.png)
Small Lake City
Small Talk, Big City
Join host Erik Nilsson as he interviews the entrepreneurs, creators, and builders making Salt Lake City the best place it can be. Covering topics such as business, politics, art, food, and more you will get to know the amazing people behind the scenes investing their time and money to improve the place we call home.
Follow along for more!
Small Lake City
S1, E82: Wasteless Solutions - Dana & Laila
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
What if we could solve Utah's food insecurity crisis with what we're already throwing away? That's exactly what Dana Williamson and her team at Wasteless Solutions are doing—turning our wasteful habits into meaningful community action.
Dana's journey from corporate America to founding Utah's most dynamic food rescue operation reveals how one person's awakening to the food waste crisis sparked a movement. What started with Dana filling her car with surplus cafeteria food has blossomed into an operation that's rescued over 2.6 million pounds of food with the help of 800+ volunteers.
Community Engagement Manager Laila Hakkarinen brings her environmental justice background to the conversation, sharing powerful insights from the frontlines of food insecurity. Together, they paint a vivid picture of what happens when perfectly good food from places like the Delta Center and Whole Foods makes its way to people in need, rather than landfills.
The emotional impact becomes clear when they share how a homeless man, upon receiving high-quality prepared food, remarked: "Someone must really care about us to give this kind of food." It's this intersection of environmental impact, community care, and human dignity that makes their work so compelling.
Beyond their current success, Dana and Laila share ambitious visions for mobile markets to reach food deserts and neighborhood-based food rescue ecosystems. They also offer practical advice for listeners to reduce their own food waste, starting with the simplest step: shopping from your fridge before heading to the grocery store.
Whether you're passionate about environmental sustainability, community support, or simply making better use of the food in your refrigerator, this conversation will transform how you think about the food on your plate and the power of community-driven solutions. Ready to get involved? Follow @WastelessSLC or visit wastelesssolutions.org to join their Earth Month events and become part of the movement.
50% Off Minky Couture Blankets: softminkyblankets.com/SMALLLAKECITY
Please be sure to like, review, follow, subscribe and share the podcast with your friends and family! See you next time
Join Small Lake City: https://www.smalllakepod.com/subscribe
Instagram: @smalllakepod
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@SmallLakeCityPodcast
TikTok: @smalllakepod
Subscribe to the Newsletter! https://www.smalllakepod.com/newsletter-landing-page
I had boxes and boxes and boxes of go-go squeezes In corporate America.
Speaker 2That was my job, but I've always been passionate about food and the environment Over 800.
Speaker 1Wow.
Speaker 2I know it's really resonated with people because it's so simple, right Anything social justice driven.
Speaker 1it's a lot to carry mentally, Giving people like the opportunity to feel dignity when they're accessing these resources.
Speaker 3For me, it was just that moment of like okay, it's not just me that thinks this is a good idea. What is up, everybody, and welcome back to another episode of the Small Lake City Podcast. I'm your host, eric Nielsen, and this week's guests are Layla and Dana from Wasteless Solutions Now, dana is the founder and CEO of Wasteless Solutions and Layla is their community engagement manager. Now, wasteless Solutions is a nonprofit organization aimed to eliminate food waste and get food into the hands of people that need it the most. They share more of the insights into their day-to-day lives as they go about collecting and distributing a lot of food from some of your favorite places around the Valley and what we can do as a community to support them and also waste less food in our own lives. Two great people making Salt Lake a better place and helping where they can. But you guys are going to enjoy this one. It was a great conversation with both of them, so enjoy. Yeah, anything feels too loud, too quiet. We can adjust things and we can go from there.
Speaker 2You sound like a radio voice.
Speaker 3See people say like, like people you're not the first person to say that to me and like, in my opinion, like I don't have a radio, like I, I ramble a lot, I mumble a lot, I talk really fast, but it's interesting people.
Speaker 2Yeah you have, I'm like I didn't hear it until you put that on. There it is and here we are, yeah I could not be a radio person.
Speaker 3Well, I mean, I guess I kind of am in a way like if this was 20 years ago it'd be on the radio and it was fun. And I recorded with um, um, like when I had frankie and jess on the podcast. They were fun because I mean, they did radio for like 20 years and it's funny just to hear them compare the differences in like lifestyle. And he's like I don't have to wake up at like 345 in the morning anymore. Like no, thank you, I am not a morning person.
Speaker 2And to be on. Yeah, Like you've got to go on.
Speaker 3Yeah, and it's exhausting, like I always like. One well kind of two rules I have with the podcast is one don't record more than one episode in a day, because I just get exhausted and like every time I've recorded more than one it's like, yeah, the second one, I'm like, I'm not on and I don't like this and so you like to like prepare for all of that? No thanks, but good for them, yeah.
Speaker 3Like even I met someone recently that was in radio and I was like surprising that like it's like imagine someone today being like I want to go work for the newspaper. Like print only.
Speaker 2I don't want anything else Very different. Good luck with that.
Speaker 3Yeah, dying art, but good luck. Um, wait, remember your last name Dana Williamson. Dana Williamson and Layla Huck. Hacker Reinen. Hacker Reinen yeah, wow, that's a mouthful. Where's that? From Finland? That makes sense. I'm a very strong Swede, like I've actually. So my last actually this is relevant for this week.
Speaker 3It was kind of weird. So every now and then, like I'll have the weirdest kind of like you know, there's small, like city moments, but it'll come in like new ways and especially like on social media is like that's grown and posting things. Like like there was one. I was like two months ago just got a DM, not unbeknownst, and she was like it was all it said was did you give your number to a flight attendant on a podcast sticker last January? I was like, yes, yes, I did.
Speaker 3Like there was this flight. I was on that, sorry mom, I was really hung over. And I look at the flight attendant and I was like, hey, do you have? I just need some water and maybe a coffee. And she could kind of see in my she's like Roger, so she comes back. She even has ibuprofen for me. I'm like, oh, thank you so much. But then she like tells the rest of the flight attendant crew and they just keep bringing me drinks the entire time. Which, like, am I going to say no?
Speaker 3And so we get to the, we land in Hawaii, and I look at my sister and like we were traveling together because we're both single, she has two kids, so it's easier for us just to kind of rent a car, do everything together. And so we get there. I was like hey, I'm going to need you to drive the car to the hotel. She's like what do you mean? That sticker in your number Like funny world? I'm like this is all sorts of that. But anyway, last name Swedish. So my last name is very specifically spelled N-I-L-S-S-O-N. There's a million ways to spell Nelson Nielsen, but only two that are non-familial that I've run into.
Speaker 3And so one was when I was at the MTC on my mission once upon a time and I'm looking, I'm walking somewhere, I see this guy, same name on his name tag. I'm like I'm going to come find you later, like there's something here. And yada, yada, yada, I do. I'm like hey, like tell me about this. Like I don't see me, like I'm sure you feel the same. He's like, oh, fraud, stolen valor, you can't have that. But then, so recently I was, um, uh, I mean just on Instagram as I do, and there was someone that liked something and I look I was like Whoa, last name, hold on. So I followed her to start DMing. I'm like who are you, where are you from? But it was weird because she was from Holiday, went to school around there, it's in Norman.
Speaker 2I was like no idea.
Speaker 3But I'm going to get coffee with her. I'm going to go figure this out.
Speaker 1I love it. You need to do like Ancestrycom or something.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 1Or 23andMe.
Speaker 3Well, because both of us joked that we're not uh, we both, or both post-mormon life, and so we're like we can't just go to the genealogy and then look this up or else we put it together. But yeah, I mean, if the data on the 23andme hasn't been deleted yet, yeah, exactly, oh, yeah, yeah I think they never did better. I'll tell you a little panicked I know makes you wonder.
Speaker 2I've been curious about the ancestry all the time. All of a sudden I watched that series on National Geographic called no Taste Like Home. So good, it's about food and ancestry tied with food, and so it made me think like I want to connect, I want to see, like I'm passionate about food, where did that come from? So I went on Ancestrycom and of course it's like really expensive and it's by the month and you get cheaper if you get through six months. And and I'm just like I'm not ready for that.
Speaker 3Thanks for the information. Don't need to do this.
Speaker 1Actually crazy Cause I have heard that like if you eat according to the diet that your ancestors ate, like, your body will feel better. I've been hearing that too.
Speaker 3I need to eat a lot more fish.
Speaker 1I know, Isn't that always just like, if you're Nordic, it's probably a lot of fish and Root vegetables? Maybe Probably root vegetables. It's so cold. I'm trying to think Because no one's ever like.
Speaker 3Oh man, the food in Sweden was amazing, Right, Because there are hearty people there and most seem very attractive. It's working. I need to go back to my people, Listen.
Speaker 2Your skincare Can we talk about this.
Speaker 3It's whale blubber. We eat it three times a month.
Speaker 3I'll do it for the look. People have done way worse, for less and or more. I'm excited to talk to you guys because it's fun when different parts of my life start to come together. As I was telling both when I came out is I come to the gym at Edison almost every morning and there used to always be this van parked right in front. It would say waste less solutions.
Speaker 3It would have, I mean, the typical um branding that you guys have, and I just I mean like I think I looked it up the first time I saw it I was like, oh, cool, kept being there and being there and being there. And then it wasn't until I had nick zacco on the podcast, the executive chef for um urban hill, and he was like, oh, you got to talk to them and I'm like, yeah, I do. So it was it's. It's fun when, like, things come back full circle and then I get to find out, because then you were telling me it's like the van's there because you live next door, and then now it's at the office yeah, we closed the loop of mystery for you when you doubted where the truck was.
Speaker 2It's now safely at a new home and now it has a sister oh, it has a sister and it doesn't.
Speaker 3I don't have like a.
Dana's Journey from Corporate America
Speaker 2There's like I can't follow it on instagram and get those family updates when someone moves on in your life maybe we need to start a new website for her name is alice that truck. By the way, after alice waters, the woman behind um, really um, farmed a table out of berkeley. Yeah, the more you know we don't. We need a new name for her sister yeah, so if anybody has an idea put?
Speaker 1it in the comments you're killing it here.
Speaker 3We just tip that mic up a little bit, though, and maybe move it a tiny bit closer to you. Thank you, um, yeah, so I saw alice all the time. And then when nick because like I have a very weirdly privileged life of being able to find out random things about random things like I posted about, um, the colored scriptures billboard, and like 24 hours later, I know the company that owns it, the woman that updates it every day, like it didn't just like all of these random things. I'm like there's no way else in the world. I could have easily just been like oh, right, time for some investigative journalism on a billboard.
Speaker 1So can you confirm how they are like? Every time they get a sale, they update the number.
Speaker 3No, so it's a little bit less complicated than that. So with them. So it used to be a billboard that was about I think it was about overdoses. Before they bought it, they knew that the company wasn't going to renew and they're like, hey, like let's try something new. So the company that owns it actually isn't even called colored scriptures. It's this kind of like premiumized scriptures. So they buy it from the church, then they put like a better cover on it and they sell it, and so it used to be like again like overdose deaths. But then it changed to that and there's a woman that updates it every day.
Speaker 1So if you don't see a change on the weekends, it's because she's not in the office see, I've always wondered that, because I drive past that billboard and I'm like, wow, there's, they sold another 10. Yeah, they're up there, they go.
Speaker 3And then there's the people that are like it doesn't ever change. I'm like, listen, I drive by because I, I the it's freeway exit that frequents my life is six north and it's like, right past that especially, I'm going like anywhere. And so every day I'm like yep, even out of spite, I'm like see, it did go up.
Speaker 3I'm not crazy, but yeah and then, yeah, she told me who she was. I was updating it and the guy well, even there's a person because they DM me after. They're like, hey, me and my wife drive by there every day and we are starting to fill out this spreadsheet of what it is every day to see how much it changes and we're going to track it over.
Speaker 1Yeah, I think I saw something like that online. I thought that was funny, that's hysterical.
Speaker 3So again, I'm curious. Let me dive in here.
Speaker 2That's the fun part of social media, right.
Speaker 3Oh yeah.
Speaker 2I think about when people say let's stay in touch. I'm like it's social because I'm not going to write a blog to you all and keep in touch. It just is so funny and I think that's where social media is good and it shows you inside people's minds. We want the little mundane stuff sometimes.
Speaker 3Yeah, Give me a quick little update stuff sometimes. Yeah, Give me a quick little update. Like I'm not going to pick up a phone and call you. You're not going to do the same, that's okay. And like I've. I was actually talking to someone about this yesterday, where I'm the person who, if I see someone I know I haven't seen in a while I mean everybody knows like, oh my gosh, we should get coffee, let's grab a bar. Like it's not going to happen. So I've tried to delete that from my like social playbook and instead of like hey, it's been so good to see you. Just, you know, like I see what you're doing, I'm rooting for you and I wish you the best.
Speaker 2I love that Cause, like sometimes cause.
Speaker 3sometimes we run into people and it's not like I have any sort of ill will or negativity, it's just I've heard in different places people are in different phases and just acknowledge what it is. Realize, if I haven't seen you in six years, we're probably not going to change that and you just kind of call it what it is yeah, it's so much more genuine.
Speaker 2Yeah, then we should get coffee and I have this big thing like, if I'm, if I run into you and you say that to me, it's on you to set it up yes and I'm I'm the planner. So I kind of nervously saying they're like I'm not doing it, I'm not doing it, they said it, I can't keep doing this.
Speaker 3It's not me, it's you Fair, but I'm excited to hear more about this story because, hearing and seeing so much, and especially seeing with how much waste goes into our food supply chain, I love that there's people that are trying to make it a little bit better. So maybe, before we get started, dana, give us a quick summary on what Waste Less Food Solutions is, and more.
Speaker 2Yeah, love to my favorite topic. So I used to be in corporate America. That was my job, but I've always been passionate about food and the environment and it was just on the side that I did it. And then I started getting a point to my career of like, what's next? I don't want to do this the rest of my life. What do I want to do? And so I just started researching what is food and environment? What kind of jobs are out there? Nothing was resonating.
Speaker 2And when it happened upon food waste I was like what, how come no one's talking about this? Back then it was, everybody was talking about the straw movement. I was like, great, but what about food? Because I just thought before I'd throw food away in the trash and think, oh, at least it's not plastic. It's actually more harmful than plastic to our environment in terms of what it's doing to the environment right, plastic is bad for the animals and for us ingesting, but in terms of the actual planet health um, food rotting in landfills much worse because it lets off methane gas. So that excited me and I was like we need to be talking about this. And then I learned about food rescue and at the time it was kind of happening on the East and West coasts and I was like, well, that's a no brainer, everyone should have that. That makes sense. And so that was really my aha moment. And I was, and I said to myself I don't want to just do food rescue because that's not solving the problem.
Speaker 2My background's in operations, so in my mind I was like this is a problem that needs to be fixed. And, um, so that's why I started Wasteless Solutions is a weekend that I was like this is it. These two are coming together, and it was probably September 2017.
Speaker 2I went back to Westminster university Now I have to call it, but it was time Westminster college, where I graduated with my MBA, and told them what I was thinking, and the Dean of the business school walked me over to the cafeteria it was right before Christmas break and so let's just talk to them. And they were like, yeah, that makes sense. Like we're going to be closed for three weeks. This food's not going to last. So I came back with my own car like a week later and the chef just kept going like, like this, you'll take this and showing me things, and it's like yep, and loads up this double-decker cart and I fill my car at the time and I took it to YWCA because I knew them so I knew they wouldn't think I was crazy. I'd work for them, got some food for you.
Speaker 3No, it's good. I got it from a kitchen over there.
The Scale of Food Waste in Utah
Speaker 2And I saw her mind like you got this from where this was going to go in the trash. And for me it was just that moment of like okay, it's not just me that thinks this is a good idea, people on both end think it's a good idea. And so that was December 2017. And then just started going with it. I was working my full-time job still for four and a half years and just did it as a volunteer and the first year self-funded it and just kind of took my time with it to see if it had traction, rather than like diving full in and just like, okay, it's traction, and got on the news and the beauty of media help gets the word out. We got, I think, like two or three volunteers out of that first show and one was a diehard volunteer for a year. So I was working, he was out rescuing just like back to our comment earlier about the universe like it was just like plop, there you go, um, and so that's what we've been doing ever since and just our.
Speaker 2So our mission is to educate and prevent, and we do the diversion through the food rescue. My particular passion is really on that education. My ultimate goal would be to get rid of food waste and some people say, oh, but then you wouldn't be feeding people. And I joke well, if we can solve this, we'll come over and solve that. Right, but that's the ultimate goal is to really just end it. Get enough people aware of it that we can actually end the absurd amount of food that we waste in this country?
Speaker 3Yes, because I mean that's the conversation that everybody has about poverty. World hunger is, I mean the amount of foods there, but how do we get it to the right people, people that need it, especially in like what is like the majority of the world's food supply is based on like on a two-week cycle and so trying to be like all right, so you're hungry in egypt, I've got some extra onions, like, like things, like obviously, like that's hyperbolic, it doesn't work. But like within I mean, I'm sure there's a sweet spot of community size where it's like okay, cool, so this person has this, they need this, this needs this. Here's like the food bank, they can take this and and really just being this, I mean almost like switchboard of excess and scarcity.
Speaker 2Yeah, I like that analogy. I've always used to like ups. Have you ever seen like sometimes they're in parking lots and their trucks are backed up and they're swapping packages in it like that? Efficiency has always intrigued me of like you can do with packages. We should be able to do it with food.
Speaker 3Is that why Alice got a sibling Like? I saw these UPS trucks. I don't know what there's there, but we're going to make it happen.
Speaker 2That's exactly it. You're going to see those backed up out here one day. We'll be moving food between the two, but that was it right. To me it's a distribution problem and that intrigues me, but it is. It's much more challenging, right, then we. Then it looks um sometimes it's a truckload of bananas and you're like we need to do that today, like always, money in the banana stand. Yeah, oh yeah, I got it. Um so, yeah, I know where I was going with that.
Speaker 3Oh, good Cause, yeah you never know what you're going to get. You could have a truckload of bananas you could end up with, I mean a bunch of garlic that you don't know what to do. Like I mean I'm sure every I mean day, week, month, year. It's not like, oh, we can. I mean I'm sure there's an amount of's, almost like an Iron Chef mystery ingredient unveiled. Be like cool. Now you have 40 pounds of peaches. Let's go figure it out before they all go brown.
Speaker 2The interesting thing we get a lot that we struggle to solve is frozen cookie dough or ice cream.
Speaker 3I can solve that one for you, right? We'll bring it to you.
Speaker 1Like palates, we want to solve palates of it.
Speaker 3Did I hesitate? If you can bring me a pallet of Ben and Jerry's, you solved my problem or just made everything worse in my life. But you know it's a risk I'm willing to take.
Speaker 2Thank you. You're a giver, um, or baking goods, like we'll have people call like you know I've got pallet of flour. I mean it. People call like you know I've got a pallet of flour. I mean it's just when you think of agencies feeding people. They're not baking things right.
Speaker 2Yeah, there's plenty of bread that's excess, that's from bakers. So yeah, we have those. And I think the one weird one was a truck. A semi truck broke down once and it was full of frozen chicken wings and so they needed it moved right Because they were defrosting.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 2And I was like I have no idea. We called around, we tried, but like that urgency was just yeah.
Speaker 3One of those weird ones. We didn't. We didn't solve it, sadly. Unfortunately, nothing can be a hundred percent effective, and rest in peace all the wings that we have, but then we also have Layla. So Layla events community community manager. Events community manager.
Speaker 1Community engagement manager.
Speaker 3Community engagement manager. I mean, walk me through how you got involved with Waste Less and a little bit more about your role and what you do.
Speaker 1Yeah, so I am super passionate about all things environmental and sustainability. That's what I went to school for, and I went and kind of focused primarily in college on ego justice education, so environmental justice really, and learned a lot about how environmental problems are often social justice problems too. And so after college I wasn't really sure what to do. It was kind of hard to find a job. Honestly, it is for most people. Um, and I came across on LinkedIn uh posting for food rescue coordinator, um at Wasteless. Um, I put in my application late, so it was kind of not your fault by the way.
Speaker 2that was our fault. Posting remained open when it shouldn't have. Let's clarify Something happened there.
Layla's Community Engagement Role
Speaker 1Technologically I don't know, but, um, I had heard about wasteless in school as an organization and had just kind of been following like on Instagram and whatnot and was like, oh, this is awesome, like this would be my dream role. Um applied but it had already been filled. But Dana called me and was like I really like your resume, uh, thinking about hiring another part-time role. So um came on, originally coordinating the prepared meal program, so repackaging uh rescued food into fully prepared meals for families, seniors, um just people in need, um, and that was really great. And then after a few months came on full time as community engagement uh manager and have been doing it all. Like it has been such a crazy journey. Like learning so much in a year about where the needs in the community are, um growing in terms of just like nonprofit operations in general has been really fantastic to learn. But it's been amazing like being very engaged in the community and like seeing firsthand what the needs of of like people that are experiencing food insecurity are.
Speaker 3Totally. I mean, especially to be in a role where you get to see a unique perspective that very, very few people get to see. Yeah, like it's not like everyone in a day to day life be like oh yeah, I understand, like this food scarcity situations and what all needs to happen to make sure who needs what and who are the people getting it. Where is it coming from? Um, yeah, what a unique perspective to have, I mean. And in the year that you've been there, I mean what are some of your favorite moments, least favorite moments, stressful moments that you've had?
Speaker 1Well, what's funny is, uh, like the I think it was like a day or two after starting full-time from being part-time is we did the biggest food rescue ever for Wasteless. There's a food show at the Salt Palace that I think it's every year, but it was only once in Utah, right, correct? It's called Kehi, and so a bunch of food sellers. What would you call them? Like?
Speaker 2merchandisers, yeah, makers.
Speaker 1Makers. It's a convention, so like health foods, it's like the Kettle Brand chips would be there or like they would be there trying to get like a grocery store, like Whole Foods, to buy their product.
Speaker 3There's like a CPG product convention type thing.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, yeah, so we—.
Speaker 3Consumer packaged goods. Yeah, yeah, so, um, we consumer packaged goods. Yeah, thank you. I try to do better about my acronyms. I said anomalies. I'm like that's not an anomaly, but anyway, yes.
Speaker 1Yeah, so, um, yeah, so we were asked to do the food rescue. So after the convention, there's all this leftover food, um, and they can't ship it back with the company or the or the vendors. So we had, uh, probably like I think, over 60 volunteers for like a few hours packing up food. Like had the food bank, we had the Christian center, we had all these other nonprofits in the area come pick up food and disperse it among the community and we saved over 50,000 pounds of food. Wow, so that's probably like starting out. I was like man, we are starting out strong.
Speaker 3This is like I am doing things, I am strong, I can do this. Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 1And I had worked at Trader Joe's for three years, so I was like, yeah, I'm moving boxes, I'm making pallets, let's go. It was so fun, so fun. Um, that's definitely a highlight. And then I just add color to that.
Speaker 2yeah, um, that's when I knew she was a keeper, because I literally was like oh, you worked at trader joe's, will you be in charge of packing the pallets and putting them in the trucks? And she's like sure. And she just went and did it, had all these people coming and asking things, and she's like sure she grabs a box cutter.
Speaker 3She's like watch me, yeah, I actually did.
Speaker 1I brought my little green traderader, Joe's box cutter. I was like I know what.
Speaker 3I'm doing. You got your Carhartt pants perfect pocket for it ready to go.
Speaker 2I actually did. You know me so well and proper footwear too.
Speaker 1Yep, I was geared up, I was ready to go and we saved 50,000 pounds of food, thanks to all those volunteers and organizations. It was amazing. It was really incredible. I really incredible.
Speaker 3I mean, that's not a bad recruiting strategy. Just go hang around Trader Joe's or like Costco and be like hey, I see you moving this stuff. You want to. You want to move stuff with purpose.
Speaker 2Yeah, I'm going to try that I might steal that, right, listen listen whatever the podcast giveth, it taketh, it does it all.
Speaker 3But no, no-transcript, no, it's not working out.
Speaker 3Oh, it is working out, oh it's even better.
Speaker 3And get connected with such a great organization to start that, because I mean everybody in a perfect world would have the job that aligns with their values and what they want to help accomplish and ideally make a.
Speaker 3Someone will come at me like no, no, no, I want a job that is against my values, that has nothing to do with who I am as a person, and so I mean I think that's when the best sort of things happen, because you're doing your authentic self, you're showing up in the way that you want to. And even I mean, looking like Dan at your story, I mean you were working a job that I mean I'm going to assume for a second that wasn't fulfilling your needs, that you Now you have an impact and you created it, but not only just for yourself, but as this, almost like a lighthouse to attract other people that want to do it, and I mean even indicative of being on. I mean broadcast people are like actually I'm into and then have other people just keep joining and join. How many people are you up to now with the volunteers in full time?
The Front Lines of Food Insecurity
Speaker 2and part time, over 800. Wow, I know it's really resonated with people because it's so simple, right? We have an app, people sign up, they do a rescue themselves, right. They go in their car, they pick it up from where there's surplus and so they see like, oh my gosh, I just picked up food, I'm making a difference, and then they drop it off where it's needed and people are so grateful and gracious that it's been great. But I want to go back to Layla's comment. Like you had a second part of that, I'd love to hear what was challenging or stressful.
Speaker 3Any other tales to be told?
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, I mean, challenges are always present.
Speaker 3If it's about Dana, we can kick her out for a minute, and we can, yeah exactly.
Speaker 1See you, dana, I'll hear it.
Speaker 1I think challenges wise. It's just like when you work in anything social justice driven, it's a lot to carry mentally, like you're out there seeing people struggling, like I mean I think we all want to have our blinders on sometimes like or not take it home with you, but there's been some situations that I just see, where I'm just like man, that that changes my perspective on life, like you know. I mean there's people that are homeless, there's people that are um housed but like are in incredible amounts of debt or relying on social security and like that paycheck only gets them halfway through the month and I've heard that firsthand from some of the people that receive food, that that we disperse and it's just, it's a lot to carry emotionally but like being able to see the impact that we're making firsthand is really phenomenal too and being being on the lines with it.
Speaker 1Yeah, front lines. I guess it's not the front lines. What am I saying? It is the front in the community.
Speaker 3I guess exactly, and like no, I love those. Again, it kind of goes back onto that what I was saying about having those experiences where you get to see something from a unique way, because so many people live, I mean, a privileged life where they get to go home and have everything that they need, they go to their great job and it's like they stay within their general track and don't really get off the beaten path. And I think that's why there's so much of this friction between the reality of things and kind of the life that people live. I mean, especially on the topics of homelessness and I mean inequality, food justice. I mean some people just don't understand the life that people live. And I mean, obviously there's like a sweet spot of knowledge where you're like I don't want to go into, like I don't want to deal with this every day, but it's nice to be reminded every now and then. Yeah, like it reminded me of, yeah, we'll talk about the mission again.
Speaker 3So I was in this place called longview washington and like it, like in washington it is where everybody is on food stamps, no one has a job, and I'll never forget it. This one scarred me for life. But I knocking in this trailer park and knock on this door and this guy answers I'm like yeah, you're very drunk right now. And I go in and there's just beer cans everywhere, cigarettes out everywhere and in the middle of it there's just this like toddler that's just staring at me. Could tell it hasn't had a bad, like very dirty, like living in complete squalor. And I was just like and my companions like oh yes, we like I'm just sitting here like numb, like, and I like walk out. And he was kind of like, yeah, that that was a lot.
Speaker 3I'm like I actually like timeout, timeout, champ, like I just need to and like I saw a lot of, I mean like the situations that people live in, the squalor that people live in, even if they are, do you have a home? Sometimes you're like Whoa, like I do not want to be the person to clean this, but I'm so sorry that this is has has to be, and I mean there's a who's the quote that had where I mean it's essentially like a community or society that doesn't have empathy is pure evil, and so, like the opportunities that we have to gain that empathy and see people in their real life situations, I mean, while it being a lie, it gives, gives us something to fight for, because it self perpetuates that, that value in that mission. Cause, imagine, if you're just dropping off to perfectly curled hair, blonde Utah County moms that are just so excited, you're like, okay, like I'm making a difference, right, so. But I mean that's exactly how it tends to go. And so I mean, dana, coming back to you, I mean, what were some of those moments across, I mean, when you started everything in 2017 to now, that were, I mean kind of those like milestone moments of like this is where I'm supposed to be, this is what I'm doing, I'm making an impact.
Speaker 2Yeah, I'm so lucky because I feel like I have them so often, right, and it's been eight years and that's what's been such a joy. Earlier you made a comment about how many people are in this and I think that's been one of the biggest joys is, is that right? You just throw a flag out and see if it lands and people are coming and want to be a part of it, and then just the cool people that want to be a part of it, like listening to your story and your background, like that's right. Um, it's just been amazing. The people that want to be a part of it and now we're at this place of like people are ambassadors. I always tell this story. Leila's probably sick of it, but at the Kehi event, leila had a friend videoing it and I see the video at the end, right when he puts it all together, and I see one of our top volunteers giving the spiel that used to always have to be me.
Speaker 2And I just had this like oh my gosh, somebody else is giving the spiel.
Speaker 1The movement.
Speaker 2Yes, you started the movement yes, and that's my passion, um, but also, um, individual ones. I remember dropping off at the rescue mission and having you pull up right and there's lots of homeless people out front. A lot of people think that's a scary place. And you pull up and they see you have food and the homeless men just walk up and help you carry it out and then they're so grateful, like when we started donating food from the Delta center. There it's fully prepared food and this I didn't hear this from a person, I heard it through the rescue mission employee.
Speaker 2But he said, um, one of the homeless people said someone must really care about us to give us this kind of food. I know, and you're just like, oh, right in the heart, like, wow, like they're not used to that. And then we have moments, um, you know, going to community goddess, you need us and having what we do is we take food and let them, um, say how much they want, which we love to do that because it's choice, right, if they're like, I hate broccoli, I'm not taking broccoli, it's like, but you love mac and cheese, take it. Right, we have it all. And just how grateful they are when they come in there. It's just, I don't know that. That's the part that I just love. I always joke like when I retire I'm like I'll be a food rescuer.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 2Cause. That's my favorite part of it.
Speaker 3Totally, and it reminds me of Jeanette Padilla with oh my gosh, Food Justice Coalition.
Speaker 1Yes.
Speaker 3Food Justice Coalition. I knew I was going to get that.
Speaker 2You know when you start a sentence like we're going to find it, we're going to find that name.
Speaker 3It never came With her. The first event that she threw in a lot of the ethos around. What she does is let's bring the humanity back to this no-transcript way and like to have people be like hey, come shop. Yeah, it's no longer, here's your bags, good luck. And like oh cool, I'm allergic to that. That like this doesn't work and that doesn't. That like great. And now they're like no more broccoli right, yeah, choice, giving people choice there's a woman you guys should look her up.
Speaker 1Uh, her name is clancy harrison and she did like a tedx talk that I saw. Um, when I first started, I was like researching a bunch on food waste and I found her tedx talking. Her whole thing is about food dignity and like that's an approach I've been wanting to like hang on to closely. Like giving people like the opportunity to feel dignity when they're accessing these resources, because there's so many people that are eligible to get food stamps or be get any sort of social services or resources, making it accessible. And like we've even talked about like setting up a mobile market and just like everybody in the community being able to get food. Like there's no income restriction, there's no like proving that you need it. It's just like this is a community that's like giving back and caring for one one another, like in a mutual aid approach.
Speaker 3Yeah, cause I know there's like small ones, but like to have like I mean almost like a grocery store, convenience store type size guy.
Speaker 3Hey like yeah, and so think so. As you look at the city, you see all of these different supply chains and how you can come and fix and be like, okay, this is coming out of here. Let's put it at the top of funnel here. Let's put this here. I mean, who are the people who, I mean, are donating the most, who are benefiting the most, or who are some of these organizations that are are providing a lot of resources to this?
Finding Dignity in Food Distribution
Speaker 2Yeah, so, um, so we typically don't do grocery stores. The food bank does those cause there's contracts with feeding America, but we do pick up from whole foods because they don't have a contract, so they don't have to go with one, so they're actually just did the numbers on last year they're actually donate the most and we don't have everyday pickups so they this is what's crazy is is someone picks up every day from every grocery store and we still we have like three days a week at three of the whole foods and they're still our largest one. There's just so much food Right. And then, um, our other top ones and this is partly because of the food show that Layla mentioned. They were a big one, the Salt Palace, but they sometimes will have random big ones.
Speaker 2We had got a call last year of a volunteer showed up with his Chevy Bold, like as he usually does, and he's like we have a problem. It was like 3,500 boxed lunches and salads, and so we're like, oh my gosh. So we called a bunch of volunteers and I think we did it the next day and showed up with like four cars and made like four trips each, got it all out. So salt palace is a big one. And then the Delta center. Um and uh. Delta center's fully prepared food that is amazing. We get like brisket sometimes. I was going to say like aren't our barbecue dogs? And Delta Center's fully prepared food, that is amazing.
Speaker 3We get like brisket sometimes. I was going to say like R&R BBQ, j-dogs, like all of these places where someone's like hey, do you want a free R&R BBQ?
Speaker 2I'm like, yeah, I'm ready to go.
Speaker 3Don't tempt me with a good time.
Speaker 2Well, and that's what's fun about that one is, you mentioned the homeless, and then Layla mentioned house people. It's kind of a personal passion of mine is there is so many organizations helping the homeless in Salt Lake and we do provide food to many of them. But we also see of the 400,000 people that are food insecure, majority, like 90%, are housed, right, and so how do we get more food to them? And so Layla mentioned the mobile market. We love that idea. We're trying to find nonprofit partners that we can get to, that housed people can come to and get that food and the prepared food they love it, right?
Speaker 2I mean, I always use the analogy of a cauliflower, right? Because people want to say, oh, we should feed people better, right, which makes sense. I'll give you cauliflower, but do they know how to cook it? Do they have the ingredients to make it taste good? Do they have cooking facilities, right? Some people literally just have a microwave. But if we can give them a fully prepared meal and say, just reheat this, and they don't have to think about it and they know their kids are eating, well, they have then time to help the kids with homework because they didn't have to figure out dinner or spend money on dinner. It's such a gift, and so that's something for us. We're trying to find more of those events, and that's actually across our spectrum. Catering slash cafeterias are our biggest food donors.
Speaker 3Yeah, that's where my brain went is when you're talking about picking from the Delta Center the first time. I'm like just imagine you at the end of like I mean one of the festivals at the fairgrounds or something like that. Be like hey, you saw no. Like what are you doing with all this after? And they're like garbage, or you I'm like we'll take it.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3But then it's also like I love also. I'm sure, like you said, there's people that call you with a broken down semi that says, hey, we have a bunch of this, what are you going to do with it? It's like, honestly nothing, sorry, yeah, can't help that's the sad part.
Speaker 2The fun part of this is, you know, the food bank, as I mentioned, does a great job of large scale, but they have my phone number actually on their wall because there's so much they can't take because of the regulations of being a partner with food in america like they can't take unlabeled things.
Speaker 2So one time a winco called them. They said we can't take it, and so they called us and we were able to pick up all this. It's like a palette of swiss cheese that just wasn't labeled and swiss cheese is pretty clearly swiss cheese, yes, um, and so things like that. So it's nice to fill this space of, like, additional food, and that's what the food bank says. They love to be able to say, oh, we can't but call wasteless, so it's like another option, right, because they hated to say no to people and they just couldn't do things, and so totally another need that wasn't filled because I can't imagine, because, like I mean obviously they have, I mean hope are still value driven mission individuals.
Speaker 3So for them to be like and I, because of a policy or something's out of my control, I have to not take this or throw this away and then be able to turn around and be like actually there is someone who can take this, yep.
Speaker 2Because the other side of what we do is I mentioned the prevention right, and I was just giving a presentation today to a group and did this this image of like there's the farms, there's manufacturing, there's the retail, there's homes, and where the most food waste is and most people will say restaurants it's actually in our homes. So 37% along that food chain is actually wasted in our homes and we can't rescue that. And so that's what's really big for us is just talking to people about food waste to get them to realize it's a problem, right, like if people that's what I believe Layla mentioned just the culture of this and not being heavy is is it doesn't have to be. We talk about, like doing better. You don't have to be perfect, you don't have to never waste food, but just aware of it. One of my favorite stories of in terms of educating people on food waste was I did this talk and and a couple of weeks later I see a guy that was there and he says, oh my gosh, you've changed my perspective forever.
Speaker 2I went to Costco to return some salmon I bought. It was the wrong salmon and I gave it to him and I was like wait, what are you going to do with this when I return it and they said throw it away, and he literally took it back. Gonna do with this when I return it and they said throw it away, and he literally took it back. He's like we'll figure out what to do with it and I was like that's it, like you just saved that fish that died from going to waste and and that's what I say. It's like all of us making small changes. It's not all of us.
Speaker 3Never wasting food again, yeah, and there's, like I mean there's been like wow, I said moments, movements that have happened, like I mean composting, like everybody got into composting, like oh, you can put it in our garden, which like step in a good direction. But I'm curious, like if people are curious about how they can either help or at least not make the food waste worse, what are some ideas that they can do in their own life?
Speaker 2yeah, the first thing I mentioned to people is shop from fridge and pantry first, like, before you go to the grocery store, what's in there that needs to be used up, and then plan a meal around that. And I find that's fun actually in meal planning so that you're not like overwhelmed of like what's going to sound good this week to eat. It's like, oh, I have cabbage going bad, what am I going to make with it? And starting there. And I tell people like just start there and go easy. Like don't plan to like cook five meals a week.
Speaker 2Like for me personally, I look at my schedule for the week and be like, oh, I've got a event this night, I've got a dinner this night. I'm not going to plan to cook as many nights then. So just that pre-planning as well. Um, just thinking about that. And those are really like where I like to just start it, not overwhelm people. You try that you're going to see immense improvement in your food waste and then typically people get really excited, then start doing little challenges and waste even less, even more they're like next thing you know.
Speaker 3They're like I want to come volunteer. Yeah, take this car of this, take it over there, drop it off to them. They'll be waiting for you. Exactly. It's like I almost feel like someone could be watching everything that you guys are doing. Like there's drugs in there somewhere.
Speaker 2I know it I'm surprised you didn't think that, seeing the van out front watching leila it uh it.
Speaker 3It did cross my overly active brain at least once, my scott. Well, it's ironic because there's like a I won't say the name of the restaurant, but there's a restaurant that I walk by. It's like this restaurant where, like I mean, it's a hispanic restaurant and on like weekends it's like a club, but it's only busy from like 12, 30 to 1, because I mean latin club. And then I'm like, and I got walked by, I'm like there is not a soul here, ever, ever.
Mobile Markets and Future Impact
Speaker 3But then all of a sudden, like they'll be doing like some random renovation, that's at least like a 20 grand project, and they'll do that three times a year. And it's like, listen, I, I'm I'm good enough at math to know that the math isn't mathing, and so I see likewise where they're like. So you have a bunch of 600 volunteers. Huh, you got your full-time hires, got your vans. Yeah, her name's alice, sure we?
Speaker 1believe it. I've had my car full of food before, like to the brim, and I'm like if I get pulled over right now, a cop's gonna be like what are you doing with all this food?
Speaker 3especially with something just like very specific, like why do you have a car full of?
Speaker 1I didn't think anything, it was just like I had a car full of go-go squeezes from, like it's very questionable. Yeah, I was like, oh my gosh, this is crazy. Yeah, I had boxes and boxes and boxes of go-go squeezes that were all expired you know what? Just go.
Speaker 3I don't even want to put them up, this can of worms.
Speaker 2Yeah, and we did have some spillage once. I don't know if it was in your car, but in Alice. Oh, there's been lots of spillage.
Speaker 3I'm sure there's a couple smells that show up every now and then.
Speaker 1There actually is, because the bottom of the van has this mat that I want to pull out and spray, but we can't figure out how to pull it out.
Speaker 3I had my fiance look at it. I'm like, well, what do we do here?
Speaker 1And he's like we can't Just absorbs everything Like mm. It's underneath, it's very fresh, it's gnarly, it's pretty bad, noted.
Speaker 3Alice has a little bit of a gastrointestinal issue.
Speaker 1Yes, there is a step Shit.
Speaker 3Noted. No, do not sit in the back of Atlas unless I'm in like an entire hazmat suit. Yep, Valayla, I'm curious about, I mean, being the community engagement manager. I mean, what kind of things do you want to do? How do you see yourself engaging with the community? I mean looking forward.
Speaker 1Yeah, I feel like I always have a million ideas. It's just like getting the resources to just execute. You know, we're a pretty small organization, so I mean the amount of like success just in like every month is insane. Um, but I would love to just see we've been talking about this mobile market project now that we just got a new van um being able to reach other areas of the Valley that our food rescue program doesn't.
Speaker 1So we envision, like um filling up the van with uh prepared meals and having uh vegetables from farmer's markets and driving to a destination, promoting it and everybody coming with their bags and ready to fill up and providing food that would last, you know them, a week or two weeks. And then we come back and, uh, people are just able to access food and what's called like a food desert so like a food desert is somewhere where, um, your access to food is is more than a mile away. So someone without access to a car or transportation like, would have to walk more than a mile to get food, which is wild. So, um being able to reach further areas of the Valley, I feel like our food rescued. Our food donors are very concentrated on the East side. We'd love to expand to the West side, um, and getting food donors there, but I I feel like a lot of the food donors over there potentially would be a lot of chain restaurants or ethnic markets, so being able to tap into that market would be really cool.
Speaker 3Yeah, I mean, especially if it's an ethnic market in that area. The population's probably nearby. So it's like, oh shoot, like again, I don't have to have this uncooked cauliflower and be like, oh boy, so excited. Or someone who's never had broccoli being like I don't like, nor want, nor do this. But if it's something a little more close to home, then I mean everybody wins.
Speaker 1Yeah, but we also do see that a lot of like the smaller markets, they just don't have food waste. They can't afford it, you're like gold star. You guys are doing great yeah like nailing it, yeah, so I think that is a very cool opportunity would be like the mobile market project, seeing that through um and then obviously would love to just solve food waste. You know, yeah, just casually solving it in utah.
Speaker 1Yeah, there's 600 000 tons of food that goes to waste every year just in utah alone. So, um, being able to like significantly reduce that would significantly reduce methane gas emissions. It would save millions of gallons of water. It would feed so many people if we could divert that waste to them. Um, and yeah, there's big goals to be had, but we need everybody to have a piece in it.
Speaker 3Yes.
Speaker 2Oh, I was just going to say and adding to that, how we're trying to get people engaged is April's Earth Month.
Speaker 3Yes.
Speaker 2And we have some fun events. We're going to take a tour of the landfill we're super excited about it.
Speaker 3I'm so excited for you guys to do that that sounds like so much fun. Yeah, what day is it? I think I'm busy that day or I was sick, I can't remember which one I could see that guys.
Speaker 2Thank you for being honest about that. Listen, I uh again I'm not, I'm not.
Speaker 3Oh yeah, let's go grab coffee, like I love that you're doing this for our community, dana. I'm so excited for people to have that with you.
Speaker 2I think you were staying true to your earlier comment. Um, and we're gonna get to learn about recycling and see that food waste is actually one of the number one items in the landfill. Yeah, so right. We sometimes don't see it. We just put it in the trash and forget about it. So this is a great fun opportunity. And then we've got a brews and a better plan at night.
Speaker 3That's more my speed.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1You better be there. Yeah, we're at Keto's Brewing Okay. April 17th 6 o'clock.
Speaker 3I will be here. I will be there.
Speaker 2Okay, we'll make sure we bring your credit card at the end of this Bingo. No bingo, we're going to do a trivia though. Ooh, food waste trivia.
Speaker 3Big trivia guy so we can educate people, and I've learned so much that I'm ready to go. You'll win. I'm going to have to learn about this and be like.
Speaker 2We're super excited because it's fun. We get to get together with our people, like-minded people getting together and having fun for a good cause. We're going to hopefully raise some money for Earth Month around it yeah. But, to lay this point right, that we just it's each of these we see as an opportunity to engage more people, educate more people, raise more money, because it's not easy work and it all takes money.
Speaker 3Yes.
Speaker 2Yep.
Speaker 3It is the thing that everybody needs to make their visions come true. And yeah, cast doesn't pay for itself. Alice still has her gastrointestinal issues and needs to get a alex needs a detail, so or alice sorry, not alex, who's?
Speaker 2he? Why does he need a detail alice, we can't just take care?
Speaker 3of alice's boy. Whoever she's dating, is it even?
Speaker 1official, yet Maybe that's her brother. Alice and Alex.
Speaker 3Done.
Speaker 2Right here on small Lake city. You're welcome Um it's amazing.
Speaker 3I mean Jane, I mean anything else that you see, I mean the organization going through or or where you see it going outside of, kind of the stuff that.
Earth Month Events and Getting Involved
Speaker 2Layla talks about. Yeah, I think that was it. You know, we're just we. I think for us, like people ask us, you know where's next in terms of growth, and we're in four counties we, at this point, have grown so much we kind of want to take this year to just solidify our foundation. And I say Salt Lake. I say, oh my gosh, we probably have like 1%, Like we're doing so much. And since 2018, we've rescued like what? 2.6 million. Is that the right?
Speaker 1place.
Speaker 2Yeah, we're at 2.6 million pounds, which sounds like a lot and it is. We're grateful, but I think of how the potential in Salt Lake County is. Layla mentioned these pockets of of Salt Lake County where we're not not at like we'd love in, like harriman right, it's too far for someone in downtown salt lake to drive, but if we could build up harriman, where we've got food donors, receiving agencies and volunteers all in that city and that cities keep taking care of itself, so it's like the mutual aid model that leila mentioned, like that's what we would love to see next, to be honest, yeah, I mean, and I can't imagine there's a world where I mean some neighborhood city as big as Harriman, there's not three or four people like, hey, you can do this, and next thing you know there's eight and 12 and 600, and people come together and what a great like, what a great way to build a community.
Speaker 3Like I there a time so in 2022, I lived in a van for six months traveling the country and one thing I realized is, like, if you run into people at, like national parks, state parks, campgrounds, they're usually good people, yes, and like, in a similar way, if you're going to interact with people in a community, that's I mean again, like providing food to people that need it, being able to like create this ecosystem where we don't have to have as much waste, like likely good people. And so, even if it's I mean people who are like semi-interested, it's like why wouldn't you want to go spend time in a good cause and go meet some people? Because, like, that's one of my things I hear the most from, like the broader populations. Like I want, I don't, I want to meet new people. I don't know how to do it. I don't know how to do it.
Speaker 3It's so hard now that school's been over, I don't want to spend more time with coworkers, I don't want to go to bars. I hate dating apps and it's like, yeah, A go outside, Nothing's going to happen in your house and go get involved in some cool causes. And again, if it's an initiative, even on the dating, well, yeah, it applies to friends too. If you're doing something you're passionate about and someone else doing something you're passionate about, then boom, like you already have. Like one core foundation of like a relationship is like a shared mutual interest in missions and values. So like go donate your time is what I'm saying.
Speaker 2People, and then maybe small lake city becomes a dating app, because now you're connecting people through all of your guests and their missions. Swipe right and bring your extra food.
Speaker 1Yeah, I could find it, I actually do want to have a speed dating event, not because, like, I'm passionate about speed dating, but I've always just wanted to have a speed dating experience so I might as well just do it no one's gonna do it for me, I'll do it I tried to do that for uh I I run like a women's backcountry ski group and I tried to do that, but there were so many people that as soon as they all showed up we were like, uh, we're not doing it, never mind everybody gonna make a friend we just started skiing, that's better a forever effort success there is ways to do.
Speaker 1I think, like someone in our office was talking about doing like media speed dating. Oh, maybe we could have you there. Get some people on your podcast, sure.
Speaker 2Sure, yeah, yeah. It's cool people in our office.
Speaker 1Yeah, we work in a nonprofit coworking space called Indie Square, so it's all nonprofits in there. Cool yeah Good people doing good stuff. Absolutely. It's great energy to be in every day.
Speaker 2Sure, yeah Goes back to what you were saying. Just like the empathy you have when you see and can be close to people that are experiencing things, it's just been great to, kind of and when we've had bad days of like the heaviness of this, we just look around in our office space and like, okay, we're here, we're doing what we can today, so are they so? Are they? So are they? We got this?
Speaker 3We got this. Action is being had. Yes, action is being had yes because anxiety without action is just perpetual.
Speaker 2Maybe banging your head against a wall? Yeah, what is the same? Insanity is the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Speaker 1Yep, oh, so yeah, it is just keep banging that head.
Speaker 3And then there's some people you'll grab like hey, stop banging your head. And they're like, oh, I didn't know I was doing this yeah, then they'll turn around and find another wall and you're like nevermind, this is a new thing at this point.
Speaker 1I know a lot of people like that.
Speaker 3We all do friends, family, loved ones, everything in between.
Speaker 2Wow, this was so fun. Cool yeah. No, I mean I.
Speaker 3I love being able to just sit and talk to people about the things that they're most passionate about, about I know it's.
Speaker 2it's like you bring out the the good in everyone, so it makes it easy. You're not like tell?
Speaker 3me about your so tell me the first time that you felt trauma. Oh, I could never. Like I have friends that you know, like one of my friends does, uh, the girls camp podcast. It's like a ex-Mormon post-Mormon podcast and like I've gone through that process in my life and I'm now at a point of like indifference, which is great, but like the thought of like my life is like revolving around, like this religion, I have this like negative energy towards it, like no, I don't care how much money makes, I don't care how much following it is like not the energy I want.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, we're connecting people and it's more lighthearted and fun. But good work, yeah.
Speaker 3Uh well, dana and Layla want to end with the two questions I always ask everybody at the end of each episode. Number one if you each could have someone on the small city podcast and hear more about what they're up to in their story, who would you want to hear from?
Speaker 1My friend Addie Jacobson.
Speaker 3Okay.
Speaker 1She is a pro skier here and does a lot to empower women in skiing and and any outdoor sports, so she'd be a really awesome person to have on. She produced the women's ski film advice for girls and her and I have started back country baddies this year Cool, so she's just like a mover and a shaker and she'd be awesome to bring on.
Speaker 3Love that. It sounds like a similar friend of mine, Caroline Gleick, which put them together.
Speaker 1Yeah. So I saw Caroline Gleick. I was organizing an event for Backcountry Baddies and I saw her at Backcountry and I was like shaking. I was like she's so cool, I got to go talk to her. So, yeah, I adore her.
Speaker 3Yeah, no, Caroline's great.
Speaker 1She's amazing, yeah, exactly, being really young and like in a professional role, like a lot of people will in instantly gravitate towards dana in a conversation, which is totally fair, like you're the founder and the of the organization and mover and shaker, and but I'm like I. I also like, want to say something so I'm here, don't box me out. Thank you for addressing both of us.
Speaker 3This has been really lovely I I very rarely will be in a conversation with multiple people like all right, so anyway, right um.
Speaker 2And then my other person is a personal shout out my daughter, um.
Speaker 3So she made this I was gonna say I didn't notice when you walked in. Yeah, but I see it so just in case no one's watching on YouTube or just listening. Dana's wearing a skirt made out of neckties.
Speaker 2Yeah, so she is a fashion designer doing upcycled so she goes to the Goodwill bins a lot, gets stuff that literally is on its way to the trash and repurposes it. Where did she get this?
Speaker 3idea from.
Speaker 2So she has been Does she? No, here's what's funny is, yes, the sustainability side, but she is. I am not a fashionista and she at two years old. There was one week I literally took pictures every day Cause I knew something was happening. She started dressing herself at two and she would take the weirdest stuff out of the closet and put it together and I was like, okay, girl, and I'd take a picture, cause I was like, wow, didn't see that and I'd never dressed her again.
Speaker 2She had an opinion about what you are and when you look at like, especially when she was in elementary school, so eclectic, so wild, teachers at school, boys at school and not, you know, in the romantic way just just like, wow, what's she going to wear today? Um, that she kind of, you know, figured out. She was out exploring what she wanted to do in life and it was like science and math and film. And then she came back to fashion. I was like that makes sense. So, yeah, she takes stuff. Ties Most men don't wear ties anymore unless you go to church, and so they're full at the bins at the Goodwill. She finds them at estate sales and makes cool stuff out of them, but not just ties, just any stuff. Um so uh, shout out to her, cause I just think it's so fun. What she's doing in a fast fashion is just horrible for our planet as well.
Final Questions and Contact Information
Speaker 1So, and she's just amazing at it. Everything she makes is so cool.
Speaker 3So there we go. The best of both worlds, things that help take things from landfills and look good, yeah. And then, lastly, if people want to find out more information about Wasteless or get involved, what's the best place to find information?
Speaker 1It depends on the person, but I would say Wasteless Solutions on Instagram. Okay, if you're on Facebook, we're on Facebook Wasteless Solutions and then wastelesssolutionsorg. You can find everything about our programs, um, our mission, history. Everything is there, um. But I would say we're active on on Instagram and Facebook mostly for like events or just updates, recaps, everything.
Speaker 3Food waste tips food waste tips food waste tips, yeah, all the things, yeah, so make sure you're getting involved. There's opportunities to come volunteer. Come meet some new people, do some cool stuff. Come to the events coming on for Earth Month. Yeah and yeah, come meet some cool people, so fun talking with you. Love what you do Love having cool people. I just get to highlight cool people. I don't do anything great, I just sit there and talk.
Speaker 2But you make it easy and comfortable, and that is a skill.
Speaker 3True, I've learned that I am that person, Like I'm at a point that like the last few years have been like very transformational for me and like like understanding who I am and like confident about it, Like cause some people be like I'm like, oh yeah, I'm just like a pretty witty person, Like you said that, confident, like oh it's just something.
Speaker 2I know that.
Speaker 3I am and, like I've also learned, I'm the person that people are like. Oh, I don't usually feel comfortable. I don't usually talk to people about this, Don't usually do this. I'm like.
Speaker 2I know it's okay, it's a gift.
Speaker 3Just keep going. I know you need to and I love to listen.
Speaker 2I love it. It's a beautiful gift. Someone today asked me at the event I was speaking at, like how do food secure people help food insecure people? And it kind of was like I don't know, I'd never thought about that, and so what first came to me it was this like meeting people where they are right, like you can't be prescriptive and be like you need to do this, this and this. You know, pull yourself up by your bootstraps.
Speaker 2Right, exactly, thank you for rolling your eyes Exactly, and I just that was the first thing that came to me like let's just meet people where they are and that's what you're doing.
Speaker 3I love a good old white savior coming into a problem they know nothing about and using all of the knowledge they have done of to make sure that they can tell the people who know way more than them about whatever they're doing. Yeah, it's probably never happened to either of you in your lives as women, Never, never never, Well, we let Dan Dana this has been great. Thank you so much for coming on Everybody get involved. So many cool things going on and, yeah, keep on doing the great stuff you guys are doing.
Speaker 1It's amazing, thank you.
