Plant Based | Nutrition Conference Session III

this is the fun part everything else was warm-up I hope you're ready there's a saying in sales that nothing attracts clients like passion you know that P word passion well I gotta warn you there's a lot of passion up here right now with these three folks so you've been a brace for impact with your passion meters because you're gonna get a good dose of it but I'm delighted to open this panel on overcoming barriers to dietary change which is the first of two panels that we'll have and what we're gonna focus on here is really individuals people so it sort of builds on the last talk how do you sort of translate that thought that desire or even develop that desire and get it into an action as far as getting people to shift that needle towards more plant-based thinking and foods and and health and the way this panel will work is I'm going to introduce our three illustrious participants and they're gonna say a few words about some of their interest we'll have some questions for them and then hopefully a little time for questions from you at the end and I know you can ask tough questions because you've been doing it all day so you'll keep that up alright so what I'm gonna do I'm going to introduce first let's see Mara Lisa's closest to me and you can read the full description in the program but Mara lease on your right is a community chef organizer food educator and Enterprise Manager at just foods and her work centers on racial equality equity food sovereignty through a decolonizing of your diet and someday I will be smart enough to understand what all that means but it sounds really important I gotta say that as well as solidarity and cooperative economy lenz she currently works with parents and works on getting better food particularly in Dominican restaurants as an interest there is a restaurant that you work with I guess is mama Catalina yeah that's my parent in Queens named after her paternal grandmother and she also has a BA in international studies from CCNY and is a native New Yorker but has roots in the Dominican Republic so Marilee so why don't you start by just giving us a few words of your thoughts on this whole your experience your perspectives on getting individuals to change and embrace a healthier way of eating and lifestyle yeah thank you so yes so my experience I am a community chef in other words like the people's chef and with my background I've done I've partnered with different community gardens in New York City but specifically one in the Bronx called Kelly Street community garden and there throughout the season throughout the summer we would do I would do cooking demonstrations for community members where we harvested the ingredients that were grown in the garden and we would make a recipe that would be culturally connected to the demographic of the of the community so within the work that I have my background is I really like to make dishes that are culturally relevant to the people that I'm working with so I've worked a lot with the spanish-speaking community the Latin X heritage community and afro-caribbean cuisine is my expertise I would say and bringing bringing that Africa Ruby in cultural dishes and giving it a plant-based spin to it or just making dishes that are afro-caribbean that's a ready plant-based so kind of reminding our people that this is already in inherently knowledge that we have within us so like I am dominican descent and we make okra and we make eggplant stew eggplants so it's just telling my people that this is already something that we've done let's use those the the sauce on the flavors like which is red peppers onions garlic and that is the base of whatever it is that you're making so that's a little that's my background and within the work that I do with just food too we support other people that are interested in being food educators from the community so it may be for example so if you have like somos that works with different health clinics throughout New York City maybe your patients want to be a food educator and like just food will support people to be able to do that and be educators in their communities and so that you can see more representation sharing this knowledge that's already within us so that's a little bit and I can continue but I know we have other people on the panels though no that's perfect thank you yes so I know you just had lunch and a break but I don't know what that says so I'm ready for more bring on the SATs on we're gonna all be going to Queens to the restaurant for dinner after that's all they can hold 200 people let's move now to our Center Diego funnyman Diego is the chief medical officer at somos that's capital som OS community care he was born and raised in Buenos Aires where he also completed medical school than did his residency in the Bronx at Einstein and later a fellowship in general internal medicine at Sinai he's a primary care physician as a private practice at metropolis medical in Upper Manhattan and he uses nutrition and lifestyle changes as therapy for his patients he's currently working with the so most Community Care and underserved communities through local clinics and he is bringing food oasis to the communities with hope to transform the so called food deserts into how fear neighborhoods so Diego if you would share your thoughts on barriers and your experience thank you rich so as rich says I'm a primary care physician which is a family doctor basically and I in a group with somos which means we are in Spanish we're about 2500 physicians and we describe ourselves as the neighborhood physicians we are mostly immigrants we are mostly Latinos have to say we're in Washington Heights in Harlem in the Bronx we're in Brooklyn s way for as well as well in four boroughs and one of the things that we see and personally have been doing I love and I really enjoy and it's very rewarding to treat patients with food therapy wait for basically use food as medicine but since November what we got is we got the opportunity to start a bigger program in which we get about 40 patients and we walk them through ten days of plant-based nutrition as use as you know or you might imagine our patient population comes usually from Latin America and usually rural areas and they get to the United States they get acculturated and as they get acculturate the health starts going down they can identify that they add the cheeseburgers and they add the pizzas and the cheese and you can see their health and what they used to eat in the rural areas was basically ray rice and beans and you know occasionally for festivities for some you know they could do made as well some fish but basically their main and now they come to the United States and they come to my office and they say that the problem is the rice and the problem is the corn I mean the plane corn and that I have to so we have to ask you know Eric you know pointed this morning I have to change you know they're switched you know start the hard drive and start to telling them that basically the rice the better of course I told you to brown rice and the beans so that's that's our jobs you start educating again we have the luxury of giving them ten days like dr. Greger says is a free sample we give them ten days people start feeling better people start isn't it's a miracle I have to tell you people tell me that chest pain goes away and they beauties get normalized and you know everything and for us that our goal is to keep patients out of the emergency department we try that's what we give appointments easy appointments easy access that's what we have a staff we want people to get the primary care in the primary care offices with the family doctors are not in the IDI that's our goal so that this goes perfectly aligned with what we try to do thank you and our anchorman for the introductions Oh Molly Otto Wally who I hear completely lacks all passion and enthusiasm for his material as you'll see in a moment but Oh Molly is the author of an introduction to veganism in agricultural globalism don't mess with them he's a former champion fighter as well as a research scholar for the Manhattan research library Institute he's certified in plant-based nutrition he is in production of Brava be ro tha vegans for Lantern books a collection of insightful essays and stories and others for a black vegan men these are writings by black vegan men he's the co-founder of G AME and not for profit that looks at socio-economic issues among working-class people of color and he's also the founder of black VegFest which sounds really cool I think we all have to go and of course all my walle was born right here at SUNY Downstate Medical Center so it's nice to have you back I'm a Wally your thoughts on barriers to change in successful ways to deal with them oh my goodness there's so much just try to make this short right okay so all right oh so I got five minutes so first and we try to keep it really really brief black VegFest we wanted to address the community's health decline and also my passion you know for animals and how does that actually work right and in in and it's not that the black community has issues with animals right because sometimes we talk about veganism in such a way and and it's defined as this you know this white thing right so we kind of demystify a lot of that and and we try to make that clear that people are really suffering from you know housing discrimination just housing access you know unemployment underemployment so when you have all those things stacked up to you stacked up against you and in addition to police brutality I've been stopped by you know the police were so so long and I speak to people all the time and I'm like I can't believe it police haven't stopped me in like a year so and it's like it's like so redefining of your life like wow like this is a little bit of what freedom might feel like so just kind of just feel that and cuz it resonates with me right so we're dealing with all those issues and so when we look at the landscape in terms of you know oppression you know and we're talking about food like people are dealing with this issue like they don't want to hear about who else is pressed you're innocent so we try to make them understand it and that's where intersectionality comes comes in comes into play and why it's so significant so when we do black VegFest we organize you know incredible speakers defenders and we really try to take on all the different issues that are out there but not by ourselves we just organize people and that's what the organizer does and that's what we you know essentially try to do is you know so we take the information and what we want to do is we connect that with we get the information from the researchers and we connect that to the people like yesterday black VegFest went into Brevoort housing for the third time we're doing monthly conversations with seniors and so the seniors they get this information we you know you know we talked about you know hummus and why it's you know folks you know utilizing hummus but then also we want to talk about you know even things and breakfast foods like pancakes yesterday no eggs and no dairy I you know I love you know pancakes so just to be clear these are things that I know how to cook and you don't create and that I love right so when I go to the elders yesterday and the elders are like yeah pancakes I was like surprise I'm like oh I'm gonna have a lot of fun so they love you know blueberry you know banana pancakes you know go figure right with no eggs and no dairy and it tastes it tastes the same as if they would get it from somewhere else and we make it palatable the information palatable but also the resources the recipes and everything easy if we have to go right to the door that's what we do that's what community organizers essentially do and I think that's what folks I'm here you know you know do I think this is what this panel is about and we want to connect you you know folks who are the professionals also the you know attendees how to actually engage how to be a part of this but also how to take your expertise and connected to the people who need it that's the that's the true strength of the organizer and that we do this work you know for know with no accolades we do this work like yesterday I had to go to the grocery store and I was you know and and the best the the best conversation that I had was you know that it was two elders in there that were you know getting ready to you know to meet me for this conversation yesterday you know and they said oh that's him you know it's like you know Oh awesome you know um you know your your vegan chef is essentially you know your celebrity in the community you know so that's a good feeling I don't know maybe must it's not working you know but he said I had a minute a minute so he did forewarned everyone so thank you very much my name is Alma Wally that's that lack of passion gets them every time second time I heard the word intersectionality today it's really sinking in all right now we got some tough questions for the panelists we're gonna spare no mercy here at all so now release you off first and the question is see they're all waiting what's the question gonna be you know get the question out so how can people get whole foods fresh fruits vegetables and other things in communities where it might not be so easy to get them and it might be easier to go to your local Popeyes or churches or McDonald's or some healthy food stop like that your thoughts not that that would represent central Brooklyn at all or the other boroughs but if it did go ahead yeah so this is a really great question I know that for many people that do research will call certain community communities that don't have access to nutritious and affordable fresh foods as food deserts and I usually prefer to use a term food apartheid to describe really what what it is that were that people that live in communities that lack that access to nutritious and affordable fresh foods and this term is a term that I've heard food advocates like Karen Washington as well as Leah Penniman who is a mentor to me they've used this term food apartheid and food apartheid what that means is it makes it clear that this is a human created system of segregation when it comes to food access that this is something that is not by accident as I mean I feel like most of you would know like know that like why is it that certain communities particularly communities of color you'll see have a higher higher rates of obesity high cholesterol and that is not something that is by accident you'll see that in community white neighborhoods they have four times more supermarkets than in black or you know POC communities communities of color so that's just to to say like this is something that is human created and to say food desert it also says that you don't have access to food and you know there are these communities the communities that I'm also a part of it's like we may have we do have a supermarket we do have some access so acknowledging that it's not completely it's not completely a food desert its food apartheid so I would say a ways to bring in access to Whole Foods to fresh nutritious foods that are culturally relevant is well one of those ways is so here in Brooklyn for example the Brooklyn movement center and amongst other organizations are working towards getting a food co-op similar to Park Slope food co-op so that is something that is in the works right now and that is a way of like having community members come together and have a cooperatively like a co-op led food cooperative where you can source your ingredients and then have it be sourced partnering with local farmers and local gardeners to be able to source those ingredients so that's like one example that's happening right now as a way to address wanting to bring access to Whole Foods and nutritious fresh foods in the neighborhood that is happening in the moment also being able to have jobs is a way so like community chefs I feel like are really paving away where it's like we are doing the food education in our communities on the grounds and we are also being able to make money as well by organizations partnering with organizations so like I've also previously I was part of woke food that was one of the worker owners of woke foods and woke foods is a afro-caribbean afro Dominican worker owned cooperative where it's using culturally relevant foods and being able to do catering and also being able to do cooking classes and you can maybe charge like through catering you'll make some money coming in so having people in the community also feel empowered to start their own businesses to feel empowered that they the knowledge that you have of cooking that that is knowledge that you can build up upon and maybe also do food education partner organizations when I was part of voc foods we had the opportunity to partner with an organization called Chi Shama that works with artists and they considered you know we are culinary artists community chefs and they hired us to do demos inside the buildings apartment buildings and we would do the we would do demos in the lobby so that's just like a way also to bringing access to to our people and then I'll do a shout out also to like community chef's kitchen which is a co-op that's also starting out for community chefs and they work with schools they work with organizations like riseborough that are doing bilingual programming cooking classes for people to also have access to this knowledge and access to just where because community chefs also bring that knowledge of where can you source your ingredients and be as a guide you through this process so just so those are just some some ways recommendation tangible ways that people can bring in access to Whole Foods plant-based lifestyle in a tangible way so that's just a few I'm sure that my colleagues will well actually your colleagues don't have time to share anything now but what I wonder whether you don't think I'm being mean we had a conference call and I told them exactly how much time so I'm not a meanie no no it was gonna be a one minute thing after each but we're gonna hold off on what I wanted to add is that you know there's some meat out there that the only way to eat health no no we don't have time to do okay just feed back on this now we'll fit it in later but I really want to make sure we get to the questions for you guys and you can contemplate food apartheid and intersectionality and all those things as we hear from we're going to mix it up a little bit Alma Wally so the question for you Omo ollie is what particular barriers are there for african-american dividuals who want to add more plant foods to their diet awesome great great question so well first let's understand that when we talk about information and that's you know that that's coming out whether we talk about in schools are we talking about in communities where folks work a lot of times we don't have access to that type of information a lot of time we don't have that in in school if we look we talk about our schools right now that people just don't listen right if we say that particular foods that are that are not healthy within schools we have to create an organization Coalition for healthy schools right in order to make that happen and I'm poor communities and we have to because I participated you know as a speaker or presenter at these different schools and they just don't they really just don't listen a lot of times and it's the same time some and I'm guess it's a great place so sometimes you go to medical office and what happens your doctor might not actually listen you know to you and sometimes and and right often in our community you know we're not listening to you know whether we talk about even in terms of our work so it's really from it has to be a bottom up it's not going to be just specific to you know foods it's everything you know we're not we're not being listened to for instance you know we could be talking about issues you know with the with the police and something to be happening you know on the road oh I just had a roadside emergency in a situation and then a person would be killed not listening you know I was different examples I was you know I lived in the Bronx for 10 years and it was just awful in terms of you know food apartheid Mara Lisa it said because being vegetarian for that the entire time I could not find anything you what you had at 161 at Grand Concourse in that area hey Yankee Stadium over there you have you have bro hole over there Bronx borough hall you have Supreme Court you you have Family Court you have Bronx you know criminal court you have all these different Asian agencies municipalities around there and nothing but fast food you know the the most horrible access you know to resources so I would ask when I go to certain stores bodegas corner stores all the time hey is that he plant milks any rice milk or almond milk I'm talking about like 15 years ago I'm talking about even you know 20 years ago I don't hope it's you know improve them you know back in Brooklyn and I would ask to speak to the manager and they would totally ignore what happened now now that's changed why because of gentrification not listening to the community just stepping out of the way sometimes all we really need you know and in the black community of communities of color is just like can we have the same access you know just kind of step out of the way and allow us to kind of you know just grow if you just you know if you just get out of the way sometimes like people can really grow is there's not like special access people think that we're asking for that like with black VegFest there were businesses that I'm a rapper right now that there were businesses that that thrived that made thousands that day because the black community you know I'm dependent upon itself and then they did very well and they will you know and continue to excel as we talk about real issues and we discuss race you know inside of our food we discuss um you know different cultures within our food once we do that and we have a conversation we sit down we talk about what's available and what's the resource and we start listening then we can make like drastic changes you know that's been shown Thanks yeah that's what we want the drastic changes and I think we'll move now to Diego and the question for Diego we we saved you --fill ask us it's the toughest question is you know for people who want to go plant-based how do you ensure it's healthy you know as someone said before you could eat white bread jelly and I guess an Oreo cookie sandwich and call it plant-based you know diet but it's not you know how do you get the good carbs the Whole Foods stay away from the junk and particularly in low-income and Latino you know under served areas yeah and I think that's I found that's the most difficult you know in the 80s I remember when people started because again they were saying that this zones then they became in the nine is the blue zones but even before they realized that places in the world where people mostly leave on carbs they were the healthier populations 80% carbs the Okinawans 80% sweet potatoes the Okinawa's so they said less fat and more carbs and people started doing refined carbs carbs that they were taking the nutrients the fiber and high when I tell my patient because years ago we didn't have the possibility of being in front of a computer we had to bring our own things to show flyers now I get in my computer and I put pastry and I just Google Images boom and then you cannot try later pastry and you can get tons then my patients say I get it I get it now that's what I shouldn't need so again cars mean you know unrefined complex carbs carbs that are not being processed so again keen on rice kamu corn not corn meal because corn meal is great but then you have to add the milk the fat the butter so again that's my daily fight where they come from even from the in doctrine ology saying that they should limit the amount of rice and the amount of corn and I you know I become really you know frustrated because the idea is to do grains but I tell them just like they grow from the garden and then you can peel it or cook it and that's fine that doesn't mean french fries that doesn't mean again the cereal that you can get in the in the store so people they they get it and again when you put them on this inmersion programs ten days and all the the only thing you give them is unprocessed food you give them whole grains for ten days fruits vegetables and legumes and you they see their biomarkers they see that you lose like six to ten pounds they see that their chest pain again goes away they see that they start breathing they can take out the oxygen I mean again a miracle I've never seen anything like that then they start believing but again education and we as you know physicians need to get again remember that's and everybody know so we get such very limited amount of you know nutrition classes nutrition education in medical school almost none zero so but now the fact that here there I've heard their students so that's that's great now you know Michelle McMartin even you know lectures and the Crossville as well in Montefiore that's that's changing so that's great so the future generations they're gonna be better I think Diego can you also just comment on the Latino commuting in particular I know when I travel if I go to Puerto Rico or Mexico there's a lot of good it go to D toes down there there's a lot of people gain and weight it's really more of an even epidemic than the US if that's possible you know there's only so much dulce de leche you can eat and stay you know a certain size so what are the challenges in those communities the challenges the more they adapt the more they adopt the standard American diet the far they go away from the foods that their grandmother used to cook I mean the worst you can see and and that's something that we always you know the fact there's something called the Latino paradox you know the Latino paradox talks about even the worst socio-economic you know numbers for Latinos in the US they if you compare mortality with our group they don't do bad now this is for the generations that migrated first they thought it was only healthy Latinos come to the u.s. no that's not true then they thought the Latinos go to die in domakr that's not true that I hear as well is that there's something in the food is the beans is the music it's all the things that you know the social support now the newer generation are losing that Latino paradox so that's very sad you see the newer generation is the first one everybody knows so they're going to leave less than their their parents this is new so I think that it's the acculturation that is killing us here in this country thank you so I'd like to give our panelists the opportunity to comment on anything they're co-panelist said so member Lise you have a minute or two of thoughts on what Diego or Mullaly just said yeah so I want to speak a little bit about what Diego was just talking about within the Latin ex community and I know Richard you had mentioned about like in Puerto Rico you'll see a lot of people that are heavier and like I can just speak up about Puerto Rico specifically is that in Puerto Rico there's such a high rate of processed foods that is available to the people and a lot of fast food restaurants and it's you think about it's like they're in the Caribbean you know you can grow so much so there are people now that are people that have been growing food and there are more people that are after Hurricane Maria that are really trying to reclaim this the scale of being able to grow your own food because that is something that is influencing why people are getting sicker like in places like in Puerto Rico and that that is something that needs to be addressed getting people to reconnect with the land and people to be able to reconnect and see be part of that process of growing your foods because then there you can decrease those mortality rates and those diet related conditions so yeah why does that need some rooftop gardens in Brooklyn and got to get it going rooftop gardens yeah yeah the more people connect with what food really is absolutely Oh Molly your thoughts yes increasing access or better access and Mary Lisa was speaking to some things I would also would like to add and I know she had brought up our gardens hmm and just being able to create your own as much as you possibly can just having better just better innovative models to to basically model after and in terms of creating our own types of food our own types of uh you know access to food we had to create that in order to go into pre point housing no one tapped us on the shoulder you know we wanted to contact them and find out that would they be receptive to you know a plant-based or vegan you know message and of course they are and you just have to be consistent you know with that message I think kind of the messaging you know today and and and and some of the panels are that you know veganism is is bad but like the thing about you know educate H education it's a consistent model like we don't want to do black VegFest you don't have one event and that's it like that's the problem I do a lot of different veterans and it's like you might hear something I might say something else another educator might say something and you'll forget it right it happens all the time but if it's consistent if it's also in student institutionalized you know then we do a lot better with that but I think we have to begin you know creating and kind of you know moving outside of the box Thank You Diego you get the last word here I know you were gonna say something about the releases ideas yeah so I mean I didn't mean I was gonna say about whole food a patient of mine calls whole check because the whole check goes when they go to but better the idea is that we do what part of the things that we do on this jumpstart this immersion program we do tours to different and I have to tell you that any supermarket has and I was once trying to discuss how to cook beans with my Dominican and they almost you know kill me because they know how to they don't do the can they just do the beans the problem is how this is sawn and the oil that you say the limit or try to avoid cook they don't know that you can cook with broth with water those are things small steps that I think you were you were saying but again they have it they know that be they've been raised on rice and beans so you don't have to teach a Dominican how to eat you know rice and things all right I have to give all of our folks where they've been very timely so we have time for questions so if you have a question raise your hand we'll get you a mic and there's someone over here on the left someone in the middle of the center good afternoon I'm Gail stand back most dr ph student i've just completed my dissertation on the culture of diabetes and the black church and working with motivational interviewing after sitting down with the focus group that i worked with with my research i found that there is not a lot of access to fresh foods and i just wanted to point out that one i was educated here in the public school system in brooklyn back in the 60s and the 70s even though i'm dating myself that i received home economics in school I learned how to cook and do all of those things a lot of the people today are not cooking and they're relying on restaurants and other people to cook their foods and that's where the Ganga comes in and also I just wanted to point out is my grandparents had a farm back in North Carolina where we grew their own vegetables their own chickens and they did everything else and a lot of the laws restricted those people who owned those properties to form your own foods and grow their own vegetables so this type of those are the type of things that have created this this issue and I don't think that African Americans are against plant-based foods I think African American an access plant-based foods and they've been taught not to cook and rely on processed foods I just want to say I think thank you some no release I think that plays into the the food apartheid concepts so do you have any few seconds of thoughts on that or no that that's that's definitely thank you for sharing Gail and yeah that that it's a systemic it's a systemic issue right like that black farmers have been stripped away from their land like that is something that within this book that Leah Penniman wrote farming while black she talks about that that there are many like the connection that black Americans have when it comes to the land african-american specifically it's like something that is a rip there's so much inherited trauma in there that needs to be a lot of healing that needs to be done so it is something that the fact that black folks don't have access to land here as well to grow your own foods that does create that level of barrier for us to be able to live healthier lives and not be at risk of all these like diet related conditions who has the next the mic for the next question I see a Betty Akko I work for the New York City and employee wellness program with the Lynn's on food and also try and not have a lot of passion about this too specifically around community food and you you spoke on the Wylie about innovating and I think that sometimes we have to replicate because we've we've done this we can do this and it's not just an innovating it's replicating but my question rice and beans got me started on it and I wanted to ask so it and the conversation about land and this and this history and those problems and maybe immigrants and maybe even people in this country there's a disconnection with some of these kinds of foods because there's a poor people food association so the KFC that's in Puerto Rico that might be contributing to you know overweight as opposed to the rice and beans rice and beans also just rice and beans which is plant-based and with a vegetable you know a healthy meal a complete me a complete protein there but there's a disassociation because we some people think of this as poor people's food and I just want you to speak about that like because we're living this standard American diet specifically for immigrants this dream that's killing bus it has been so just kind of when it's begun can you respond to that well I definitely feel I agree you know 100% that uh I think what we tend to do is this is misconception that veganism is kind of like first world but like rice you know beans and you know a lot of the greens you know a lot cheaper you know than me and and also and you could find that out by going to these so-called third world countries and see what the food that they have to rely on that it's not me you know like they'll eat meat at a ceremony you know a festival or something like that you know they'll be you know happy to you know finally get access to me but you know we're eating you know that plant-based food they're eating that plant-based food on a consistent basis and our community just really you're right I think the innovative methods are more in organizing and in attracting people but you're right it is something that we have right now we just confident you know have to you know tap into and you know and wake up thank you I think there's someone in the back yes hi my name is Donna I am a community health education major at York College and one of the things that we had to do a research for and it came up about accessibility to foods and one of the things that I never knew about is that the New York Department of Health has an initiative that says NYC green cards and anyone was familiar with those green cards you know exactly which neighborhood they're in they're supposed to be in the neighborhood that don't have access to foods and stuff so what can you guys you know how can we get the green cards in our neighbor because I remember working in Manhattan Upper East Side Manhattan and that is where I saw them I didn't see them in my neighborhood I live in Bedford Stuyvesant now there's one inertia and Fulton that's the only one that's in bed-stuy right now so I just want to know you know if any of you can answer how can we get the green cards more accessible to our people in our neighborhood well Diego or someone else's but they only comment that I can do that for I remember before I started you know this project we should have it in the drawer and we were not giving at least you know in the neighborhoods that we were so many times there there and people just don't take advantage so a lot of resources I mean the Bronx Manhattan they have you know markets there's great but I don't think we are using I agree there's to me it's not that people actually don't know this resources that's that's my at least in my clinic that's how I see I think it is right on you know in a head we just don't know about it I happen to know about it because I was working with Green Market right and in the Bronx where there's a less access you know to fresh produce more than any other borough and so when I you know got back to Brooklyn like I was not hearing about green you know green carts at all so that's the first thing but then and then I think people will assume that you may be you know some of these communities don't want to operate a green card because you have to be in those communities as well you know so there are some prerequisites as well but I don't think I just don't I don't think that the information is getting out there to the people I think we have to be careful that when we see commercials and stuff like that at KFC McDonald's and Burger King we don't think that anybody's trying to beat us over the head but somebody talk to you about rice and beans and veganism like people be like oh my god I can't believe it you know like you just saw like a hundred thousand commercial already you know today you know you see billboards you know that's more money and if you if you just you know just compared the you know the dollars you know how many dollars are we putting into you know just to access to information about fruits and vegetables and what we can do and then how much are these fast-food establishments you know putting in you know McDonald's alone is like a billion dollars and I think that the government last time I you know I heard was less than two million dollars in terms of access to fruits and vegetables we have time for one last quick question Monica my last quick question after a comment first I thank the panel for all that I heard I missed a little bit of chef Audie Wally's comments in the beginning but has anybody made the link between all the social conditions that people experience that drives them to food I mean we even have the language comfort food and we know that when people are upset and depressed and sometimes broke and don't have money for the foods that you spend a lot of money for that are the healthiest so have we made the dotted lines to all of the reasons that people eat including starting with being upset and anxious and depressed and a lot of that coming from racism you did use the word apartheid I appreciated that so could you just draw a lot some lines to why people eat today we ate because the food was delicious but there are other times when people eat and drink and smoke and use drugs for other reasons and we need to try and connect that intersectionality so that we can understand how we need to approach this from a lot of different angles so I'm gonna ask my release because she's just chef and organizer an educator and has lots of intersectionality so we need to be brief down tie up I'll go very fast and I want to give you a little bit of hope I cannot talk we don't have time to because emotional eating but what I can tell you is that dr. Esselstyn says usually his talks we need to change good food that we like which we know there's we like it you know all the junk food and it's comfort to food that we can eat and it's also called so the starch the most number-one reason for people failing plant basically they want to eat doctor I'm doing perfectly fine it's a third day on green salads you know you're not going to sustain it's an able you're good and able to sustain so if you don't add your corn your potatoes your rice that's to me it's comfort food so change one comfort food for another that's that's my take yeah I'll add to that to that when it comes to for example sugar sugar you know there has been studies that say that sugar is just as addicting as cocaine it's a real thing like processed sugars refined sugars you do have like this desire to want to eat more and more and more so it's I think it's also like sharing that knowledge with with our people with our communities I mean sharing it is one thing but also letting them know like this is really it is detrimental to our health it is causing so much harm sugar so I think it's also acknowledging that and looking for natural like alternatives to that let's have a fruit like if you have that sugar craving because that's that's very common you're like oh I want them craving something sweet alright let's maybe eat dates or maybe have some dried fruits or have an apple like find these other substitutes that can help with that that sugar craving yeah sometimes you may want to have a cookie but I think it's also in moderation is what's really important and and just kind of reminding yourself psychologically like okay I want this but is this really good for me right now so it's a lot of like mental work that you need when it comes to food that you you have this like psychologically it's like every time I'm angry I have a bag of chips but it's like alright maybe I should take a walk like just kind of reflecting on that and of what it and and and what I I know people that have share like maybe having got diet diary and you know some community chefs are talking of incorporating that in their in their programming of like just writing things that you eat and how do you feel don't you eat these things so thanks so to tie it up I would I would ask you to if you go to our website that's downstate that edu slash plant-based there is a section on the upper left it says a beginner's guide it's a plant-based nutrition and you will find in the back of that guide a list of about 50 green markets and places you can access fresh food in Brooklyn it's a very comprehensive list so look there I really want to thank our three panelists who as you can see are completely passionless but they did a good job pretending and some great insights wisdom knowledge O'Malley has apparently the final word so go ahead really quickly we're gonna have black VegFest co-op city April 13th the community I called on us and we already had to expand that space so people who are interested in going to co-op city where it's kind of landlocked and away from other neighborhoods and access to resources we're gonna come in and bring folks who have that information who have the resources and go so black VegFest dot org or you gather there it's free thank you thank you to our panelists and I will invite up Rhett Rachel Atchison from our Brooklyn borough president's office to be the anchor session so what a pleasant way to end National Women's History Month with a power woman panel so I would love to start out the panel if you each could give us an overview of your work and a background booth let's start with you my name is Ruth Stanislaus I'm the founding principal of PS 971 which is located in Bay Ridge Sunset Park in Brooklyn we're at k-25 school I founded the school I wrote the proposal and it was accepted this is my ninth year being principal 27 years in education and so just a little bit about my background with eating healthy and plant-based foods we are one of four vegetarian schools in the city in fact there's only four in the city and we recently became vegetarian about two years ago when I first opened the school I knew that we wanted to focus on healthy living our school is called math science and healthy living and so we took a whole child approach to not only look at students academically socially and emotionally but physically and nutritionally also so we started off with an alternate menu which the Department of Education provides for everybody which has some plant-based meals but there's also a little bit of meat and then about two years ago under the guidance of the Coalition for healthy school foods we worked with them a lot we decided to go full vegetarian and that's where we are now hi i'm leanna levine Reisner i am a mom of three kids and my health health story involves reversing endometriosis with a whole food plant-based diet and I was really spurred into this by my own family's need for health and once I started getting into the literature and learning more about it I realized there was a whole movement out there behind this kind of message and so I decided to take on leadership within Manhattan to try to bring awareness and support to people about whole food plant-based nutrition and there were some other lovely people working in the Bronx in Queens and Staten Island Long Island who are doing the same and just earlier this month we relaunched altogether sort of under the same brand as plant powered Metro New York and our vision is to take the movement that's already begun internationally and especially nationally and to give it more fuel so we have folks on the ground who are our messengers if you will who have been personally changed by plant-based nutrition and are trying to connect in whatever ways we can with local communities to bring this message out in many different ways so Ruth so Ruth I'll start with you you say we're one of four vegetarian schools as if it might have been easy to become a vegetarian school but I'm sure there were barriers to that institutional change can you go over what some of the barriers were was there anything cost-wise parents coming from the cost-wise aspect you know we're a public school so there's nothing that impacts our school from a budgetary aspect but because the Department of Education the office of school foods and nutrition they take care of us so kids in public school they eat free they have free breakfast they have free lunch but one of the barriers that we really had to overcome was our demographics and then looking at what did kids eat when they go home to their and just in the community in general so my school is located in a community where I have 55 percent Asian Pacific Islander students mainly from China and 39 percent Latino students from Mexico and Ecuador and many Latin countries and so one of the barriers was really looking at the staples in the home of you know people of the kids that come from the community like that so in our Chinese community they're very heavy in support and in our Latin community they're very heavy and same eats so when we approached the parents we we asked them you know what do you think about plant-based foods and so many parents were like oh no how kids need meat because of the protein so then it was really up to us to do a lot of the research so that we can show parents we can show them look at the statistics so that basically meant having meetings with parents going to our PTA we have family night dinners where we have staff members that actually cook for our parents it's sort of like a like chopped type of show but the parents are actually cooking we have we've connected with our Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams office he's come in and he spoken to our staff members and we've linked up with the Coalition for healthy school foods they actually come in and do lessons for our students twice a week about plant-based foods we show our students what it looks like before it's cooked and then at lunchtime they'll actually see it on the menu so we do all of this with the hopes that when the kids go home they can actually talk to their parents about some of the foods that they've been eating all day and then their parents will question them and say okay how'd it taste so it was just really the barriers was just trying to get through to the parents but through this students and through meetings and just different things like that we were able to get to it to them and you said it's been you've been vegetarian for two years now was it difficult with how much more difficult was it year one versus year two or did you have the same sort of obstacles here to I mean I don't I didn't really view them as obstacles I just viewed them as okay you need to know the information and so to me the best way to to get people to know about different things is to provide them with the information because you can't just assume that you know oh look I'm vegetarian don't you want to be because the first question that they'll have is well why should I be vegetarian what is it doing to me so once we just started providing with them with statistics about childhood obesity about early onset of heart disease in children which they really didn't know about and about the benefits of plant-based foods then they were more open to it because who doesn't want their kids to be healthy so that we kind of took you know took it from that way to say you know you want your kids to be healthy like it's not just an academic piece here in school it's they're here and they have two out of three meals with us and so this is how we're providing the healthy foods for them don't you want to try this at home and I know students have students and children have a role to play in your theory of change as plant powered Metro New York can you elaborate on what y'all's theory of change looks like sure so I know that Daniel was mentioning this about the idea behind psychology is very Theory based and I think it's also really important in the nonprofit world when you're trying to create a change out in the world that you have a theory of change and you understand what you're trying to get at so for us going back to your question about should we inspire people with some of the fear my training is in organizational psychology and positive psychology and so I like to start from a place of opportunity and appreciation because there is an incredibly positive message about the power of plant-based nutrition and if we bring it to people and meet them where they are with that message it actually has the capacity to sort of open open the brain and there's been research on the brain and on behavior that shows that this is the better way of approaching people and helping them to make changes but to really get to it first of all you need to talk about who or who are we going to well we need to find people who are open to change some of those people are people who are already hurting they're sick they're tired of where they are they don't trust their doctors anymore they might be really stuck other people are caring for people for me it was caring for my kids and worrying about their health for other people you're caring for your parents all of these situations put us in a prime position to be open to the idea that there is something different than what mainstream medicine is telling us and then the theory goes into well what do you what are you going to do to get people to actually think about changing their habits first I think is using stories when we hear the story of the Brooklyn borough president we all say oh my god if I were to sit here and tell you a little bit more about mine if my friend Enrico would tell you her story of healing from colitis etc etc we would all be in a room full of of motivation because that's where it comes from these narratives the science will tell us a lot but it tell us quite as much as the stories do so these repeated exposure to stories I think is a key piece of our theory of change the second piece is trusting relationships we have to have a relationship with somebody who has made a change in order to even see the possibility for ourselves sometimes or to trust in the people who are giving the message to us and right now it's not easy to trust people who are telling you this diet or that diet so getting through to that trust is important and I think that's the role that our empowered leaders can have in community if somebody is out there trying to talk to a church or talk to a school about the power of plant-based nutrition and why it will be effective in those communities we're talking about building trust first and then creating supportive relationships as the next step for when people are ready to change their diets and then the third piece of the theory is around providing sufficient instruction for people so that they feel that the change is achievable in a way this is the rewiring of the synapses that the Brooklyn borough president was talking about we have to show them that it's possible and that you can relearn behaviors and Ruth I kind of diving a little bit into the institution of do II what is your relationship with the office of school food what is how does one become a vegetarian school I mean do you have to do a survey do you have to send home letters to parents how does that process look but there are four of us well there were three of us before I joined and so just knowing that there were there was at least one school out there that happens to be three was a lid made it a little bit easier because then you know I said okay well I'm not going to be the only one and so then it was a matter of just connecting with the office of school foods which is in Long Island and trying to set up meetings where they would actually come to my school and see what we have here and see who out kids are and then sort of working with them holding them accountable but working with them with the vision that we had and then also pulling in the other schools to say look there are four of us here this could be a growing movement here and then once we connected with the borough president's office you know it was like a go because he he's focusing on meatless Mondays which the Department of Ed is now adopting as a you know part of the school food system that all school schools maybe have meatless Mondays now so in our eyes were sort of a little ways there but we just chose to go the full way but working with the Department of Ed we get support from them you know we've been working on looking at various menus like my students went on a field trip to Long Island City to do a taste testing to see okay can we have another menu item on our menu it's a little difficult because with the office of food and nutrition you really have to deal with the finance part that we don't really participate in but as we know to eat well it costs right so yeah it also caused in the Department of Education to so sometimes that's a little barrier but you know it's a slow progress but it's progress so that's how we're sort of looking at our relationship with the Department of Ed like we're making baby steps with them and so to speak to the allies portion I know your group has had a lot of success gaining allies and your group started what a year ago ish and now you all are just dynamite you're everywhere and it's amazing so how have you built up allies who have some of those allies been sure so the way that we operate is as a network so our idea is that there are people all over the metro area who know about this information and if we can connect everybody and give them strength and a common brand and unified message then we will have more credibility in the field for folks to see us and say oh maybe I should consider that when I'm thinking about my health so that's one piece of it the in in our base building work that has been going on over the past year and more or more for we have organizers in the Bronx and Long Island that have been around for longer a lot of this is about building the relationships and then elevating new leaders and so we try to give people a role by saying look we are all connected to institutions that have the possibility of changing with our intervention so what can we do to provide support to these people so that they feel that they have you know the backing to go in and and offer a different solution to their institution for me I you know I'm in the Upper West Side I decided to go to the Wellness Center in my neighborhood which is the JCC a Jewish Community Center and I knocked on the door of the senior director of health and wellness programming and said could you do some plant-based programming and after some conversations where I wasn't sure if it was going anywhere we ended up creating a whole series of plant-based educational programs that began just this past January and are continuing for as many months as as they want they're really very interested and it also led to us creating our own Jump Start program at the JCC in February where we got a group of 21 people together to do a deep dive immersion into whole food plant-based nutrition with the before and after biometrics like the kind that dr. Poneman was talking about so that just happened by one person knocking on the door of somebody with influence in an institution my friend and Rika went to a church in her neighborhood in a Astoria and found after talking to three other churches finally found a priest who was interested in hearing her message and was able to go and speak to the seniors there at their weekly meeting and now we'll have more of a presence there as the months go on because people are genuinely interested in this topic we have someone out in the Bronx who found a dietitian at the shop right in his neighborhood who new about plant-based nutrition but hadn't really done anything with it in her work and by going in encouraging her to do something now she does monthly whole food plant-based food demonstrations and then she also has created a flyer for shoppers so that they can find whole food plant-based ingredients and supplies in the store and then on the government level showing up being present testifying when there's opportunities to comment on banning processed meats in schools or down in Staten Island one of the organizers Natasha she has been sitting at the table with their government leadership and their borough president trying to get this on the agenda and having more people getting this on the agenda is what this movement is all about and that's very cool shout out because I believe we have a contingent of four people from the Staten Island borough president's office here so very exciting that yes being at the table and showing up definitely begins that conversation so I know we have a lot of different people in this audience who are coming from a lot of different sectors we've got some folks from YMCA I know some seventh-day adventists we've got Department of Health Department of Education if you were to give kind of a broad sweeping advice to how does one move the needle within their institution what would you say so if you were to have one or two minute pitch about that and Lana let's start with you sure there's a lot I could say here so one is if you need support plant powered metro New York is here for you I think we all need to know that we're not acting as individuals we are part of a broader movement and when you have that support and sometimes the brand and maybe even an expert in the room next to you when you're going and talking to somebody that's the kind of role that we would hope to play to help people take an action rather than feel scared about taking an action the second is to have your talking points and materials things that you can share that show the evidence I love the SUNY Downstate materials because they're really solid scientifically based materials that people can take for the for those who need it some communities really want the evidence others just want the stories and it really depends on so the demographic that you're working with the other thing is to find a partner and not to do it alone when you have a bunch of parents or a bunch of teachers or a school principal who are interested in this and you can bring those people together that's so much better than just being your own individual person and I think also knowing what your next steps are being able to plan out okay if I do this what am i what am I really asking for when I go to a leader and how am I going to follow up with them what do I have the time for and and where is this person's motivation and interest and how can I follow them where they are and I think just to add on to what you were saying before you know coming from a public school setting is to really find out how can we more or less take the interests of our students because they are the ones that will actually spread the word without any questions so when they go home to parents you know they are the ones that again that will insist on no I want to eat this and I want to eat that and just connecting with their parents so if you're in a public school there are four of us and you're welcome to come and visit me anytime to see how we do it wonderful thank you both so much we have time for about five questions so and you want any audience if you raise your hand Gini let's start with you and if we're having problems with mics yeah you can speak all that go for it and thank you for that wonderful panel I appreciate it this questions actually for Ruth Rachel knows I do a lot of work with schools I think that's wonderful I mean absolutely amazing that you've been able to go vegetarian my question to you is have you seen any a reduction in the number of children that access perhaps the lunch program or is it more and then the other thing is that have you seen any difference in academics or behavior or any other changes in the school environment as far as the children once you went to went vegetarian I mean just really going focusing on out data like this is just our second year in so you know looking at our data we wanted to give it a little bit more time to actually see the change we did we did grow in our alien and math State scores since last year I don't know if that's you know because of the food that all the kids are now eating but I think what we're doing is we have a three to five year plan to just quick keep collecting data our numbers of students that eat school foods did not fall off and just really you know keep collecting our data for the next couple of years and then we'll be able to look at the trends and compare it to academics are you growing some of your food that you're incorporating into them um yeah we're actually a sustainability school we're a green school so we we do all of that we have a green team that goes around and and we recycle and they go around and check all the classrooms we have a garden outside in our school yard that we work with our science teacher we're a sustainability school which means that we look at composting we look at growing healthy foods we look at how we can keep the environment green so our school is healthy living so a lot of things that we do in the building really zoom into that so everything sort of falls into you know one whole thing of who are we going to be in ten years as humans in this world and how can we change right now so that when we get there we can actually change the world thank you I'd love to visit I'm going to come with Rachel any other questions yes you can speak loud and I can repeat the question thank you so a place where people could post their stories when we have events that long in Long Island you have maybe one or two people who will speak to an audience but with the website with a Facebook page you have an opportunity for a lot more people to contribute their their stories and do you have anything that you're creating that is like that yeah not formally right now there is actually a wonderful so you know the National Organization Forks Over knives that's behind the movie they put out these testimonials on a periodic basis of people who have made really dramatic improvements when adopting a whole food plant-based diet and the stories that they've collected are really incredible what I would love to do is to have more of our members be able to feel open to sharing their stories through social media and it would be great to create some kind of social media campaign around that yes hi I'm curious to know for those parents who are between the ages of approximately I guess in high school up to 30 how receptive are they to plant-based eating for their kids sorry repeat the question so in between for parents who are between the ages of approximately I guess starting from like high school up until 30 how receptive have you guys seen their kids be to plant-based eating that's what for both weight and receptive have you seen parents be to their kids so for instance if their kid goes vegetarian and vegan right again right I mean my school goes from K to five I think the parents are very very receptive to what like what their children are eating because you know if it's healthy I don't know a parent that wouldn't want their child to eat healthy I think sometimes we sort of fall into the realm of the kids not necessarily liking the food and so my next step as a school is to really try to connect with the office of food and nutrition to talk about what are the actual items on the menu that you can sort of draw kids into we're really competing with McDonald's and Burger King and places like that but then my idea is well you know kids are visual why couldn't we have veggie burgers and veggie nuggets because they just look at it and they'll say oh wow we got nuggets but they're not really saying okay well what does this not get made out of you know so that they just know that we have nuggets so as a school my next step then is to really try to zoom in on how can we change some of the items that we have on the menu the items that we have in the menu I mean I love them as an as an adult you know we have black bean quesadillas we have zucchini we have bean tacos you know delicious but then I'm not a fourth grader you know that just spent the weekend at McDonald's with their parents but so I think our next step is to look at the items I'll also say I speak mostly from my own experience in our in our group in the base building work that we've done so far I have not found so many parents who are aware of and actively implementing a whole food plant-based diet with their children and the ones who I have found are struggling with it because gosh our society makes it so hard and so when I'm thinking about my experience with you know my kids who are all their age eight and younger I'm in the Jewish community and in the Jewish community there is definitely the omnivorous diet is is the default but there are plenty of vegetarians and I think most of the time I don't hear anybody talking about what kind of diet is the healthiest diet people just are sort of going with the mainstream recommendations on food I would but every parent says they want their kid to eat healthy but at some point they throw up their hands once they're past the toddler phase and the kids sort of are more in the driver's seat it's a lot harder to control what your children eat and unless you create the safe-haven in your home it's nearly impossible so I think one of the things that we would like to do if we can get through to parents is to be able to say look you are in control of what's in your home and if you can do this then your children can do this and we have to be partners to create healthy children because they're the ones who are going to suffer the most and who are already suffering the most as dr. Katz showed by sort of generational trauma that's been passed to us from decades of poor eating and to elaborate on something that's happening locally in the New York City healthy school food Alliance is a parent led organization it's kind of a grassroots movement right now that has teamed up with Burrell Hall as well as with other educators and they are having they're hosting a rally and March around healthy eating some time in June so definitely try and Google the NYC healthy school food Alliance definitely someone to have on your radar and to your point of how do we maybe switch out some of these products I was just alerted yesterday that there is a pilot project very exciting pilot project going on in a hospital system down in Florida but 11 chain hospitals who have switched out all of their meat products for the vegetarian alternative and they're doing a pilot right now they'll probably be some groundbreaking news in this world if if it is successful and if they sign that contract but it's exciting to see some of these alternatives really give birth and we have time for one last question so in the back hi I'm a culinary educator and I have a few I guess answers or comments for the high school someone asked about the parents being receptive when they're in high school for me I've noticed when you teach the high school students about food their parents are the ones that are then putting these items that you're showing them about on their their menus or going to the supermarket then becomes a family activity for someone else so a while ago you asked about provide in food deserts providing food although we have the food carts what I've done with the school that I work in I actually reached out to the farmers market I turned it into a day so in between the time that you would drop your child off or pick them up the farm stand would be available for you so a part of your day dropping off your child and that into dinner or lunch or a learning experience in they lack awareness and food education that's what we're here for so I these are just I guess comments or solutions so with that do you all have any closing comments I mean I know that I just want everyone to know that the work is always going to be hard you know until it becomes systemic within our environment within our communities that more or less like the table will flip where you'll see instead of McDonald's and Burger King you'll see the healthy places and not many burdensome internals left and then everyone everyone would it would be an automatic to just eat healthy so but it's a slow process to get there and so we just really have to look at the small inroads that we're making every day so in my school it's when kids come in and in on the morning announcement you know they're always saying what do we have for lunch like I have my little kindergarten saying you know and today's delicious lunch is you know roasted zucchini and or you know they'll say you know a wellness tip you know like make sure that you read the labels on the back of your foods to see what they have in it there's just little tiny things like that that you introduce to your kids every single day and it's consistent so like you were saying as they grow up or they go home and they talk to their parents they'll go you know into the refrigerators and they'll look at the label and they'll say hey mom what is this but that's because they learns it in school so it's not you know a huge thing but it's like the little things that kids pick up every day so I always like to end the events that I run by asking people what your next step is what are you going to do next with this information set a goal we are all each important players and we each have power in our own ways so if culture is the spoon as dr. cat said how are you gonna feed somebody and I welcome anyone who's interested to join our network and become a part of this movement locally so with the school that has the phrase healthy living in its name and with a nun a group who has plant powered in its name I salute you both thank you so much for joining us today thank you all for sticking around you're the stalwarts we appreciate it so we're going to conclude now a few minutes ahead of time but thank you for coming I think this was a really special and unique event very diverse crew came today from all walks of life that have a stake in plant-based health and nutrition and are really going to be the movers and shakers going forward I have to really deeply acknowledge Beth hell's in there again our conference chair she really put the proverbial I don't know 20 pounds of flesh into this conference I mean it really is for any of you of organized events like this you know just just getting all the parts together and getting everything approved by the borough president's office by downstate by the state by this it's a lot of fun but I think it was worth it for me the big theme today what came out of this I think is one where it is empowerment I think we can all be empowered and make change and like most challenges in life the solution awaits you at home in the bathroom when you look in the mirror you know where I think it was Einstein who said we cannot solve the main challenges in life at the same level we were at when we first created them you know so it's up to us to take control and be empowered and I think our speaker showed us you can make change I showed you my personal photos that I've never had up in a meeting before I mean we heard the viral president's story and a few people said to me was that photoshopped it was not photoshop leave me alone okay the borough president gave his story I think Leanna hinted at her story and there were so many stories success stories of people who do this and do it well and also get their patients and and their clients and others to to do it heck my son Daniel who I thought gave a very nice talk got me to go vegan got his two brothers to go vegan we're still working on my wife we're getting there but little by little and we all feel great you know I think we've spent about a year at downstate pushing this forward getting the committee going building our resources getting the website doing the conference and now the pump is primed I think to actually make a difference in the community and we're all fortunate to be at downstate where we work with people like the author Ashe Center the Center for community health and wellness there's centers for diversity and inclusion there's so many different groups that are out in the community doing things even student groups I are you still here Michelle Wong you you around somewhere no but downstate just formed a student group called D I and II what is that it's the downstate initiative for nutritional empowerment and I'm lucky enough to be their faculty advisor they've had a few meetings they're doing great these people are all doing great things so keep banging the drums and you know being empowered empowering others and we hope to see you at future events whether it's at the bp's office whether it's with plant power at new york or or black veg fest or any other thing we're honored and privileged that you came and thank you have a wonderful weekend and fill out your evaluation forms please so long all you

Channel: Downstate TV

Views: 108,441

Keywords: SUNY, SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Medicine, Health, Health Care, Health Care Providers, plant-based diet

Id: JPO1Exi0t0M

Length: 84min 26sec (5066 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 08 2019