The Chef Who's Feeding Oceanside's Houseless Community - Sunny Soto-Brisco of Sunny Street Outreach

This is Chris spear and you're listening to Chefs Without Restaurants. The show where I speak with culinary entrepreneurs and people working in the food and beverage industry outside of a traditional restaurant setting. I have 31 years of working in kitchens, but not restaurants unless you count Burger King. And I currently run a personal chef service throwing dinner parties in the Washington DC area. So as of late, I've been scripting most of my intros, but I think today, I'm going to keep it a little looser. I wasn't expecting for this episode to have the profound impact that I think it had on me. Today's guest is Sunny Soto-Briscoe, with her wife and many other volunteers, they run sunny street outreach, where they're cooking and serving restaurant quality meals to the houseless and underserved communities of Oceanside, California, which is near San Diego. A lot of times something like this is started by a foundation or an organization. Quite often it's a philanthropist. But Sonny is just an ordinary person who wanted to make an impact in her community. In fact, she doesn't get paid for this, she doesn't draw a salary from this. And she actually has to work two jobs to be able to pay her bills. And our discussion, you'll actually hear Sonny talking about how she has found herself on the wrong side of the law a couple of times. In fact, she even wanted to be a police officer. But after her first run in with the law, she was told point blank by the officer that she would never be able to become a cop and that now she was a criminal. And I think you know, that's something interesting the way that we let people sometimes define our paths with their words. But I think listening to this episode, you'll hear that she's anything but a criminal and a troublemaker. In fact, I think we need more people like her out in the community. And the next big thing they're working on is a mobile Cafe trailer. The idea of this is that they'll be able to drive around at different places and serve breakfast and coffee drinks to people. And it's built with a one for one model. So if you buy a breakfast sandwich and a coffee, then they will donate a breakfast sandwich and a coffee to someone who is in need. Of course, you know the money is going to help fund their other projects, which are feeding people who don't have food. So I don't want to take too much time talking about her background and all of this, what I want to do is make this a call to action because if we can't help people, what are we even doing here? You know, this is something that I've been thinking a lot about, you know, I have a decent sized community, with Chefs Without Restaurants between you know, the Instagram, you podcast listeners, people in a Facebook group, if we can't help these people with our goals, like are we even doing anything. So I want this to be a call to action. In the episode I asked her what she wanted. And I'm gonna give you that call to action. Now even though you haven't listened to this episode, she said, you know, visibility is really important. And they would love to get more followers on Instagram. Right now they have 18 172. And I think we can do better than that. So go over to Instagram, which this will also be linked in my bio and at chefs without restaurants.org. But it's SunnyStreetOutreachMVMT as in movement, but even more, so I want you to throw a couple bucks their way to help them get this trailer going. They have a GoFundMe and their goal is$10,000. And they're you know, in the almost $4,000 range, and I think we can get them there. I know there's enough people listening to this episode that if you just took five bucks and throw it that way that we could help get them to their goal. And this is something that I really want to be doing more of and I expect to release probably a podcast episode about this shortly. How do I use this community to create greater impact and if that's something that piques your interest, and you want to reach out to me, you can find me on Instagram at Chefs Without Restaurants, or send me an email at chefs without restaurants@gmail.com. I do want to give a little warning. This is something that Sonny and I are both passionate about. There are a couple F bombs in there. If you are listening with children, and you don't want them to hear anyone say the F word. Maybe this isn't the episode for them. But how can you not get passionate and even worked up about this? You know, he's talking about the fact that if you give food to people on the street, that you can be fined by the police and that in fact, they might even if they see you take the food and throw it in the trash in front of these people. But they're more concerned about that than people who are living on the street with no shelter and no food. Like that's pretty. I'll say messed up here but I use a stronger word in the episode. I hope this episode is insightful and inspirational. I hope it maybe trigger something in you to make a positive change in your community even if it's doing one little thing. Thanks for taking the time to listen to this intro and this episode. and the show will be coming up after a word from this week's sponsors. Are you a personal chef looking for support and growth opportunities? Look no further than the United States personal chef association with 1000 members across the US and Canada, USPCA provides liability insurance certification lead generation and more. Consumers can trust that their meal experience is ensured and supported by USPCA. Plus Hire a Chef subscriptions are available to list your personal chef business at higher chef.com. To learn more about membership, advertising or partnership opportunities, call Angela at 1-800-995-2138. Extension 705 or email aprath er@uspca.com. Hey, Sunnyy, welcome to the show. Thanks so much for coming on.

Thank you. I'm so happy to be here. And just chit chat with you today.

We were just talking before we started about how I asked people who want to come on the show and you were someone who dropped in there. I didn't know anything about you. But you know, you have a great story. And I think what you're doing is so important. And I hope, you know maybe it inspires people in their communities to do something similar. Hopefully, we'll have some people in your community who will tune into this and be able to help you. But you know, if we could just get even one person decided to make a change in their community. That's what I'm going for. So I think you know, where I'd like to start is talking about what you're doing. Now, obviously, we'll kind of get back into your history and food and how we got here. But let's just talk about what is it that you're doing right now with Sunday street outreach.

So right now, we cook hot, nutritious meals, like chef driven menus for our houses community, and we give out free food to about 100 people every week or so. And right now were in the process, I guess of making like a mobile kitchen so we can up that and it'd be feeding people every single day free food.

That's amazing. And so needed. I think every community I don't I don't know, any community out there who probably doesn't have an issue with this. Uh, one of the things I noticed in your Instagram and social media, you talked about using the term houseless. And I think most people use homeless and is there a distinction between the two? Yeah,

I mean, for me, it's just a small change. Because when we think of a home, right, we don't usually think of four walls and a roof. That's that's a house and apartment, you know, things of that sort. where your home is really where your heart is, where your city is, where you're from, and especially for our houses community. Why you don't leave is because this city or that place is your home, you have ties there you have REITs maybe you have family, you know, in other situations, so we use the term houses because we just don't have four walls in a roof, you know?

Yeah. And you're in the San Diego area. Is that right? California? Yeah,

yeah, California. So I'm sure you know, your listeners understand we got a crisis on our hands all over California. I'm in San Diego County, but the north region of that in Oceanside, California, which is a little beach town. But it actually is the biggest square footage in San Diego County. So we have a lot of land here. And thankfully, we still have the graphs on our on our houses crisis here.

And I'm sure with the weather being a component that it's a more friendly space, if you don't have a home, right like I'm in Maryland here this week, we've had 15 degree weather. I feel terrible when you see these people who are outside. I mean, it's brutal, and the wind picks up and it's not a great place to be. I assume that you have a larger population of people who are maybe dwelling outdoors or in cars there than maybe we have here. Yeah,

for sure. I mean, I think it's definitely easier year round to be able to kind of survive out here with our with our weather, but like this week, actually, we have a big storm rolling in. So it's raining for like four days in a row like heavy rain, but our infrastructure doesn't really hold up to that rain because we're so spoiled, right? We're used to Sunshine, you know, 360 days out of the year. But so yeah, our streets are flooding our river beds where a lot of our folks reside, they flood and if they're not in tune with the news, or having outreach workers go out there and spread the word that Hey, uh, storms come in, let's prepare, let's try to get you guys under you know, at least some roof edge or something. It could be a really dangerous situation for a lot of folks. So that's kind of what we're dealing with last week and this week here in San Diego. So blessing curse, but let me tell you it's it's never an easy thing to be able to survive on the streets.

You know, I think we take these things for granted. I'm trying to actively be more grateful for all the things I have. I've had guests on the show have gone through all manner of you know Know, whether it be a health crisis or housing situation. And I don't think most people even think about they just get up every day and go about their business and don't pay much mind to this, if it doesn't directly affect them.

No 100%. And that's kind of how our Western society has become right? If it doesn't affect us, we it's out of sight out of mind, and we just keep going. But the I guess, big thing for my message is always perspective, right? Like, it could be anybody at any time. Funny, you saying health and then housing crisis, because those come hand in hand. You know, the number one reason in my experience of being out here with our folks on the front lines is health crisis is lead to housing situations, you know, a lot of folks have this perception that it's bad choices in life, it's addiction, you know, yada yada, those things do come and are, you know, a percentage of people, but in my experience with people that I've met, it's actually the opposite, you know, the addictions, that things come after the housing crisis leads them to the street and the health crisis leads into a housing crisis. So you know, it's a rough, it's a rough world we live in, but changing perspective, and really having some compassion towards people is, is what we hope to change people's minds.

And again, I think people are so far removed, you know, you hear a lot of just people saying, like, oh, well, you know, they, they probably are ex criminal, or they're, they use drugs and alcohol, you know, you see people on the corner, and they've got signs, and they're asking for money. And off handily, a lot of people just say, like, don't give them that money, they're just gonna go buy more alcohol and drug, you know, I think it's a way people kind of disconnect from it, and they don't really want to dig in and see what the root causes of these issues are. Right.

And I would even bring up the argument that it's projection, right, like a lot of folks that I know, who have addiction issues, who have those instincts to go run to self medicate are housed actually. And so maybe projection of this is what I would do if I was in that in that situation. So that's how I'm going to judge this person. So again, it's all about perception. And if the truth if you get really truthful about yourself, your own actions, and what other people are doing, I think we find a lot more that we have in common than we do in differences.

And, you know, digging into where do you get the information on this, one of the things I noticed is, again, on your social media, like your Instagram, you're talking about a number of things, you talk about things like rent increases and safe parking lots and how the city's allocating funds, you know, like, say, police funds versus community funds. And I just think you don't see enough people talking about that. And in my community, I don't know that I see these things in the newspaper, you know, my peers aren't talking about that when we get together and have a barbecue or whatever. And I think this needs to be more out, you know? How, how hard is it to find that information, you know, to really dig in and be involved? Because I think when it's not in your face, you have to actively kind of think about it, what have you found personally,

while I'm it's a road, right? So it's actually really easy to find out information, especially with like your city politics. You know, a lot of folks get caught up on, you know, our global politics or our nationwide politics, which are obviously extremely important as well. But your city politics is actually a really feasible way to make change within your like day to day life. Right. So you, you guys are and I'm again, I'm not a politician, like I, I happen to be a double felon, so they actually take away your voting rights for like 10 years before you can even vote. So I had never even voted until 2020. But now that I'm able to, I'm starting to see and just trying to do things that I'm trying to do, right, you need to understand the politics on how things work. Because there's, there's like politics and everything. So knowing how to understand who's in the council seats and what their kind of views are. And it's all public information. No matter what city you live in, wherever you live, you can go on the internet and you have a city website, you can look up the city budgets, and literally all that information is right there. It's about I guess, having the want and the need to kind of look it up and just just pay attention. You know, because

things don't happen overnight, right? Like issues like just gentrification, right. You know, your city is changing, the communities changing and all of a sudden, like some place gets demolished and something else comes up and everyone's like, Oh my God, it's like this one. Yeah, this didn't just happen like overnight that it's been like a 10 year planning process, probably.

Yeah, exactly. So that's I mean, also why I think it deters people from kind of looking into that stuff. Because, you know, what you vote on today might not happen tomorrow. But in some instances, it will, you know, it does take place right away. So it's just really about your own personal life and what is important to you within your city. And I think just getting involved a little bit. I mean, community and connection is really where it's at the rest will just come.

We you started this eight years ago now. So what was the inspiration behind that? What made you want to get involved with this?

Well, you know, honestly, I've been a chef food has always been like a safe haven for me, I come from an indigenous family, and I'm still, you know, able to raise my family here on our land. And that's, you know, a really special thing. So, you know, feeding in numbers has always been something kind of innate to me. And then 2016, my family lost our house that we had built here in our city of Oceanside. Just due to like rising property taxes, you know, my grandmother had passed away, she was like the matriarch of our family. So unfortunately, my elders weren't able to keep it up. So we lost our house, and my own mother and uncle and cousin found themselves houseless. You know, they were like, Whoa, like, what do we do? So we had to scramble and really get that together. And at that time, I had just moved out of out of home, to go and go move to the city of San Diego and go start my chef career and do all these wonderful glamorous things I felt and life just really sideswiped me and feeling like helpless. You know, like, oh, I can't pay their bills and my bills. So what can I do to kind of make an impact for people who are going through the same thing? And so, you know, my skills as a chef, I said, I know I can make a lot of food for really cheap. So that's just kind of where that ignited. And

what did it start with? Like, what was the first iteration of that?

So when it happened, it was February, I believe, actually. And so it was really cold and rainy in San Diego. So I made a big batch of like chili and fresh cornbread. And I went out. And in the city of San Diego also, I was really faced with the houses crisis, like it was in Oceanside where my family was going through it, it wasn't that bad. But in the city, every single corner has at least five to 10 people. So it's something I couldn't ignore, I had to face it every day. So I made a big batch of chili, put it in the back of my truck, a bunch of cornbread muffins and just was had bowls and went out and served just like a rogue mission, playing Shadow games with the police because you could actually get fined for giving out hot food. So, you know, we had to make sure that we were on our P's and Q's and just kind of running around. That's

crazy that that's not legal. I mean, we've had this conversation, I've had this conversation with friends, I used to live in Seattle, and we had, you know, a large population of people who didn't live you know, in traditional housing and we quite often on the way home from work would just pack up containers with leftovers and on the way home, you know, you're at a red light, you put down the window, you give someone a box of food, and we had the discussion about like, Oh, this isn't actually something you can do legally. It's like, really, but you don't have a problem with these people who are like sleeping on the streets. We're not going to take care of that. We're gonna go after the people who are trying to give them food that just seems totally fucked up for lack of a better term.

I'm so glad you said fucked up because that's honestly it's it's, it's fucking dumb. Honestly, because you're finding people you're throwing out food like they would throw I've honestly never had to deal with this. And again, like, I come from a little bit of a criminal background. So I guess I use that in my favorite to be able to play and eat allayed the cops, but I'm now doing good. So I I've never been fined, but they'll throw out the food right in front of, you know, the folks face just just to be an asshole pretty much. Because they could look the other way. Right? We know that they do choose to look the other way for many things. So

obviously, that's a far cry from where you are now. So how did the scaling process like, how did you turn this into a much bigger thing?

Yeah, I mean, it was an annual thing that I started, like, even just putting the bug in my friend's ear. You know, I had a little envelope in the break room at the restaurant I worked at at the time it said, This is what I'm going to do if you want to throw in five bucks and help me out that would be great. And I had I think $40 the first time and then somebody stole the money actually out of the break room. So once my friends got wind of that they kind of like you know, we all got pissed off but we're like, fuck it. We're just gonna do it ourselves. We all put in way more money and then we had like 200 bucks. I Take two for supplies. And all my friends helped. And it went from a group of eight of us. And we would do this once a year in between holidays because the churches would usually be out there during holidays, right? So from there 2020, the day the COVID shutdowns happen, I moved back to my hometown of Oceanside, just you know, North San Diego and with my wife and daughter, I was sitting in the living room of our empty house that we had, like, we were going up and rent a little bit and got fired from our restaurant job because everything was getting shut down. Right? So I was like, okay, like, this is cool. Thankfully, my wife was a supervisor at the restaurant that we both worked at, so she didn't get fired. So I was like, okay, like, we have one income at least, we had no idea at that point about any stimulus or any type of help that would be given but we were just going on faith and it was like a blessing man, I then had the time to really focus on this part of my life and see that especially at that time, when all the government officials were in their house scared you no not trying to go outside the our houses community had no idea what was going on, like at all they the bathrooms were closed, all public places were shut down, they had nowhere to go shower, all the gyms were closed, all the, you know, everything was just like, Where the hell is everyone. So we went out. And we were like giving out food and giving out masks and supplies and just being like, this is what's going on guys, you know. So we saw that need and just was able to focus finally, and not having to go to work and work eight to 10 hours a day, and just focus that time on helping our community. And we teamed up with another man who started a humanity shower. So he made a shower trailer, hot showers, we teamed up with him, we said, look, we're gonna find a spot, be here every week, and I'll bring the food, I'll handle that part you handle your showers. And we'll really create a good resource, a consistent resource that our folks can come to. And that's just what we've been doing for the last four years together, me and Jordan,

that's very cool. I've never seen the shower thing before how's that work, you have to tie into like a public water hookup or something. And

so he actually has water tanks on his system, but those are really heavy, right, so like water super heavy. So it's hard to haul those sometimes, but for the space that we use, so he can go anywhere with those water tanks. But for the the Wednesdays that we have, were hooked up to a church's water supply. And then we actually do business like on their parking lot. So it's a little bit of a loophole. So no, no cops or like public enforcement can can really fuck with us because we're on church land, and they're like, different rules for churches, you know, that's

awesome. It's it's nice that, you know, you're able to do that and find a workaround, although sad that you have to find a workaround for, you know, helping people with their human rights. What's

really sad is that like, I'm grateful that this church was willing to to help us out. And I'm grateful that Jordan my partner who does the showers he he's like, affiliated with churches, right by myself, I'm not affiliated with any churches. But the churches aren't super duper helpful. And you think those would be your main partner and something like this. It's humanitarian and advocating. But honestly, it's crickets when we try to find other parking lots or other days that we can have this resource. There's not a lot of partnership within the community, which is, like probably the most fucked up thing I've come to realize in this work of just like, Wait, aren't you here to help people, you know, but you soon realize that a lot of people don't actually want to help people. They just want the like, the money that there is in and helping people, which is also confusing, because we ain't got no money. And we're actually helping people. You know what I mean?

Well, that's what I love. We have a church here that we're a part of, and I'm not super religious. But what I love is my church is an we call it an open and affirming church, and everyone's welcome there. And we have the most diverse people in our community who go there, but we're very community oriented. So my son actually, I have 11 year old twins, as part of the youth group, he, I guess there was a there was a grant that your church could get to do some good and my son kind of came up with a proposal of how he would use this money to help homeless people, specifically kids and he actually was chosen and we just got $1,000 grant to be used. And however kinda we want to use it to help feed homeless people. houseless people here in our community. So this morning, I just got an email about that. So we're going through the process now, but it's still overwhelming because That's not a lot of money. You know, when you look at life, I mean, $1,000 is great, but it's like, wow, like, can I even make an impact with$1,000? And how are we going to do that? So we're just starting to go through the process of how we're going to make the most out of that money to impact the most amount of people here, but it's great that we have a church that's really important, like that that's really important to them is helping people in the community more so than going and just talking about this stuff that maybe didn't even happen, you know, 5000 years ago. It's like, how do we have an impact in our community today?

Right. Yeah, I mean, community outreach, usually is something talked about it a lot of churches that I've ever attended. But yeah, the the follow through, is what we're hoping for in any community, you know,

and now you're a nonprofit, you have nonprofit status, correct?

Yeah. So I mean, when you say $1,000, I'm like, man, you know, day one that seems like, unreachable. You know, and I remember when we first got our first $1,000 donation, and we were just like, flabbergasted, you know, and, and as you get to these little goals, right, your study looking forward. So you know, the numbers get bigger, the hopes, the dreams, the vision gets larger. But I tell you, starting at day one, if I had $1,000, you, you, you too, can do so much. And I know that you will. And it's funny that you got that email today, when we're having you know, this conversation. And if you need help, or advisor, I mean, any want me to look at the plan, I'd be happy to do that. That'd

be great. We're focusing with a group called ship. And it's focusing on students because this is tied in with our youth group. And we have a organization here that really focuses on kids, you know, of all ages, you know, from elementary school up till they're 18. And how can we help them so we're looking at, you know, sending during some meals and sending them home with them, but also gift cards, like for groceries, and maybe some very basic cooking lessons. Some of them are staying in places like hotels, where they maybe have a microwave and a hot plate. So like what are some dishes that they can cook they're so my wife's also a registered dietician and a former chef. So like, with her info, and, you know, my culinary skills, and just I think children have a different view on things like they're not jaded by things as well. And it's really great to see their thought process, they throw out things that I think an adult would say, well, that's not realistic. And then you sit and you hear these kids talk. And it's, it makes me feel great that like they're, you know, they feel like they can change the world. And they haven't been beaten down yet. Right. So there's some great ideas coming out of these kids.

Yeah, I mean, and it takes parents like us to really show them that, hey, these dreams aren't impossible, you can make it work or we can be innovative and find new ways to to make it work. 100%.

Net right now, is everyone volunteer, like not getting paid at all working with you? Yeah,

yeah, me, me as well. I am 100%. Volunteer, it's my wife and I and then I'll just really my group of friends. And that's how we've grown is just, you know, the word of mouth of everybody talking about what we've been doing the consistency of showing up, I think I'm really grateful to be within my my city to so I know so many people, and giving a space for an even queer people, honestly, to be able to show up and to volunteer without it being like a church kind of orient, you know, situation, is something that I've also learned was really needed, you know, just having a safe space to come. And it's not like a sticky volunteer situation, or you sign in, we want to know all your facts, you know, what's your race, what's your age, so we can get all this grant money, and yada, yada. It's, it's not like that at all. And we just have fun. And if you can show up, you show up and we'll give you a job to do. But yes, we're extremely grateful for all our volunteers. Is

there still a lot of red tape to deal with like governmentally to get something like this going?

Not necessarily to get it going? We just had to it takes money to make money, I guess. So even in a nonprofit world, it still costs money to file all your paperwork to get legit, you know, so we ran as a mutual aid, which is just like, technically an illegal situation, right? You're just doing it out of the community, like a garage sale without an LLC, right. So to take the next steps to where we wanted to go, though, we really had to get legit. So last year, we were able to file our file one C three, and that was just from, you know, donations from the community to help us pay for these funds. 100% It's either our personal money or 100% donations from our community members to get us anywhere. So it's really really special. And

it takes a lot of time to do things even on small scale and I don't think you can truly grow until there's some organization.

Yeah, no, totally, definitely take Someone to be a leader. And I guess, you know, I never really thought of myself like that. But that that is it, you know, I'm taking this vision that I've had of actually just wanting to be an entrepreneur, right? Like you work in the kitchen, if you're in the restaurants, it's either you're working for someone else forever, or eventually you're gonna work for yourself is hopefully the goal. And I always knew that that was going to be me, I would be an entrepreneur and my vision of what kind of food business I would open has changed dramatically throughout the years. So where the vision is now though, it seems like it fits and it is aligned and the forward motion and is so much easier this time than any other time I've been planning and, and, you know, scheming and plotting for what we would do.

How long have you been in the food business?

I mean, I would say honestly, my whole life a little bit. I come from, again, indigenous culture. So food is something that we do, you know, and I had cousins who were who owned restaurants here in town, and would you know, when I was 16 or so go serve tables and stuff like that. So it's always something that really held close to my heart. And then once I got out of jail, I was like, Well, I guess it's the kitchen, you know, cuz, again, it's one of the last spots for a misfit where your background check might not matter too much, because they really need someone that's going to show up and, and get to the dirty work. So

you didn't have any trouble getting into kitchens, even with the record?

No, actually, I think it was easier for me to get a job then than before, however, at once, I was really able to focus on like, Okay, this is what I can do without having any issues, then it seemed that the doors would just open, you know, is

that what you would have wanted to do? Like, if you could have done anything? Was there something else you would have maybe done? Like, if you could get a job anywhere? What would that be? Well,

funny enough. I wanted to be a cop, a good cop. And the first time I got arrested, I that, you know, I was pretty young, I was like around 18 or so. And the arresting officer was talking to me, and he's like talking to me about my future and how, you know, I have my whole life ahead of me, blah, blah, blah, you know, make good choices. And I told him, Well, I want to be a cop. So you know, and he laughed really hard. And he said, you can never be a cop because you're a criminal now. And so I kind of looked at him and said, okay, like, alright, you made the choice for me. So once I've failed at criminal a couple times I, I decided, you know, food is something that has always made me so happy and joyous. And it doesn't feel like work. When you're going and you're menu planning and you're shopping and you're, you know, cutting vegetables and just making it all come together in this beautiful, like, ballet of flavor and impacting people's lives in a way. Just even a guest at a at a restaurant, you know, like you're making someone's day through a meal that tastes so Bob, that they're just happy, right? And they don't know shit about you, your background doesn't matter. None of that matters. It's all coming through through the food, your souls come in through the food. You know,

it's the hospitality industry. That's, you know, what I love? And I think sometimes some people forget about the hospitality industry. And, you know, it's like, when did we stop caring about the people and it became an ego driven thing about, you know, me and accolades and the food on a plate, but not making people feel welcome. I think restaurants, especially if a certain caliber are putting more things and like we can accommodate this and that and we can't, and there's a like can't do mentality versus a can do mentality. Food

is so complex, and people are affected by it in different ways, right? We have food allergies, and things of that sort. And even when I am cooking for my my houseless community, they're my favorite guests because they don't complain about shit, right? They think it's all bomb. They're not sending no plates back. But they are a very specific clientele where a lot of them are elder and potentially have, you know, no teeth or very little teeth, they have diabetic issues, they have health issues, and food allergies and situations. So you have to take that into, you know, into retrospect when you're cooking stuff, also having to be really resourceful and what donations come in. If people donate supplies and things and just kind of thinking on my toes, it'd be like, What can I use this for? Honestly, it's been one of the most fun, like Chef experiences in my career because it's constantly changing. And, you know, that's that's like, that keeps your joy in life. You know, if you're cooking the same stuff over and over and over, you're gonna get bored eventually if you don't change your menu if you're, I mean, you lose that spark that pie Question, you know, yeah, I

spent most of my career cooking in retirement communities. So you know, and some of them were higher. And so there was a well to do clientele, but not always. And one of the things I loved is because they live there, you have to change the menu all the time, because they're literally eating three meals a day, they're seven days a week, and you're doing so many different cuisines. Like I've always said, I wouldn't be happy being in an Italian restaurant just doing one cuisine forever, or working one station, just on grill every day. It's like, I tell people, if you want a good culinary education, go to a place like that, because you're going to be learning every cuisine, you're going to work every station, but you are seeing a direct impact on these people. And yes, while some of them can be very particular and have strong opinions, you know, so many of them can't leave their they are, in essence stuck there quite often because of mobility issues, can't drive and it's like, they have so little some of them to look forward to every day. And it's just the dining that that's their socialization time, that's their time to go out and enjoy, you know, life. And I think it's more impactful than serving a, you know, faceless crowd and a high end restaurant. That's what I found, right? Because

I mean, even in the back of the house, you don't get to hear the good stories, right? You don't really get to see the smiles and all this all the front of the house staff gets to see that gets to hear the praise, you just get the Hey, this is wrong, hey, this is bullshit there, you know, and that will wear on you as an artist. Because if you give a fuck if you are passionate about the culinary world at all, and it's not just a job to you, you know, that's gonna wear on your spirit and think that you ain't got no talent, when it's not really you, you know, it's just being stuck in the same shit every now and then. How

do you take into account? Or do you think about like health and nutrition when you're serving the food? Like is there? You know, are you looking at trying to make quote unquote, healthier food and I think that's kind of a dangerous route to go down. Because we tend to look at some foods as being healthier than others, but I think you have to take into account different cultures and what their food are, you know, like, Mexican people and rice, you know, and it's like, are we gonna force them all the brown rice when they may be eight white rice their whole lives? You know, so what's your take on that? Or what are you doing?

Well, for me, I definitely take into account health but I'm also taking into account what the comparisons are in other organizations, right? Like a lot of these bigger government run organizations use government food, and myself coming from a lower income family, I understand what government cheese is, and things of that sort. And it's, it's processed. And in a Western culture, we're very used to our food is not healthy, right? Things that you go buy in the store aren't honestly the best for you, even the produce in some places. So because of this knowledge, a little bit about what we eat, I take it really back to my indigenous roots. And I know that what comes from the earth is best. So to be honest, like 75% of my meal plans are usually plant based. And I link up with local farms that we have. Thankfully, we come from farmland, this was all original farmland. So the soil is very rich and rooted in historical farming. So the local farms have some of the best products you can get. And they're willing to work with us because they're smaller nonprofits as well. Right? So a lot of it is plant based stuff that I do, but I also work with a lot of vets. Oceanside is a military town so our elder vets don't aren't very keen to rabbit food as they call it. So it's also a mix of just good I guess you would call it comfort food right for different all different cultures we have a huge Latino culture here indigenous culture but a lot of implants because of the the military they're so you know, shepherd's pie but using real potatoes versus an instant potato, you know, using real ground beef instead of you know, something that you would buy at like a Walmart right like getting grade a beef things of that sort. So making small differences in the way that we prepare food but using real ingredients is the tip top of our of our, of our mission.

And how many people are you feeding

right now? So we feed about 100 people a week. That's fluctuated though when we were heavy and COVID You know, there was a month where we did 1000 meals a month and we put them into go boxes you know, we let people take take them back to folks maybe at their camp that couldn't come to the specific spot because that's another challenge. I guess having a place where you meet me there to come get fed is really hard. Hat meeting people where they're at is so much easier. So when we do To drive around and we're able to give out stuff, you know, we had a big Tama lava in December. So that's a community event where usually your family right would get together and you make hundreds of tamales for the holiday season. So we did this with our community where strangers just get together and everybody's the ASPCA, we make over 500, tamales, and we go hand to mouth. And it's honestly one of the best events that we have, because a tamale a warm, hot tamale, first of all, is awesome on a cold winter night, and it really is the nostalgia takes people back to a happier place may be their grandmother's house at Christmas time or something, you know. So distributing in that way so much easier, which is why we're moving again more towards a mobile business so that we can meet people where they're at. I

think that's a great point. And, you know, going back to this thing that my son has been doing, you know, one of the things we talked about is like, if we're working with students, yes, we could have this at our church, but our churches, you know, a place downtown, would it make more sense to do an after school, like, while they're already there, right, instead of having these kids get on a bus or whatever, go home, and then expect them to come back out a couple hours later and figure out a way to get to our church, it would probably make more sense, if we could do it at say, the high school and then after school, they're already there. And then, you know, figure out what the transportation is. So I think you don't always think those things through, you know, your best intentions, but it's like the execution sometimes fall short.

And that's it. You know, a lot of people have good big hearts, and they want to help, you know, we have folks that will come volunteer and, and bring, like raw foods, like raw cauliflower or raw sweet potatoes to outreach to give out, which is great, but it's like, where are they going to cook this? You know, like, you have to think that extra step. So I think us again, taking those reins, providing that leadership and really mapping out, this is how we do it. If you want to help us help us or if you'd like to donate supplies or funds, like we'll get it done. And you know, 100% of this is going right back into the program. It's such a such a need, you know, people are like, I'm down to help, but where how, when, you know, where do I show up? Yeah,

and leaning on the people who are in the position doing what you do, you know, I, in my last job, we would do a fundraiser dinner for our local food bank. And I was working closely with them. And I would hear information, they would say things like, yeah, it was great. People used to donate food, and we get things like pineapples, but nobody would take them. And he said, you know, we came to the realization we were asking people in they said they had no idea how to cut a pineapple like to you and i It seems like stupid, simple, right? But like these people who have never cut a fresh one, or just they would opt to literally not take it because they had no idea how to cut and trim a pineapple. And it's things like that, where I wouldn't necessarily think about that they go pineapples are on sale at the grocery store. Let me get someone donate them. So kind of figuring out things like that, I think, is where you lean on the expertise of the people who are maybe working in these jobs.

Yeah, and I mean, you hope that those thoughts, and all of these thoughts, you know, you hope that the leaders are taking all of these things into into their thought process. But in reality, unless it's a passion project for you, and it's just a job, you do tend to lose some of that care. For Sunday street outreach are our like, main little stick, we always say are the three things that we rule are the rule by our community, hospitality and compassion, because with those three things combined, I mean, we can move mountains, honestly and truly help people.

So what are donations? How are you funding that? Some obviously, you're getting donations, but like, what are you doing to actively get money and get donations from people? Yeah,

so mainly just start social media. And again, this is like word of mouth of friends, to friends to friends. And our social media is probably the we only have like, I don't even know like maybe 2000 followers on there, but

it reaches anyone listening. Go follow them. I'm gonna link it all up in the bio, get some more followers out there.

Yeah, yeah, that that would be awesome. And it literally is just such a free way to share somebody's movement or you know, something cool that you saw, and sharing on their stories and people telling about it. We have a link in our GoFundMe for like, our community trailer that we've been raising money for. But honestly, even for that project, that's a big project, right? That's like 75 grand were putting into this and it's mostly from our personal funds. And just using our credit and stuff to back this but it's it's interesting because it's like we have so much between my wife and I, we have so much years in the industry. But as a nonprofit, we've only been one year old right this February. So we're still a startup business and such so you know, it's a it's an industry where I think people see risk, but I see nothing but opportunity, honestly, especially for a mobile business. And if you're not a brick and mortar, again, you can meet people where they're at is seems to be something to that, you know?

Yeah. Well, I'd love to hear more about this trailer because I know it's something you're trying to get going. And I've, you know, I know some of your story. Can you talk about the mobile trailer and what the goal is with this?

Yeah, man. So the mobile trailer is technically just a mobile kitchen and cafe. My wife is an amazing barista. So we're focusing on to go coffee and to go breakfast, but like fresh to go breakfast, right. So we'll have burritos and just breakfast sandwiches, stuff you can eat with your hands really simple, good fresh flavors Made to Order, which is different than when you go to, I don't know if I should throw out any names. But you know, you can

put a coffee shop on blast if you want. And if it's gonna Starbucks, I could just go out there and say Starbucks because I don't go to Starbucks anyway. I

don't mind going toe to toe with Starbucks, honestly, I mean, at it, I think that we're in a in a real world where sometimes your coffee money can be used to destroy communities versus really building them up. And that's what we're trying to do is we're trying to show that look, capitalism can be fucked up if you don't have good intentions. But if you have good intentions, capitalism can be used to go right back into your community and help people who are being underserved. And that's where I think people truly do want to help, they want to know that when you're donating to Red Cross, that's the money's going to these people. But that's not reality, in the world that we live in. A lot of billionaires, a lot of millionaires are made from nonprofit work, which is why it gives it a bad name, in my opinion. So when you have something good, people are willing to help, they just want to know it's happening. So with our consistent work in the community, this seems like such a natural next step. So we'll be able to be your coffee spot in the morning and worked into our price, it's kind of like a buy one give one model. So that's directly going to fund our free food hour, every single day where we can feed people coffee, hot coffee, a fresh meal, every single day in our community. And I mean, the goal would be to franchise this opportunity so that people could start this in their own communities and be able to help because we do not want to be reliant on grant money or government funds. Because truth is, it's there really hard to get the competition out there. It's crazy. And you have to have, you know, grant writers that cost so much money to be able to potentially get even $1,000 or, you know, upwards of a million dollars, whatever. But the reality is that money isn't really going, you know, where it should. So we thought, how can we get creative and use this kind of business model to be able to fund and sustain our work every day?

I think that's amazing. I mean, I'm a big proponent of supporting small local businesses anyway, like taking out the, you know, aspect of giving free food to people or going to a good cause, like just supporting a small local business, as opposed to one of the big giants. But the fact that the money is actually going back into something really fantastic, I think is great. So is that is that the like the next big thing that you're working on that you're going to be in a while is working on the trailer? Yeah, so

we already have a trailer that we bought, and we've met with our build out guys, so we're just waiting now to get approved for a loan to be able to build it out. But once it is built out, within eight weeks, we'll be able to have wheels on the road and start serving. So we're really excited about that and are working with like our school board or local school board to have a resident parking spot within their parking lot so that we can also filter money into the schools and you know, not just one, like, What can I say we're not we're not just advocates for one type of underserved community, we know where our community is lacking in money because it is going to other places where we can help is where we're trying to create that avenue of revenue for not just us, but everybody.

Now, do you work other jobs? Like do you have a job besides this? Is this just like you're like, oh, yeah, since it doesn't pay, right. Yeah, I'm on top of another job. Oh,

yeah. I have two jobs, man. My wife has two jobs. Like I mean, we live in San Diego. So it is a thing. We're blessed. I have, you know, a six year old daughter. So none of that's cheap. And you know, it's I'm a bartender and I slain vodka sodas. And ever since we became mothers, I had to go back to the front of the house actually, so that I could work less and make more money because we know the back of the house is long hours and not usually enough hourly to sustain a life Let's be honest, you know, at least here in California, I can't speak for everybody.

No, I mean, I think in general, you know, I was amazed when I was starting out and young and being like 20 years old. And at the end of the night, when the bartenders would take you out somewhere for drinks, because they had like, hundreds of dollars in cash in their pockets. I'm like, I made$7 an hour, and I wish I made$56. Before Tax tonight, that kind of blows. Yeah,

no, seriously, I only work for restaurants that tip out their kitchen staff, which is a

relatively new thing, I think, in general, no, what do you have for advice for someone who's maybe thinking about doing something like this in their community, like getting involved, whether it being you know, on the volunteering or donating side? Or to the more challenging of starting their own thing? Do you have any advice as to like how or where to start?

Just do it. First of all, if you're thinking about it, just get out there and do it that goes with anything in your life, you know, take the one step. That's like, I'm still figuring out shit every single day, you know, but I keep taking steps forward, just relying on faith. So if you're going to be volunteering, sweat equity, which is like your time and your labor, that is the key component to any business, whether you're getting paid or not. So that would be your number one way to start, get involved with a grassroots organization in your city that's working at something that you love, you know, get to know those leaders get to know what they're doing. And create that community for yourself. Because you'll find it, it's extremely empowering. If you later down the line, do want to start something being around people who have done it is is the way to do it, right? Having a coach someone to, to be able to mentor you and tell them what you know, they what worked for them what did it is great. And if you're at that point where you do want to start something, again, just do it and you know, treat it as if if you want to feed people if that's your thing, and obviously we're talking to a bunch of chefs, right? So if you have if you work at a restaurant, and you know that you happen to have hella leftover food, and there is no food rescue system in your city, talk to your council about starting something like that, you know, you can easily write an email to your council, it's a government information, and just let them know, you know, I work for so and so restaurant, we have extra food that we could be putting into places, how can we talk about getting something started here, because food waste in America has is a huge problem. And we could really be determined that and using it to help folks. And

I think looking into a lot of pre existing programs. You know, one of the things I found interesting is my kids go to Title One schools and you know, my wife and I, we do okay, like I have, you know, I don't need assistance with food or anything like that. But at our elementary schools, every time we went to some event at night, there was a food drop, and they would give out free food. And, you know, I didn't want to take it because in my mind, it's like, I'm taking food from people who need it when we don't need it. And then talking to them. They said no, you don't understand, like, if we don't get rid of all this food, they're gonna stop giving it to us, you know, and I thought that was really interesting. Because to me, in my mind, if I take a bag of potatoes, you know, I'm taking it away from someone who actually can't buy a bag of potatoes, but understanding that, no, this is something that the government is providing to us. And we want people to take advantage of it. But that was a big shift for me. And it's things like that, like getting that knowledge out there and telling everyone like, Hey, by the way, like, go grab a bag of apples, because if we stop using this, then everyone's gonna lose this benefit.

100% Yeah, a lot of nonprofits. They're government funded. And so it's a numbers game, if you're not using these resources, they cut your funding, they're not giving you that food. 100% Correct. And my, you know, argument, if you happen to have a food drive, and maybe a community that is a little bit more well off and not so much low income, take that food, cook it up, and you know, filter it out to people, that's definitely an option. We use our food banks and my daughter's school drive, you know, they do a lot of rice and beans and things of that sort like dry foods, we'll take them because even if we start a little community pantry or a little community fridge, you know, which we've been trying to get off the ground. It helps filter all those foods to the people that can get it maybe they don't have kids in school, and they don't know there's a food drive there, but they need it, you know? Well, this is one

of the things I love about the food industry. I think this is a topic that's especially that chefs and people in the hospitality industry are really passionate about and I feel great to be part of a community like this with people like you who really want to make a change in the community. I want this to be your opportunity for a call to action. What do you someone's listening to so even if they're not local, how can people help you Your organization specifically?

Well, first of all, just follow us on Instagram. You know, being visible, visible visible to people is so important for everyone. If you resignate with what we do, then and that's your own call to action and you want to help us DM us do it. I'm in my DMs I'm there to answer your questions. I am 100% all the time on my phone, trying to get people to, you know, just spread the word is our biggest thing. If we reach people in Maryland, how awesome you know, and we're inspiring folks to start something or get involved with something in their community. That's the goal. You know, Sunday street outreach starts here in San Diego, but we hope to go nationwide and global, we want to be in your communities to help people. So give us a follow on Instagram at sunny street outreach MVM T that's a short for movement, I guess. You can also visit our website, Sonny Street, outreach.org. And we always ask for donations, you know, everything is 100% Community ran. So every dollar goes right back into our program, which is great, because I am, I am able to volunteer my time. You know, we don't have anyone on payroll at this moment. But yeah, just spread the word and help us get out there. Help us reach over 2000 followers and, you know, look within your community and see what resonates with you. And as far as the needs, whether it's the schools or the houses, community, everything is struggling, you know, so find your niche and use your skills. If you're a restaurant chef, start a food rescue program, within your space, if you have extra food, start handing one or two meals out and night. You know, that's that's really where the passion starts.

I hope everyone out there is listening to this, especially, I want everyone to go follow them on Instagram. But I really want everyone to kind of think about this. Listen this episode again, figure out how you can do something to help your local community. And it doesn't necessarily even have to deal with feeding people, but just find something to do to make an impact. And if you've been blessed in this life and have a good life, find a way to give back to your community. Thanks so much for coming on the show. I'm really glad we could meet and I could have you on to tell your story. Yeah,

thanks so much. This is a really great conversation. It's nice to chit chat with people who really know what you go through, you know? Yeah,

yeah. And I hope to have more episodes like this. So if you're out there and you are running something similar or even different, have a nonprofit or trying to make a positive impact in your community, you know where to find me. So as always, this has been Chris with Chefs Without Restaurants. Feel free to DM me on Instagram at Chefs Without Restaurants or send me an email at chefs without restaurants@gmail.com. Thanks so much for listening and have a great week. You're still here, the podcast is over. If you are indeed still here, thanks for taking the time to listen to the show. I'd love to direct you to one place and that's chefs without restaurants.org. From there, you'll be able to join our email newsletter. Get connected in our free Facebook group, and join our personal chef catering and food truck database so I can help get you more job leads. And you'll also find a link to our sponsor page where you'll find products and services I love. You pay nothing additional to use these links, but I may get a small commission which helps keep the Chefs Without Restaurants podcast and organization running. You might even get a discount for using some of these links. As always, you can reach out to me on Instagram at Chefs Without Restaurants or send me an email at chefs without restaurants@gmail.com Thanks so much.