And good morning. I have a couple of ladies in here this morning. My guest, Sherry Tussler,
who is the CEO of Meredith for the Hunger Task Force and Gabby Hood from the Racine
Police Department. And while you're enjoying that big breakfast this morning, you've got
eggs, you've got sausage, you've got English muffler toast, you've got a big glass of
orange juice, a nice little hot cup of coffee this morning. And there are people starving.
There are people who don't have food for breakfast this morning. And if they do, maybe
it's not as abundant as yours. And that's where our guests come in this morning. And
Sherry, we're talking about this being the summer. And there's no school that give free
lunch programs. So what do people do when they get hungry?
And parents don't have enough money to make ends meet. And so kids go hungry. Breakfast and
lunch is served at the schools. There will only be four schools that are offering summer
school throughout Racine City of this summer. And so what we're going to do is establish a breakfast
and lunch, excuse me, a lunch and supper program for children at one of the community oriented
police houses. So they can get breakfast and lunch there. No, or just lunch. They're going to
get lunch and supper. Oh, that's good. Yeah, because that's really when kids are awake.
I hate to bring this out, but I saw a movie once supper is served at 10 o'clock dinner is served
at six o'clock to that. I saw this elegant couple going out. We're going to go out for supper
tonight. Yeah, I said supper. It's like 10 o'clock. What are they doing? I didn't realize
supper served late dinner is served at six. So you talking dinner? Yes. Okay, we're talking
about 430 dinner. Oh, that's old people time for eating dinner. It's a good time for us to do
it because obviously officer hood needs to get back to work. I saw Jerry Seinfeld with his family
on TV. He said, I'm not going to wolf down the state get 430 after dinner. Gabby, you come in
because you're using the cop house as a location, right? We are. And we also named this program
after my aunt who was an avid volunteer for individuals experience and less than great life
circumstances. She found the value in volunteering her time and linking people with resources who are
hungry. So this is something that we're continuing on and she's no longer here, but this is something
that will be good for the community and those that are in need. Yeah, it's so hard to believe
that in this country, people are starving. They don't have money for food. It's hard to believe.
You think of third world nations, you think of people in this kids in the streets.
It's happening here. Well, the data says that one in five kids from the city ever seen
is hungry. They're living in poverty and they don't have adequate access to food, particularly
during the summer. Is it because their families are maybe broken up or is it just their parents just
don't make a lot of money? A lot of jobs don't pay a living wage and you know you need to keep a
roof over your head to keep the utilities paid. And then finally you put food on the table.
Man, I just remember in that situation, I tell people like grew up and they'll leave it to be
for household. It's just my parents just to care my brother and I and that we didn't ask any
questions. And then it was there. Well, we're hoping that the leave it to be for households can
help out some of these low income households by getting involved with this program. So let's
get involved with it. What is it called now? It's named after my it's called Benner Beach Hunger.
Her name was Julianne Benner. Okay. Benner Beach Hunger. Correct. Okay. And how do people
get involved? Now the hunger task force is in Milwaukee, but here you said it's the
Racine Food Bank, right? Racine County Food Bank. Yeah. So where is that located? That is
over on DeCovan. Yep, 2000 DeCovan is with food bankers and individuals can go there as well
as a number of sites throughout the city that they're able to pick up food that is provided by
the food bank. My mother used to live there with my dad at Lake Oaks there on DeCovan.
We're about something near DeCovan. Where is that? So actually the food bank's 2000 DeCovan,
which would be close to Taylor Avenue. Oh, okay. Yeah, I do know where it is. All right.
And how do people donate? Well, right now what we want to do is get businesses and individuals
involved. We're still looking for a fiscal agent and it may either be their united way or
Racine Recreation Division. So hold off right now, but feel free to reach out to me.
S Tussler, a Gmail, and we'll be able to move those donations through to help feed hungry kids,
but they can also donate things to boxes. Healthy snacks for kids because those kids are also
going to leave on Friday and go hungry all weekend. And so if we can leave behind a few extra
things that are healthy foods for those kids, don't think about canned goods, but think about
to go items like again, granola bars, putting cups, juices that are 100% juice.
Yeah, it's so hard to believe. And here we are. I'm walking amongst them in Racine and
there are people walking around hungry and tired to believe in this country that happens. Now,
you were telling me some of the food programs you got cut or got funding cut, right?
What was that about? Well, we're anticipating quite a few cuts in Medicaid and in food
share, there'll be some more requirements. There'll be a lot more stringent requirements around
reporting and getting involved. And so during the pandemic, people got very high levels of benefits
for the food share program. And what we saw was an actual decrease in the number of people
visiting food pantries is because they had enough money on their food share card to go to the
grocery store. Now, an average single, a senior as an example, is going to get $23 a month in
food share. Imagine living on $23 a month for your food. Seniors do, maybe a young person
is able to get out and get a job. A senior, it's tough to get a job. Well, and, you know,
should they have to continue to work well into their older years? I know.
Here I am. Well, you're the rare bird. Here I am. Now, how does it be? How do people
can, well, maybe they don't know about the program? I think I would think you would know if you're
hungry. You'd you'd check all the resources. But how do people find out about this? Well,
what we're doing right now is going door to door and dropping literature off. Obviously,
maybe they're hearing us on the radio today. And if they want to stop by the cop house on Geneva
Street, the meal is going to be from 1145 until 1215 for lunch. And we agreed that we were coming.
Is it an operation now? It starts on Monday. Starts Monday. Yeah. So, and then it runs through
beginning of school. We're going to run it through August 29th. Or until fewer than 50 people show
up, depending on which. How many people show up? 50 to 100. Really? Yes. And this is for adults and
children, right? Yeah. Well, we want to do is involve parents and caretakers because we think that
it's really difficult, frankly, to give a free meal to a child and then have their mom watch
them eat it, but not eat herself. Yeah. Yeah. So, we're going to involve everybody. Give us a
typical meal you might serve. Well, the meals are all healthy. And so they're going to make sure
that there's going to be a protein, so a meat item. There's going to be a dairy. They'll be
fruit. They'll be some type of starch. And so a sandwich, as an example, is a healthy meal.
You know, I've told this story many times on the air. I'm not a big vegetable leader. I'm not a
big fruit eater. I'm just not. And it's not that it wasn't offered to me. I just didn't like it.
I like the looks of it. So, one day, I must have been about eight, nine years old. My mother was
setting the table. She put peas on my plate by mistake. And she's wanting to go take it away,
my father said, no, no, leave it. He's going to eat that. That just set off a chain of events.
And I didn't want to eat it. He said, well, you're not leaving this table to you eat it. So,
they went down to the rec room after dinner, watched TV for two hours, came back. I was sitting
there and I said, I wasn't being rebellious. I just know I wouldn't keep it down. I just know
I wouldn't. Now, I'll eat peas if they're in rice or soup, but a plate for them. So, my father
said, you're going to, you think you're going to win this war? I said, no, I believe me. If I
eat it, this is going to be worse at this table. So, he said, go up to your room and my mother never
put another, two put carrots on there, things like that. But I just couldn't do it. And my father
would eat anything. So, he said, you're going to eat that. Right. What's healthy? Well, we always say
is one polite bite. So, give it a try. No, I tried it. I know what I'm going to keep down and
what I'm not going to keep down. That's one of them. And my mother was smart enough to know,
don't ever do that again because it's going to be trouble at the table. And as long as it wasn't
there, there was no problem. But if she mixed it with like white rice or vegetable soup, I never
problem with it. But when you just lay it there, when you're one more story, I'm being sent to
Atlanta to work for one of our stations. This is back in the 70s. And the guy this, I'm going to
treat you to a nice southern meal. And he gets fried okra, fried cauliflower, everything's deep fried.
And they bring these vegetables deep fried to my plate. And the oil is just running down the plate.
And I would need this stuff. It was served by a five star chef yet going to eat this stuff while
dripping with oil and bread crumbs. And he's talking to me for an hour. I have no idea what he's
saying because I'm concentrating on trying to keep this food down. Because I just I wanted the job
and I ate some of this stuff. And I can still remember to this day what it tasted like.
But it's the oil running down my plate, enough with my food stories.
All right, so let's recap here so we know if people just tuning in, people tuning in about,
this is the program is part of it. Is it part of the hunger task force or just it's separate?
No, it's not actually it's going to be an individual program or the center for independence
at the cop house at the cop house. And it starts Monday. It starts. People have to register or just show up.
Show up. They can always just show up to you know, you don't need proof or anything. Do you know,
they just need to show up and we will serve. And our hope with the family dining setting is that
we are able to help understand some of the struggles that these people are going through and address
some of the needs at the core. Yeah. And you know, again, I told you how I grew up.
And I always had food in my mouth, not vegetables, but food in my mouth. I always had, we always had
everything. My father worked hard. He didn't have any money. He just worked very hard. And I just don't
know what it's like to be hungry. I think most people don't know what it's like to be hungry.
And I'm not talking about, oh, I can eat another slice of pizza. It's not that kind of hungry.
It's like hungry that I don't feel good anymore because I'm eating all day. It's that kind of
hunger. And so how do people help out? You can help out with donations. You can help with money.
You can help out. You can volunteer as well. Okay. So we're going to need people to help us serve
to keep everybody straight in the line to remind people where their garbage goes. And so
anybody who wants to help out can also reach out to me at S Tussler and Gmail.
S Tussler. Yes. Oh, that's right. Your name is Sherry Tussler. I see how that works.
Easy enough. And so I'll be that core name for us because Officer Hood has a really big job
and I'm retired. Okay. So and this is at the cop house on Geneva Street. Yep. 1140 Geneva.
And this starts on Monday and the hours are 430 until 430 until we're done serving. Okay.
And don't forget about lunch. Oh, yeah. I can lunch to when is lunch served? 1145.
1145 until 1215. Okay. Well, that's not bad. It's not bad at all.
Well, this is good. You know, I'm so glad people do good things in this world because I'm just not
a volunteer person. I just don't get I just don't know. I wish I could. My wife volunteers
for stuff all the time and always willing to help. I just I just don't know. Maybe I should.
Maybe my old age I should start doing more stuff like that. Or you get out your checkbook?
Oh, we got checks now. There you go. Well, maybe I will. Maybe before you leave here,
I will do that. Yeah. I don't have a check with me, but I'll take care of something for you.
Well, this is great. And what else do you want to say? Well, I just want to remind people that
they can make a difference. And so everybody as an individual can make a difference by helping
end hunger. They can donate to food drives. They can donate to their local pantry.
They can come on down and help out at the cop house this summer. And we're hoping next summer,
we're going to be able to expand and be in a lot more locations that are community-based.
Okay. Now, you talked about the hospitality center on Main Street. Now what's that?
We would call that a soup kitchen. It's different than what we're doing at the cop house. And that
we're going to involve a lot of kids. And it's more likely that people are homeless or very low
income adults who are struggling that would go to a soup kitchen. Now, the cuts are they going
to affect the school lunch programs at all? We don't anticipate so far,
but they will impact food share, which is that program that gives you the debit card to buy food.
Yeah, I was talking to a friend of mine. When I was in school, we had the lunch,
but you had a choice of bread and butter or butter and jelly. In addition to the regular lunch,
which is like half a sandwich, there was never any problem with peanut butter, with nuts and
everything. Never had one person collapse on the floor. All of a sudden, you can't serve anything
with nuts and schools. I just never remember anybody having any problem with it.
Yeah, there are a lot of challenges around allergies. So the Center for Independence,
who is preparing the meals, will be aware of that. And generally speaking, kids'
and parents know if their child is allergic to a specific thing.
Yeah, well, it's a good thing you're doing. And again, if people want to help, they can volunteer
or open a jack book. Right. And they do that. How come getting old to you?
Right. S Tussler Gmail.com. We're hoping to have our non-profit set up by Monday.
And you find the extra time too. This is off the off the clock, right?
It's off the clock. I'm the clock. It's all the time. People are hungry all the time.
Cop houses at 1140 Geneva Street. And people can come in addition to the meal program.
I do have dry goods for people to come and take advantage of if they need it,
cleaning supplies, stuff like that. Well, ladies, I thank you very much for coming in.
And probably a lot of people didn't know this even existed.
Thanks for inviting us. And give us the name of the program again based on your hand.
Benner Beats Hunger.
Benner Beats Hunger. I like that. All right. Whose idea was that?
As yours? Okay. That's good. I get a job in advertising. What can I tell you?
If the cop thing doesn't work out, thank you. I'll be calling you.
I do appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.
