Question

0:0:0.0 --> 0:0:0.260 Upadhyay, Atul OK.

0:0:11.740 --> 0:0:14.670 Upadhyay, Atul Yeah, I think I'm just going to be a little bit late I guess.

0:0:17.400 --> 0:0:18.850 Upadhyay, Atul Like we just met yesterday.

0:0:18.860 --> 0:0:19.740 Upadhyay, Atul Now we're back again.

0:0:20.770 --> 0:0:21.520 Jesse Herrera Yep. Yeah.

0:0:21.730 --> 0:0:22.700 Jesse Herrera So I'll go man.

0:0:27.700 --> 0:0:46.820 Hissin, Sarah So basically, Jesse, what we're supposed to be doing is using a UM, an organization and doing some sort of uh evaluation or assessment of it and then.

0:0:47.970 --> 0:0:52.30 Hissin, Sarah Umm, like we had to identify a problem.

0:0:52.100 --> 0:0:54.490 Hissin, Sarah Describe the problem like the issue.

0:0:56.720 --> 0:0:59.480 Hissin, Sarah Do some research on, like literary views and then.

0:1:1.230 --> 0:1:2.0 Hissin, Sarah Come up with a way.

0:1:2.10 --> 0:1:14.490 Hissin, Sarah There's multiple types of evaluations to evaluate whether the program is meeting and y'all and y'all's case is is working towards meeting the needs or the issue or the concern.

0:1:14.820 --> 0:1:20.760 Hissin, Sarah Then we have to collect some sort of data and then report our our findings.

0:1:20.770 --> 0:1:23.180 Hissin, Sarah And so I know.

0:1:24.540 --> 0:1:24.990 Hissin, Sarah Uh.

0:1:25.220 --> 0:1:27.430 Hissin, Sarah A tool had mentioned that y'all have the.

0:1:29.140 --> 0:1:33.790 Hissin, Sarah Uh mindful market that you do near Texas Westland. Umm.

0:1:34.580 --> 0:1:46.120 Hissin, Sarah And so that's kind of what we were looking at and of kind of saying, I'm I'm assuming well, let me ask this, why did y'all choose like that area of Fort Worth?

0:1:46.130 --> 0:1:53.980 Hissin, Sarah Like did y'all do kind of a needs assessment of that area, Fort Worth, before deciding to host it there.

0:1:53.990 --> 0:1:58.540 Hissin, Sarah Like what was kind of your's process I guess of setting that whole market up.

0:1:59.540 --> 0:2:1.870 Jesse Herrera So there was a couple things that went into that market.

0:2:1.980 --> 0:2:3.270 Jesse Herrera So one of them.

0:2:5.960 --> 0:2:21.590 Jesse Herrera That area is 7610576404111119 and a lot of the adjacent areas are in the middle of the USDA food desert, so there's already an established need of it being a high priority sub code.

0:2:21.740 --> 0:2:35.10 Jesse Herrera In addition to that, we have another project we've developed called Grow SE and the premise of that is to develop urban farms to address some of the food disparities in this area and also introduce the economic opportunities in the form of urban agriculture.

0:2:36.250 --> 0:2:46.820 Jesse Herrera That said, one of the key things that we recognize is that those farms that come from those very zip codes don't really have a means or of selling directly to the community.

0:2:46.960 --> 0:2:50.970 Jesse Herrera The only established farmers markets in our area are on the West side of Fort Worth.

0:2:54.970 --> 0:2:55.150 Hissin, Sarah Right.

0:2:50.980 --> 0:3:13.570 Jesse Herrera Whatever being clear, fork, which has kind of hit or miss of fresh produce, and probably the the best, most recognized farmers markets, Cowtown, which prior was located way on the West side of four which had limited options for accessibility because public transit doesn't run very effectively on the weekends now that it's relocated to white settlement, there is no way to get there via public transit.

0:3:13.660 --> 0:3:21.80 Jesse Herrera You have to stop on the outskirts of white settlement and then you can take an Uber or some other form of transportation to get the rest of the way.

0:3:21.220 --> 0:3:28.10 Jesse Herrera And it's because why student doesn't participate in training metro, so that provides us some initial justification.

0:3:28.680 --> 0:3:30.460 Hissin, Sarah Yeah, how sorry.

0:3:30.470 --> 0:3:32.890 Hissin, Sarah I have an ADHD brain, so like I kind of went this.

0:3:32.900 --> 0:3:34.390 Hissin, Sarah So how are y'all gonna connect?

0:3:34.400 --> 0:3:49.920 Hissin, Sarah So those farmers markets, I've gone to those before, I'm in the Arlington, Mansfield area and I know even the farmers markets we have here, like I pay more to purchase like locally grown food cause it's you know it costs more like they don't anyways cause it's not in bulk and all this stuff.

0:3:49.930 --> 0:3:50.670 Hissin, Sarah So how do y'all?

0:3:52.740 --> 0:4:16.120 Hissin, Sarah Like when it comes to the are these two projects going to merge where the farmers, the urban farmers, that y'all are, you know, helping to get this kicked off can make like a margin on their produce, but then also not charging like you know, twice as much as what you would get at Kroger based on the fact that they're in a food desert or y'all kind of keeping those two things separate.

0:4:16.910 --> 0:4:23.730 Jesse Herrera They are separate to some extents, but those solutions that we have to help accommodate that we are partnering with Blue Zones project.

0:4:23.740 --> 0:4:29.300 Jesse Herrera So they've offered us some means and methods to actually probe purchase the produce for a direct donation.

0:4:30.180 --> 0:4:36.510 Jesse Herrera We also have sponsorship packages that we offer at the mindful market to purchase what's called market money, which is basically like a voucher.

0:4:36.520 --> 0:4:45.220 Jesse Herrera So it basically gives a Community member $50.00 worth of money that they could expensive and even there there be food or anything else that may be available at that day.

0:4:46.10 --> 0:4:53.700 Jesse Herrera And then as we get further established, will have opportunities to introduce SNAP and wake directly at the market.

0:4:53.850 --> 0:5:3.380 Jesse Herrera Till then, what we've been able to do is secure another partnership with Blue Zones Project where they're actually certifying each of the farms to offer WIC and SNAP directly as a farm.

0:5:3.390 --> 0:5:12.960 Jesse Herrera So we don't have to be established with that system on our market as the partners go to market, to market or location location, they can offer staff and which benefits independently.

0:5:14.760 --> 0:5:15.70 Hissin, Sarah OK.

0:5:15.80 --> 0:5:24.210 Hissin, Sarah So let me so you're saying that so y'all are in the process of trying to get possibly getting Wick and snap for folks to purchase produce at the mindful market.

0:5:24.220 --> 0:5:29.920 Hissin, Sarah But in the meantime, folks can go to the farm like directly to the urban farmers and use their.

0:5:31.230 --> 0:5:31.700 Jesse Herrera To to.

0:5:31.750 --> 0:5:33.950 Jesse Herrera Yeah, to a certain extent, yes.

0:5:34.820 --> 0:5:35.20 Hissin, Sarah OK.

0:5:34.970 --> 0:5:45.800 Jesse Herrera Uh, the the part that we missed there is that they if they come to our market, they can still utilize SNAP and that's SNAP and WIC benefit at the market or any other market they choose to do business at.

0:5:45.810 --> 0:5:48.780 Jesse Herrera So that SNAP benefit travels with them wherever they go.

0:5:49.50 --> 0:5:51.960 Jesse Herrera We are in the process of looking at SNAP, but we're quite a ways away.

0:5:52.260 --> 0:5:52.440 Hissin, Sarah Yeah.

0:5:52.150 --> 0:5:57.390 Jesse Herrera I think we obviously need another 18 months to two years before we're comfortable pursuing that.

0:5:58.190 --> 0:6:1.770 Hissin, Sarah And then with the $50.00 voucher, what what's the like?

0:6:1.780 --> 0:6:4.360 Hissin, Sarah What's the protocol of receiving that?

0:6:5.530 --> 0:6:11.70 Jesse Herrera Basically, they just have to fill out an intake form and then they'll get a stack of money to keep it equitable.

0:6:11.80 --> 0:6:11.410 Jesse Herrera Repeated.

0:6:11.420 --> 0:6:12.740 Jesse Herrera Don't feel awkward using it.

0:6:13.240 --> 0:6:13.520 Hissin, Sarah Uh-huh.

0:6:20.300 --> 0:6:20.520 Hissin, Sarah Uh-huh.

0:6:13.430 --> 0:6:25.470 Jesse Herrera We do the 1st 50 and sometimes we get people that are in high needs and sometimes you know it's people, students that are already there that may or may not need it as much, but it's a way for us to keep it from being like Oh well, that's a handout service.

0:6:26.410 --> 0:6:32.20 Hissin, Sarah OK, so the 1st 50 people who are cleared through the intake get the $50.00 voucher.

0:6:32.770 --> 0:6:32.990 Jesse Herrera Correct.

0:6:33.380 --> 0:6:33.880 Hissin, Sarah Is that right?

0:6:33.890 --> 0:6:34.390 Hissin, Sarah That's great.

0:6:37.440 --> 0:6:39.310 Upadhyay, Atul Just say like am I.

0:6:39.370 --> 0:6:40.910 Upadhyay, Atul Like is your voice distorted?

0:6:40.920 --> 0:6:44.300 Upadhyay, Atul Is are you hearing his voice a little bit distorted or is it fine on your end?

0:6:46.80 --> 0:6:47.850 Hissin, Sarah I don't know, Jesse say some words.

0:6:47.860 --> 0:6:49.550 Hissin, Sarah I I don't feel like it's distorted.

0:6:50.660 --> 0:6:51.350 Jesse Herrera I don't know how many.

0:6:51.30 --> 0:6:52.150 Upadhyay, Atul Yeah, just when my computer.

0:6:53.690 --> 0:6:54.310 Hissin, Sarah I know how you.

0:6:53.310 --> 0:6:54.980 Jesse Herrera Yeah, I mean, it could be the headset.

0:6:55.780 --> 0:6:57.440 Hissin, Sarah I don't know how you're supposed to sound, so.

0:6:58.890 --> 0:6:59.470 Upadhyay, Atul No, no, no.

0:6:59.480 --> 0:7:1.250 Upadhyay, Atul I was just calling this toilet on my end.

0:7:1.580 --> 0:7:1.990 Hissin, Sarah Ohh.

0:7:1.730 --> 0:7:4.710 Upadhyay, Atul That's why I was like, if it's, if it's OK on your end or not.

0:7:5.570 --> 0:7:5.810 Hissin, Sarah Yeah.

0:7:5.820 --> 0:7:7.0 Hissin, Sarah No, it's fine on my end.

0:7:7.90 --> 0:7:8.640 Hissin, Sarah Do you wanna disconnect and reconnect?

0:7:10.400 --> 0:7:10.780 Hissin, Sarah Is it?

0:7:10.540 --> 0:7:13.890 Upadhyay, Atul Uh, not sure if that's gonna work.

0:7:13.900 --> 0:7:17.890 Upadhyay, Atul Will it work if I just disconnect and reconnect even though if I'm an organizer?

0:7:18.710 --> 0:7:18.820 Hissin, Sarah I.

0:7:18.600 --> 0:7:19.140 Upadhyay, Atul Is that OK?

0:7:21.280 --> 0:7:21.920 Hissin, Sarah That's just what I do.

0:7:21.640 --> 0:7:22.100 Upadhyay, Atul Let me just.

0:7:24.750 --> 0:7:25.90 Upadhyay, Atul Let me just.

0:7:29.520 --> 0:7:30.740 Hissin, Sarah Jesse, could you tell me again?

0:7:32.960 --> 0:7:33.440 Hissin, Sarah What?

0:7:33.700 --> 0:7:41.440 Hissin, Sarah Like what groups are y'all connected with to get the, umm, mindful market going?

0:7:41.450 --> 0:7:42.920 Hissin, Sarah You said, did you say Blue Zone?

0:7:44.20 --> 0:7:47.710 Jesse Herrera Yeah, currently we parted with Texas Westland Loose Zones project.

0:7:47.850 --> 0:7:54.390 Jesse Herrera The healthy parent county collaboration, the office of Commissioner Brooks and I'm trying to make sure I didn't miss anyone else.

0:7:55.500 --> 0:7:57.180 Jesse Herrera Was it the primary partner says right now?

0:8:2.430 --> 0:8:3.550 Jesse Herrera Technically, collaboration.

0:7:57.840 --> 0:8:5.160 Hissin, Sarah OK, sorry I can't write that past the healthy, the healthy, healthy Tarrant County.

0:8:8.960 --> 0:8:11.220 Hissin, Sarah Aberration and then the office of who?

0:8:12.700 --> 0:8:14.590 Jesse Herrera Uh, they should have books.

0:8:15.40 --> 0:8:15.880 Hissin, Sarah Questioner books.

0:8:23.240 --> 0:8:23.710 Hissin, Sarah Awesome.

0:8:24.80 --> 0:8:29.440 Hissin, Sarah How many folks do y'all generally have come through the once a month thing?

0:8:30.590 --> 0:8:37.960 Jesse Herrera Uh, so here lately the numbers been down just because of the heat, we're seeing numbers around 30 to 40 typically on a good day.

0:8:37.970 --> 0:8:47.390 Jesse Herrera We'll get anywhere from 65 to about 115, just depending if it's a themed market or a non themed market and what produce is available.

0:8:47.920 --> 0:8:48.260 Hissin, Sarah Right.

0:8:48.110 --> 0:8:54.980 Jesse Herrera Umm, civically early spring or mid fall is, you know, our highest participation rates.

0:8:56.510 --> 0:8:58.310 Jesse Herrera Tomato season is also very uh.

0:9:4.250 --> 0:9:4.430 Hissin, Sarah Yeah.

0:9:0.470 --> 0:9:6.400 Jesse Herrera Umm, what's the word I'm looking for popular people to have loved come out for tomatoes and Peppers.

0:9:7.870 --> 0:9:10.710 Hissin, Sarah Umm ohh gosh.

0:9:10.750 --> 0:9:11.940 Hissin, Sarah Ohh, how do you?

0:9:11.990 --> 0:9:22.650 Hissin, Sarah So how do y'all I guess get the word out about the mindful market and then do y'all get the word out like about what's going to be there like produce wise.

0:9:22.660 --> 0:9:27.710 Hissin, Sarah So before people doesn't, people are having to walk, you know, to come there.

0:9:27.720 --> 0:9:31.920 Hissin, Sarah Like do y'all is I guess how do you communicate with the people in those zip codes?

0:9:33.80 --> 0:9:49.520 Jesse Herrera So right now we're doing uh, email distribution, social media distribution, and then we also print out Flyers and and easy distribute those that local businesses, the the primary partner that we have for receiving those uh Flyers is black coffee.

0:9:49.530 --> 0:9:51.640 Jesse Herrera It's uh, right adjacent to the campus.

0:9:52.130 --> 0:9:57.570 Jesse Herrera We're currently looking at other businesses that we can partner with to share and promote the market.

0:10:0.360 --> 0:10:2.60 Jesse Herrera Can't say there's anything else that I missed.

0:10:3.130 --> 0:10:7.600 Jesse Herrera And then you know, we cross promote with the partner organizations that we work with.

0:10:7.950 --> 0:10:9.600 Jesse Herrera And then the other one is next door.

0:10:9.870 --> 0:10:16.660 Jesse Herrera We have a few folks that put on their next door to help get the word out and then we have a partnership with another group called Group 817.

0:10:16.670 --> 0:10:20.70 Jesse Herrera He does the local community newsletter and she sends it out as well.

0:10:21.200 --> 0:10:22.470 Hissin, Sarah What was the name of the Nobel?

0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:24.600 Hissin, Sarah The Nobel, the local newsletter again.

0:10:25.310 --> 0:10:26.530 Jesse Herrera Really 817?

0:10:32.540 --> 0:10:33.90 Hissin, Sarah Awesome.

0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:39.640 Hissin, Sarah Do y'all do any kind of, uh, I don't even know if this is allowed, but anything with like the the schools that are in those zip codes.

0:10:41.90 --> 0:10:42.0 Jesse Herrera We have tried.

0:10:43.300 --> 0:10:43.420 Hissin, Sarah Yeah.

0:10:46.510 --> 0:10:46.690 Hissin, Sarah Yeah.

0:10:42.50 --> 0:10:55.430 Jesse Herrera It's just difficult to get a key champion that can that we can work with and we need probably about four or five requests and only one of them has come through and it's only been at, you know, I would say partial capacity.

0:10:56.360 --> 0:10:56.540 Hissin, Sarah Yeah.

0:11:1.150 --> 0:11:9.460 Hissin, Sarah So if we were going to as a group, choose a, let me see how our teacher worded it.

0:11:10.620 --> 0:11:13.250 Upadhyay, Atul Umm, I think I'm gonna share this.

0:11:13.840 --> 0:11:14.850 Upadhyay, Atul Very nice, actually.

0:11:14.860 --> 0:11:15.160 Upadhyay, Atul Hold on.

0:11:19.340 --> 0:11:24.270 Upadhyay, Atul Umm, these are basically what they're like.

0:11:24.280 --> 0:11:28.800 Upadhyay, Atul It's it's just for the agency at the topic, but like it, it kind of lines around the these words right here.

0:11:42.80 --> 0:11:42.610 Hissin, Sarah Anderson.

0:11:49.880 --> 0:11:56.490 Hissin, Sarah So I guess this is identify the program evaluation like so we need to find like an an like.

0:11:57.860 --> 0:11:58.900 Hissin, Sarah I guess, Jesse. What?

0:11:58.960 --> 0:12:4.500 Hissin, Sarah Like what is a roadblock or a hindrance that y'all have run into and not?

0:12:4.510 --> 0:12:14.290 Hissin, Sarah There's probably multiple with, you know, propelling this really great program to like where you're kind of would see it.

0:12:14.300 --> 0:12:21.280 Hissin, Sarah You know, like if it could look exactly how the group of y'all envision it like what kind of issues have y'all run into?

0:12:23.390 --> 0:12:24.50 Hissin, Sarah Getting it there.

0:12:25.720 --> 0:12:31.70 Jesse Herrera So some of the key issues that we face is really just having is our internal capacity.

0:12:31.80 --> 0:12:39.560 Jesse Herrera I mean the markets not yet fully funded where we can afford a full time staff member to do that is solely dedicated to run the market.

0:12:40.460 --> 0:12:42.980 Jesse Herrera I can takes a lot to just do it on a month to month.

0:12:48.830 --> 0:12:49.40 Hissin, Sarah Umm.

0:12:43.700 --> 0:12:50.780 Jesse Herrera Uh, ideally we like to get it to a week to week, but we are just in no way at that capacity to do that.

0:12:51.700 --> 0:13:4.180 Jesse Herrera The other thing is that there's a the weather can be problematic, not only just for the produce, because I mean, if the weather's extreme, produce sales tend to go down or you know what we can harvest has to go down.

0:13:4.950 --> 0:13:6.430 Jesse Herrera So that has an effect on the market.

0:13:8.450 --> 0:13:19.200 Jesse Herrera In terms of just being there, I mean it's an outdoor event, so anytime it's extreme weather, we don't really have a great contingency plan to accommodate for extreme weather.

0:13:19.590 --> 0:13:35.260 Jesse Herrera We are currently negotiating and try to get it in indoor space for those extreme weather events that will fit being an institution we anticipate it will take some time to get you know, some form of discussion set up, especially since they just barely got a new president.

0:13:36.260 --> 0:13:52.470 Jesse Herrera Umm, so when it's hot, you know participation is low and it makes it difficult for us to be able to effectively host, which is one of the key topics we talked about this week with our team meeting that's sitting in protocols for actually canceling the market that we at least have consistency.

0:13:52.480 --> 0:13:56.420 Jesse Herrera Our customers know, you know, they do happen to, you know, want to come by.

0:13:56.980 --> 0:13:59.660 Jesse Herrera We can, you know, at least say, OK, it's plus 100 degrees.

0:13:59.670 --> 0:14:1.320 Jesse Herrera You know it's gonna be cancelled.

0:14:2.280 --> 0:14:2.610 Hissin, Sarah Right.

0:14:3.640 --> 0:14:13.430 Jesse Herrera I would say the biggest challenge outside funding really is just the interest of people wanting to do farmers markets on their own.

0:14:14.200 --> 0:14:20.160 Jesse Herrera Umm, he say we wanna work together in this community, but we don't practice that very well.

0:14:29.320 --> 0:14:29.480 Hissin, Sarah Yeah.

0:14:22.70 --> 0:14:37.270 Jesse Herrera Typically what we're seeing now and it happened before we set up this market, everyone wants to do their own version of it and we're at a advantage compared to other organizations just because we have had to go to the struggle developing these urban farms and we don't have many urban farms.

0:14:37.280 --> 0:14:53.210 Jesse Herrera There's actually out there, and again with the pools help, we've gotten even a better understanding of, you know, how many farmers markets are actually farmers markets and how few farmers are actually are at throughout this entire metropolitan area providing service.

0:14:53.820 --> 0:14:54.140 Hissin, Sarah Right.

0:14:54.80 --> 0:14:57.490 Jesse Herrera So the moral story is, I mean, yeah, we can.

0:14:57.640 --> 0:15:1.30 Jesse Herrera Everyone can create their own farmers market, but it's not really gonna be tried.

0:15:1.40 --> 0:15:4.590 Jesse Herrera And true farmers market cause there's no farmers to get the food from.

0:15:5.320 --> 0:15:5.560 Hissin, Sarah Right.

0:15:5.40 --> 0:15:15.230 Jesse Herrera But what ends up happening is they, you know, instead of collaborating with an organization like I said already has in the market, you know, established and is working to try to build it to full fruition.

0:15:15.640 --> 0:15:22.410 Jesse Herrera They wanna put their own name and stamp on their own market and make it their own because it's bigger and better and it's actually serving this community more than yours.

0:15:29.140 --> 0:15:29.300 Hissin, Sarah Yeah.

0:15:22.420 --> 0:15:29.810 Jesse Herrera And you know, over time, as we all compete for the same resources, she eventually diminish all of our products and all of them.

0:15:30.410 --> 0:15:30.810 Hissin, Sarah Yeah.

0:15:30.850 --> 0:15:38.20 Hissin, Sarah Ohh I feel that I run an activist group here in Arlington and it was something I kind of fell into honestly and.

0:15:40.60 --> 0:15:41.260 Hissin, Sarah Because I was trying to find my people.

0:15:41.270 --> 0:15:57.420 Hissin, Sarah Because it's very conservative in South Arlington and and I'm not but like the competition within like activism and within nonprofit is is extremely heartbreaking.

0:15:57.730 --> 0:16:7.170 Hissin, Sarah Like I don't know it's it was kind of surprising to me that I'm just like, OK, so there's a lot of people who are in this just because they want people to think they're awesome.

0:16:8.640 --> 0:16:8.900 Jesse Herrera Yeah.

0:16:7.180 --> 0:16:9.90 Hissin, Sarah And I'm just like, you need to go.

0:16:9.430 --> 0:16:10.890 Hissin, Sarah You need to go to corporate world for that.

0:16:10.900 --> 0:16:18.460 Hissin, Sarah Like leave this space be because that shouldn't be what this is about anyway.

0:16:27.190 --> 0:16:27.410 Upadhyay, Atul Yeah.

0:16:18.470 --> 0:16:29.500 Hissin, Sarah So so when you, I don't think I got the name well actually are you is this like being recorded and then we can like a typed out transcript.

0:16:30.120 --> 0:16:32.560 Upadhyay, Atul Yeah, I think it's going to come out as typed up, I think.

0:16:32.480 --> 0:16:32.660 Hissin, Sarah No.

0:16:34.180 --> 0:16:40.550 Hissin, Sarah Yeah, because I had Jesse, you said with y'all's connections to something and it wasn't Blue Zone.

0:16:40.560 --> 0:16:42.890 Hissin, Sarah I don't remember what it was that you said, but it was like a.

0:16:45.220 --> 0:16:47.710 Jesse Herrera Think about Brooks off Commissioner Brooks office.

0:16:47.720 --> 0:16:50.610 Jesse Herrera Healthy Tarrant County collaboration, which one?

0:16:49.840 --> 0:16:52.410 Hissin, Sarah I saw that maybe I miss, maybe I miss her.

0:16:52.420 --> 0:16:54.230 Hissin, Sarah Now I have I have those listed down.

0:16:54.320 --> 0:16:55.970 Hissin, Sarah How many farms do y'all so.

0:16:56.360 --> 0:17:6.410 Hissin, Sarah So is there a pretty decent interest in people wanting to have a farm in the East Fort Worth area like?

0:17:6.50 --> 0:17:8.130 Jesse Herrera There's some.

0:17:10.490 --> 0:17:19.550 Jesse Herrera It's hard to really accurately measure right now because if you ask anyone, yes, they're interested in being a farmer today and then they wanna address food disparities.

0:17:19.560 --> 0:17:25.270 Jesse Herrera But when you actually put them out there on 100, you know plus degree day action comes otherwise.

0:17:26.750 --> 0:17:27.70 Hissin, Sarah Right.

0:17:27.870 --> 0:17:35.20 Jesse Herrera So I do think there are generally people there that do want to farm in this overall area.

0:17:35.400 --> 0:17:41.430 Jesse Herrera It's just a matter of finding the right person for the right seat, and that becomes the most difficult thing because.

0:17:44.150 --> 0:17:46.120 Jesse Herrera There's not really a great place to look for this.

0:17:54.430 --> 0:17:54.570 Hissin, Sarah Yes.

0:17:48.430 --> 0:17:55.880 Jesse Herrera And honestly, the skill sets that are needed aren't technical proficiencies like I know how to grow, it's more the get it.

0:17:55.970 --> 0:18:10.180 Jesse Herrera And do you want it if you have those two things, we can train the technical proficiency, but if you don't get it one it, then you're not really gonna do well at this arena because you're gonna give up real quick or you're gonna overcommit yourself.

0:18:10.190 --> 0:18:13.940 Jesse Herrera And then you're gonna fizzle out, which is typically what we see with a lot of champions.

0:18:14.170 --> 0:18:15.380 Jesse Herrera They wanna fix everything.

0:18:15.390 --> 0:18:18.180 Jesse Herrera Well, that's great, but you can't.

0:18:18.260 --> 0:18:19.360 Jesse Herrera No one has that capacity.

0:18:20.180 --> 0:18:20.650 Hissin, Sarah Right.

0:18:20.720 --> 0:18:21.150 Hissin, Sarah Yeah.

0:18:21.160 --> 0:18:22.130 Hissin, Sarah No, absolutely.

0:18:22.200 --> 0:18:25.160 Hissin, Sarah Yeah, instead of like, really honing in on one thing?

0:18:25.910 --> 0:18:31.520 Hissin, Sarah Umm, so when you say farms are these like like urban like what people like would have in there like backyards like?

0:18:35.860 --> 0:18:36.90 Hissin, Sarah OK.

0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:36.770 Jesse Herrera Yeah, I mean, I'll I can bring up some pictures here in in a second.

0:18:37.200 --> 0:18:43.800 Jesse Herrera But essentially, yeah, I mean, what we've mastered is trying to develop small skill farms.

0:18:43.810 --> 0:18:49.10 Jesse Herrera So these are roughly about 1/3 of an acre, give or take the largest farm in our network is hopeless.

0:18:49.20 --> 0:18:51.140 Jesse Herrera Farmers is currently operating at 2 acres.

0:18:52.70 --> 0:18:52.390 Jesse Herrera Umm.

0:18:53.390 --> 0:18:59.20 Jesse Herrera And the reasoning is we've actually found you don't eat a lot of land to grow a lot of food.

0:18:59.970 --> 0:19:0.500 Jesse Herrera Umm.

0:19:1.170 --> 0:19:17.200 Jesse Herrera And the fact that you know, there's enough challenges to doing this in an urban environment, the only way to really help mitigate some of those risks is to get the scale down where you can effectively manage that with a small crew and without having to invest in a substantial amount of equipment.

0:19:17.970 --> 0:19:24.120 Jesse Herrera The other thing that becomes important too is that in urban environments, land isn't always rarely available.

0:19:24.450 --> 0:19:24.670 Hissin, Sarah Right.

0:19:24.490 --> 0:19:35.400 Jesse Herrera Land costs a lot to purchase and it costs even more to develop and I'm and building in a backyard or like in the back of a church where there's underutilized property.

0:19:35.990 --> 0:19:59.780 Jesse Herrera That's the ideal scenario because you don't have to go through the city of Fort Worth and most of the infrastructure is already there if you're buying them vacant lots, which was what this ordinance that we're using was originally designed for, we found that it's quite to the contrary because developing on a vacant lot requires a lot of initial upfront investments to account for the capital infrastructure.

0:20:0.420 --> 0:20:0.640 Hissin, Sarah Umm.

0:20:0.740 --> 0:20:4.510 Jesse Herrera Uh to give an example, I'm gonna show this for on the clip.

0:20:5.170 --> 0:20:6.800 Jesse Herrera This is what Taber farm look like.

0:20:6.850 --> 0:20:9.920 Jesse Herrera You know, but that's that's like the first picture.

0:20:10.470 --> 0:20:13.380 Jesse Herrera When we started, it looked like this.

0:20:16.480 --> 0:20:18.100 Hissin, Sarah Oh gosh, yeah.

0:20:16.710 --> 0:20:25.310 Jesse Herrera And I mean, it was about 20 grand just to clear all that out to get it to the, to a surface that we could actually develop.

0:20:25.760 --> 0:20:34.400 Jesse Herrera So after all the clearing we were left with this and then it took us another year to to basically build it up and and get the soil cultivated.

0:20:35.160 --> 0:20:38.380 Jesse Herrera And then it was another year or so to get the water infrastructure out there.

0:20:39.280 --> 0:20:52.90 Jesse Herrera And part of this is and and maybe this goes back to another key challenge that we face with projects like this, a lot of the funding that is out there does not cover capital cost or salaries or staff.

0:20:52.360 --> 0:20:53.550 Jesse Herrera They want you to do the work.

0:20:53.560 --> 0:20:54.830 Jesse Herrera They just don't wanna pay you to do it.

0:20:56.560 --> 0:20:58.550 Jesse Herrera And the best way I can kind of correlate this.

0:20:58.720 --> 0:21:1.150 Jesse Herrera They'll pay for you to develop the program.

0:21:1.340 --> 0:21:5.300 Jesse Herrera They'll pay for you to teach the program, but they won't pay for you to actually build the classroom.

0:21:6.790 --> 0:21:11.960 Hissin, Sarah OK, so they so the funding doesn't cover like you're up front like development?

0:21:11.700 --> 0:21:23.840 Jesse Herrera No, like if you were to compare this to what you get in corporate America, like when the venture capitalists goes and invest in the company, I mean they give you money to get your business up and going and enough salary so you can commit to that business.

0:21:24.230 --> 0:21:24.550 Hissin, Sarah Right.

0:21:24.730 --> 0:21:31.110 Jesse Herrera It's not the same in the nonprofit arena, like for me to get salary from my farmers, it's very, very difficult.

0:21:31.860 --> 0:21:34.580 Jesse Herrera Umm, no USDA funding will cover that.

0:21:34.660 --> 0:21:41.790 Jesse Herrera And the private funding that we have been able to secure, it took us a long time to make a convincing argument to get that funding.

0:21:42.460 --> 0:21:42.790 Hissin, Sarah Right.

0:21:43.990 --> 0:21:44.360 Jesse Herrera And then we.

0:21:43.740 --> 0:21:46.80 Hissin, Sarah Yeah, that's wild that.

0:21:48.240 --> 0:21:51.680 Jesse Herrera And it's something that I'm hoping will change, but let's see.

0:21:51.690 --> 0:21:53.110 Jesse Herrera Where's that picture at?

0:21:53.690 --> 0:21:56.600 Jesse Herrera This is probably a good one, so this is a typical scale.

0:21:57.710 --> 0:22:1.780 Jesse Herrera This farm has three beds there, roughly the size, and this is Tabor.

0:22:1.790 --> 0:22:18.340 Jesse Herrera Far as this is probably the more elaborate form that we've had to develop because it sits on, you know, a vacant lot and we learn real quickly just how quickly how expensive these can become at the end of this project, we will probably invest at about 300,000 to get this farm up and going.

0:22:19.930 --> 0:22:27.570 Hissin, Sarah And how much like produce for the community does that size of a form field typically like?

0:22:27.580 --> 0:22:30.850 Hissin, Sarah I realize that you know, based on whether and stuff that.

0:22:32.150 --> 0:22:49.70 Jesse Herrera At full capacity, once the farmer has enough talent, a farmer this size can generate about £25,000 of food per year, so it is quite a bit, but it takes time to get to that capacity and we have to get through the humps, which there's still a few humps we have to overcome this site.

0:22:51.10 --> 0:22:51.150 Hissin, Sarah Yeah.

0:22:52.550 --> 0:23:2.230 Hissin, Sarah So when it comes to the farmers that you have, are these are these typically like people who?

0:23:4.460 --> 0:23:10.410 Hissin, Sarah Our financially secure and are willing to invest like you know they have.

0:23:10.420 --> 0:23:19.330 Hissin, Sarah I guess they have the privilege to have time to invest without getting an immediate pay, pay off or pay back for their time.

0:23:19.780 --> 0:23:26.290 Hissin, Sarah Or are they people who are wanting to make this like their livelihood at some point?

0:23:28.810 --> 0:23:30.930 Jesse Herrera So the best way to answer that it's kind of mixed.

0:23:30.940 --> 0:23:34.400 Jesse Herrera So we take Greg, for example, who runs ovals Farm.

0:23:35.20 --> 0:23:39.860 Jesse Herrera He's retired, so he gets an income from his retirement and he does this because he loves it.

0:23:39.870 --> 0:23:47.720 Jesse Herrera He wants, you know, this is where his heart's at the mall, which is the young man that we're looking at right here is one of our graduates from our training program.

0:23:48.700 --> 0:23:50.80 Jesse Herrera And he actually lives in the community.

0:23:50.90 --> 0:23:55.250 Jesse Herrera He lives right down the street from paper farms as grew up in this area, and he wants to make this his livelihood.

0:23:57.180 --> 0:24:2.320 Jesse Herrera We'll leave interviewed other farmers just to get a better understanding of, you know, their day to day.

0:24:9.660 --> 0:24:9.950 Hissin, Sarah Right.

0:24:3.180 --> 0:24:15.410 Jesse Herrera Someone having make this their livelihood and they have a significant other that maybe, you know, bring some the real money some you know work as a farmer and also do side hustles that you know bringing additional revenue.

0:24:15.420 --> 0:24:18.70 Jesse Herrera So it kind of just depends on where they're at.

0:24:19.980 --> 0:24:36.430 Jesse Herrera And their cost of living, like with Steven and Ursula, who run mind regarding urban farms, I mean they have, they've already got a house since their farmers on the homestead, they're overhead is not as substantial as some of the other guys.

0:24:37.300 --> 0:24:39.110 Jesse Herrera But I mean, even they have to bring in.

0:24:39.800 --> 0:24:46.470 Jesse Herrera I just want revenue every once in a while, doing extracurricular activities or, you know, falling back in some of their old skill sets.

0:24:46.940 --> 0:24:55.390 Jesse Herrera So it's there's still more research to be done in this Rena to really get a firm understanding of all the different ways that farms have.

0:24:55.400 --> 0:24:56.930 Jesse Herrera The farmers have to bring in revenue.

0:24:56.940 --> 0:24:58.280 Jesse Herrera It's just work themselves.

0:24:59.940 --> 0:25:2.30 Hissin, Sarah And do the farmers like?

0:25:2.40 --> 0:25:5.110 Hissin, Sarah I'm assuming they go to other markets besides yalls.

0:25:5.180 --> 0:25:6.30 Hissin, Sarah Do they?

0:25:6.120 --> 0:25:12.800 Hissin, Sarah Do they find success selling their produce and the markets around E Fort Worth?

0:25:13.950 --> 0:25:22.120 Jesse Herrera Well, the only other market that they can go to outside of ours that that's gonna be beneficial for them is Cowtown.

0:25:23.220 --> 0:25:23.480 Hissin, Sarah OK.

0:25:23.130 --> 0:25:23.600 Jesse Herrera Umm.

0:25:24.210 --> 0:25:29.620 Jesse Herrera And I cowtown, the ones that do so, that they usually do pretty successful, I mean people go there with the intent to buy.

0:25:29.940 --> 0:25:30.220 Hissin, Sarah Right.

0:25:30.250 --> 0:25:31.0 Jesse Herrera So that's a good thing.

0:25:33.130 --> 0:25:37.920 Jesse Herrera With us, I mean, I think we'll get there eventually, but it's just gonna take us time to build up to that.

0:25:37.930 --> 0:25:40.200 Jesse Herrera I mean count times been here for almost 50 years.

0:25:40.210 --> 0:25:40.490 Hissin, Sarah Yes.

0:25:40.410 --> 0:25:42.840 Jesse Herrera Ever take and we're just barely getting started.

0:25:44.100 --> 0:25:53.460 Hissin, Sarah So would you say that more often than not, y'all have too much produce to sell like that doesn't get sold or there's not enough produce like that?

0:25:53.470 --> 0:25:54.490 Hissin, Sarah It sells out too quickly.

0:25:55.520 --> 0:25:59.190 Jesse Herrera At ours, we have too much and we just don't have enough customers.

0:26:0.670 --> 0:26:0.910 Hissin, Sarah OK.

0:25:59.280 --> 0:26:6.400 Jesse Herrera I mean the formula that I'm using for success is 40 customers per vendor to create a successful day.

0:26:7.570 --> 0:26:7.960 Hissin, Sarah OK.

0:26:7.970 --> 0:26:9.800 Hissin, Sarah So I guess then maybe a tool?

0:26:9.810 --> 0:26:10.190 Hissin, Sarah I don't know.

0:26:10.200 --> 0:26:12.400 Hissin, Sarah I'm trying to figure out like a thing we can focus on.

0:26:13.370 --> 0:26:13.510 Upadhyay, Atul Yeah.

0:26:12.410 --> 0:26:26.360 Hissin, Sarah This is why I'm asking if I've been doing question then maybe like a an issue we can we can look at is just other ways to cause it sounds like the word needs to get out more.

0:26:27.370 --> 0:26:27.620 Jesse Herrera Umm.

0:26:27.480 --> 0:26:30.450 Hissin, Sarah Uh to attract uh.

0:26:30.460 --> 0:26:32.540 Hissin, Sarah More people? Umm.

0:26:33.380 --> 0:26:37.330 Jesse Herrera Well, and this is one of the interesting things that we talked about yesterday in great detail.

0:26:37.340 --> 0:26:43.170 Jesse Herrera So the mindful market is a little different compared to some of the other markets that we visited in the area.

0:26:44.630 --> 0:26:50.760 Jesse Herrera Yeah, we didn't think this was the case, but this is the only market that we can really think of that's catered to communities of color.

0:26:50.770 --> 0:26:55.180 Jesse Herrera And you know businesses that are owned not only by can use a color, but women as well.

0:27:21.140 --> 0:27:21.360 Hissin, Sarah Uh-huh.

0:26:57.540 --> 0:27:25.620 Jesse Herrera And we're still kind of discovering how to best promote and utilize that to our advantage because one of the key things that we recognize as it pertains to Wellness, which is another thing that kind of led us to design and launch them on for market is that when we it comes to Wellness, there's typically like a very narrow perspective or set of examples to follow and not all of those really correlate with us as individuals or our unique cultures.

0:27:25.980 --> 0:27:41.290 Jesse Herrera And this can go for any culture where they be European, like being Asian and those are relevant because if we're really gonna incorporate mindfulness into our day-to-day practices, we have to be cognizant of, you know, those individual traits.

0:27:41.800 --> 0:27:42.80 Hissin, Sarah Right.

0:27:41.880 --> 0:27:50.90 Jesse Herrera So for us, you know, the mindful market is a way for us to introduce that and explore that and really think about what does equity mean in the in the market space.

0:27:50.100 --> 0:27:53.500 Jesse Herrera I mean, you know, we had a really interesting insight yesterday.

0:27:53.510 --> 0:28:0.870 Jesse Herrera It's like, OK, well, I'd say if I'm a brown dude and I go to a market and there's nothing but white people there, it might feel a little awkward.

0:28:1.490 --> 0:28:1.690 Hissin, Sarah Uh-huh.

0:28:1.710 --> 0:28:10.700 Jesse Herrera Vice versa, if white person or a brown do but not of the same culture goes to another market and all they speak is the language is foreign to us, well, that might make it awkward too.

0:28:10.710 --> 0:28:18.920 Jesse Herrera So how do we create a space where you know there can be some sense of code existence and you know acceptance and more or less comfortable when you go?

0:28:19.340 --> 0:28:27.650 Jesse Herrera I don't have the answer yet, but that's kind of what we landed on yesterday, which is gonna, you know, be another part of this foundation that we build with the mindful market.

0:28:29.350 --> 0:28:36.720 Hissin, Sarah Do y'all do y'all bring that like cultural awareness and and I realize that only certain things grow, you know?

0:28:36.730 --> 0:28:40.950 Hissin, Sarah Like I don't wanna be a farmer, but I am aware that like, you know, you can't grow everything here.

0:28:41.890 --> 0:28:45.340 Hissin, Sarah Do y'all bring some of that like cultural awareness into?

0:28:45.350 --> 0:28:46.420 Hissin, Sarah Like what?

0:28:46.430 --> 0:28:48.680 Hissin, Sarah Produce is grown at these farms.

0:28:48.690 --> 0:28:54.480 Hissin, Sarah Or is it pretty much like up to the farmers what they're going to grow? Umm.

0:28:56.430 --> 0:28:56.560 Hissin, Sarah But.

0:28:56.190 --> 0:28:56.690 Jesse Herrera Yeah.

0:29:0.0 --> 0:29:0.160 Hissin, Sarah Yeah.

0:28:56.700 --> 0:29:3.30 Jesse Herrera The other Rena, we have to really kind of leave it up to the farmers, because if something's yes, they would be great.

0:29:5.160 --> 0:29:5.340 Hissin, Sarah Yeah.

0:29:3.40 --> 0:29:13.160 Jesse Herrera Like if I wanted to bring saffron for example, well, it takes, you know, five to six years to grow stuff and no one's gonna buy it at the at the price that we would have to charge.

0:29:13.290 --> 0:29:17.610 Jesse Herrera Not to mention that it's just an arduous process, you know, to actually package that stuff.

0:29:18.390 --> 0:29:26.340 Jesse Herrera Umm, you know, like tomatoes are a high cellar and tomatoes you know typically are something that's sought after with most of the cultures that caught forward phones.

0:29:26.350 --> 0:29:38.20 Jesse Herrera So it's always finding a fair balance, like even like if we go to this home page right here like some of the items on the spread aren't there because they make money, the carrots and the beats, they're not really that profitable.

0:29:38.110 --> 0:29:38.680 Jesse Herrera But you know what?

0:29:38.690 --> 0:29:39.560 Jesse Herrera Is that lettuce?

0:29:39.870 --> 0:29:40.860 Jesse Herrera Sit right next to it.

0:29:41.0 --> 0:29:41.210 Hissin, Sarah Uh-huh.

0:29:41.170 --> 0:29:47.680 Jesse Herrera So we will put the carrots and the beads and other things that have a wide range of color there to get you to the stand.

0:29:47.770 --> 0:29:48.830 Jesse Herrera So we can tell you the lettuce.

0:29:49.840 --> 0:29:50.200 Hissin, Sarah Right.

0:29:51.510 --> 0:29:57.280 Jesse Herrera So I guess to go back to the group question, yeah, we have to kind of let the farmers have pick on what they bring.

0:29:57.390 --> 0:30:2.760 Jesse Herrera But to that point, where we've been doing at the mindful market is we do demonstrations on Michael practices.

0:30:2.770 --> 0:30:4.110 Jesse Herrera And one of those is cooking.

0:30:4.300 --> 0:30:9.260 Jesse Herrera So we'll use your invite people to showcase you know how you can use these ingredients and create culturally relevant dishes.

0:30:9.610 --> 0:30:20.300 Jesse Herrera And one of the main premier people that we have out there is minds regarding they do cooking demos and what I like about them is that they're not chest, they're just community folks trying to figure it out.

0:30:20.450 --> 0:30:27.600 Jesse Herrera And I think that makes it a lot easier to engage and replicate because you're not having to contend with exotic ingredients.

0:30:28.90 --> 0:30:29.40 Jesse Herrera And there's not dissolve.

0:30:29.190 --> 0:30:30.100 Jesse Herrera You're a chef, you know?

0:30:30.110 --> 0:30:32.560 Jesse Herrera So yeah, this you can do this, but I can't.

0:30:32.570 --> 0:30:35.560 Jesse Herrera You know, no, these folks are, you know, company training.

0:30:35.570 --> 0:30:39.120 Jesse Herrera They just, they come from the and they're just trying to get things you know.

0:30:39.700 --> 0:30:39.840 Hissin, Sarah Yeah.

0:30:40.920 --> 0:30:41.670 Hissin, Sarah Have y'all.

0:30:41.800 --> 0:30:46.960 Hissin, Sarah I'm assuming you've thought of this like I I I really find it fascinating.

0:30:47.460 --> 0:31:11.740 Hissin, Sarah What y'all are attempting to build out there and you know, it's like this culturally diverse like, you know, locally sourced, locally serving market that I'm, you know that I'm assuming like well I I guess I shouldn't assume like well the voucher like you can get vouchers to help cover costs cause like obviously you want your farmers to be able to like turn some sort of profit for their time.

0:31:13.560 --> 0:31:14.710 Hissin, Sarah Have y'all been?

0:31:15.760 --> 0:31:18.60 Hissin, Sarah This is horribly coming from a middle class white woman.

0:31:43.270 --> 0:31:43.510 Jesse Herrera Yeah.

0:31:19.240 --> 0:31:44.400 Hissin, Sarah I feel like like if y'all thought about branching out in marketing outside of East Fort Worth or y'all really wanting it to generate within the community like cause, this seems like something that you know there is a swift of privileged people that like to feel really great about themselves by attending things like, you know what I mean like that might bring you.

0:31:44.910 --> 0:31:47.800 Hissin, Sarah So the the farmers can sell all of their product like I really like.

0:31:47.810 --> 0:31:49.820 Hissin, Sarah To me, that's a really probably hard balance.

0:31:51.380 --> 0:31:53.40 Hissin, Sarah Well, like you don't want it taken over by.

0:31:55.240 --> 0:31:55.460 Jesse Herrera Yeah.

0:32:0.10 --> 0:32:0.230 Jesse Herrera Thanks.

0:31:55.40 --> 0:32:11.180 Hissin, Sarah The people that were allowed to like the West Fort Worth markets, I'm kind of rambling cloud, but like tell me about that balance there of like trying to get this produce sold for your farmers within also wanting it to be a diverse welcoming place for the people within that food desert.

0:32:12.70 --> 0:32:16.580 Jesse Herrera So yeah, I mean to answer directly, we are looking to expand our marketing rates to other communities.

0:32:16.590 --> 0:32:26.280 Jesse Herrera We ideally want, you know, Polytechnic hides and Morningside and Meadowbrook to be, you know, the first and foremost people that are there, but we also realize the market.

0:32:26.950 --> 0:32:33.0 Jesse Herrera I mean, there's a market reality we have to accept and you know the vendors are gonna continue to participate.

0:32:33.130 --> 0:32:36.520 Jesse Herrera They have to be able to make revenues, so there's a balance there.

0:32:36.580 --> 0:32:45.330 Jesse Herrera I don't think we have to, you know, do 100% from outside, but there is gonna have to be some percentage that comes there that help support improved at least just a baseline.

0:32:45.820 --> 0:33:3.670 Jesse Herrera Ideally, as we grow, I mean we we we do wanna sell market memberships to those community members that live in Poly heights and maybe some higher tier memberships for those that may not be from that community but still want to support and that way we can you know keep generating enough revenue to sustain the market in the long haul.

0:33:4.710 --> 0:33:4.930 Hissin, Sarah OK.

0:33:5.710 --> 0:33:19.350 Jesse Herrera So I mean it's it's it's expected, I mean any market for them to be successful, yeah, I mean he might he might give people from that immediate neighborhood, but you gotta send out on a wide enough reach to get customers there with money that are going to pay for the products.

0:33:19.810 --> 0:33:20.70 Hissin, Sarah Right.

0:33:21.250 --> 0:33:31.160 Hissin, Sarah So that may be something a tool that we kind of put if if we wanna go the route of like attracting more customers like is a challenge right now.

0:33:31.220 --> 0:33:33.600 Hissin, Sarah It sounds like you'll have plenty of produce as of right now.

0:33:36.210 --> 0:33:36.480 Jesse Herrera Yeah.

0:33:36.490 --> 0:33:55.740 Jesse Herrera I mean, when all five farms are actively participating, I mean we can, we can easily have a pretty good spread of products there and actually know we got 6 participating farms cause we got, you know, no, it's fine if we got they were undergarden both holes Houston homestead and then Akachi Ranch.

0:33:57.100 --> 0:33:57.320 Hissin, Sarah OK.

0:33:57.580 --> 0:34:5.670 Upadhyay, Atul So trying to trying to track 1 customers could be one and also like what we talked about yesterday trying to make the market more racially equitable.

0:34:6.430 --> 0:34:6.650 Jesse Herrera Umm.

0:34:6.180 --> 0:34:10.330 Upadhyay, Atul That would be definitely the plus one, because we are definitely trying for that, right.

0:34:11.460 --> 0:34:11.600 Jesse Herrera Yes.

0:34:10.340 --> 0:34:14.670 Upadhyay, Atul So our aim is to try to make the market like whatever.

0:34:14.680 --> 0:34:23.790 Upadhyay, Atul I don't have my notes from yesterday, but we're trying to make the market more diverse, more inclusive, more comfortable and.

0:34:25.940 --> 0:34:29.590 Upadhyay, Atul There's three points that I've missed out, but anyways, it's in my brain anyways.

0:34:29.700 --> 0:34:35.50 Upadhyay, Atul Anything that's racially equitable and we're trying to find a balance between the market, like what Jesse talked about.

0:34:35.60 --> 0:34:43.90 Upadhyay, Atul So you know you you have, you have a market, but if you lean this way, you're you're gonna tip the scale on this end and you might lose out and this end.

0:34:43.100 --> 0:34:45.810 Upadhyay, Atul But if you sway the other way, it's gonna be that as well.

0:34:46.60 --> 0:34:48.570 Upadhyay, Atul So where is that perfect balance?

0:34:48.580 --> 0:35:0.520 Upadhyay, Atul As what we talked about and we also talked about like the mission values and statements of the farmers market like why I the why exactly there's a farmers market like what's the, what's the main purpose.

0:35:0.530 --> 0:35:2.580 Upadhyay, Atul I mean, we can't show you away from that as well.

0:35:2.870 --> 0:35:12.660 Upadhyay, Atul So if it's a purpose of bringing a variety of community members together than one spot, then that's what we're that's what we're trying to do.

0:35:12.670 --> 0:35:18.500 Upadhyay, Atul It all evolves around that one mission statement or value that we're operating from, right?

0:35:18.510 --> 0:35:22.240 Upadhyay, Atul So I think attracting more customers, just trying to make the market more.

0:35:23.760 --> 0:35:25.370 Upadhyay, Atul Racially equitable?

0:35:25.380 --> 0:35:26.630 Upadhyay, Atul That would be another one.

0:35:26.680 --> 0:35:31.890 Upadhyay, Atul So we are working on trying to build a a racial equity playbook.

0:35:31.960 --> 0:35:35.290 Upadhyay, Atul So this is what we kind of brainstormed yesterday.

0:35:37.670 --> 0:35:37.910 Jesse Herrera Yeah.

0:35:35.440 --> 0:35:38.320 Upadhyay, Atul I think this is Ashley's multi thing.

0:35:38.330 --> 0:35:38.730 Upadhyay, Atul I don't know.

0:35:40.620 --> 0:35:40.840 Jesse Herrera It.

0:35:38.740 --> 0:35:43.870 Upadhyay, Atul If it's yours, but she's not good at writing notes, man, why you should see mine all over the place.

0:35:43.670 --> 0:35:44.680 Hissin, Sarah Oh yeah, you should mind.

0:35:44.690 --> 0:35:52.820 Hissin, Sarah Light rail lines are an option, so the the thought that would be my head and it my I'm on my phone for this call so I can't read any of that cause it's tiny.

0:35:53.320 --> 0:36:1.470 Hissin, Sarah Umm, like the first thing that popped into my head is like because of the group I run here in Arlington, I'm pretty well connected to her name's Twala.

0:36:1.480 --> 0:36:13.690 Hissin, Sarah She's the president of Leadership ISD, and that's a very it's a forced to be reckoned with out in Fort Worth evolving around education and and ensuring that there is inclusive equitable.

0:36:15.970 --> 0:36:17.340 Hissin, Sarah Trustees on the Fort Worth.

0:36:17.390 --> 0:36:24.820 Hissin, Sarah I see school board and things like that, and so I guess what popped into my head is like connecting to buy Pock Community leaders in Fort Worth.

0:36:24.830 --> 0:36:38.470 Hissin, Sarah You know, like if if those folks know what y'all are doing, then as they spread the word around, it's going to be spread just naturally to a more diverse community because they are a diverse group of women.

0:36:38.850 --> 0:36:42.40 Hissin, Sarah Umm, there's probably dudes that are involved in leadership.

0:36:42.50 --> 0:36:47.150 Hissin, Sarah I see I haven't met any any, but they run this really huge operation every year.

0:36:47.160 --> 0:37:3.180 Hissin, Sarah We're like they train, they train residents and how school districts work and people are pumped out of that program like really being able to hold their ISD accountable and understanding budget like it's a pretty phenomenal program.

0:37:3.190 --> 0:37:5.90 Hissin, Sarah So like koala popped into my head.

0:37:6.970 --> 0:37:14.110 Jesse Herrera Yeah, I'm looking at it cause I mean I've worked with some of their previous staff members in the past, not specifically on this, but just on other things.

0:37:14.120 --> 0:37:15.780 Jesse Herrera And I'm aware of them.

0:37:23.900 --> 0:37:24.230 Hissin, Sarah Driver.

0:37:15.880 --> 0:37:26.720 Jesse Herrera I'm also looking at their board and kind of giggling and some of the folks there cause just like that ******, but that's another discussion I've been in this game too long and it's just like ohh, OK.

0:37:28.280 --> 0:37:29.90 Hissin, Sarah Well, it's just a bit.

0:37:29.100 --> 0:37:30.10 Hissin, Sarah I'm not super.

0:37:30.20 --> 0:37:32.550 Hissin, Sarah I'm not hardly connected in Fort Worth like my husband's.

0:37:32.560 --> 0:37:40.70 Hissin, Sarah 'S A is a corporate banker in Fort Worth, but there's not much diversity in the corporate banking world, but.

0:37:42.150 --> 0:37:42.480 Hissin, Sarah Yeah.

0:37:42.490 --> 0:37:49.690 Hissin, Sarah My my I've lived in Arlington my whole life, so my connections are are here, but that has nothing to do with our project, but that may be.

0:37:51.80 --> 0:37:54.380 Hissin, Sarah Anyways, I would love to just personally get the word out about what you are doing.

0:37:55.950 --> 0:37:56.580 Jesse Herrera Absolutely.

0:37:56.590 --> 0:37:57.790 Jesse Herrera I mean anything that we can do to help.

0:37:56.930 --> 0:37:58.660 Hissin, Sarah As well bro.

0:38:1.620 --> 0:38:3.360 Jesse Herrera Yeah, they got a whole new team, man.

0:38:3.370 --> 0:38:4.690 Jesse Herrera This is interesting.

0:38:7.60 --> 0:38:7.630 Hissin, Sarah Yeah, there's.

0:38:7.640 --> 0:38:10.210 Hissin, Sarah I was supposed to go through the program, but I'm just like I can't.

0:38:10.270 --> 0:38:12.570 Hissin, Sarah I'm I'm a mom of three kids and grad school.

0:38:12.580 --> 0:38:20.240 Hissin, Sarah I'm like, I can't have a Friday, a month that I'm Emma way like it's just not happening.

0:38:20.290 --> 0:38:23.700 Hissin, Sarah But my friend who ran for school board went through their program and.

0:38:25.730 --> 0:38:27.50 Hissin, Sarah She really like she's.

0:38:28.260 --> 0:38:31.10 Hissin, Sarah She's on our trustees ***** right now about a lot of stuff.

0:38:31.20 --> 0:38:34.470 Hissin, Sarah Because she's educated and that's The thing is, like, education is such a huge thing of.

0:38:36.890 --> 0:38:38.710 Hissin, Sarah To be able to hold people accountable.

0:38:40.240 --> 0:38:41.110 Jesse Herrera Well, yeah.

0:38:47.190 --> 0:38:47.390 Hissin, Sarah Yeah.

0:38:41.120 --> 0:38:48.590 Jesse Herrera I mean, just kind of going back to the original point, I mean, trying to keep the egos in check and really working to try to.

0:38:51.930 --> 0:38:55.270 Jesse Herrera Effectively collaborate me it's way harder.

0:38:57.520 --> 0:39:5.230 Jesse Herrera It's it's way harder to do than it than people make it out to be, and I think the other thing is just also just being realistic.

0:39:5.240 --> 0:39:15.390 Jesse Herrera I mean, I know some of the teammates that we've engaged in the past to try to develop these projects, I mean with today's culture, they want things fast, fast, fast, fast, like you're not doing enough, you're not working hard enough.

0:39:15.400 --> 0:39:16.270 Jesse Herrera You really don't want this.

0:39:16.280 --> 0:39:24.190 Jesse Herrera You really don't care about community and it's like, alright, you're supposed to be like the champion helping us and here you're the first one to kick us in the shin when everything's wrong.

0:39:24.200 --> 0:39:28.130 Jesse Herrera And I mean, granted, there's room for constructive criticism, you know.

0:39:28.140 --> 0:39:31.670 Jesse Herrera And if if someone's really, royally, ******* up, then you have to call him out.

0:39:31.780 --> 0:39:39.380 Jesse Herrera I mean, I would, but I mean we're at a point where we're past, you know that startup, you know, that kind of sexy.

0:39:39.390 --> 0:39:42.180 Jesse Herrera This is new and now we gotta turn it into an operation.

0:39:42.350 --> 0:39:42.510 Hissin, Sarah Yeah.

0:39:42.230 --> 0:39:43.650 Jesse Herrera So it's a different mindset.

0:39:44.420 --> 0:39:46.710 Hissin, Sarah That everyone's bored and tired.

0:39:47.380 --> 0:39:47.610 Jesse Herrera Yeah.

0:39:46.980 --> 0:39:50.350 Hissin, Sarah Yeah, I yeah, I struggle with that with the group.

0:39:50.360 --> 0:39:55.90 Hissin, Sarah I ran with people like suggesting a a lot of things to me, but then not wanting to do anything.

0:39:55.100 --> 0:39:57.830 Hissin, Sarah So I have my moments where I'm just like ****** ******.

0:40:3.450 --> 0:40:3.710 Jesse Herrera Yeah.

0:39:57.920 --> 0:40:5.100 Hissin, Sarah Like if one more person tells me what I need to be doing and they're not doing **** like lose one like it's very.

0:40:4.860 --> 0:40:5.590 Jesse Herrera I mean, I've heard it.

0:40:6.940 --> 0:40:8.40 Jesse Herrera I mean, I've heard it before.

0:40:8.50 --> 0:40:13.640 Jesse Herrera Like I think one person, and I mean this is right after like my sister died and she's like well life just happens.

0:40:15.310 --> 0:40:15.510 Hissin, Sarah Yeah.

0:40:13.700 --> 0:40:17.980 Jesse Herrera You just need to work harder and like you really don't want this like this is just the leadership issue.

0:40:18.130 --> 0:40:19.100 Jesse Herrera Like you know, it's like.

0:40:19.150 --> 0:40:21.880 Jesse Herrera Ohh So what I'm hearing is you think you can do it better, OK.

0:40:22.580 --> 0:40:24.100 Hissin, Sarah Yeah, well, yeah.

0:40:24.110 --> 0:40:26.50 Hissin, Sarah And and that's a that's not.

0:40:26.60 --> 0:40:31.570 Hissin, Sarah That's treating you like a robot and not, I don't know, giving any kind of value to.

0:40:33.620 --> 0:40:34.450 Hissin, Sarah Space to grieve.

0:40:34.460 --> 0:40:36.290 Hissin, Sarah Like, that's just I, I don't know.

0:40:36.300 --> 0:40:40.200 Hissin, Sarah It's like I understand when it's like there's a need that needs to be met.

0:40:40.210 --> 0:40:43.980 Hissin, Sarah And like I think naturally, like people who want to serve others like you.

0:40:43.990 --> 0:40:44.650 Hissin, Sarah Wanna get that net?

0:40:44.660 --> 0:40:47.140 Hissin, Sarah Because, like, people are actually hurting, you know what I mean?

0:40:47.150 --> 0:41:9.760 Hissin, Sarah Like like and so I I understand that that sense of like rush, but if it's just to rush to make something like look successful, I'm just like they those folks need to be in the corporate world like they'll fit in well if if you don't want space to be able to grieve someone passing away uh somewhere.

0:41:7.840 --> 0:41:12.850 Jesse Herrera Well, and it's just like like, alright, well damn, they have, like, that's that's ******* crazy, you know, cause.

0:41:12.860 --> 0:41:13.0 Hissin, Sarah Yeah.

0:41:13.970 --> 0:41:15.120 Jesse Herrera Yeah, I don't know.

0:41:15.130 --> 0:41:24.890 Jesse Herrera Like I don't know, like and then people just I I can't hold this to people because I I can't expect them to have this skill set.

0:41:24.900 --> 0:41:30.350 Jesse Herrera But just being able to scope out an idea is a skill set that most people lack.

0:41:30.940 --> 0:41:36.210 Jesse Herrera And I mean yes, anyone can throw a big idea on the board and we should do this.

0:41:36.220 --> 0:41:40.120 Jesse Herrera OK, let's actually think about what it's gonna take to do this little idea.

0:41:42.560 --> 0:41:42.820 Jesse Herrera You know.

0:41:42.490 --> 0:41:44.280 Hissin, Sarah Yeah, that they don't wanna do that.

0:41:44.330 --> 0:41:45.170 Hissin, Sarah They just wanna be there.

0:41:46.840 --> 0:41:48.160 Hissin, Sarah The idea the idea can.

0:41:47.260 --> 0:41:53.150 Jesse Herrera That, no, the the words they use now, which is my favorite, is visionary.

0:41:53.620 --> 0:41:54.120 Hissin, Sarah Ohh.

0:41:53.560 --> 0:41:54.220 Jesse Herrera I'm a visionary.

0:41:56.220 --> 0:41:56.590 Hissin, Sarah Yeah.

0:41:56.600 --> 0:41:56.900 Hissin, Sarah Makes.

0:41:56.910 --> 0:41:58.160 Hissin, Sarah Yeah, that sounds pretty important.

0:41:59.770 --> 0:42:2.400 Jesse Herrera Like, oh, that means you don't know what you're doing, got it.

0:42:4.530 --> 0:42:5.780 Hissin, Sarah Ohhh my gosh.

0:42:6.150 --> 0:42:8.950 Hissin, Sarah Well, I told you have any other?

0:42:8.960 --> 0:42:9.330 Hissin, Sarah I was gonna.

0:42:10.730 --> 0:42:12.520 Hissin, Sarah Sorry, Jesse, I'm a person with dyslexia.

0:42:12.530 --> 0:42:16.490 Hissin, Sarah So like if you see, I'm like trying to read what is that?

0:42:16.180 --> 0:42:38.200 Upadhyay, Atul No, I think I think I think we covered pretty good points here and I think I going over those points, I think we can come up with the we can come up with some ideas in regards to like what the what would be kind of like the our research question or what will the what are we look evaluating within the agency right.

0:42:38.210 --> 0:42:42.540 Upadhyay, Atul So we Jan which are look into that, like I said, we can look into funding.

0:42:42.550 --> 0:42:50.80 Upadhyay, Atul We can look into how we're attracting more customers or we can look into how to make market more racial equitable.

0:42:56.670 --> 0:42:56.850 Hissin, Sarah Yeah.

0:42:50.90 --> 0:43:2.800 Upadhyay, Atul And there's other stuff that we can get into as well, but I just wanted you guys to have an understanding of what collect does that was the whole point of like like I said, like rather than me explaining Jesse would have all the answers.

0:43:2.810 --> 0:43:5.810 Upadhyay, Atul I'm feeling maybe NBC, and then I'm all the way down.

0:43:9.250 --> 0:43:9.430 Hissin, Sarah Yeah.

0:43:5.820 --> 0:43:9.960 Upadhyay, Atul I'll have gaps till you know thing and then nothing else.

0:43:10.360 --> 0:43:12.170 Upadhyay, Atul I didn't mean it's just better cost from Jesse.

0:43:12.180 --> 0:43:14.180 Upadhyay, Atul So that was my whole thing.

0:43:14.190 --> 0:43:31.540 Upadhyay, Atul It was like trying to introduce the Jesse and go from there and then obviously as we go through this and if we have more questions within the way then I do have my weekly meetings with Jesse every Thursday, so I can definitely ask him question then the bar soup, if we have some questions that we want to answer.

0:43:31.590 --> 0:43:33.270 Upadhyay, Atul So that's shouldn't be about model.

0:43:34.440 --> 0:43:34.700 Jesse Herrera Yeah.

0:43:34.410 --> 0:43:34.880 Hissin, Sarah I did.

0:43:35.240 --> 0:43:36.560 Hissin, Sarah Sorry, I did have one other question.

0:43:36.570 --> 0:44:0.370 Hissin, Sarah Is there anything in Fort Worth like like a Expo is like such a 1980s word, but like a we're like people like y'all's organization and other organizations just like, come together, like with networking just to know like, like once that case manager like, just to know what is out there in Fort Worth to connect people to.

0:44:0.380 --> 0:44:2.600 Hissin, Sarah Is there any kind of like organized?

0:44:4.350 --> 0:44:4.670 Hissin, Sarah No.

0:44:5.550 --> 0:44:9.550 Hissin, Sarah Amongst nonprofits and Fort Worth.

0:44:9.430 --> 0:44:9.900 Jesse Herrera Umm.

0:44:13.320 --> 0:44:14.790 Jesse Herrera Not to that scale.

0:44:14.800 --> 0:44:19.420 Jesse Herrera I mean, there are gatherings of similar nonprofits or similar topics.

0:44:23.860 --> 0:44:24.30 Hissin, Sarah Yeah.

0:44:20.600 --> 0:44:27.20 Jesse Herrera You have the forward chamber, which is very cliquish, which basically keeps me out umm.

0:44:29.170 --> 0:44:30.560 Jesse Herrera We've talked with it.

0:44:34.930 --> 0:44:35.90 Hissin, Sarah Yeah.

0:44:39.30 --> 0:44:39.190 Hissin, Sarah Yeah.

0:44:30.910 --> 0:44:41.300 Jesse Herrera There have been efforts in the past to try to do something like this, but it's just, you know, it's another thing amongst they're already busy day, so it hasn't been able to be put together.

0:44:42.140 --> 0:44:42.660 Jesse Herrera Umm.

0:44:42.900 --> 0:44:44.940 Jesse Herrera And our nonprofit is very different.

0:44:44.950 --> 0:44:50.140 Jesse Herrera So it's hard for us to really fit in a lot of these niches because we're not a program based on problem.

0:44:50.150 --> 0:44:57.630 Jesse Herrera We're project based on profit and we operate almost like a I guess the best way to do it's like an R&D firm, but for social issues.

0:44:58.300 --> 0:45:13.730 Jesse Herrera So that mean we young conduct up front research and really learn more about the problem, who it affects, how it affects them in their day-to-day lives, and then we use that to inform, you know, decision making as it comes to designing and building solutions.

0:45:15.390 --> 0:45:17.500 Jesse Herrera And then from there we design our exit strategy.

0:45:17.510 --> 0:45:21.390 Jesse Herrera So we don't compete for resources and we try to get whatever we build to self sufficiency.

0:45:22.460 --> 0:45:23.860 Hissin, Sarah Yeah. OK.

0:45:25.770 --> 0:45:30.430 Hissin, Sarah Well, I really I really appreciate your time and your work out there.

0:45:30.440 --> 0:45:32.990 Hissin, Sarah I know that's a that's a.

0:45:33.370 --> 0:45:42.310 Hissin, Sarah That's the area of Fort Worth that needs a lot of focus, and I know the government was pouring some money in there, but then I read something about them like pulling back.

0:45:42.320 --> 0:45:42.830 Hissin, Sarah I don't know.

0:45:42.840 --> 0:45:43.610 Hissin, Sarah I know that they're.

0:45:43.880 --> 0:45:47.70 Hissin, Sarah I know there's a big focus least in the Stop 6 area, which I don't.

0:45:49.520 --> 0:45:49.860 Hissin, Sarah Anyways.

0:45:49.690 --> 0:46:2.350 Jesse Herrera There has been, but it also just depends on who's giving the funding and the parameters like we were trying to go for a real estate development project called Cavill Place that got awarded a huge grant through HUD.

0:46:3.950 --> 0:46:4.110 Jesse Herrera But.

0:46:15.520 --> 0:46:16.260 Hissin, Sarah Oh jeez.

0:46:6.600 --> 0:46:16.910 Jesse Herrera The project are one our farm paper farms because they wanted to do urban farms as part of the the project is 1 St outside of the border that they're gonna serve.

0:46:16.950 --> 0:46:24.230 Jesse Herrera So we don't qualify even though Tabor Farms sold some of their land to this project.

0:46:24.530 --> 0:46:25.70 Jesse Herrera We don't qualify.

0:46:26.980 --> 0:46:31.810 Hissin, Sarah Yeah, that's the girl that you just wanna, like, punch yourself in the face.

0:46:33.890 --> 0:46:34.700 Hissin, Sarah That sucks.

0:46:34.340 --> 0:46:34.760 Jesse Herrera Pretty much.

0:46:35.490 --> 0:46:36.20 Hissin, Sarah Yeah.

0:46:36.130 --> 0:46:36.910 Hissin, Sarah Yeah, that makes.

0:46:36.920 --> 0:46:38.120 Hissin, Sarah Yeah, I hate that kind of ****.

0:46:39.450 --> 0:46:43.740 Hissin, Sarah Like you have to draw a line somewhere, but it's like the farm that's already working is like right there.

0:46:43.750 --> 0:46:49.340 Hissin, Sarah Just scoot your line, just scoot your line a little bit, just vote on it and suture line be fine.

0:46:49.570 --> 0:46:53.80 Hissin, Sarah You think that would be easy enough, but alright.

0:46:53.90 --> 0:46:54.20 Hissin, Sarah Well, thank you both.

0:46:54.30 --> 0:46:58.470 Hissin, Sarah I've gotta go round up my children from school, so it was nice.

0:46:58.530 --> 0:46:58.950 Jesse Herrera Alrighty.

0:46:58.120 --> 0:47:0.880 Upadhyay, Atul Well, thanks Jesse for being here.

0:47:1.530 --> 0:47:1.900 Upadhyay, Atul Really cool.

0:47:2.70 --> 0:47:2.370 Jesse Herrera Always.

0:47:3.250 --> 0:47:8.640 Upadhyay, Atul If we have any questions like I'll touch base with Sarah and and usually do a touch base with them weekly.

0:47:8.650 --> 0:47:11.630 Upadhyay, Atul So if we have anything further down the road, I'll definitely let you know.

0:47:12.930 --> 0:47:13.410 Jesse Herrera Works for me.

0:47:13.780 --> 0:47:14.680 Hissin, Sarah Alright, bye.

0:47:14.430 --> 0:47:14.900 Upadhyay, Atul Alright.

0:47:14.990 --> 0:47:15.950 Upadhyay, Atul Thanks again guys.

0:47:15.960 --> 0:47:16.620 Upadhyay, Atul Appreciate it.

0:47:16.630 --> 0:47:18.320 Upadhyay, Atul Thank you. Yeah.

0:47:17.940 --> 0:47:19.270 Jesse Herrera From bye.