1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,303
(♫)

2
00:00:08,341 --> 00:00:09,409
(♫)

3
00:00:09,409 --> 00:00:10,777
One thing I noticed
 when I moved here

4
00:00:10,777 --> 00:00:13,780
is that Seattle is 
completely different from Chicago

5
00:00:14,047 --> 00:00:18,151
and so, and it's more diverse.

6
00:00:19,819 --> 00:00:23,189
In Seattle,
 we have like so much diversity

7
00:00:23,223 --> 00:00:25,692
people, all different backgrounds 

8
00:00:25,692 --> 00:00:28,661
where food is really important
 to all these different cultures.

9
00:00:28,661 --> 00:00:31,998
I have 26 countries represented in my school

10
00:00:31,998 --> 00:00:33,266
at Denny International. 

11
00:00:33,266 --> 00:00:34,968
Chief Sealth also.

12
00:00:34,968 --> 00:00:39,506
Not all of these kids are going
 to go for hamburgers, fries and pizzas.

13
00:00:39,806 --> 00:00:41,274
They want other things.

14
00:00:41,274 --> 00:00:43,743
I immediately
 started to reach out

15
00:00:43,743 --> 00:00:47,347
to different community
 groups, student organizations,

16
00:00:47,347 --> 00:00:50,417
parent groups just so I could get
 a better understanding of the city.

17
00:00:50,417 --> 00:00:53,520
Like the type of spices, type of dishes.

18
00:00:54,054 --> 00:00:57,724
You know, what type of food do you know
 your kids eat when they're home?

19
00:00:57,724 --> 00:00:59,692
You know, what would they like
 to see in the lunchroom? 

20
00:00:59,692 --> 00:01:03,096
From there I just started a game plan,
 how can we start

21
00:01:03,363 --> 00:01:06,599
incorporating the different type
 of cultures in the food?

22
00:01:06,599 --> 00:01:10,437
So a kid,
 no matter what their background is,

23
00:01:10,437 --> 00:01:12,839
when they come into that cafeteria,
 they feel like they're at home.

24
00:01:13,073 --> 00:01:14,674
When I came in, we actually cooked. 

25
00:01:14,674 --> 00:01:16,910
We cooked everything by scratch, 

26
00:01:16,910 --> 00:01:21,214
and then we changed over to
 where more things started to come to us.

27
00:01:21,247 --> 00:01:22,649
We just would heat it up. 

28
00:01:22,649 --> 00:01:25,652
One of the very first things
 I did was improve quality.

29
00:01:25,785 --> 00:01:29,422
You know, try to get away from processed
 foods, bringing more fresh fruits,

30
00:01:29,422 --> 00:01:30,623
more fresh vegetables. 

31
00:01:30,623 --> 00:01:32,158
But then I brought in a district chef,

32
00:01:32,158 --> 00:01:33,393
So I really

33
00:01:33,993 --> 00:01:37,230
was very on board with the mission of

34
00:01:38,298 --> 00:01:40,233
presenting more culturally relevant food. 

35
00:01:40,233 --> 00:01:42,836
And I feel like that's
 how people learn different cultures

36
00:01:42,836 --> 00:01:45,505
through food the best,
 especially young children.

37
00:01:45,538 --> 00:01:46,606
I am an immigrant. 

38
00:01:46,606 --> 00:01:47,607
I came from Brazil 

39
00:01:47,607 --> 00:01:52,579
and so I started here at first grade
 and I just remember the corn dogs.

40
00:01:52,579 --> 00:01:55,515
I'm like, What is this thing on a stick? 

41
00:01:55,515 --> 00:01:57,617
Nachos and just the cheese sauce.

42
00:01:57,617 --> 00:02:00,954
It just didn't feel to me like a meal,

43
00:02:00,987 --> 00:02:05,425
like a comforting meal that I was used to,
 like a home cooked meal.

44
00:02:05,692 --> 00:02:09,429
I think that whenever we do, do items
 that are made from scratch,

45
00:02:10,163 --> 00:02:13,433
we really see like the benefits of that.

46
00:02:13,466 --> 00:02:15,802
Our kitchen is pretty big.

47
00:02:15,802 --> 00:02:18,304
It has a lot of like industrial equipment.
 So it's here.

48
00:02:18,304 --> 00:02:19,739
So it's, let's put it to use.

49
00:02:19,739 --> 00:02:22,842
Like we did a Somali chicken stew.

50
00:02:22,842 --> 00:02:25,044
We served salmon chowder. 

51
00:02:25,044 --> 00:02:27,413
And that was like smoked salmon
 from Lummi Island.

52
00:02:27,814 --> 00:02:28,481
Delicious. 

53
00:02:28,481 --> 00:02:29,182
That was a big hit.

54
00:02:29,182 --> 00:02:32,986
The salmon chowder, the wonton soup.

55
00:02:33,186 --> 00:02:34,587
I really want to do more of those

56
00:02:34,587 --> 00:02:37,624
because I think the kids will really 
go for that.

57
00:02:37,624 --> 00:02:39,225
We work with students.

58
00:02:39,225 --> 00:02:41,261
We had a student from Haiti. 

59
00:02:42,128 --> 00:02:45,031
Hi, I'm Emme Collins, District Chef
 at Seattle Public School.

60
00:02:45,031 --> 00:02:49,402
And I'm here with Angel Doss, Seattle
 Skill Center, culinary student

61
00:02:49,569 --> 00:02:50,537
at Rainier Beach. 

62
00:02:50,537 --> 00:02:53,606
And she's going to be teaching us
 how to make her family's recipe

63
00:02:53,606 --> 00:02:56,943
for Haitian chicken stew,
 which I'm then going to take.

64
00:02:56,943 --> 00:02:58,912
And we're going to be serving it up
to the students

65
00:02:58,912 --> 00:03:00,813
at all the Seattle schools.

66
00:03:01,080 --> 00:03:03,950
I think a lot of people underestimate kids
 and their palates.

67
00:03:04,584 --> 00:03:07,053
And at first, like,
 some people were like, oh,

68
00:03:07,687 --> 00:03:10,823
what kid is going to eat
 lentil stew, you know?

69
00:03:10,823 --> 00:03:12,759
And it was like, let's try it out. 

70
00:03:12,759 --> 00:03:15,395
I'm always like,
 let's try it out, see how it does.

71
00:03:15,795 --> 00:03:19,432
And we did it and it was like
 probably the most popular thing

72
00:03:19,432 --> 00:03:22,535
that we put
 on the menu last year was a lentil stew.

73
00:03:24,637 --> 00:03:25,738
That's really good.

74
00:03:25,738 --> 00:03:26,973
Thank you.

75
00:03:29,475 --> 00:03:30,376
It was March 12th,

76
00:03:30,376 --> 00:03:31,978
my 60th birthday,

77
00:03:31,978 --> 00:03:34,447
and I was done with work.

78
00:03:34,581 --> 00:03:36,849
What we thought was three weeks. 

79
00:03:36,849 --> 00:03:40,587
We came back on that,
 I believe it was the 16th that Monday,

80
00:03:40,787 --> 00:03:42,522
and we were open for business

81
00:03:42,522 --> 00:03:44,791
because we had to make sure 
the kids got fed.

82
00:03:45,358 --> 00:03:48,461
When the pandemic started, you know,
 we knew that families

83
00:03:48,528 --> 00:03:51,764
who was already in need,
 you know, they need even more support.

84
00:03:52,232 --> 00:03:53,800
And then we're going to get a bubble
 of families

85
00:03:53,800 --> 00:03:56,069
 who haven't struggled before,

86
00:03:56,069 --> 00:03:57,403
that's going to start struggling. 

87
00:03:57,403 --> 00:04:01,941
So how can we maintain
 what we already started

88
00:04:02,108 --> 00:04:04,410
and create a welcoming environment

89
00:04:04,410 --> 00:04:05,979
so people don't feel embarrassed 
or ashamed

90
00:04:05,979 --> 00:04:07,981
to come and pick up a meal?

91
00:04:07,981 --> 00:04:10,817
When this first started, we weren't
 doing hot food because it's like,

92
00:04:11,217 --> 00:04:12,318
how do you serve hot food? 

93
00:04:12,318 --> 00:04:14,420
Everybody, like,
 I feel like all the school districts

94
00:04:14,420 --> 00:04:17,123
around the nation was, you know, doing
 prepackaged stuff,

95
00:04:17,123 --> 00:04:20,593
doing box, like just boxing things up
 for people to take for the week.

96
00:04:20,893 --> 00:04:22,662
And that's
 kind of like what we started as well. 

97
00:04:22,662 --> 00:04:24,397
It's just like sandwiches 
and cold meals and stuff.

98
00:04:24,964 --> 00:04:26,699
(Sound of palates being moved)

99
00:04:26,899 --> 00:04:29,502
So right now
 we have 40 meal sites.

100
00:04:30,336 --> 00:04:31,638
We have direct home
 delivery.

101
00:04:32,805 --> 00:04:33,740
These two schools

102
00:04:33,740 --> 00:04:38,845
are one of the largest food
 distribution sites in Washington state.

103
00:04:38,845 --> 00:04:43,549
Amazon is delivering to over 3000 families
 daily.

104
00:04:43,583 --> 00:04:45,218
They make the boxes really fun. 

105
00:04:45,218 --> 00:04:48,388
There's good meals in there.
 There's fun things.

106
00:04:48,388 --> 00:04:50,056
They got cereal, they got milk. 

107
00:04:50,056 --> 00:04:51,958
They got fresh fruit, vegetables. 

108
00:04:51,958 --> 00:04:55,528
I think we started out with about 375.

109
00:04:55,561 --> 00:04:58,598
Now we're up to 615 to 637.

110
00:04:59,299 --> 00:05:01,701
We average around 30,000 meals a day. 

111
00:05:01,701 --> 00:05:04,671
We're also delivering to housing units

112
00:05:04,671 --> 00:05:07,373
and shelters
 directly from our central kitchen.

113
00:05:08,207 --> 00:05:11,477
Fare Start donated meals, extra supper
 meals.

114
00:05:11,477 --> 00:05:14,714
City of Seattle have set up meal sites

115
00:05:14,714 --> 00:05:18,084
at different housing units
 so we can distribute meals to them.

116
00:05:18,518 --> 00:05:20,153
No matter where you live, 

117
00:05:20,153 --> 00:05:23,656
there should be a meal in close proximity
 for you to be able to pick up.

118
00:05:24,023 --> 00:05:25,758
I've seen many times,
 like families coming in 

119
00:05:25,758 --> 00:05:29,529
and parents coming in like in tears,
 like just very thankful

120
00:05:29,829 --> 00:05:32,532
that we're able to provide food
 for their family

121
00:05:32,532 --> 00:05:35,168
because they either lost their jobs,
 they're desperate.

122
00:05:35,168 --> 00:05:36,035
They don't know what to do. 

123
00:05:36,035 --> 00:05:38,004
At least
 they can come to one of these 40 sites 

124
00:05:38,004 --> 00:05:39,706
and make sure that 
their children are fed.

125
00:05:39,706 --> 00:05:41,641
Thank you have a great day.

126
00:05:41,641 --> 00:05:42,575
Thank you, you too.

127
00:05:43,309 --> 00:05:46,913
We've done a really good job 
during the school year on

128
00:05:47,513 --> 00:05:50,183
making sure we represent
 different cultures through our food.

129
00:05:50,883 --> 00:05:53,753
And, you know,
 we took a step back for a couple of weeks

130
00:05:53,753 --> 00:05:56,656
and then came up with a game plan
 on how we can continue to do that.

131
00:05:57,323 --> 00:06:00,493
Like, let's get back to like our goals
 and what we wanted to do

132
00:06:00,493 --> 00:06:03,896
and we still can do it
 even through this situation that we're in.

133
00:06:03,896 --> 00:06:06,199
And we've proven that we were able to do
 that.

134
00:06:06,232 --> 00:06:07,400
You know, serving. 

135
00:06:07,400 --> 00:06:10,136
Yeah, we have like sandwiches
 and salads as options, but

136
00:06:10,136 --> 00:06:14,073
we're also still cooking from scratch,
 making culturally relevant food.

137
00:06:14,674 --> 00:06:16,275
I try every month. 

138
00:06:16,275 --> 00:06:18,344
We've done like a special. 

139
00:06:18,344 --> 00:06:20,780
We did gumbo last month.
 We're about to do.

140
00:06:20,813 --> 00:06:23,783
One of our supervisors
 is of Eritrean background

141
00:06:23,783 --> 00:06:26,919
and there's a lot of like Ethiopian
 Eritrean families in our community.

142
00:06:27,186 --> 00:06:28,221
So I'm working with her 

143
00:06:28,221 --> 00:06:31,090
and members of the community
 to make their typical food injera

144
00:06:31,557 --> 00:06:33,993
with like a stew,
 like a lentil stew that they do.

145
00:06:34,360 --> 00:06:36,562
So I think that they're going
 to make good food

146
00:06:36,562 --> 00:06:38,831
that the kids can come in and grab, 

147
00:06:38,831 --> 00:06:41,200
and they're going to
 they're actually going to be eating

148
00:06:41,200 --> 00:06:44,604
instead of just taking the fries out,
 throwing the rest in the garbage.

149
00:06:44,837 --> 00:06:47,740
We're just going to continue to grow
 and continue to be creative.

150
00:06:48,007 --> 00:06:51,511
I can't wait to get back in service
 so they can really show us

151
00:06:51,511 --> 00:06:52,645
what they're going to do. 

152
00:06:52,645 --> 00:06:54,914
That's what's going to be good.