Amy Sins: From Kitchen to Crisis Response

Chef Amy Sins shares her inspiring journey from a rogue do-gooder to a pivotal figure in disaster relief, using her culinary skills to make a difference when it truly counts. You'll learn how chefs can become vital assets in crisis situations, transforming chaos into communities of support and nourishment. With heartwarming stories about innovative solutions and community empowerment, Amy's adventures remind us of the power individuals have when they harness their unique skills for greater causes.

The episode explores emotional and logistical challenges faced during disaster relief missions, where Chef Amy’s leadership shines through. From the chaos of consecutive hurricanes to international evacuation efforts, we discuss how chefs' adaptability becomes crucial in serving affected communities. Discover the unexpected "superpowers" volunteers bring to the table, and how local chefs play a pivotal role in providing comfort and sustenance amidst devastation. Our conversation with Amy unravels the intricacies of funding and supporting these missions, emphasizing the impact of immediate action and local engagement.

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Chapters

• 0:50 Disaster Relief and Culinary Adventures
• 13:42 Chef's Role in Disaster Relief
• 30:29 Disaster Relief and Community Superpowers
• 47:54 Disaster Relief Funding and Support
• 58:17 Fill the Needs Organization Update

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:50

Well, hello everyone. That's right, it's a little bit different. It's like the Twilight Zone. Carl's off on an escapade with Sean Pooch Rivera. We'll get into that in a sec.

Speaker 1: 1:02

It's yours truly, chef Jeffrey Schlissel from the Walk and Talk with none other than John DaVinci Hernandez I don't know if you guys knew that was his full name, because those pictures he's taking, they are so detailed, so amazing. You've got to give the credit. We're at Ibis Images and we're going to be shooting later on today and we're going to have a lot of fun. We want to thank our partners Crab Island Seafood they happened to be here last week, chef Carl and Tom. You might as well take a trip back to memory lane and look that episode up along with our good friend, patrick Kelly from the Produce Industry Podcast was here as well. We want to thank Metro Productivity and Storage Rack Porcelain. They're about to go off on a little bit of an adventure with the World Food Championship in Indianapolis that will be this coming weekend. And we want to thank everybody from the different countries that are listening to us. We're now trending in Australia, united Kingdom, we hit number one in.

Speaker 1: 2:05

Mexico, hong Kong and Brazil. So thank you so much for doing that. We really do appreciate that. Up on deck, today's guest has been on the show prior. Believe it or not, it has been two years since she's been on. That is Chef Amy Sins. She'll be talking about her wonderful and I have great stories to talk about of filling the needs. That's her disaster relief that she does not only in the United States but all over the world. We'll get into that in a sec.

Speaker 1: 2:38

Well, since Carl is not here, john is going to get the tasty morsels we're doing today. This past weekend I was with Chef Jonathan Rodriguez. Today this past weekend I was with Chef Jonathan Rodriguez. We were representing the brand Tanino brand. Wonderful jarred salmon and tuna. Guys, I'm not kidding. Jarred tuna and salmon absolutely fantastic flavor profiles.

Speaker 1: 3:05

While I was there, I was introduced to two cooks that Jonathan has working for him. They're J1 cooks from India. One was from Mumbai, one was from the north, near Bangladesh, and let me tell you it was an amazing conversation for the first two days. Day two, we were driving back and one of them said I haven't had barbecue and I was able to produce some brisket for Niso and Omi. So a big shout out to those guys. If you want to see their reactions, go to bacon underscore cartel. It's part of my story. You can see niso cooking and he literally is having moments with his eyes closed seeing the flavor profile of that brisket.

Speaker 1: 3:43

And that's why we're going to have today a focus on the food for Thanksgiving, because that's coming around the corner and I wanted to do some like hand style pass around type of appetizers. So we did a smoked plobano with an hot char, mexican hot chocolate rubbed brisket. That cooked for about 10 to 12 hours, 12 hours. And then we've stuffed that in the poblano with a little bit of collard greens, had a garlic chili crisp and a little bit of peach vinegar and we're going to put some cheese, we're going to throw that into the oven and have a nice melt. And then I did a pork shoulder for another friend of mine and I had some leftover. We did the pork shoulder with barbecue beans and a samosa. So we're paying a little bit of tribute to India with the vessel that's carrying it. We'll get into those shots later today, but let's get to our wonderful guest, amy Sins. Chef Sins, how are you?

Speaker 2: 4:43

I am doing, I guess. Okay, right, it's been a crazy, crazy hurricane season, but you know we are conquering and moving forward. I'll have to say that if I see any of those people who in September, said they were disappointed that the hurricane season hadn't lived up to expectations, uh, they better run the other way yeah, don't introduce them to me either. Yeah yeah, we're gonna have some words to say the least.

Speaker 1: 5:17

Um, I you know, two years ago, our first podcast one of them was at a farm and, uh, the stafoya was the mushroom farm. Joelle and seth, the brothers that had it, nicole Cruz had her farm. That was Hurricane Ian. Now let's fast forward. So we went through that year. I've moved over two years ago, so did John. We both moved over from the East Coast to the West Coast. We've been through four hurricanes. We went through Ian, nicole, we went through Helene, but we didn't have that much damage to where I live. And then there was Milton and yeah.

Speaker 1: 5:53

John and I both had some damage done. It's been a whirlwind. I know from you communicating with me, one of our wonderful farmers, vicki Webster, called me frantic. She was dumping milk, she lost power, she was flooded. Everything you can think of that could go wrong was going wrong for her, and when she called me I just immediately put you or her in touch with you and thank you so much. Your team did a phenomenal job helping her out.

Speaker 2: 6:27

Well, you know, that's what we do. I think people who respond to disasters, there's something in their soul, in their core. All they want to do is help. And as soon as we find someone we can help, people jump on it, and it's just amazing to see that happen.

Speaker 1: 6:45

Now you just don't do disaster relief. I want to point out that I have a friend that was in Israel when the poop hit the fan back in October. That's when you got called me and said I have a plane that your friend can get on and get out, so you were doing relief in that way. Where else have you done relief in that kind of like the flying stuff?

Speaker 2: 7:11

Sure, I did relief in Afghanistan. After the fall of Afghanistan. That was my first international evacuation mission. That was definitely an eye-opening and learning process. Also did some evacuation assistance in Ukraine. You know Americans travel all over the world. They visit family and friends all over the world and when it hits the fan, you know we don't necessarily think about having to get ourselves out of a foreign country and what happens when that happens. So organizations that we partner with specialize in that they answer the call when I call them and everything comes together so that we can help get people out of harm's way.

Speaker 1: 8:02

Yeah, I mean, it wasn't just once that you called, you actually called me where it was like, hey, this is the last absolute plane that your friend can get on and I have three seats for her. And you know she couldn't because of the problems with, you know, the aging mother and aunt and the health concerns and stuff like that. But again, lamar, she really appreciates, we actually appreciate everything you do. So tell us how did you I mean I know we talked two years ago Tell us, how did you get involved doing what you're doing now?

Speaker 2: 8:34

Yeah, you know I. It all goes back to Hurricane Katrina here in New Orleans. My house was on the levee break of the 17th street canal. So if you watched the, you know CNN and all the news stations that were showing the water pouring through the levee with the giant hole and the helicopter dropping anybody sandbags. That was just a couple doors down from my backyard, so our home had between eight and 12 feet of water depending upon the part of the home home and, you know, a foot to two feet of mud because the levee was in our house.

Speaker 2: 9:14

And it was kind of one of those moments where it truly felt like the end of the world and you are overwhelmed and have no idea what to do. You know my Florida friends who have flooded and my Louisiana friends who have flooded can totally recognize. You know what it's like to see your cabinets falling out of the walls, your sofa somehow floated into your foyer and the walls look like they're covered in. And the walls look like they're covered in. I don't know marine animals, if you will. It's just like fuzzy mold everywhere. And it was a moment where my house had been filled up with water like a bathtub and someone pulled the plug and everything I own just kind of landed wherever it landed as the water drained.

Speaker 2: 10:05

And there was a day that a actually two very pivotal moments. One I was standing in my driveway looking at my house and a gentleman came up to me and he was actually a fireman who had worked the World Trade Center and he said I know what you're thinking. And I looked at her like baby, you don't know what I'm thinking right now, like this is so much. And he goes you don't know where to start. I said well, that's true, I haven't. It's so overwhelming. And he looked at me and he said pick a corner, start there, everything will fall into place. And it was incredible. It was incredible, incredible guidance because it just gave me a little bit of the spark I needed to start somewhere in all of the overwhelming chaos.

Speaker 2: 10:57

And then a few days later, a van pulled up in front of my house. It was a church group from Pennsylvania. I had never met them. They just pulled up, they stopped, they got out the van and they said we're here to help. And they helped us carry every soggy, wet thing that we owned to the curb. And then they said we'll come back tomorrow and help you get the rest, get the rest. And my house went from a soggy, horrible, gross, smelly disaster to, 48 hours later, stripped down to the studs. You know, sheetrock removed, everything carried away and it looked like a house that was about to be built.

Speaker 2: 11:45

They had given me the hope I needed that I could survive that situation and, as I'm hugging them and crying, as we finished, I told them. I said I don't know how to pay you for what you've done for me, because you have truly changed my life the last two days. All I can do is pay it forward. And they looked at me and they said Amy, just pay it forward. That's what we're doing, and I have been ever since. I've been committed to paying it forward and I realized that those of us who have been through such a life-changing disaster, we can relate to what people are experiencing, and there are a lot of. I don't even want to call them tips or tricks, but we've learned the hard way how to deal with some of the chaos that happens after, and it's my honor to be able to share that with people so that they're not making some of the same mistakes or so that they can get back to a new normal as fast as possible.

Speaker 1: 12:55

Yeah, it's funny cause I was just thinking about how you went from that. You know, start in that thought process and then naming it filling the needs, because I thought when we did first talk I thought you're going to name it like rogue help because you were rogue. So talk about how you went from being a rogue to the 501.

Speaker 2: 13:20

Yes, I joke, I was. I was like the queen of the rogue do-gooders. We were absolutely rogue do-gooders. And the more and more I do disaster relief, the more and more I realize maybe I didn't quite do it the right way, being rogue, because self-deploying can create so many problems. But I've learned Again.

Speaker 2: 13:42

I've learned, and you know, started out my first effort as a rogue do-gooder with Cedar Rapids, Iowa. My husband and I had gotten back into our house in New Orleans, Things were getting normal. We're watching the news and we see that there's a flood in Iowa and I said, you know we should go help. And my husband's like, yeah, we should. You take care of that, Amy, let's go do it. I just laugh. I'm like like any good husband yeah, baby, take care of it, I'm just along for the ride of whatever your crazy idea is.

Speaker 2: 14:18

But we ended up in Iowa with hundreds of volunteers from all over the country and gutting houses, setting up a community center, serving meals for three days, and that was my first give back. And then I did another one, and another one, and another one. What I realized is that every disaster follows a recipe. You know the recipe for disaster. Every disaster follows a recipe. You know the recipe for disaster, you have a recipe for recovery and it follows the same formula. And once you learn that formula and once you realize how it works, you can get a lot of stuff done done. And when I started doing international work, I realized well, I don't know if foreign lands are going to accept Amy the rogue do-gooder as somebody that is assisting. So I started the process in 2021 to start the process to become 501c3. And so now we are, we're no longer rogue, we're legit and we now we have to follow rules, but we've learned how to navigate the red tape and still really get things done.

Speaker 1: 15:42

Tell me, how does a chef that like yourself go from the chef to the rogue gooder than to? How did that help you? What is that like for our guests and our listeners? How would that help them as far as organization?

Speaker 2: 16:01

Yeah, you know one of the things I realized, you know, when I first the 2016 floods here in New Orleans and throughout South Louisiana, I, you know, said we have 200 servings of corn soup left over from an event in the freezer at work. I'm going to just go to a neighborhood and do what I do chef things and feed people, because that's what we do. We know food makes people happy. Well, those 200 servings of corn soup turned into me, facilitating over 100,000 meals in 19 days, 18 wheelers supplies, teams of volunteers in six different towns. And I realized that we, as chefs, are chaos wranglers. We also live on the adrenaline of the chaos, so we know how to make split second decisions with authority. We're willing to accept the consequences if our decision isn't right. You know, if our decision is right, we cheer for the whole team in the kitchen. They had a great day. If our decision is wrong, it's our fault and that's what it takes in disaster relief is a leader that can pull people together, can wrangle the chaos and see through the noise. And I realized, well, if I bring a few more chefs to help me in this 2016 effort, maybe we can find even more creative solutions that we can use for future disasters. And we did One of the craziest things that happened.

Speaker 2: 17:48

I had a whole group of chefs and our plan was to go and cook at an evacuation center. Well, it was still very early in the flooding and then backwater flooding started happening. So entire communities that for three days had not flooded as the rivers rose they started to flood, for three days had not flooded as the rivers rose, they started to flood. We brought a team to a center about an hour and a half outside of New Orleans and because we had that three days, I said everyone, y'all, just cook in your restaurant. I want you to prepare the meals, I want you to vacuum, seal them and I want you to freeze them. That way we're not having to deal with ice in South Louisiana. You know the heat of September, and we can just use a crawfish boil pot, boil in a bag, heat and serve. And at first I got a few groans, you know, because chefs, we like to cook and we like to cook in front of people and we like to show people our fire and our knives. And I said now is not the time, it's not, it's not about us, it's about getting food into bellies and making people happy.

Speaker 2: 19:02

Well, we showed up at the center and it was actually a Red Cross center and the Red Cross team that was supposed to run it. They were delayed. They were coming in from out of town and a team of chefs and their spouses ended up running the Red Cross center and we set up the cots. My husband and a local restaurant owner here in New Orleans set up all the cots in one area of the Red Cross Center. Another team of chefs served meals, another team of chefs sorted clothes.

Speaker 2: 19:41

I stood in the parking lot as people would bring horses and cows and dogs that they evacuated and we were triaging what had to happen with those until the leaders of that disaster center came. But the biggest thing that happened was the Board of Health showed up and inspected us. Up and inspected us. And that was when I was so thankful that I truly understood food safety. And the reason we did boil in a bag was because we were not sure if there would be clean running water. And the board of health said we've never seen anybody do this. This is brilliant, we all come back tomorrow. And I was like no, I'm tired, this is going to be, this is. This is more than I just thought. We were serving gumbo.

Speaker 2: 20:41

I did not think that we were going to be running an entire evacuation center, but that turned into me being able to send chefs out into the community, because on that day I had a gentleman show up with 500 pounds of meat and this is where the secondary disaster can sometimes happen.

Speaker 2: 21:09

He was so compelled to help and the first thing he thought of was that he was going to do a collection in his office. Everybody was going to put up money and he was going to go buy ground meat so that somebody could make hamburgers for all the people who had been evacuated. And you know, that's that sounds like a great plan, except for you need you need a barbecue pit and you need people to cook it, and you need plates and you need buns and you need all the things. And he showed up with giant ice chests with 500 pounds of meat and we ended up having to find out where we could send that. That had refrigeration. And we started working and sending chefs out to local churches and community centers to teach them how to stack their refrigerator and how not to put the raw chicken on the shelf above the lettuce, because sometimes people don't know that.

Speaker 1: 22:55

Yeah, it's amazing how the community kind of pulls together. You know I've done disaster cooking in different disasters myself and I will tell you the most touching was Milton.

Speaker 2: 23:09

for me what was it about it that was so touching?

Speaker 1: 23:15

well, it was me. You know it was my community got hit.

Speaker 2: 23:20

You know I got hit and the first thing I wanted to do is help my community because the, the givers are, are called to give, and I think what's really hard for people like you and I are when we are also the people who are impacted and people want to give to us, because it's hard for us to take because we are givers. And I find that the givers and the doers jump into action, and that's what I tell my team on the ground. You know, the givers and the doers jump into action and that's what I tell my team on the ground. You know, drive around and find the doers, because they will become their community leaders in this rebuilding process.

Speaker 1: 24:05

Yeah, I just having you know neighbors and seeing them without a generator and being without power for seven days and they're eating out of a can, that was the first thing I wanted to do is I just opened up. Know, we had, we had a generator and I know you and I talked several times like what do you need? I'm like I need gas. Well, I have some canisters and I'm like, no, I need gas. Um, but you know it was. It was wonderful to see people have that you know we and we don't.

Speaker 1: 24:32

We take advantage. Everyone takes advantage of having that hot meal, and I know jose andres talks about it, I know we've talked about it, but there's something about when you go through a tragedy, when you go through a disaster, and then you have that first hot meal afterwards and you see that light of like, hey, there's a little bit of normalcy here, you know, and that's the biggest thing for me, and when I took out of it I got to know my neighbors cause we had just moved in so that the two years I was there I've really never got to know my neighbors.

Speaker 1: 25:03

Now I really know my neighbors. They really came up and helped. I mean I lost the key to my generator. Somebody was like we've kind of retrofitted the generator to start. And you know you go through these and you hear stories about people doing things and you know I've filmed. Today. It's been you know what, today's the seventh In two days. It's going to be exactly a month that we got hit by Milton and my area. They just started finally picking up debris fields. I had 140 debris fields down my street and they're still're still there. So I mean it takes time and that's what we do as people. But you know we still check on each other and that's what we're doing. You know, with my, even though we got power back, I'm still checking on. Hey, do you guys need anything that kind of thing? Because you, you have to, I guess yeah, and it does you every disaster.

Speaker 2: 25:53

As much as I hate that disasters happen, every disaster I work it renews my faith in people, that I like to think that people are good.

Speaker 2: 26:06

Right, people maybe make bad decisions or uninformed decisions, but we're inherently good and when people are given the opportunity to step up, they do. And communities come together after disasters and for me it's important that that continue, because it's not just in those first, you know, 15 days, 30 days. This is a long-term rebuilding process and it's also a preparedness process. Florida sees that. They know that this kind of stuff happens, sadly, on a regular basis during hurricane season, that we're forced to come together as communities. But I also see people say we're going to be ready for it next time. We're friends with our neighbors, we're going to prepare better, and then things go back to normal and kids start playing soccer games and you go back to work and you get caught up in your life, and then the cycle continues the next time, whereas if people could stay together, working together, preparing and keeping that community aspect, we could respond a lot faster the next time.

Speaker 1: 27:37

Yeah, it's funny you mentioned that. You know Florida knows, unfortunately Tampa didn't. Tampa has been 103 years, I think, since the hurricane actually hit and that North wall of Milton did some. You know, and I always say this hashtag Milton hit differently and it did Um. You know, I've been through every single hurricane in here and in Florida since 1979. Yes, I'm that old. I went through a hurricane, andrew, in Broward County. We had 160 mile an hour gust, I'll tell you. At 12 o'clock in the morning Milton was trying to get through my front door and, uh, it wasn't fun. I'll be honest, and you think you can be prepared. You can do everything you can possibly can, and nobody expected parts where I'm 96 feet above sea level. I didn't think we were going to flood, but my backyard has a reservoir 1,000 feet long, 50 feet wide and three feet deep and it was full the next morning. So I was fortunate. There's a house on Lakewood right now, going towards Brown Brandon Boulevard in Brandon that has a pond. It's still flooded. The neighbor's house still four weeks later.

Speaker 2: 28:45

Yes, so you know I sit on those emergency calls and the stories I hear it's. It's heartbreaking because we don't see it on the news. You don't see on the news what I hear sitting in an EOC call where they're talking about four weeks later a house still has standing water People. The news cycle moves faster than the floodwaters.

Speaker 1: 29:16

Thank you for saying that because I'll be honest, we, after milton left, uh, we turned the generator on that thursday. Uh, we turned the news on. It was just ending and it went right to the nightly news and I was like, wait a minute, why is this going on nightly news? This should be coverage of the local news, because that's what it was during hurricane andrew, in fact, to the point where it was like, okay, enough already, let's go back to national news so we get some normalcy.

Speaker 1: 30:10

I didn't see any of the devastation until I actually left to go to new hampshire and I was with chef keith saracen, who you know, and he goes do you want to watch like the news footage? And I'm like, yeah, I haven't seen anything. And we started watching it and, to be honest with you, I broke down and he's like what's, what's going on? I'm like that could have been me. That's five minutes from my house, that's 20 minutes from my house, that's five minutes or 10 minutes or so on and so forth.

Speaker 1: 30:36

And then, you know, you go back two weeks. We had Helene and I had a buddy come in from North Carolina who works for us foods. He got off the plane that Sunday, he flew in and he finally got the phone call from his son and his son said dad, why didn't you come for me? By the way, he lived in Canton and he goes Seth I didn't know where you were. I didn't even know if you were alive. So I mean we had devastation, and that's my guess. Where I'm going with the next question how do you prepare Cause? I know I talked to Mercy chefs too and they were spread thin. How do you get from like one disaster to the other, and especially with this unprecedented, two hurricanes within two weeks of each other, and how damaging they were, at $500 billion in damage?

Speaker 2: 31:24

Yeah, it's hard because you know I'm a very I'm small but mighty is what I like to say. You know, mercy Chefs is mighty, but they have an amazing team and equipment and resources and they're stretched thin. So these small and mighty organizations are also stretched thin. And it really does come down to the formula. And we know the things that happen in the first 24 hours Every disaster in the first 24 hours the communication goes down, everything's a mess, you're not able to get in contact with people, you have no real intel about what's happening, and that can last for up to 72 hours.

Speaker 2: 32:18

So we see this cycle and we anticipate okay, the first 24 to 48 hours is search and rescue, but that may not start for 24 hours because of safety concerns. Then we can start moving in with things like bottled water and granola bars, but we know there'll be a gas shortage. And in places like Florida, you know there's one way in and one way out, and so you have to wait until the storm completely passes if you don't have teams pre-staged. And for the transition from Hurricane Helene to Hurricane Milton we had teams pre-staged in Florida. But that also poses a risk because if you have teams pre-staged, they are in the path of potential danger and that's a lot to balance.

Speaker 2: 33:16

I had a guy that was going down to Florida from North Carolina and I spent about six hours on and off the phone with him, monitoring him. We have all kinds of GPS tracking equipment and satellite imagery and things like that and I was able to track his vehicle in every 20 minutes until about like three o'clock in the morning. I would check in with him because he had to drive around the hurricane to get what we needed into Florida.

Speaker 1: 33:54

Do you?

Speaker 2: 33:54

lost it.

Speaker 1: 33:56

You. I'm sorry you lost a team. You want to talk about that?

Speaker 2: 34:02

Like you lost a team.

Speaker 1: 34:03

You had no communications when you and I had talked and you said I can't find one of my teams.

Speaker 2: 34:10

Yes, because they were deployed on the ground. And what happens is, you know I'm I don't have satellite phones. You know, if we could have satellite phones, that would make life a lot easier. But we're, we're, we're working with what we have. The cell towers go down, the power goes out, there's no way to get in touch with my team to check and make sure they're okay, and that if even then, when I do get to check in with them, they don't always know if they're okay because they have no awareness of what's happening two miles from them because of that lack of communication. And so that's the number one reason why I realize now being that rogue do-gooder is not necessarily the smartest thing right. The smartest thing right Because to self-deploy in a situation like that, if my teams on the ground were not already approved, certified, registered first responders, swift water rescue specialists, medics they could have easily become part of the disaster in that moment that I couldn't get in touch with them, if they were not trained to manage those kinds of situations.

Speaker 1: 35:38

So tell everyone what kind of individuals are doing this.

Speaker 2: 35:44

You know what it's across the board, the people that help with, fill the needs.

Speaker 2: 35:49

So I have, of course, lots of retired military special forces people. Those are the ground teams retired state troopers, retired firefighters, people that have been givers and servers of their nation and their communities for a long time, and those are the teams that are working. Those first, maybe three days. I have my team of do-gooders, which are usually people who respond to me on Facebook and will respond to fill the needs on Facebook and say I'm in this area, the roads are open, what do you need to know? And those are the people that are everyday people. They know their community. They're, like you know, the basketball coach and the local grocery store owner and the church pastor, and they're the people who are driving around giving me ground information. They're the ones saying Amy, these roads are blocked. This person, you know the water comes to. Here. This restaurant or bar is now giving out baby food because someone dropped off a whole bunch of baby food. That happened here in New Orleans. A local bar turned into a hub 12 hours after a tornado hit. So have those people that are going around, that are everyday people. And then, as the recovery and response process continues.

Speaker 2: 37:39

I like to say that we all have our own superpowers and that's your gifts that you're good at and that you enjoy sharing with others. And I tell people, think about your superpower. What's your superpower? You may not assume that it can be used during a disaster, but I bet it can and I've had a couple of people test me with that and I had. I'm always looking for forklift drivers. That is the superpower I need. Every disaster is someone who can drive a forklift. You know, I'm always looking for these people who love to do spreadsheets, because this is a lot of moving parts that we have to keep track of, and someone in Montana was able to help manage some spreadsheets for me, right, because they wanted to help, they wanted to respond, they wanted to be active Chefs.

Speaker 2: 38:43

You can go out into the community. You can teach people. You know how to organize their kitchen, how to manage a major food distribution, how to set up, you know stations and how to prep and how to plan and how to identify how much food you need for how many people, and I had a lady go how much food you need for how many people and I had a lady go. Well, during COVID, I started teaching myself how to make balloon animals. Do you think that's my superpower?

Speaker 2: 39:18

And I laughed and I said I guarantee that I can find you a shelter where there are a lot of very tired, weary parents who would love to have their children entertained even for 20 minutes so they can just have a break and breathe, and balloon animals would be perfect. So you just need to look at what you love to do and what you're good at and then find the right organization that can help put you out there. And maybe you like to cook and you're not a chef Mercy Chefs is incredible for that right. Maybe you love to help do construction. To help do construction, I had a carpenter that I just partnered today with a group of Mennonites that are building bridges in North Carolina and he wants to spend his Christmas holidays doing something where he's a carpenter. And I said I know somebody on the ground that will happily take you, and so you just have to figure out what you're good at and then get out there and use it for good.

Speaker 1: 40:33

Yeah, and I think that's the biggest thing too, is your network, because you and I have been through several different disasters, one being Ian. I just remember you had called me up and said hey, I need a case of full aluminum pans, I need this, this and this. Do you know anybody? And I'm like I'm three hours away. I called back to Miami where I used to work. I called Fred Polson. I said hey, can you get something? He's like we don't even know if we can go over the alligator alley to get over there to do anything. And I called Christopher Jubilee. Remember him from the ACF Yep, yep.

Speaker 1: 41:09

And I said Christopher, I need, I need some help. And he goes. And this is a gentleman that actually his um country club went through. It had water to his in his own home. He went to mercy chefs and ended up working a shift for mercy chefs and I was just like Christopher, that's your superpower. And what I did was that following year I nominated him for something and he won a cutting edge chef from the ACF and I think he deserves a presidential medallion for what he did include in so big hats off to Christopher. I think that's one of the biggest things, too is how your network helps you correct.

Speaker 2: 41:53

Yes, and that's the power of what Full the Needs does. I realize I'm just a girl with a cell phone and a laptop there's only so much I can do and I can only be in one place at one time and building a network since honestly, I think 2007, 2008 is when all this rogueness started I've made a lot of friends, I've helped a lot of people, a lot of people have helped me. We stay in touch and as soon as there is a storm in the Gulf, my phone lights up. Are you going to respond? What do you need? We're going here, we're doing this, and you realize that the power of collaboration is exponentially, can make an just an incredible impact. And you are expanding the ability to respond because you're going from 10, 15 small organizations, whether it's a neighborhood group, a faith-based group, a community organization, a nonprofit. When all of these organizations come together, they collaborate, they share resources, they can maximize the impact they have on the ground.

Speaker 2: 43:28

And we saw that, especially during Hurricane Ian that ability to say well, somebody dropped off too many bottles of water. We have 30 cases of water. What are we going to do with this? Water is coming out of our ears. And then, four miles away. Another one of my partners is saying oh my gosh, we have so many tarps. We have so many tarps, tarps are coming out of our ears but nobody's bringing us water. To be able to facilitate that communication and to know what is happening on the ground, then we can help to maneuver resources where they're needed. And that only happens with the power of a network. Otherwise that water just sits in a parking lot while someone else needs water.

Speaker 2: 45:11

Because a lot of times people don't consider the fact that first responders and disaster relief organizations and community leaders responding to disaster are going through the disaster themselves. Just like you and just like Chris, you have your own family, you have your own problems and you're trying to help. It's really hard to step back and say, okay, what's the bigger picture? How can I, you know, share these resources? You're just trying to keep it together, right, you're just trying to keep the glue together. So someone else needs to be that person that has a more bird's eye view and can see how the puzzle pieces are fitting or not fitting. And that's what we do at Fill the Needs.

Speaker 1: 46:08

So I have another question. It's more of a mental health one and I know that you have your trigger and you also have your food that you kind of gravitate to going through everything that you go through. And, by the way, when you said a gulf, there's a hurricane in the gulf Both John and I kind of like snickered because we have our friend Raphael over there doing what he's on something, because he's going to do loop de loops out there.

Speaker 2: 46:33

Yeah, I don't know what's going on with that. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 46:39

So I will. I will say anytime we see that now, and anytime I hear a generator, it's a trigger for me. So talk about how is it that you've gone through Gertrina? You've gone through that disaster and other disasters. How do you separate your mindset from helping people and not getting too far down the rabbit hole, and what do you do to cope with everything that you're going through?

Speaker 2: 47:01

it's very difficult. I will say that self-protection and boundaries are critical and I've had to, you know, give myself a few mantras and give myself some grace and ask other people to do the same, because for me, I have to set boundaries and self-protective. You know I have to set boundaries and self-protective, you know, bubble around myself and I can't be upset when other people are upset that I have set them. And that's hard for me because you know people do want to cross those boundaries you set because they're in a traumatic situation and I have to say no, I'm sorry, I can't help you with that right now, as much as I would like to. This is what I'm focused on. These are my boundaries.

Speaker 2: 47:55

I also do not look at pictures of disasters. I can close my eyes and I can see and smell Katrina. I don't need to see the pictures of somebody else's flooded house. I know what it looks like, I've lived it, I've been there. It took me 18 months to get home there. I don't need to see that. To see that can trigger. I understand and I am constantly conflicted because those images are powerful to motivate people to help, but it also me personally. I don't want to look at it. So it is a very delicate balance. I encourage people to share pictures of hope. I know that for me. I'll tell my donors and my teams in the field. I'm just honestly. I want to see a smile, I want to see a hug, I want to see a thumbs up, I want to see people moving around and doing things. That gives me hope and that gives other people hope, and it also shows our donors things are happening. I don't always have the most healthy coping mechanisms.

Speaker 1: 49:10

You knew I was going to ask you that question. You knew I was going to have to ask you that question.

Speaker 2: 49:15

You know we go days and days and days with minimal sleep. It's total chaos, burning the candle at both ends. I know that's not healthy for me. When a disaster relief mission ends, I will sleep for four days straight Like we'll not get out of bed. We'll lay in bed, we'll lounge, we'll nap, we'll go back to bed because I know I have to listen to my body.

Speaker 2: 49:43

I run on Coke Zero, which they should be a sponsor, so put that out there. You should sponsor Amy's disaster relief efforts because I go through a lot of them. I actually have a volunteer that sometimes she just shows up and it like drops the case on my porch and she's like I was thinking about you today. So I definitely am fueled on caffeine. That is not good for me. I broke up with little Debbie in 2016. A little Debbie snack truck driver heard what I was doing for the 2016 flood and dropped off cases of little Debbie snack cakes for command central, which was two of us I me and little Debbie are not friends anymore. I feel the same way about Ben and Jerry because I friends anymore. I feel the same way about Ben and Jerry because I went to Ben and Jerry as my mental health treatment after Katrina and fish food is my favorite and I try not to go there. But my ultimate, ultimate junk food, comfort food, is chips and queso, and I'm not talking about like the good queso, like the queso, that that that's good.

Speaker 2: 51:11

I'm talking about that fluorescent orange I know which one you're talking about gross, looking brightest like food coloring queso that that stuff, man, it makes me happy. And I did a relief effort in Maui where we filled a 747 with supplies and sent it to Maui, showed up on the tarmac with a bottle of wine, a bag of Tostitos and a thing of cheese queso, and I've never been so happy. And he said, amy, I've been following you on Facebook and I know your vices and I brought it for you and I flew that back and ate it on the nine-hour flight back.

Speaker 1: 52:08

So you know, that's fantastic and I love the fact that you are able to do all this and we're able to connect and help one another and our communities, even though that you're in New Orleans or Louisiana. Tell us what is the biggest thing that Amy and Phil the Needs needs.

Speaker 2: 52:27

Honestly, we need funding and as much as I would love to say, oh, we need you to send bottled water, we need you to put together a drive and food money fixes most problems and the problems we run into during disasters need immediate handling. So right now I have two 18 wheelers worth of supplies ready and waiting for me in Oklahoma to send to a team in Florida. I don't have the money to spend $7,000 to hire an 18-wheeler to fill up, drive to Florida and drive back, florida and drive back, and that's a resource that is somewhat wasted. That could have been in Florida months ago. Also, you know, we run into situations where if I have somebody filling a trailer, you know they're like, oh okay, our community is going to fill a trailer. They're like, okay, our community is going to fill a trailer. And here's the list of things. It takes three weeks to fill that trailer, for them to get their fundraiser set up and everybody coming by the time that trailer gets on the road.

Speaker 2: 53:57

Those items are not the items we need anymore. Right now I am buying work boots and rope and chainsaws. I'm not buying dry goods or bottled water. That was something that we needed, you know, 30 days ago. I'm buying light fixtures. We know people will need sheetrock, but it's the kind of thing that we need it in the moment and those funds that we get not only help the people who need the items, but I do my best, when appropriate, to buy from the local community.

Speaker 2: 54:42

I'm not doing what some organizations do, where they require that they purchase their items from within a 200 mile area, because I feel like if you have the buying power to say it has to come from that area, you have the buying power to pay to ship it in and you're starting to pull stock away from locals who need it. So it's a delicate balance. But for me right now I want to be able to hire. I have a group of chefs we just helped gut their restaurants in North Carolina and they're cooking meals for families just to stay busy, because it's a lot to realize that your restaurant is now flooded and closed. But I want to be able to hire them to buy Christmas dinner or Thanksgiving dinner for families that are living in tents and they want a good meal. That's what you know. I can do that if I have the funds to be able to do it. We can identify a need in the moment and we can resolve it in the moment.

Speaker 1: 55:54

So one last thing before we get going tell me about the insurance and what happened with that, with this storm.

Speaker 2: 56:01

Yeah, you know we, I do a lot of in-kind donations. People will call me and say, amy, I have an 18-wheeler of this, help us find a home for it. And I do. But there's still operating funds, software, attorneys, accountants, all these things that you have to have to run a nonprofit. But honestly, I often pay out of my personal pocket and I'm just tapped out.

Speaker 2: 56:35

It's been a rough year as a chef, a rough couple of years, and I thought I was going to have to just kind of close the organization because here in South Louisiana and I'm sure you're feeling it in Florida insurance goes up and our insurance is going up and I didn't have the funds. You know, I had some funds in the bank but if I had paid our insurance bill there was not going to be the funds for all the other things that we needed them for. And a generous donor heard that I was maybe not going to be able to respond to Hurricane Helene because I couldn't renew my insurance. And he did that for me and I can't thank him enough, because that generous donation of something that seems so stupid right is like oh, I paid a nonprofit's insurance. You know it's not. I bought an 18-wheeler of water, everything that we've accomplished for the last two months to happen without them. You know, the people that we were able to support and help would not have received that support.

Speaker 1: 57:57

That's awesome. So where can people help? If they need to donate or if they want to donate their time, where should they go? Why don't you give a big shout out of all your socials, please? Can people help if they need to donate or if they want to donate their time? Where should they go?

Speaker 2: 58:09

Why don't you give a big shout out of all your socials, please? Yes, so you can go to fill the needsorg so needs plural, because there's always more than one need. So fill the needsorg. There you can see all of our active missions, past missions. You can donate online there. You can also online there. You can also go to the Facebook page, which is filltheneedsorg. There is a group on that page that I often will update and put more community-facing information as well. So if I have a request that's like I need somebody to drive three hours in Florida who wants to do it, I post it on there. So it does give people an opportunity to volunteer. And you can also follow us on Instagram and Twitter. And then if you want to see some of the behind the scenes of how it's all being juggled, you can follow me at Chef Amy Sens.

Speaker 1: 59:05

Beautiful S-I-N-S. That's awesome, you guys, that's it. Next week we're going to be with Carl and the whole crew. Stay tuned.