Episode 19: Jackie Culver — Dignity Over Charity

Transcript:

Welcome to Now Near in the Future. I’m Quinn Harrington.

Naila Mir (00:34.834)
And I’m Naila Mir. Today’s guest has spent her career on a simple belief that hunger is solvable. Not managed, not reduced, solved.

Jackie (00:40.522)
Okay.

Quinn Harrington (00:45.976)
She’s the vice president of she’s the vice president of philanthropy at Feeding Northeast Florida. That’s kind of a mouthful. The largest food bank in our region, serving 97,000 neighbors every day across twelve counties. She holds the CFRE designation, certified fundraising executive, which means she approaches philanthropy as a craft, not a campaign.

Naila Mir (01:12.732)
Jackie, welcome. And we’re excited to have you here on our podcast today. We’re going to I am glad and I like your smile. It makes me smile more. We are going to do proper introductions in a few minutes, but before we do that, we wanted to ask you something that some we usually don’t ask or people don’t usually ask. How do you show up to this work every day without being overwhelmed by the scale of it?

Jackie (01:13.601)
I’m excited to be here.

You

Jackie (01:43.05)
So this work is near and dear to my heart. I grew up in poverty. And so I have that lived experience. And I will admit sometimes it is overwhelming, but we approach what we do with just an open heart and knowing that the mission is at the forefront of everything.

we do. We just did a Teen Ambassador program and I was teaching them how you make decisions based on the mission of your organization. So everything down to whether or not we’re going to mail something or how we’re going to approach something is all done through the lens of our mission. We use food as a catalyst to improve lives and communities. So by always staying laser focused on the mission, that really helps.

Quinn Harrington (02:35.864)
Very good. so Jackie Culver, before we dive in deeper, we do this segment called Around the Room, which essentially talking about what’s on everyone’s mind that has nothing to do with a job title. So I’ll go first. I sit on Flagler’s School of Creative Arts and Letters. it’s a an advisory board and essentially what we do is we

Jackie (03:04.45)
.

Quinn Harrington (03:04.588)
raise money for various initiatives. Flagler College just finished their five year camp capital campaign, raising somewhere in the neighborhood of sixty five to seventy million dollars. So pretty substantial effort. our little group, we do about thirty five thousand a year that we we raise for scholarships and trips and stuff like that. Nothing to the scale of money that you have to raise, but

Jackie (03:30.91)
Okay.

Quinn Harrington (03:31.808)
at least understand a little bit of what you go through on a daily basis.

Naila Mir (03:36.85)
Okay, is it? Well, great timing for this conversation because I’m currently the chair of a UK charity and it’s all about fundraising for education for for kids in Pakistan and Southeast Asia and South Asia. But so I’m currently thinking about my fundraising strategies and campaigns and we were just talking about this before we started the call.

Quinn Harrington (03:37.134)
How about you, Nyla?

Naila Mir (04:04.911)
how difficult it is nowadays you know, to fundraise with all that’s happening around the world, and how do we get people’s attention. So I’m quite excited to see what we get out of these conversations and learn a bit more from you. And I’ve also worked with a lot of food banks in the UK. So there’s lots to talk about. What about you, Jackie?

Jackie (04:23.497)
I know I’m done. I’m dying to hear about all of that. I’m super excited to see what’s the same, what’s different. So I think first and foremost on my mind today was yesterday our CEO announced her retirement.

Naila Mir (04:27.748)
Okay.

Jackie (04:37.116)
at the end of the year. that’s kind of got a lot of excitement going on here at the food bank. Susan King, our CEO, has truly been a visionary leader who stood up this food bank when the region did not have one 12 years ago and has just seen us through so much growth. So that’s been top of mind here at the food bank lately.

Quinn Harrington (04:59.661)
So are you moving into that position as CEO? Yeah.

Jackie (05:02.299)
Oh no, no, no, no, no, no. So we joke, I’m actually retiring, we’re retiring together. We kind of joke, we’re sailing off into the sunset together at the end of this year. But Susan is a builder, I’m a sustainer and we work very well together. So whoever ends up in that role, know, food banking is extremely complex on so many levels. And I’m sure we’ll kind of get into that as we talk.

Naila Mir (05:04.149)
Jackie (05:32.269)
I’m the person you bring in to help you do your vision about the opposite of where you’re from. So I would be a terrible candidate for it.

Quinn Harrington (05:43.159)
Gotcha. anything going on outside of the food bank?

Jackie (05:48.025)
Yeah, I mean just family stuff. I have two boys that I love dearly, my sweet husband. My eldest son is a dentist in the US Army getting ready to ship out to serve the multinational forces in Egypt. That’s exciting. My youngest son is a former accountant who’s getting ready to launch his legal career. So just kind of empty nesters now.

Quinn Harrington (06:15.959)
Wow. Yeah, I have a thirteen year old and a twenty three year old, so I won’t be an empty nester for pr at least five years.

Naila Mir (06:25.18)
Hey

Jackie (06:25.306)
You get used to it really quickly. It’s kind of strange because you think you’re just, oh, this is so terrible. My babies are leaving me. And then, you you kind of get to do your own thing and don’t necessarily have to make dinner every night. And like, huh.

Naila Mir (06:37.958)
Yes.

Quinn Harrington (06:41.643)
I already have plans of what to do with the older one’s bedroom when they move out, so yeah.

Naila Mir (06:41.825)
Mm-hmm.

Jackie (06:46.783)
yeah, I transformed ours into what we call the Barbie Room. It’s where all my clothes are. I live in a 1950s ranch, so there’s no closet space at all. So I basically turned it into my get ready room. Love it. Love it.

Quinn Harrington (06:50.028)
Yeah.

Naila Mir (06:52.494)
I am nice.

Quinn Harrington (06:55.189)
Yeah, totally.

Nice.

Naila Mir (06:59.609)
I love it. I’ve always wanted one but l in in London the houses are pretty small. So I don’t have enough space right now and my kid is two years old. So I’ve still got how many years? Two lots of years for her to leave.

Quinn Harrington (07:02.109)
Excellent.

Quinn Harrington (07:14.593)
Yeah.

Jackie (07:14.625)
Many as many as 30.

Quinn Harrington (07:17.441)
Ha ha ha.

Naila Mir (07:19.373)
Knowing our family

Quinn Harrington (07:21.045)
Yes. Yes. Well, yeah, we we actually interviewed someone who helps parents of kids who never want to move out. So that’s a good good episode for you to watch, but you

Jackie (07:31.576)
I’m gonna go watch that. I remember the movie Failure to Launch.

Quinn Harrington (07:37.644)
Yeah, that’s it’s basically the the the concept. So absolutely. That was Kim Minch. So I forget which episode that is, but yeah, look up Kim Minch. She’s very dynamic person. Okay, so this is the perfect time to properly introduce our guest. Jackie Culver has spent her

Naila Mir (07:38.437)
Yes.

Jackie (07:41.056)
It’s a real job. It is a real job.

Naila Mir (07:42.961)
Mm.

Jackie (07:47.032)
I’m writing it down.

Naila Mir (07:47.291)
Yes.

Quinn Harrington (08:00.845)
Career helping out nonprofits grow and currently serves as vice president of philanthropy at Feeding Northeast Florida, the largest food bank serving 12 Northeast Florida counties. Feeding Northeast Florida rescues and redistributes high-quality food through more than 40 anti-hunger partner organizations, reaching more than 97,000 neighbors every single day. Jackie holds the CFRE designation, one of the most rigorous credentials in professional philanthropy. She’s a

Jackie (08:05.532)
.

Quinn Harrington (08:29.527)
Florida State University alum with training through the Jim Moran Institute for Global Entr Entrepreneurship. And she’s as embedded in Jacksonville civic life as anyone in this city. And Jackie is a I guess would be a neighbor. So what part of Jacksonville do you live in? Okay, so you’re literally just down the street from me. We are neighbors. Yeah, I’m over there by the Fishware Elementary School. Yep. Yep.

Jackie (08:46.191)
Ortega?

Jackie (08:51.955)
perfect. Absolutely. see, I’m over there all the time. So now you have to join our happy hour group, And we can zoom Nalien.

Naila Mir (08:58.715)
Mm-hmm.

Quinn Harrington (08:59.637)
Yep. that sounds great. I love that. I love that.

Naila Mir (09:03.077)
Yeah.

Quinn Harrington (09:06.731)
Yes, absolutely. Jackie, where can people find you and North feeding Northeast Florida on the internets and social and whatnot?

Naila Mir (09:07.033)
Yes.

Jackie (09:18.312)
Alright, so our website is feedingnefl.org and that’s kind of an important thing to know because that’s where you go if you want to find food in your area or if you want to volunteer. So we have easy access so that our neighbors when they’re in need, they can put in their address and find a food pantry that’s open in their area because we do serve 12 counties. So that website is really important.

Quinn Harrington (09:46.221)
How about social?

Jackie (09:47.893)
feeding Northeast Florida.

Quinn Harrington (09:49.729)
Yeah, just just Google it. And it do you have a personal link you want to share or?

Jackie (09:51.871)
Just put us in.

Naila Mir (09:52.465)
Yeah.

Jackie (09:56.021)
as far as just, my personal social media or, yeah, you can find me on LinkedIn, just Jackie Culver. I’m sure there’s a special link, but you know.

Quinn Harrington (09:58.935)
Like LinkedIn or yeah.

Quinn Harrington (10:05.204)
Okay, great.

Naila Mir (10:06.481)
Mm-hmm.

Quinn Harrington (10:10.463)
Wonderful.

Naila Mir (10:10.523)
And there’s one Jackie Cover. Unique. sh yes.

Jackie (10:12.104)
There’s only one. There’s only one.

Quinn Harrington (10:13.6)
That’s right. It’s the one and only. okay, Naila, I think you’re up for the now segment.

Naila Mir (10:22.351)
Yes, so the first part of the three that we have, Jackie. what we wanted to really understand is more about the food bank. usually people think food bank go there, shelves, volunteer, food stocked. But you’re you’re describing something that operates like an infrastructure, so it’s bigger than just a food bank. Help us understand what feeding Northeast Florida actually is.

Jackie (10:51.279)
I love this part because there’s a lot of confusion around food banks. So we are your feeding America affiliate food bank here in Jacksonville. every every city every square inch of the United States in Puerto Rico is covered by a feeding America food bank. So we are affiliate feeding America and feeding Florida. So we are the logistical trucking warehousing operation behind food.

Naila Mir (10:55.653)
Yes.

Jackie (11:20.723)
pantries. So you would not come to our warehouse to get food. It’s not a safe place to be forklifts, semi trucks, know, 110,000 square foot warehouse. So we distribute locally through food pantries. So this could be any way, anything from a city rescue mission, Sol’s Bokker, all the way down to a small church pantry. So we provide the food and it is distributed through what we refer to as our agency

So we have over 400 partners across the 12 areas. So if you are 12 counties away, you don’t have to drive to Jacksonville and come to the food bank to get food. We go where you are. So that’s kind of something that does confuse people about how we work. So we’re part of an entire hunger relief network.

Naila Mir (12:11.493)
Right. And that makes sense. So you’re distributing the food to your partner organizations. They are the ones who serve the community members who require the help. and that’s how you’re reach the 90,000 people a day. Okay. And when and when you talk about food rescue, what what is that? What does it mean? Who are we rescuing? What happens if you don’t get there in time or help?

Jackie (12:27.287)
Exactly.

Naila Mir (12:41.123)
are able to help someone.

Jackie (12:43.025)
So as far as food rescue, so the way that works if you go to your local grocery store, right? You’re going to buy chicken So we all check the date on the chicken and it’ll have a use or freeze by this date If it is not sold by that date the grocery store freezes it and it comes to us. We have relationships with every major retailer so that’s one way if

Naila Mir (12:51.057)
Mm.

Jackie (13:06.223)
something is seasonal. So let’s say your Rice Krispies have a Christmas tree on them, you know, the red and green ones for the holiday. Well, after Christmas, they’re not going to sell those. So then things like that would also come to us. If a package has been damaged, outside of a box is damaged, it can’t be sold, but the inside is still sealed. It’s still completely usable and fine. It’s just not something the grocery store is going to put on their shelves. So instead of that, just all going into the trash.

we go to the retailers and pick that up. We also work with farmers. So, Farmers Feeding Florida is a big program. And for whatever reason, a farmer can’t get their crops to market, whether it’s transportation or they don’t have a full enough order, et cetera, if the produce, because grocery stores will turn away produce that’s either too large or too small. So, we will get zucchini that are this big.

So we’re able to go in and rescue that food that would normally get plowed under. So to me, the thought of destroying food, throwing away food, plowing under crops, when we have a situation of people going without food is just criminal. It’s just the thought of it. So we do actually purchase some food. We could never get enough peanut butter, for example, donated to us. we do.

purchase foods in large quantities by the tractor trailer load. Another example for milk consumption here in Florida, the school system has the majority of the food of the milk, sorry, sorry. Okay, I’m gonna pause because I’m sorry, my phone is ringing on my computer and I can’t turn it off.

Quinn Harrington (14:45.686)
Just pause for a second.

Jackie (14:52.556)
This never happens.

Jackie (14:56.834)
Hopefully you’ll be able edit it. Let’s just let it finish ringing. Sorry. Sorry guys.

Naila Mir (15:01.263)
Yeah, that’s fine.

Quinn Harrington (15:01.942)
That’s okay.

Jackie (15:06.466)
There we go. All right. Sorry. So back to that totally.

Naila Mir (15:07.685)
They gave up.

Quinn Harrington (15:09.258)
All right, you wanna a ask the question again, Nila?

Jackie (15:14.19)
Do we want to start from the beginning? Yeah.

Naila Mir (15:14.501)
The question was the was the yeah, you want me to start again. It was about the food rescue. When you talk about food rescue, what does that mean? And where you’re you know, who are you rescuing, what are you rescuing from? That was the question. Yeah.

Jackie (15:26.669)
Okay, yeah, I’ll start over from the beginning. So, yes, so rescued food makes up the largest part of the food that we distribute. So when you go to the grocery store and you’re going to buy chicken and you look at the date on it and it says, sell or freeze by this date, once it reaches that date, it can no longer be sold by the grocery store. They will freeze it and then it comes to us to be distributed. Same thing with

So through the Farmers Feeding Florida program, crops that are unable to make it to market for any reason, whether it’s, you know, the vegetables are too large or too small, grocery stores are very specific about what they accept. Those come to us too, those crops. Another example is fluid milk. The majority of fluid milk is purchased by the school systems. They use it, you know, for school lunches. Well, in the summers,

the demand goes way down and producers were just pouring out that milk because they have to keep their cows producing. So that’s insanity. So now that fluid milk during the summer comes to us, which is really great because that’s during our summer hunger program. So then we’re able to get it out to the people that need it versus it just going down the drain. So we also purchase food.

Naila Mir (16:34.193)
Mm-hmm.

Jackie (16:49.035)
We cannot get enough peanut butter, for example, certain things that we may need, but we do it at a greatly reduced cost because we have such big buying power.

Naila Mir (17:00.567)
so that’s why it’s an infrastructure. So you’re not only servicing the four hundred partners, but you’ve got this whole supply chain that you’re managing with retailers and farmers. Does that also include community members? Do they also donate?

Jackie (17:10.121)
Yes.

Jackie (17:16.831)
Absolutely, they do. We do food drives all the time. Corporations love to do that. Churches will do it for us. So then those things come to us, and it can be a whole variety of things that we might get. And our volunteers will go through and check each package and make sure that it is not expired, that the list of ingredients is on it. We have very specific things that we’d look for. Then that food is all then sorted into its proper category for distribution.

Quinn Harrington (17:47.564)
I mean I’m pretty sure I got a jar of peanut butter in the pantry. I can just run it over to your house after this if you want.

Naila Mir (17:47.749)
And you talked about

Jackie (17:54.376)
Yeah, you can do that. Absolutely. And I’ll bring it in. I will definitely bring it in.

Naila Mir (17:59.622)
And you talked you also talked about summer, because when I was working with the food banks when I was at Unilever and one of our partners was the food bank and specifically in the seventh most deprived area of London, where we had like seventy percent South Asians that were reliant on welfare, s summer was o mostly important because of the children not getting the food that they used to get at school and therefore the the food bank get busy. Is it the same?

Jackie (18:22.269)
Mm-hmm.

Naila Mir (18:28.933)
With you.

Jackie (18:29.321)
It is. that’s, yeah, we called our summer hunger program and we really ramp up that we have a snack pack program that is it’s packages of easy to open, like, you know, like canned fruit, something that’s easy for for children to be able to manage juice, snacks, etc. And so, yeah, so we’re getting ready next week to pack 10,000 snack packs to put out into the community for the summer.

Naila Mir (18:58.255)
Yeah. And I was talking about this whole fundraising and yours is not just products that you also fundraise cash, right? So that you can buy the d yeah. And how with all that’s going on in the world and everywhere, so we’ve got, you know, human rights happening and we’ve got s wars happening that are impacting children. I focus on education at the moment. How do you get people to get emotional

Jackie (19:07.184)
Yes. Yes.

Naila Mir (19:26.651)
sympathy and then turn that into action and break that clutter of what all is going on.

Jackie (19:32.999)
So the easy answer is that everyone understands hunger, right? It is the most basic of needs. If you’re hungry, you can’t focus at school, you can’t focus at work. I mean, it is universally understood. And my role, so my role is I work directly with our donors.

And I help bridge the gap. you have a passion, like you have a passion for education, right? And are you able to physically go out and solve issues related to education? Do you have the time? Do you have the wherewithal? Do you have the capacity? No, one person doesn’t. But I’m able to take that person who cares very, very much about food insecurity

and allow them to use their resources in a way that they could never do on their own.

Naila Mir (20:32.571)
Yeah. It is it is still a problem ’cause when I was work again, back to my Unilever days and I was working with World Food Food Programme at that point and we at that point were talking about over three hundred million people who are facing hunger every day. And obviously children being the vulnerable group. So it was a lot. That is what people connect with. And we know even at work employees connect with social issues more than they would with environmental.

Especially when it comes to children. Yeah. I’ve lost my paper. Quinn. so yeah, yeah, go for it.

Jackie (21:03.787)
Yes. Yes.

Jackie (21:10.319)
Okay.

Quinn Harrington (21:13.023)
You want me to jump in here?

Okay, I’ll add a layer here. as I mentioned, I fundraise for flagler colleges, artists and designers and writers and thespians and and whatnot, which is obviously a very different mission, but how do you make someone feel the stakes of something they’re not personally living?

Jackie (21:40.28)
Well, we can certainly describe the issue to them. think people for us kind of see it every day if you’re walking on the streets anywhere. And we love to bring people in to the warehouse to see what we’re doing because I don’t think the average person understands the scale of the impact. It’s kind of

Quinn Harrington (21:43.103)
Mm-hmm.

Jackie (22:01.732)
when you come in here and you see the amount of food in our huge refrigerator, huge freezer that we turn over basically every 48 hours. We are not in the food storage business. We are in the food distribution business. And when people come in and see how much food is needed to bridge that gap, it’s mind blowing. It’s absolutely mind blowing. So in all fairness, it’s really easy to show

the need and then to show the impact.

Quinn Harrington (22:34.539)
Very good. I’ve I’ve noticed that doing the little bit of fundraising I have I’ve probably personally I don’t know, maybe raised about ten thousand dollars. first year I joined the board, you know, it was we raised over five grand, which was five times my goal. The next year it was twenty five hundred. The third year it was around fifteen hundred, not to quite two thousand. So there was a steady drop in

the response from people within my personal network. And how do you overcome that sort of thing like, well, I gave last year or I’ve been giving for the last three years and, you know, I’m tapped out or I’m I’m supporting a different cause now. How do you deal with that?

Jackie (23:22.764)
That’s okay. That’s completely fine. My purpose here is to connect you with what’s important to you. So that can change over time. People’s financial situations can change over time. might have been last year was a really great year for them. So they were able to do something really wonderful for the food bank and maybe something has happened, maybe an illness has happened. We’re all humans. Situations change.

Quinn Harrington (23:30.271)
Mm-hmm.

Quinn Harrington (23:46.389)
Mm-hmm.

Jackie (23:50.553)
I have no problem with that. always here to keep you connected with what we’re doing, whether you’re able to give a million dollars or a dollar or nothing at all, but you just care. Because there are other things too. We always talk about this as time, talent, treasure. Another joke, if you come to work at the food bank,

Quinn Harrington (24:03.402)
Yeah.

Jackie (24:11.713)
your entire family works for the food bank. So in the last week, we’ve had our storytellers father and brother have built a coffee bar for us. The CEO’s husband has been building planter beds for our demonstration garden. I mean, it’s hysterical. Our VP of strategic initiatives, her father is always here doing something to help. So there are a lot of ways that you can help advance the cause that aren’t necessarily a treasure gift either.

Quinn Harrington (24:13.959)
Ha ha ha.

Quinn Harrington (24:39.754)
Gotcha, that makes sense. Did you find your place, Nila?

Naila Mir (24:40.773)
Yeah. Before we move I did, and I’ve got before we move on to the near segment, I’ve got one more question. And that’s a bit about the the demographics of people coming to the food banks. Two questions probably. What dra what is causing people to come to food banks? What are their issues? How are they in a position where they need that help? And what kind of

Community members are you helping? What do they look like?

Jackie (25:12.521)
So the largest population that we serve is the ALICE population. So that’s an acronym, Asset Limited Income Constrained Employed. So the working poor. So the people who are living paycheck to paycheck, right? And then their car breaks down and it’s a $2,000 repair. So this starts, yeah, that’s the first domino that falls, right? You now have this big bill that you weren’t anticipating. You don’t have any savings and you don’t have a car now to get to work.

Naila Mir (25:43.462)
Yeah.

Jackie (25:43.495)
right, medical bills, dental bills. We were joking, we were with our team ambassadors, we were kind of explaining this concept to them and I missed my presentation to them because I had to have an emergency root canal, right? So those are things that happen. I could not walk around another day without that emergency root canal because I was in tremendous pain. So you have to kind of prioritize what you’re going to do.

So if I did not have a little safety net in my budget, something else would have had to go. And a lot of times that’s food, you know, it’s medicine. It’s people can’t get their medicine because they’re buying food. So that surprises people. know, people will sometimes be insensitive to the needs of others and say, why don’t they just get a job? Well, they have two jobs and five kids and their car just broke down.

you know, they just need a little bit of help. So, yeah.

Naila Mir (26:39.643)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I call I call it like

Quinn Harrington (26:41.864)
Yeah. You know, I had I have hang on a second, Nayla. I have a a friend of mine who exactly fits that that that profile working poor. single mom, hairstylist, works her ass off, but she has some pretty s severe you know, medical problems that limits her ab ability to work. You know, she’s diabetic.

and there are days where she just can’t physically get out of bed, you know, and every month is a struggle to make the car payment, to make the the you know, the rent payment. And it’s oftentimes, you know, pushing up to the very last due date, trying to make payment arrangements for electricity bills and things like that. And I don’t know, she’s has kind of had, you know.

She’s been successful in the past. So the idea of going to a food bank for her is just like, well, that’s not for me. Do you do you encounter people like that who are afraid to feel like, you know, it’s either their pride or guilt or whatever that don’t take advantage of the service that you offer?

Naila Mir (27:48.037)
Dignity thing.

Jackie (27:57.995)
Well, you know, we do serve a lot of people and we do it with dignity. So, you know, I was thinking as Nala was talking about demographics and, know, I can give you the overall that it is the Alice population, etc. But we don’t collect that information. You know, you don’t have to prove anything to us. And trust me, if you are willing to come out and wait in line to get food and Florida weather, you’re getting food.

Quinn Harrington (28:03.444)
Mm-hmm.

Quinn Harrington (28:15.978)
Mm-hmm.

Quinn Harrington (28:26.591)
Yeah.

Jackie (28:26.944)
Right, we’re not there. And so I think that it’s just not having an understanding of how the process and the system works. it’s, mean, it’s you guys should, well, not Nala, because she’s not here, but you should come out and volunteer at one of our mobile distributions. I mean, it will just fill your heart. You know, we do a lot of military distributions because we have military families who are, you know, one family member is deployed and the spouse is here with

Naila Mir (28:41.019)
Mm-hmm.

Jackie (28:56.782)
children and they can’t make ends meet. mean, how horrible is that? They’re out defending our country and you’re worried that their children are not going to have food at home. So everyone is treated with the greatest dignity and the joy of the people who are giving out the food. I mean, it’s just palpable. It’s a wonderful, wonderful experience and no one should ever feel uncomfortable and embarrassed. That’s what we’re here for. That’s the reason.

Quinn Harrington (29:03.881)
Right.

Naila Mir (29:04.763)
Yes.

Quinn Harrington (29:25.513)
Right.

Jackie (29:26.23)
We exist is to help be that safety net for people. And some people will visit the food bank once, you know, the food pantry once in their lifetime. Some will be here every week. You know, it just all depends on what your needs are. And that’s what we’re here for.

Quinn Harrington (29:42.666)
All right, Niela, you want to move on to the near section?

Naila Mir (29:46.252)
I do and the near section really is about mm how the food bank is becoming or evolving beyond just logistics. And I know your mission talks about culture preferred food and nutrition, nutrition education, significant additions to your distribution model. What drove that evolution and what does what is it what does that change look like in practice?

Jackie (30:14.018)
I’m so excited to talk about this. So lots of fun things happening at the food bank. So we really listen in community. We’re not here to tell people what they need. They’re here to tell us what they need. depending on what area of town you’re serving, there are going to be different demographics and different needs and different culturally appropriate foods.

So what we do is we try to have a supply of everything you can imagine. And our agency partners are able to pick and choose what they get. So it’s not just, today’s root of Vegas. Everybody gets root of Vegas. They actually go online and can see what we have and then kind of place their order, so to speak. There’s no charge, but they place their order and we pack it up for them. So we’re giving people

Quinn Harrington (30:58.227)
Mm-hmm.

Jackie (31:12.223)
something that they want, first of all. This is such a multifaceted answer. also, so something that’s been important to us, we’re getting ready to open a best practices pantry. So prior to COVID, most pantries were like grocery stores. So you could make an appointment and go in.

Naila Mir (31:18.491)
Mm-hmm.

Jackie (31:35.462)
someone with education and nutrition could help you go and like, this is a green food, this is a yellow food, this is a red food. You you want mostly green foods, some yellow foods, a little bit of red food so that you getting something that’s nutritionally balanced and something that you would eat. There’s no reason for me to give you a big bag of peanuts if you’re allergic to peanuts, right? That’s not a good use of the food, but it’s a much more dignified way of doing things and making sure the right food is getting to the right.

people. So don’t take the spinach if your family hates spinach, take the broccoli and let Suzy’s family have the spinach. So that was a wonderful model then COVID hit. So then we all saw the lines right on TV cars lined up and you would just put food in the back of people’s cars. Well, that’s much easier on the agencies to do it that way.

we have an aging volunteer population. You a lot of our churches, for example, who are running these programs at the pantry. So we’re really trying to make that shift back to being able to truly come in and select what you want. As far as like nutrition programming, we have a team of registered dietitians that they will go out. So let’s say we’re doing a mobile pantry. So this is stuff that we have chosen.

from what we have to distribute. And someone has donated, we give this, this is such a great example, this gorgeous, really lean kielbasa, right? Wonderful. And we had cabbage and all these wonderful things. Well, some people will look at kielbasa and say, I have no idea what I’m supposed to do with this. So our nutrition team will do recipes based on the product that is being distributed. And then jambalaya, yeah.

Quinn Harrington (33:25.075)
Jambalaya. That’s what you do with Kalbasa.

Naila Mir (33:29.147)
Yeah.

Jackie (33:30.128)
It’s good, it’s good. But they will actually go out and prepare meals, sample meals, that you can make with the food that you’re receiving. And then the people who are in line receiving the food can taste it, see what they like, and know what they can do with that food.

in a nutritious, healthy way.

Quinn Harrington (33:50.451)
Do you have like a recipe bank on the the website? No.

Naila Mir (33:50.747)
I think it’s good

Jackie (33:54.193)
I don’t think we do on the website, but we can certainly get you some recipes if you need one for some kielbasa and cabbage. But you know, that’s going to be evolving. part of that, you know, talking about the near future, we have completed our community kitchen and we’re going to be starting programs where it’ll be more like blue apron type meals. So we will actually pack the ingredients

Naila Mir (33:58.674)
Good idea.

No that room

Quinn Harrington (34:02.025)
Okay. Sounds good. Yeah.

Quinn Harrington (34:18.665)
Okay.

Jackie (34:24.188)
for different meals and distribute it that way because for the people that we are serving, time can really be a commodity. If you’re taking three buses home from your second job to your four kids and you’ve got a frozen chicken and a rutabaga, what are you gonna do with that? And we’re also seeing that generationally, people don’t know how to cook anymore the way they once did. Everything’s kind of that convenience factor.

Naila Mir (34:49.017)
Mm.

Jackie (34:54.172)
We are working to be able to get easy, healthy meals also. And I’ll touch on our teaching garden. We are getting ready to do a fall planting for our new community garden where people will be able to come in and learn to grow food themselves. And what does that look like? And be able to provide seedlings to schools and local urban gardens and communities. So we’re really excited about that.

Quinn Harrington (35:21.171)
You know the thing I like about the go ahead.

Naila Mir (35:21.315)
It just shows how every No, do you wanna go? Finish your thing.

Quinn Harrington (35:26.537)
Okay. the thing I like about the blue apron is twofold. One, it it makes it easy for, like you said, people who don’t know how to cook well. But when you think about portioning, if you were to give one someone like a whole head of broccoli, you know, it might go bad before they finish it. But if you give them, you know, the right portion for a family of four, it’s very precise. You know, you’re actually getting

Jackie (35:53.572)
Yes.

Quinn Harrington (35:58.078)
More value from the food.

Jackie (36:00.016)
Yes, yes, we’re really excited about this program. It’s also going to be great. We’re a disaster recovery partner with the state of Florida. So, you know, hurricanes, all of that. And the typical response is, you know, water and MREs, meals ready to eat, which is, what they drop on the troops in middle of a war. Not delicious. But that is the initial response. And now with the kitchen, we’ll be able to flash freeze meals.

Quinn Harrington (36:15.443)
Mm-hmm.

Quinn Harrington (36:21.299)
Mm-hmm.

Jackie (36:29.028)
that we can then take out in our disaster relief vehicle and with re-thermalizers and give people hot, healthy meals in a disaster. So, you you just lost your home. You’re sitting in a gym, a school somewhere, eating beefaroni out of a pouch. Not really an ideal situation. We’re excited about that too.

Quinn Harrington (36:41.213)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Quinn Harrington (36:48.657)
That’s great.

Naila Mir (36:52.795)
I was just thinking I was just saying that how everything is just linked. So like in the UK people wouldn’t know that we have over fifteen million people living in poverty. And that that basically means they have about five pounds a week to live on. So you can imagine if you don’t have a job, to get a job you need to spend two pound fifty just to get onto the train to a place, then let alone think about food.

And then comes the additional thing that all the food that gets to them is canned food, so not particularly healthy. So one minute you’re trying to solve hunger, but on the other side it’s unhealthy food, which could become a problem as well. So teaching the communities and also the fact that if you don’t have money to pay electricity, then your stove doesn’t work. There’s so many factors you have to think about when it comes to hunger and the community.

Jackie (37:42.019)
Right.

Jackie (37:47.661)
Absolutely. you know, it’s being poor is very expensive. And I don’t think that people necessarily put that together. So, you know, if if rent comes due the day before payday, and so you have to wait that extra day, then you have all these fees tacked on. So you were just making it anyway, right? You couldn’t even make it to the deadline. But you’re like, just 24 hours, give me 24 hours. Well, that’s another $500 on top of that.

Quinn Harrington (38:14.652)
Mm-hmm.

Naila Mir (38:15.409)
Yeah.

Jackie (38:16.364)
you know, and I can apply that to electricity, know, late fees on things, going out and getting payday loans where you pay horrific interest. It is extremely expensive to be poor. Yeah.

Naila Mir (38:26.075)
Vicious. Yeah, it’s vicious circle. It’s like a vicious circle. Which comes on to another point. So your website talks about advocacy efforts and and you talk about that the food bank isn’t the final answer. So like when I was working again with the food bank, they said our rule is that you should be coming to the food bank maximum three times. We should be helping you solve the actual root cause of your problem.

Jackie (38:36.001)
Mm-hmm.

Naila Mir (38:53.113)
Right. So whether it’s the government hasn’t paid you or you’ve got arrears or it’s job seeking. what what does that look like for for North East Florida’s work? I what does advocacy look like? Are you working on such areas as well, or is it just focusing on food?

Naila Mir (39:14.378)
we lost your voice.

Yeah, you’re back. Did you catch?

Jackie (39:20.042)
Yep, sorry, sorry. Okay, I’m back, sorry. We’re talking about advocacy. So yeah, I was actually just talking, Coleman Shepherd, who manages our advocacy work here. He told me to ask you, Nayla. he went to City Saint George for his master’s in food policy. Are you familiar with that?

Naila Mir (39:24.281)
Yeah. Advocacy.

Naila Mir (39:36.901)
Yeah.

Naila Mir (39:41.403)
City Saint George, no.

Jackie (39:43.441)
it’s it’s in London, so never mind.

Naila Mir (39:45.402)
Yes. No, no, but I will check because my partners I know, I know. But also the advocacy side, like the food bank did a lot of work. So she might even know about the colleges that she works with. Because they what they’re trying to do is get into the government and set set certain things about food banks and it’s not just about food bank. It’s a lot more advocacy work. So yeah, I will look it up.

Quinn Harrington (39:47.75)
London’s a really big city.

Jackie (39:50.026)
Yeah.

Jackie (39:59.03)
Yeah.

Jackie (40:07.796)
Right.

Naila Mir (40:13.487)
So what is what does your ad advocacy work involve? we’ve lost her again.

Naila Mir (40:25.049)
Is it just me?

Quinn Harrington (40:26.856)
She’s she’s frozen.

Naila Mir (40:38.533)
Just when we get into the exciting part. Yeah.

Quinn Harrington (40:38.61)
probably giving us like a great answer too that we can’t hear.

Naila Mir (41:02.545)
it’s gone.

okay what come. Sorry, my kid has to pass.

Naila Mir (41:16.741)
So we’re on a break like for two minutes.

Naila Mir (41:24.913)
She’s come back sweating from the park.

Naila Mir (41:33.445)
Gonna have to bribe her with ice cream.

Mm-hmm.

Quinn Harrington (41:37.8)
She’s gonna start liking these podcasts.

Naila Mir (41:40.399)
I swear I’m gonna start Isa Pod ’cause she can talk, you know, so she can talk. I better quickly check what the future is about in case I cover points on the future.

Quinn Harrington (41:43.814)
She can talk.

Quinn Harrington (41:53.49)
Yeah, you already started getting into across the pond a little bit. So we’re gonna have to make that one quick.

Naila Mir (41:56.993)
did I?

Naila Mir (42:06.184)
am I leading this one too?

Quinn Harrington (42:09.041)
I can lead it.

Naila Mir (42:10.533)
Yeah, I think so. It’s a bit more too much of me leading right now.

Quinn Harrington (42:16.178)
You’re like I said, you’re the the quasi expert here. I know. That’s why I was so excited to have her on, ’cause it’s like it’s not boring, you know, marketing and AI stuff.

Naila Mir (42:18.585)
I can go on forever about these topics, you know, like

Mm-hmm.

Naila Mir (42:27.683)
No. Yeah. And I I see, you know, there’s things that cross partnerships and things.

Jackie (42:36.195)
Okay.

Quinn Harrington (42:36.912)
Mm.

Jackie (42:41.692)
Get back in. Sorry. No, my phone actually overheated. I had to go put it in the refrigerator.

Naila Mir (42:41.775)
Hi.

Quinn Harrington (42:50.344)
wow.

Naila Mir (42:50.818)
no.

Jackie (42:51.643)
You guys are overheating my and I don’t know now what’s happening with my camera. See how Susan’s here.

Quinn Harrington (42:58.79)
Hey, Susan.

Naila Mir (43:00.667)
Hello.

Jackie (43:01.104)
All right.

Well I know someone help me. See look what my phone’s doing. Do you want to use my phone? Hi.

Quinn Harrington (43:05.628)
There you go.

Jackie (43:12.899)
Or how do you guys see me? ‘Cause I’m laying on my side.

Quinn Harrington (43:16.326)
I it’s Yeah.

Jackie (43:18.861)
Okay. This bad. All right. That is bizarre. Okay. All right. You’re gonna yeah. They’re gonna regret ever having me on this thing. it’s called near now, near in the future. Okay. Good luck girls. Yeah.

Naila Mir (43:19.215)
Yeah.

Quinn Harrington (43:22.962)
That’s good enough. We can always crop in.

Quinn Harrington (43:29.403)
No way.

Naila Mir (43:29.901)
No.

Quinn Harrington (43:36.904)
Thank you.

Naila Mir (43:37.231)
Thank you.

Jackie (43:39.33)
Okay, we were talking about advocacy. Yes.

Naila Mir (43:42.341)
Yeah. and we were talking about advocacies around, you know, not just about food banks itself, but th addressing the root causes of why people are coming to the food bank. And what does that look like?

Jackie (43:54.57)
Right. Well, you know, so for us, you know, we talk about sustainability, right, and and what we do. And and sustainability has three pillars, environmental, economic, and social. Okay. So environmental, think about hurricanes, droughts, all the things that could be happening, people concerned about greenhouse gases, you know, and and the environment around producing food.

Naila Mir (44:03.185)
Mm.

Naila Mir (44:23.835)
Mm.

Jackie (44:24.773)
And economic, you know, farmers have to make a living. You know, we have to have policies in place that allow our farmers to be able to make a living. and then social, how does everyone benefit when all these things, you know, come together? And we really pride ourselves in our advocacy that like I said earlier, we’re not here to tell people what to do or what they need, we’re here to listen to what they need. And

I I give an example here in Jacksonville, we had a shooting at a Dollar General store where someone came in and people were killed and that that store closed down temporarily. And that was the only place that people in that community had to get food. And you know, it’s not a and it’s not even like it’s a Publix, you know, or Wendix or something like that. It’s a a Dollar General.

Quinn Harrington (45:00.146)
Right.

Quinn Harrington (45:12.028)
Yeah, I created a food desert.

Jackie (45:19.847)
And so we were listening to our neighbors and you know stood up a food pantry immediately there, you know, basically in the parking lot for them, and had the police presence because there had been a shooting, police were there and trying to, you know, help the community and give out food. Well, this community didn’t really care for that. You know, they were not necessarily that friendly.

So people weren’t coming. So we know we talked to talked to the city, like this would be better if you just let us handle it and you know not make people fearful. Also, Dollar General was ready to come in and open the store when the community was still grieving, right? So, you know, we were able to kind of bridge that gap and make sure that people in that neighborhood, you know, advocating them on this.

Naila Mir (45:58.748)
Mm.

Jackie (46:16.288)
For them on the city level, on the corporate level with the store. And we continued to supply food to that community until they felt like it was okay and it was time. I mean, there’s so many things to take into consideration. It’s it’s very complex and not as easy as, you know, here’s a dozen eggs, right? so and you know, I don’t want to get certainly get political, but there’s been a lot of

Quinn Harrington (46:38.235)
Mm-hmm.

Jackie (46:46.152)
attention in our community related to SNAP benefits, et cetera. So, you know, we’re always trying to advocate for those people that we serve and really listen to them what what they think and what they feel that goes back to culturally appropriate meals. Right? so that’s something that’s just real important to us. And I’m not sure that I even answered your question, but I can get off on a tangent. Okay.

Quinn Harrington (47:04.167)
Mm-hmm.

Naila Mir (47:06.129)
Yeah.

Naila Mir (47:13.081)
No, you did. No, you did. And that takes me to the the differences between UK and the US as well. But Quinn, do you wanna lead the cross the pond? Because the questions and the thoughts I have are related to it.

Quinn Harrington (47:27.409)
Sure. so

I’ve done a little bit of work with Feeding America on like the national level through a company called Nielsen. They do, you know, T V ratings and stuff like that. And so I actually interviewed I think either the CEO or vice president of Feeding America National. And that was in the same video that I had interviewed Nila when she was in UK for Unilever and you were doing like

global food something or another. And then this yeah, this was all part of like the Nielsen cares thing. it’s a huge, huge organization. I don’t think it people really understand how big feeding America is. so do you have any influence on speaking to policymakers either here in in Florida or on a national level?

Naila Mir (48:05.125)
Yep, Global Food Day.

Quinn Harrington (48:32.391)
What kind of conversations are you having?

Jackie (48:34.663)
So I so personally I’m not the one who is doing that work. You know, it’s our CEO and our advocacy team. But yes, our CEO has testified before Congress relating to the farm bill. she was board chair for for feeding Florida. so advocating kind of on the state level also for us. And of course on the local level, a lot happens on the local level and can usually be a quicker response to when

Quinn Harrington (48:40.293)
Mm-hmm.

Quinn Harrington (48:58.801)
Mm-hmm.

Right.

Jackie (49:02.388)
when there is a need. So yes, we have someone that it is their entire job is advocacy.

Quinn Harrington (49:09.371)
Wow. Excellent. go ahead, Nila.

Naila Mir (49:11.631)
I was I was just think

Jackie (49:13.52)
And I will say I I will jump into like with Feeding America. you know, w it kind of goes feeding America, feeding Florida, feeding Northeast Florida. So there are nine Feeding America food banks in Florida, 200 across across the country and Puerto Rico. And we are greatly supported by Feeding America in that advocacy area. And also just like our retail partnerships, you know, we manage them on the local level, but all of that is kind of starts at the national level.

Quinn Harrington (49:33.115)
Mm-hmm.

Quinn Harrington (49:42.755)
Right. Gotcha.

Naila Mir (49:44.594)
Yeah. I I was just thinking about the difference in the food bank models because of how our our governments or welfare are set up, right? So for example in the UK we do have a lot of public sector help. We’ve got NHS, which is the medical, which is free. we’ve got universal credit which helps people who are not working so you get paid.

and those are the kind of things when the food bank when people come to them, specifically the the First Love Foundation that I’m talking about, because they’re a model food bank in the UK, when they people come to them they got they’ve got now workers or food bank members who particularly talk about these issues and trying to get them out of it so they no longer come to the food bank. That model I think is very different from a your model.

What differences or do you see between the two food banks and is there anything you want you think you could learn from other food banks?

Jackie (50:50.351)
Well, you know, not just a

Quinn Harrington (50:51.483)
Let’s pause for a second. I’m hearing a car alarm. And also also as a programming note, for Rachel, our editor, we’re in the around the room segment.

Naila Mir (50:55.141)
That’s my one now.

Naila Mir (51:04.273)
We’re in the round the room segment. Across

Quinn Harrington (51:08.143)
No, acr across the pond. Sorry, sorry, Rachel.

Naila Mir (51:09.371)
Cross the pond.

so where did we get around the room from? Okay, it’s gone.

Quinn Harrington (51:18.983)
All right, go ahead.

Jackie (51:21.539)
All right, so we were we were kind of talking about wraparound type services and and what that looks like. So for us, I mean we have so many partnerships, right? So if you are receiving food from we have the Solzbacher here, which is kind of a housing housing development that helps people who are experiencing homelessness, you know, you through our

partners, you get a lot of those wraparound services. We all work together. tell people because everyone’s different, everyone’s circumstance is different. We can’t possibly know everything that everyone is going through. But I mean, we really believe that food is the answer. Like it’s step one. You know, get full bellies. And then now we have the ability to think about the other things that are happening in our lives that are

Naila Mir (52:13.275)
Yes.

Jackie (52:21.143)
You know, driving where we are at this particular time.

Quinn Harrington (52:25.862)
Great. Shall we shall we move into the future? Great. Because we went a little long on some of those other segments. the future when hunger becomes history. So, Jackie, we’re at the part of the show I’ve been saving. We call it the future segment, and we ask guests to imagine forward. Not three to five years, but 15 to 20 years. Crystal ball time. So

Naila Mir (52:26.393)
Okay that yeah, partner organisations, that’s it. Yes, let’s do it.

Jackie (52:35.031)
Sorry.

Quinn Harrington (52:52.622)
In that time frame, what does a northeast Florida that has solved hunger actually look like? Not managed it, but as you say, solved it. Paint us that picture.

Jackie (53:03.287)
So I I will start with kind of a bleak statistic. we are at Feeding Northeast Florida, the fastest growing food bank in the Feeding in America network for two years. which, you know, when I first heard that, I was like, look at us, we’re number one. And yeah, we’re number one at hunger, you know, people needing our services.

Quinn Harrington (53:15.93)
Wow.

Quinn Harrington (53:25.626)
Mm-hmm.

Jackie (53:28.498)
So I don’t know that 15 years is going to be the end of hunger, but the way we’re working towards that is the stuff that we’ve already talked about, our community kitchen and people, you know, getting recipes and learning how to cook healthy food for themselves, our garden where we’re providing seedlings so people can grow their own food. working at, you know, the advocacy like we talked about earlier around this, the infrastructure.

Naila Mir (53:29.201)
Mm.

Jackie (53:58.56)
I would love to be closed for business today if if that were possible. But there is a lot to address. This is just one step in a bigger picture.

Quinn Harrington (54:15.706)
Gotcha. So

Quinn Harrington (54:22.002)
If you’ve made significant strides in solving our hunger crisis here in Northeast Florida, let’s just call it twenty years from now. What’s the untold story about why it happened? And who gets the credit that the history books will probably forget to give?

Jackie (54:42.783)
Well, that would be Miss Susan King and the work that she has done. I have been, you know, like I said, she announced her retirement, our CEO yesterday, and it hit the media yesterday afternoon, and it’s kind of a big deal around here. And just reading the stories of what she has done for this community, and we are in this beautiful facility that allows us to serve.

Quinn Harrington (54:45.912)
Okay.

Quinn Harrington (54:57.36)
Mm-hmm.

Jackie (55:10.32)
so many people. That was a huge fundraising effort to be able to do that. And she during COVID, you know, worked with Florida Blue and local restaurants. We employed their staff and were able to take we were getting donations like cruise ships would pull in and donate food. That was not the typical things you would expect. Or the big golf tournament, TPC that closed, you know

Quinn Harrington (55:29.915)
Mm-hmm.

Jackie (55:39.323)
sent over tractor trailer loads of barbacoa and marinating salmon and we’re like, what are we gonna do with this? So we were able to utilize Florida Blue’s commercial kitchen at no cost. we were able to hire these restaurants to prepare the food and we joke it was like chopped on steroids, where the chef would walk out and see what the truck brought him today and what he was going to make. And during that time we put six hundred and fifty thousand prepared meals out into the community.

Quinn Harrington (55:45.668)
Wow.

Quinn Harrington (55:59.579)
Mm-hmm.

Jackie (56:06.0)
mostly to low-income senior housing where you don’t have, you know, a real kitchen, there’s no longer congregate feeding. and all the restaurants that participated all reopened successfully because their staff stayed employed during the pandemic. So the kind of work and vision that she has done, our community kitchen, our garden, is is just been her vision. And she was one of the 10 people who stood up this food bank.

twelve years ago, we’re the youngest food bank in the Feeding America network.

Quinn Harrington (56:40.022)
yeah, Susan King should be in the history books for sure. so Nila, you want to take us to the rap?

Naila Mir (56:40.505)
It’s amazing.

Jackie (56:40.817)
So Susan King should be in the history box.

Naila Mir (56:48.239)
Yeah. Yes, I we do. Jackie, as we are wrapping, for someone who’s listening right now and who wants to do something today, not someday, what’s the one action they can take?

Jackie (57:02.693)
Well, you know what I’m gonna say? Make a donation. So I I say, you know, and if you have a choice, honestly, and I think people don’t realize this between donating food, like as a as a person, right? As just me, Jackie Culver, donating food or donating money for what you would spend buying a box of cereal, we can buy a whole bunch of boxes.

Quinn Harrington (57:06.233)
Yes.

Naila Mir (57:06.863)
Yeah.

Quinn Harrington (57:09.676)
Open your heart and open your wallet.

Jackie (57:31.983)
of cereal because of our buying power and our partnerships. So that doesn’t mean that don’t bring us your cereal because yes, we’re grateful for that too, obviously. but like if you really want, if you have ten dollars to spend, your ten dollars goes farther with us than it does at the grocery store for the end user.

Naila Mir (57:51.793)
Definitely.

Quinn Harrington (57:52.932)
Sure.

Jackie (57:54.17)
But we also we know utilize about sixteen thousand volunteers a year. So we always can use volunteers too and think about what that saves us and costs. So volunteers are super important to us.

Naila Mir (57:59.633)
Ted time.

Quinn Harrington (58:04.549)
Mm-hmm.

Quinn Harrington (58:08.557)
And so people can make donations at feeding NEFL dot org.

Jackie (58:11.942)
And you can sign up to volunteer there also. And find food there.

Quinn Harrington (58:16.025)
Wonderful. Well, Jackie, this is the kind of conversation we built this show to have. Real work, real mission, real people doing extraordinary things in our Northeast Florida community. And we are so grateful to have you on the program. I mentioned the feeding NEFL dot org website. You can find Jackie on LinkedIn. they’re all over social at

Naila Mir (58:19.067)
Quinn.

Quinn Harrington (58:43.535)
feeding northeast Florida. So you can just Google that or look up that on Instagram. And did you have anything else you wanted to say, Nila before we

Naila Mir (58:56.594)
no, I thought you were gonna ask Jackie if she had anything else to say before we wrap.

Quinn Harrington (58:59.161)
Jackie, do you have anything else you would like to share with our guests?

Jackie (59:01.172)
Well thank you. Thank you for your patience. They don’t get to see how the sausage is made and all the the kinks in my my programming. So thank you.

Quinn Harrington (59:07.993)
Ha ha ha ha.

Quinn Harrington (59:14.917)
No problem. Well, that wraps this episode of Now Near and the Future. Find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music. You can watch us on YouTube at Now Near Future, or you can visit us at nownearfuture.com.

Naila Mir (59:31.825)
And if this one stayed with you, share it with someone in your community who has the capacity to act or act yourself. That’s all it takes to start.

Quinn Harrington (59:42.167)
As always, stay curious and keep dreaming.

Naila Mir (59:45.647)
And we will see you in the future.