The real reason Americans go hungry is not food supply-it’s logistics | Myriam Michel | TEDxWaltham

[Music] so logistics is my jam and that's why i had a health and wellness organization at the center of food relief efforts here in waltham see i come from the event planning world where i have planned events all over the globe and the event planning industry is a logistics heavy industry where it's our job to take a client's vision from conception to completion and solve any complex issues that may arise during the process now you can say we're natural perfectionist and i use that word lightly now but i want you to get the mindset of the type of people who do this work we're natural people pleasers that like to fix broken things pre-pandemic healthy waltham the organization that i lead was a food and fitness awareness organization that taught nutrition education classes led a robust senior walking group and held monthly food relief programs we took pride in meeting the community where they're at especially in the health and wellness space and as a budding new director back in the fall of 2019 i had the perfect plan how i was going to move this organization forward then march 2020 happened and the world as we knew it came to an end so your city is home to a large population of working poor including recent immigrants as well as low-income seniors more than half of waltham school children qualify for free school meals needless to say our community was affected pretty badly as a result of the pandemic and meeting these needs became the center of our universe at healthy waltham ensuring that families had food on their table became our urgent focus we were the center of the emergency food response here in waltham where we were serving 400 families pre-covered we were now serving a thousand families a week people would wait for hours to receive all the food that we can possibly supply so in the summer of 2020 it was just a regular pantry day for us it was gorgeous the sun was shining we were back in masks it was hot and at this point we're about three months into this grueling yet satisfying work we've gotten into a good rhythm and flow well on that beautiful afternoon i happened to be working the pantry line that day and they tasked me with handing out onions and potatoes and i could see from the corner of my eye a young grad student and he was wearing black t-shirt black shorts together him and his roommate were struggling to fit all the food into their school backpack and i could see them packing and unpacking and packing and unpacking the hefty fruits and vegetables they just received like a game of tetris into their backpack and then i could see on their faces pondering and trying to figure out how they were going to take home over 50 pounds of food that we had provided that day so finally he walks over the pantry line and says quietly to me here i want to hand these back handing me the food i was like well why you don't like onions and potatoes and then he lowers his gaze sheepishly pointing to his bike and says i can't carry it all my heart sinks and so i rush over to the table and i said well please please let me help you you know where do you live i can drive this back to your home as soon as i get out of here and then i hand him my cell phone with my business card on it and in that moment i i step back and i realize all the logistics that are at play and you see here in waltham although we have eight bus lines they don't service the most vulnerable people in our community here we are the work that we're doing so gratifying and it's just putting a band-aid to a broken system that needs to be fixed from an operational standpoint this is the ultimate failure especially for someone like me it's still doing so much but not enough and the whole situation takes me back to a moment that i spent with my son see on any given sunday it's mommy and son time it's very sacred and we always play candyland and i love candyland it's linear it has a start it has an n i can play it mindlessly but on this specific sunday he says well mommy i want to play monopoly and i said well sure why not ho ho anyone just played monopoly understands this analogy we started the game that never ends and monopoly is complicated you have to be strategic about your moves and you have to go around in a circle and around and around for what seems like forever and so standing there watching that student right away on his bike i realized that this is not the linear candy land game i thought we were playing i had approached this process all wrong and just like monopoly in order to create true food access it's complicated and you have to be strategic and we're definitely in this for the long haul and you see in america food production is not the problem as a matter of fact we have the most efficient food production system in the world what we have is an infrastructure and transit problem here in waltham almost 30 percent of residents live more than a 10-minute walk from their nearest transit shop and the failure to connect people with accessible and reliable public transit prevents our most vulnerable neighbors from receiving resources and services that are pertinent to their survival and this puts them at a disadvantage for economic mobility to provide food to citizens without ensuring there's a way to receive it it's like serving soup without a spoon it's a real failure to understand the lived experiences and the needs of the people we are set out to help if we don't change the system and we don't connect transit with public assistance or food distribution are the services really accessible to them what i do know on any given pantry day whether it's rain or shine or hot or cold we have the following people waiting for over an hour on the front lawn waiting for a ride so they can carry all their groceries home many families packed in one car like a sardines mom's dragging a toddler's hand on one side while they're trying to struggle with their groceries on their other other hip trying to walk home and our least favorite the most dreaded task of all is going around that church property and picking up discarded food remnants of people who got discouraged because they couldn't carry all the food home all the food that they waited two hours in line for you see when the pandemic began in a certain way being the sequence oriented person that i am i thought we were playing candyland and the solutions to this issue was pretty clear i had to secure the food secure the location get the food distribute the food and voila happy people problem solved but we're playing monopoly in order for us to win we have to be strategic we have to be able to see the big picture and understand that transit and food are inseparable they really go hand in hand and you know you hear stories all the time in developing countries where one has to walk miles for resources like water but here we are here we are with citizens in our own backyard neighbors in our own city who has here's a grad student who is struggling with food insecurity someone who i believe and i anticipate is working towards a better better life for a meaningful life and instead of focusing on the studies he's worrying about food security or a mom who lives in a neighborhood that's 30 minutes away by foot with no real transport transit access and these are real life experiences these are real life experiences i just want you guys to understand that and these issues are not unique to waltham i'm sure they're happening in your city or cities across this country and as much as i love logistical challenges we need to change the system and break the cycle we need to recognize that transit and food production and food distribution are interlinked and we need to develop the solution right here in waltham and across the country that services that change and healthy waltham is thinking creatively and how to address this problem in our city so we have a public trolley it's affectionately called the tick tock trolley i don't know if any of you guys have ridden on it probably haven't because it stays empty half the time and it's a city-owned trolley paid by residents taxes and pre-coveted it would run up and down moody street which is our main street here and as i said before it would run empty and here is a real missed opportunity for us here how we're not thinking creatively about the resources we have can you imagine what that would look like if we can take the food to the community or better yet the community to the food and create independence waltham has the ability to do this i know we can now during the pandemic the city organized a fire truck to bring santa to children all over the city they navigated the difficult process of traffic control they worked with the waltham pd and they even created an app so you can track santa's progress throughout the town and it was a huge success my kids are pictured there they loved it they adored it but that's the type of ingenuity i am saying that we could implement here to create a shuttle service that can service the ones who need it the most now this is just one of the many examples of how we can think creatively to create impactful change at a local level we have all types of untapped resources here to create the city and the community that we want a healthy community can you imagine what that could look like healthy waltham wants to make it easier for that student and that mom to have resources and that are accessible to them in this city but it takes active participation it really takes active participation for this to take effect now i'm the beginning of my own journey and i'm thinking how can i affect change how can i see resources in a different way that can profound to have profound impact with lasting changes and now you may be asking yourself well how can i help how can one become a logistical wizard that can solve complex problems such as these well here's my official invite to you you can pay attention pay attention to the gaps in your system look for hidden problems in your community whether they're food related transportation related or not participate talk to your city counselors or state reps find out who in your community and figure out who that can be that can help us create intra-transit in this community can you imagine what that could look like if you could go to the doctor's appointment go to the grocery store visit that free museum at brandeis or even pick up csa shares at the waltham fields farm i see my farmers up in there what are we waiting for because guess what lexington has had a shuttle service called the lex press running for over 40 years let's not assume that people have identified solutions to problems that are here and they have ways to solve it and finally if you're wondering how you can support this trolley idea in waltham follow our transportation journey we're all ears and this is your official invite to meet us at the table thank you you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 1,283

Keywords: English, Food, Global Issues, Initiative, Local issues, Nutrition, Poverty, TEDxTalks, Transportation

Id: _SAq2u3Ijc4

Length: 13min 1sec (781 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 12 2021