who make me hopeful.
Ann: Yes, I love that. What a note to end on. Melissa thank you so much for being on the podcast.
Melissa: Oh yeah, thank you for having me.
[Interview Ends]
Aminatou: Ugh, that was great. Melissa, a woman with a van. I love it.
Ann: Ugh, I know, truly. I mean I feel all kinds of '90s empowerment like a woman on the move. [Laughs] Like that totally applies to her and to the work that she's doing. If you want to directly support Polo's Pantry you can send a Venmo to @polos-pantry, that's P-O-L-O-S dash P-A-N-T-R-Y. You can also find her on Instagram and Twitter, polospantry.org is the website. I also encourage listeners to Google community fridges, food banks, and mobile pantries in their area and also mutual aid groups who are really like to be plugged into where there is a need.
Aminatou: Put your money where your values are. Love to see it. I will see you right here next week and I will see you on the Internet in the meantime.
Ann: See you on the Internet.
Aminatou: You can find us many places on the Internet: callyourgirlfriend.com, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, we're on all your favorite platforms. Subscribe, rate, review, you know the drill. You can call us back. You can leave a voicemail at 714-681-2943. That's 714-681-CYGF. You can email us at callyrgf@gmail.com. Our theme song is by Robyn, original music composed by Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs. We're on Instagram and Twitter at @callyrgf. Our producer is Jordan Bailey and this podcast is produced by Gina Delvac.