S6. E1: Eloísa Trinidad and Power Malu: Overthrow Community Fridge
“We're creating a new system. When you look at it in that way, that's activism in itself. And that's actually fighting against a system that has billions of dollars, that has been spending billions of dollars, and not even asking people what they like to eat. They're not even considering the health.
“We're in the middle of a pandemic and who gets hit the hardest? Black and brown communities with underlying conditions. Those underlying conditions stem from what they're eating. I get to go into these people's apartments, look in their fridge and then look at their medicine cabinet and see all of these drugs that they're taking because of ailments that they got from food. Meanwhile, if they were to change up how they eat, we were able to reintroduce that in a public sense, because with the fridge it’s like we're telling people, listen you deserve to have access to this.”
-Power Malu
Power Malu and Eloísa Trinidad are the team behind Overthrow Community Fridge, New York City's first plant-based community fridge. It sits outside of Overthrow Boxing Club on Bleeker Street in Lower Manhattan.
A community fridge is a form of mutual aid to address food insecurity. They supply food to people who have limited access to fresh groceries, and since the pandemic began, people have even less access – especially to nutritious food.
In addition to being a longtime community organizer and activist, Power is also the Director of Community Affairs & Special Events at the Overthrow Boxing Club. Eloísais the executive director of Chillis on Wheels, a nonprofit that focus on making veganism accessible to communities in need. She’s also the executive director of the Vegan Activist Alliance, a New York organization that fights to end animal exploitation.
Power and Eloísa are a force. They make the world a better place. I hope that you are as inspired by them and all that they do as I am.
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Learn More About the Vegan Activist Alliance
Learn More About Chillis on Wheels
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Learn More About Overthrow Boxing Club
Transcript:
Power Malu: [00:00:15] We're creating a new system, when you look at it in that way, that's activism in itself, and that's actually fighting against a system that has billions of dollars, that has been spending billions of dollars and not even asking people what they like to eat. They're not even considering their health. We're in the middle of a pandemic and who gets hit the hardest, Black and brown communities where underlying conditions, those underlying conditions stem from what they're eating. So I get to go into these people's apartments, look in their fridge and then look at their medicine cabinet and see all of these drugs that they're taking because of ailments that they got from food. Meanwhile, food, if they were to change up how they eat, we were able to reintroduce that in a public sense, because what the fridge is like, we're telling people, Listen, you deserve to have access to this.
Elizabeth: [00:01:07] Hi, I'm Elizabeth Novogratz, this is Species Unite. We have a favor to ask if you like today's episode and you have a spare minute, could you please rate and review Species Unite on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts? It really helps people to find the show. This conversation is with Power Malu and Eloisa Trinidad. They are the team behind New York City's first plant based community fridge. A community fridge is a form of mutual aid to address food insecurity. They supply free food and household supplies to people who have limited access to fresh groceries. Since COVID 19, more and more people have less access, especially good food and healthy food, Power and Eloisa met only a few weeks before they opened the fridge, and so far it's been a huge success. The fridge is outside Overthrow boxing gym on the Lower East Side in Manhattan, which is where I went to talk to them. We’re here at Overthrow New York. Right outside the very front doors is the plant based community fridge that is all the rage in New York City, I looked and it's full. As I was standing outside, people were coming by. Yeah, it's awesome. Congratulations. Thank you. Let's start by going back and just getting a little history from each of you. I know there's a ton of history for both of you. Eloisa, why don't we start with you? You're a lifelong vegan, right?
Eloisa: [00:02:56] At this point, almost. I grew up pescatarian because my grandparents used to fish and so fish were my first in Ray and just love animals feeling very connected to the Earth. I grew up with Centennial Great Great Grandparents, so a lot of ancestral knowledge there. I didn't know what that meant, what that was. I just knew that I did not want to hurt another living being. That evolved into me, becoming an activist at a young age. For me, food is very personal. I grew up in the Dominican Republic with the centennial parents who were still very much holding on to their beliefs, right? So we grew most of our own food and even though we didn't have a lot, I grew up living off the land. We grow our own coffee and tobacco, everything. So my experience, you know, as a child and up until that time I was 11 years old, was abundance of plant based food and eating a highly plant based diet. So when I come here, I don't want to eat anything and I start seeing how in a place that is supposed to be so wealthy, so rich, people don't have that access, right? Why is that happening? So from the time I was just so young and we shared everything we grew. My great great grandmother, my mom, as I call her, you know, she was like my first example of what revolution is. You share, you do mutual aid, you grow food, accept people for who they are, right. I first dived into activism through more of an anti-state sort of political lens. After that came into animal rights activism, co-founder of Vegan Activist Alliance and our focus there is to end animal exploitation. We take a collective liberation approach. What that means is that we really look at how interconnected everything is, how there are different levels of oppression for all beings on the planet, and that there's no one in achieving animal liberation. Executive director at Chili's on Wheels in New York and what we do there is make veganism accessible to communities in need. We really have done work from, in Puerto Rico, from hurricane relief to the pandemic relief here that I started about a year ago. Our work is also very, very collective, liberation focused, even though we lead with the animals, environment and humans. So it all sort of comes together. So that's my work as far as that, but always through a human rights and animal rights lens, very anti-colonial, decolonial and understanding that if we're going to make change, we have to definitely look at the root cause of oppression.
Elizabeth: [00:05:46] Awesome and Power for you. You grew up in New York City, Lower East Side.
Power Malu: [00:05:52] Yeah, I'm a New York Rican, so my parents are from Puerto Rico. I was born here in the Lower East Side. My parents are from Santa Rosa Conwy. I actually have been an activist since I was eight years old, advocating for my mom when she would be on the phone and she can't speak proper English. So I would get the phone and I would try to figure out what's going on and what she's trying to convey. I would go with her to doctor's appointments or face to face, which is when you have like EBT cards, you have to go to these appointments and I would notice how people would make fun of her because she can't speak proper English. I would step in and I'll kind of advocate for her. So that was kind of like my first stint with being an activist or an advocate of some sort and wanting to step up for people. I started doing that for others when I would overhear if I saw a woman, or an older man and they needed some help and translation or something and I would see someone is kind of giving them a hard time and I would step in and I started doing that at a young age and then the lower from the Lower East Side. I also became like a natural mediator for a lot of beefs that were in the different communities because I would know someone from one project and then they would know me and I would be in a spot like in a park or something and two guys would come say, what's up to me? And they have beef, and by default, I would be able to squash the beef in that way. So it's kind of like just naturally for me. I did an internship with Al Sharpton. When I was a teen, I was kind of trying to figure out what this whole protesting and marching was all about, and, you know, I used to get him as macadamia nut cookies and milk. I used to answer phones. People used to call and try to see if he could represent them and different cases that were going on. So it just naturally started happening for me, and I always connected with all of that.
Elizabeth: [00:07:46] When you did that internship, did it change you? How did you walk out of that?
Power Malu: [00:07:49] Yeah, it became more of a thing where this is organized. This is what you need to do. Like, it's not just going into the streets and just like yelling. It's actually like there's some organization that happens here, like people come, they volunteer. There's a schedule that happens. I started learning all about that stuff. Then from there I was into music, so I started a public access show. I would interview people I would go into different clubs at a young age because I started promoting parties. I mean, my history is really deep because I delved into all of these different worlds and they just all somehow they meshed, you know, I was promoting parties. I was able to get into the clubs and I would ask the main promoter, Can I host the show? Can I introduce the bands? I became friendly with all these bands that were coming to New York City in the 90s trying to get known. Then I became this dude that was in everybody's music video, and it's just because I just became friends with everyone so that Questlove and Charles Stone the third, put me in a roots video. As a joke, one of the subtitles said, “How does this guy get in all the videos?'' So, that's my world. It was just like it all came together. Then I was one of the creators of Lyricist Lounge Show, which was a sketch comedy show, and it was like bringing hip hop into the homes of people that never really liked hip hop.
Power Malu: [00:09:06] But we were able to do that in a sense where we put some activist stuff in there. We put some cultural stuff in there and we got artists like Carmen and Erica Badu and more stuff and all these guys to be in the show. We would talk about political things in the show and we kind of sneaked it in with comedy and hip hop. I'm part of this huge running organization, Bridge Runners is the name of the crew, but it's a worldwide movement called Bridge the Gap and I’m one of the ambassadors of it. I travel around the world connecting with different groups and organizations that have started because of the Bridge Runners. It’s basically you are running out there socially teaching people about health, nutrition, showing them around the neighborhood, different areas that they probably wouldn't even check out. There's people that live in New York City that never cross the Brooklyn Bridge, and when they run with us, it's the first time that they actually cross the bridge. It's pretty ridiculous but at the same time, there's places that I don't frequent. That running allowed me to do that because you're in a car or you're on the train, you're just going to where you're going, and that's it. Everybody is like, Boom,
Elizabeth: [00:10:13] I have that too. I know so many weird little spots all over the city because I just run every day.
Power Malu: [00:10:18] Yeah, that has allowed me to travel around the world. About four years ago, I was in the former Yugoslavia. I was in. I went to Belgrade, Croatia, Zagreb, just connecting with different crews out there, and they were inspired by what we were doing out here. They actually put a plaque in a park and they call it Bridge the gap park and they plant the trees on each of the trees that they planted were different running crews from around the world that were inspired by this movement. So it's things like that that you don't realize the work that you're doing because we're always in it. Even being part of hip hop I'm very sensitive when things get hijacked because I know when it's pure and I know when people are doing it for love. But then I'm very sensitive when I start feeling like different brands are coming in to hijack and try to like, for example, take the word community.
Eloisa: [00:11:07] Then you just try to get that culture.
Power Malu: [00:11:11] So I’m always the person that they are afraid of seeing because I'm always going to say that and call it out. Because I don't like people getting used and unfortunately, our people get used and exploited when these brands come into play. So that's what happens. But just being part of the running community is beautiful because you break down a wall and the stereotypes that people are used to hearing and it keeps people separate but running is one common thing. From there, I started using that as a way to start protesting and start talking about things that people seldom speak about or they're afraid to talk about. So using that platform, this platform here, which is a boxing gym, but the history of it, it was an activist hub, 60 seventies, 80s, early 90s. Like these people that were here, the Youth International Party, all they did was like they were planning a protest. They would do theatrical protests. I was talking on the phone with a guy named Aaron the Pie Man about three days ago. He's a legend. He used to throw pies in the faces of politicians, and that was a theatrical way that he would protest and people were full of it like they would call him out. It was a publishing house. There was so much happening in this space. I'm just kind of like an extension of all of those things as far as feeding. He told me he was like, we used to do all of that stuff. We're the predecessors of food, not bombs, like it's like they, they've been doing this. So we're just kind of like feeding off of that energy and continuing it.
Elizabeth: [00:12:40] So when did the Plant-based Community Fridge here at Overthrow start?
Power Malu: [00:12:44] Yeah. The fridge was born on February 7th.
Eloisa: [00:12:48] It's a baby.
Power Malu: [00:12:49] Yeah, there's been people just like constantly wowed by the fact that it's a plant based fridge. Yes. So they're like, Oh, was like, you can put anything in there. The important thing is to educate them, right? Because they are 80 plus fridges out there. Yeah, plant based and we've got to make sure that that's what's put in the fridge, right? We want to gain the trust of the people.
Elizabeth: [00:13:10] And for people who are coming to the fridge. I would imagine a lot of them are not vegan.
Eloisa: [00:13:15] Mostly, they're not.
Power Malu: [00:13:17] Yeah, a lot of them are not.
Eloisa: [00:13:19] Yeah, we were intentional about putting all the different organizations on there because we really wanted to bring to light the issues regarding food justice and food sovereignty. If we want this world where oppression is decreased, whether for human or non-human animals, we have to talk about the exploitation for everybody that's caught up in this multi level oppressive system, how that helped was that now we were picked up by different media. So it just became a general conversation. So we've managed to just insert this conversation about plant based food and usually you might get pushback, but that hasn't been the case at all. I mean, people have felt just so inspired by it. We have people from all over the world saying, How did you do it? We want to do it. Vegans, non vegans, people who maybe never even thought about food justice before. So now they're looking at this as a model, we put it on the fridge where plant based means so no meat, no dairy, we spelled it out. We were intentional with the name all over it. So people know, you know, this is food that comes from the ground. This is food that is based on plants, right? And yeah, it has worked out.
Elizabeth: [00:14:31] For people who haven't really thought about it before, the whole bigger picture of food, justice and oppression and animals, the circle and cycle of it all. Well, you just talk about that a little bit and why these pushes are so important like this one.
Power Malu: [00:14:44] So I’ll just start and then Eloisa could elaborate. Just going to people's homes and then having conversations with them, first of all, we got to try to get them to open the door because they've been fed so much garbage that they rather go hungry because you've got to remember that all of these organizations were getting so much funding from the government. They wasted so much food they would throw the food in the lobbies or just leave it in people's door fronts if they didn't want to open. So when we're going to try to like, present a new kind of food that they may think that it's the same garbage that they're getting, you have to have these conversations with them. So we're knocking on the door, explaining to them, this is different. They finally get to open and you get an opportunity to show them like, Look, this is not what you're used to eating and this is not coming from the government. This is us actually raising funds, telling people, Listen, we need to go shopping for these people because they're hungry and they're not giving a choice as to what to eat. So we're reintroducing something like we're creating a new system. When you look at it in that way, that's activism in itself, and that's actually fighting against the system that has billions of dollars that has been spending billions of dollars and not even asking people what they like to eat. They're not even considering their health right. We're in the middle of a pandemic and who gets hit the hardest, black and brown communities where underlying conditions, those underlying conditions stem from what they're eating. So I get to go into these people's apartments, look in their fridge and then look at their medicine cabinets and see all of these drugs that they're taking because of ailments that they got from food. Meanwhile, food, if they were to change up how they eat, we're able to do that. So we were able to reintroduce that in a public sense because with the fridge is like, we're telling people, Listen, you deserve to have access to this, even if you don't have money, no matter what your socioeconomic status is, you deserve to have access to this. At the minimum, healthy plant based food should be accessible to all of us, all our people.
Elizabeth: [00:16:44] Well, and I think and I would imagine some people listening aren't even aware of how in so many communities, how limited access to healthy food is. It's not even an option for a lot of people.
Eloisa: [00:16:58] Moving here I realize that people don't have that access, right? A lot of times that access isn't because something is 10 miles away. It could be right in front of your face and you cannot afford it, right? So there's that food apartheid. Why is there food apartheid? When we go back and we start looking at their food costs and how food systems have been controlled by those in power historically through colonization, I mean, removing people from their land. When you remove people from their land, they don't have access to either water or food. How are they going to fight back? How are they going to survive? So it's a long history of oppression, not just in the U.S., but all over the world where colonization has happened. So we look at this system, who are the people that are living next to these factory farms. They're usually poor people of all backgrounds and usually tend to be people of the global majority. So black and indigenous people who are the slaughterhouse workers that are getting PTSD because they're performing these terrible jobs every day of killing another being and then who are the people who are picking your produce, who are having their rights violated? So they're just this multiple level of oppression, and it's a lot to talk about. So when we talk about food, justice and food sovereignty, I mean, you can drown yourself and all the issues in the food chain, right? So then we bring it back to the people who are eating the food, whose knowledge has also been interrupted because, you know, that is our background. In this part of the world we were eating a mostly highly plant based diet. So I look at it as there's interruption there in the culture, there's interruption in who we are. So we already have this knowledge and we've had this knowledge for very long and so it's just bringing that back.
Elizabeth: [00:18:43] What's been some of the reaction from the people, not only from the fridge, because that's so new, but from other communities that you've been, you know, with chilies and toward veganism and like, Hey, this wasn't, you know, I'm not vegan. Yeah, but it is like, it's someone's health and it's good.
Eloisa: [00:19:02] A lot of appreciation when I tell you, I think every time I went and delivered food during this pandemic, I went home and I cried because there were messages and messages. This is so amazing. Thank you. I'm not going to go to the food pantry anymore. People know when you put loving care into what you're giving them and people recognize what good food is, they see the colors, they see the packaging, they see it. We're not even providing food that seems so out of this world, right? It's fruits and vegetables and grains and beans. These are all plants. The fact that someone can be so happy about receiving fruit or orange juice or strawberries, it's heartbreaking. I was going to schools, I still am, during this pandemic to provide food relief as well and you see children happy just because they're getting fruit and they don't want to eat the school food that the city has provided during this pandemic. Completely, culturally irrelevant, terrible lack of quality. So it's always been, people want more of it, you know, because they know and they know that you care. I think there's this belief that people who perhaps are poor, who don't have access to certain things do not know what quality is. They do not know what good food is and that's just not true. They're just people just like all of us. Just because they don't fall within a certain socioeconomic bracket doesn't mean that they should not have the right to choose right, that they should just accept what's given to them, which is one of the biggest issues within food, justice, and work. Food, justice and work has come a long way, but historically that part of it did not include cultural relevance or even racial equity and why we're here. So it's still evolving, but that's kind of what we're trying to do is get rid of that stigma, get rid of the gatekeeping. Why does the city and the state have all these billions of dollars? But yet they don't include the communities in making those choices as far as the food that's going to be there and empower them, right? Say, you know what, you can be part of this too. Like, Yes, we're providing this for you, but you can do this to help, right? There's a level of empowerment.
Elizabeth: [00:21:11] And being part of the decision making process.
Eloisa: [00:21:12] Exactly.
Power Malu: [00:21:13] Yeah, it's all like the gatekeeper situation, right? It's pretty ridiculous that even when you're talking about fruits and vegetables, like I've been to warehouses to rescue food and it's so frustrating because they have access to all of this food and they wait so long to get rid of it. Then they call people to come pick up this food by the time you go pick it up it's not good anymore, right? So then they say, Oh, you gotta take this before you take this because this just came in today and I'm like, they're not going to be able to utilize this. Oh, don't eat it. Don't worry, you throw that in the fridge, they'll take it. That's the freakin mentality that we're dealing with and it's so frustrating that I had to bite my tongue because I knew that I needed to get this food to put it in the fridge. So, OK, I'm going to take this and I'm going to compost it. But the fact that you're literally saying beggars can't be choosers, that is so foul. But that is how people think. They're like, Oh, they're hungry, they're going to eat anything. Don't worry about it, just give it to them. That's what we're fighting against. We're making sure that whatever we put in the fridge and how we educate people is that they deserve to have healthy, plant based food that is not going to be expired, it's not going to be open if it's on your shelf and it's expired, it's open. Don't bring it to the fridge, don't bring it to our pantry because it's not good enough for you. That's what we're fighting.
Eloisa: [00:22:39] Yeah, and we involve the community. So whoever is here that comes to see us, they can be in shelter, they can be unhoused. We give them just sort of waste that they too can contribute because we think that that's really important. Work otherwise is not sustainable if we don't empower our communities. That's one of the reasons why we want to provide education and programming that is going to teach people how to eat plant-based, to learn about veganism from all aspects, the food justice aspect of the environment, and the animals because it has to stay within that community. What we've seen a lot of times is that people set up something, just drop it there, leave it there and disappear. So there isn't any community building and we want to get rid of that because that's not the model of what we work for. It's not sustainable.
Elizabeth: [00:23:28] It's not sustainable. No.
Power Malu: [00:23:30] And throughout all the protests since the end of May, one of the things that we have noticed is that community coming together. So there's people that actually come to the protest. They feed people, make sure that they have water, they exchange resources, and share information. Then there's been a pivot to do this community work and that's why you have a lot of the fridges that have popped up around the city and there's more people doing community work and doing education workshops and things of that nature, because that is very important. That's part of like us, growing and building together is including the community and trying to figure out what exactly do they need and how can we provide those resources because it really is up to us.
Eloisa: [00:24:09] New York City has one of the largest mutual aid networks in the world, and we're just really continuing to build upon that. Mutual aid has existed since humans have existed, and for marginalized communities, it has always been the way that we move forward.
Elizabeth: [00:24:25] Yeah, yeah. Since this fridge has started, I know it's not been very long. But are there more plant based fridges popping up?
Power Malu: [00:24:33] No, but there are people that ask us how it's done and we're just straight up with them. It's like it's a lot of work. So one of the the youth that are part of the protesting, yeah, they actually have started one in Queens Bridge that it's a vegetarian one. They wanted to do a vegan one. I advised them that they should start slow just because you have to really literally be there like every day watching, talking to people, sharing information. And it's not an easy thing. So we don't want to set anybody up for failure.
Eloisa: [00:25:10] They put on their fridge, vegan food and no meat, no fish. So just from being inspired by this initiative and yeah, like Power said, a lot of people have been contacting us as far as how to how do we start our own? I think so many people might have wanted to do this. But I think there's always this fear that there's going to be pushback, like, Oh, you're pushing an agenda and the vegan agenda and the plan based agenda, right? Yeah, I don't know the big broccoli. You know, like, is that what we're pushing and I understand that as a person of the global majority, I get it right because, you know, there's a lot of nuance and perhaps people don't have access to things or people are very attached to their culture. But when you build that bridge and when you really work with your community and people do see that you're caring for them and you're part of the same community, that conversation is very different. I've never gotten any pushback when I am trying to amplify the message that we need plant based food. We need a better food system, but that comes from understanding who's in front of you also and who you're speaking with. I think one thing to really keep in mind is when we're talking about liberation for any being, we have to look at things from a systems change point of view that yes, we need to raise awareness, we need to work with individuals and individual communities. But we're also fighting something so much bigger and global ideas all over the world, right? When we're talking about food justice and people not being healthy because they're being fed all these animals as food and not having access to the information that perhaps somebody who makes more money has access to. There's just so many layers, and so there's information there, but it's challenging to get it, especially if you're a person who doesn't make enough, who's working two to three jobs. Are you spending three hours a day on the internet googling nutrition probably not.
Elizabeth: [00:27:12] No and also even learning how to cook or what to do with it. If it's never been in your wheelhouse and you've been, you know, eating whatever's there and a lot of processed food and a lot of animals, vegan foods are intimidating unless you've been exposed to it and learn even really simple things. People are just a little bit afraid of it when they don't know. So it does take attention.
Power Malu: [00:27:36] That's the key word you said. Afraid, right? Fear always stops people from trying something different from breaking out of the norm.
Elizabeth: [00:27:43] How did veganism come to you? Like, how did you come to it? Was it activism or was it health?
Power Malu: [00:27:49] No, it was more like I started doing intermittent fasting, so I had to do it with me, combining my training with a different style of eating. I started paying attention to how a lot of these industries are making so much money off of pumping the lie that you have to eat so much and then not just so much of just anything, but specifically protein. You have to eat more regularly. I started playing around with this thing that I learned about called intermittent fasting, and I was like, Well, I enjoy fasting. Let me see if I can do it a little bit more regularly. From there, I started reintroducing foods into my system and I started paying attention. I was like, This doesn't feel right, like when I eat this, I get a little pain over here, things that I normally would ignore. And then little by little, I just started eliminating those foods. Then it just became like the final step with salmon. Then I was like, I wasn't craving this kind of food anymore. Then I was like, You know what? I don't crave this food anymore. I'm having so much energy. I'm so focused. I'm running marathons, I'm running ultramarathons, I'm doing crazy workouts. How is it that what they're telling you that you need in order to sustain is the opposite of what I'm doing? I was like, Obviously, it's because it's all about making money, right? So they're trying to pump all of this stuff. You gotta eat all of this stuff because you got to buy it all based on consumption. I started learning a little bit more and I was like, I don't even have to eat that much. I just have to eat nutritious food. I was like, I'm not even going to go back to eating this kind of food. Then little by little, through meditation, you know, I started doing a lot of meditating and just getting more in tune with myself, and then I started paying attention to the other aspect of it, which is about the animals and how I love all beings. So I started connecting more with that and just it just became naturally like for about four years.
Elizabeth: [00:29:49]. The whales just keep coming off.
Eloisa: [00:29:51] Right, right. So that's one of the reasons that we have literature on the fridge and so people come and get food, but there's also literature for them to take away and learn and research. So we always want to back things with a layer of education. We're living in a city, we’re in New York City, if we have the ability to make those choices and if we make that accessible to people, that will be better for them and like Power said, those layers start peeling off and you know, I like to think that most people are good people and they want justice and the same justice that they want apply to them. They want to apply it to all beings. The people that come to the fridge, there's never like any pushback because we're creating a safe space where you can tell us that you don't know. You can tell us that you're lost or that you think of this or an animal still as food, and we'll talk to you because we're engaging with you and really answering your questions because the only way to move forward is by having that dialogue.
Elizabeth: [00:30:55] Well, and it's positive.
Power Malu: [00:30:56] Yeah, we're not about shaming people like that's kind of contradictory or if that's what we were to do. Yeah, so we're welcoming like there's people that don't know about it and we just like, try to explain to them and share information. It's like the same way we're trying to remove the stigma that comes with being hungry and being in need of healthy food. We want to break that stigma of like, Oh, you just pushing the vegan lifestyle on people because that's not what we're doing. We're just telling them, this is what we're doing. We're making this type of food accessible to everyone, and then we're sharing information with them.
Eloisa: [00:31:32] Exactly. Planting seeds, right? Planting those seeds. We think that once we start having educational programming, that's going to be even more successful.
Elizabeth: [00:31:42] How's that going to work, the education?
Eloisa: [00:31:44] We already have chefs on board. We have people who work at sanctuaries that can speak to the youth. I mean, our goal is to like for the younger kids to really bring them to like a sanctuary and feed them this amazing food and have them be out in nature. These kids are here, they're in the city, you know, they don't get to experience that.
Elizabeth: [00:32:05] That is so cool. Yeah, that's really cool.
Eloisa: [00:32:08] When we launched the fridge the first day, like we had all the civil rights leaders that were also vegan on this play and the history of veganism within different communities. So it really provided a different opportunity for conversation and so we're talking about Ceasar Chavez. We're talking about Coretta Scott King and Angela Davis, whose picture is upstairs as we're walking up. All these amazing, amazing people who have been at the forefront of fighting for the Latinx community or the African-American community, while also understanding that this idea of justice can extend beyond humans. We always try to connect that we deliver that message in that way versus having something that seems so separate from people that is also part of the people.
Elizabeth: [00:33:01] Yeah, it's a much bigger thing than a meal. It's a whole life.
Power Malu: [00:33:05] We’re using the food to help people's lives.
Eloisa: [00:33:10] Food connects you, you know, I mean, we all have to eat. So when you have that in with people and you're talking about food, it's a different conversation. So we're sharing with one another, we're breaking bread, you know? So that's another thing with us. Even some of the people that help out here, we tell them, you know, grab stuff, take stuff home. There is no distinction between the haves and the have nots. We want to get rid of that. We're all here, we're all in it together. We are helping one another. You're my community. I'm your community.
Power Malu: [00:33:42] I mean, you got like chefs that go to the fridge like, literally take a break from the restaurants around here and they come. We got students that come, students that come here we allow them to work out and then they'll tell us they only get like 40 dollars a month for food.
Eloisa: [00:33:57] Yes, food insecure students.
Power Malu: [00:33:59] We connect them. They might have just gotten an apartment. And then of course, they're not going to have funds to buy healthy food, so we're able to provide that for them. It's awesome.
Eloisa: [00:34:08] A lot of delivery people so that people who are delivering your food are food insecure.
Elizabeth: [00:34:14] When I was just outside two different delivery guys came up on their bikes.
Eloisa: [00:34:18] That is very common.
Elizabeth: [00:34:20] And that's what they're doing riding around with food that must smell so good.
Eloisa: [00:34:24] Exactly and food that they cannot afford. And that's just one of the best examples of having something that's there, right? The food apartheid. But you can't afford it. I mean, these people are delivering food all day long and they come to the fridge so they can get food so they can take it to their families.
Elizabeth: [00:34:43] And they're riding around on their bikes and it's freezing cold.
Eloisa: [00:34:45] In the freezing cold. Yeah, and all types of weather absolutely.
Power Malu: [00:34:49] We’re using this tragedy or this pandemic to actually bring people together.
Elizabeth: [00:34:55] I mean, and you are, that's what this is.
Eloisa: [00:34:58] I think one of the things about the fridge is that it's done two things. So there's food justice where animals are included as food. Then there's the vegan movement who might not otherwise focus on food justice and it's sort of blurred this line where everybody has come together to say, Oh my gosh, this is amazing, I want to support it. So you have the people who usually would use animals as food, saying, No, I'm going to donate all this plant based food. Then the other people who are vegan, who perhaps do not think about collective liberation, say, I want to get involved in this too, like Power said, it’s bringing all these different groups together, which is so necessary for liberation. If we don't come together, we're not going to go very far.
Elizabeth: [00:35:42] Well, and there's been a giant gaping hole in the animal rights world in terms of seeing bigger than the animal rights world for years. Not all of it, but it's always kind of been there. So this is like the kind of merging and bigger picture and the reason I think a lot of it was there back in the day was because it was such a small world. So they needed that focus because no one else was doing it, right? But the beauty of this is that it really is broadening everybody.
Eloisa: [00:36:14] Absolutely.
Elizabeth: [00:36:15] In terms of growth, education and that sort of thing, how can people help our aunt in New York? Yay.
Power Malu: [00:36:22] Plant based fridge, plant based community fridge because it does cost a lot to keep that.
Eloisa: [00:36:31] So we do a few things and just to explain the cost, we rescue food. So there is that environmental component to it. But as Power said, there are times where perhaps the food that we're going to rescue is not going to last longer than a day. So we have different types of community members. We have people who are unsheltered and unhoused. They don't have access to a kitchen. So a lot of times that food cannot be rescued. We have to buy specific types of food for them: food bars, peanut butter, jelly, apples, fruits, things that they can eat right away. Then we have the shelter folks who may be in a shelter but have very limited access to kitchens. Then we have the other people who may have a home, but are food insecure and so they can cook everything else that we have. So we really have a few different community members with different needs. That's why we have to supplement through donations because we wouldn't be able to meet those needs.
Elizabeth: [00:37:28] Ok, so Venmo.
Eloisa: [00:37:31] Then any businesses that are out there that have raw ingredients, grains, you know, any type of cereals, oatmeal, things like that, fruits and vegetables, farms as well. Like, that's kind of what we're looking to do is work with these businesses that have excess and also that may want to donate some something that is prepackaged or being sort of things like that so businesses can contact us to collaborate and then the Venmo for everybody else.
Elizabeth: [00:38:02] That's awesome. Thank you both. Not only so much for tonight, but for doing not just the fridge, but all the like 18000 things the two of you do to change the world.
Eloisa: [00:38:14] That's the goal. We hope to, you know, when we feel empowered, we want it. We want to show that in hopes that other people feel empowered because I mean, I think and I think Power can agree that everyone can contribute to the revolution in whatever way.
Elizabeth: [00:38:39] To learn more about Overthrow, Community fridge about Power Malu and Eloisa, go to our website, Species' Unite.com. We will have links to everything. We're on Facebook and Instagram, @SpeciesUnite. If you have a spare minute and could do us a favor, please subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. It helps people to find the show. If you'd like to support the podcast, we would greatly appreciate it. You could do so by going to our website Species' Unite and clicking Donate. I'd like to thank everyone at Species Unite, including Gary Knudsen, Natalie Martin, Caitlin Pierce, Amy Jones, Paul Healey, Santana Poky and Anna Connor, who wrote and performed today's music. Thank you so much for listening. Have a wonderful day!
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