Rachel Miselman talks about food insecurity and food injustice and the need to address their root causes. She also discusses other topics surrounding Boston politics.
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Bostonian Rap
Welcome to Bostonian Wrap. My name is Rachel Meiselman and you are listening to me on WBCA LP 102.9 FM Boston. This is Boston's Community Radio Station. As we always do, we're going to go to a quick disclaimer and then we're going to come right back to jump in to tonight's show. The following commentary does not necessarily reflect the views of the staff and management of WBCA or the Boston Neighborhood Network. If you would like to express another opinion, you can address your comments to Boston Neighborhood Network, 302-5 Washington Street, Boston, Massachusetts, 02119. To arrange a time for your own commentary, you can call WBCA at 617-708-3215 or email radio at bnnmedia.org. Hello, and welcome back to Bostonian Wrap. Again, my name is Rachel Meiselman. We're going to talk about food justice, injustice, I should say, again. So I talked about really the topic was food insecurity, but I'm going to call it food injustice. We like to throw around the word justice, but we don't like to talk about injustice nearly as much. And for me, food insecurity is food injustice. I have said consistently, I said on last week's show, and I've said just in a variety of spaces that food insecurity, food injustice has become a crisis unto itself. However, the roots of it is just simply people can't keep up with the cost of living. Plain and simple. The cost of living has become astronomical. The rents are... they're just obscene. It'll look for the right word. They're obscene mortgages in Massachusetts ranks as one of the most expensive states in which to live. And we're losing people. We're losing people as a result. There are other places in the United States where people might not always have smooth sailing, but at the least, they're not waking up every day and saying to themselves, "Okay, I know I'm going to struggle, but just how many struggles am I going to have?" That's... that's inhumane to me. So we have food insecurity, food injustice, because for a long time to survive for a while, I should say, "Oh, yeah, for a long time, people got to the point where people were trimming the fat." So maybe they didn't go on as many vacations. Maybe they started doing stay-cations. People, you know, maybe cut back on clothes shopping, things like that. But over time, people found that that wasn't enough because the cost of living continued to rise, and wages didn't rise with it. And so now we have a situation where people are... This actually makes me angry. Talking about this makes me so angry, because it's just, I feel like there's no need. People are prioritizing needs, not wants, but needs. That's what people are now looking at, because the wants... People... we have an increasing amount of people who are just grateful to be surviving. So people are prioritizing needs. And unfortunately, sometimes food is not at the top of the list, because people say, "Well, I have to have a roof over my head." So I'm going to buy a little less food. I might skip a meal. And then, of course, as I said last week, we have parents skipping meals so that their children can eat, or a parent. And again, there's no need of that. We have an abundance of resources in Boston and in Massachusetts, but we have had a lot of elected officials who have quite frankly mismanaged the resources, and they've done that with the things that they've advocated for, the things that they voted on in favor of, and things that they voted on against. And so we have a situation where the people pay the price. People pay the price because people are standing up and saying, "I'm going to advocate for your best interest," and then they turn around and do just the opposite. And to expand my target, because this isn't just about the political class, although the political class plays a big role, we have a lot of nonprofits, we have a lot of activists, and anyone can be an activist. It's just such an empty term at this point. But we have all these different actors, these stakeholders, lots of air quotes from that one. And it's painful to listen to them talk because they don't know what they're talking about. They don't understand the scope of the problem. They rarely speak to the needs of the people, what people actually need. They rarely speak to the roots of the problem. It doesn't make sense to build up a whole culture around food injustice, food insecurity. It really doesn't make sense because then you're creating jobs. You're creating a whole ecosystem and money's going to be thrown at that. And I'm wondering how much of that money would be better spent on creating job opportunities. And I'm wondering the chances that people have to be their own bosses. I mean, we have studies how to address food insecurity. Why don't we have studies as to how we can better manage our resources? We're better yet. Maybe we just need better people. But then in that case, that falls upon we the people to do our jobs and not only vote, but to do so informed. So I talked about Ron Shish. And so I went to make sure I pronounced that correctly. So I was like, yep, I got it right. He is a lovely sort, just wonderful. Of course, he was the founder and CEO of Panera. And I talked about his initiative, Panera Cares. And it worked for a long time. And one of the municipalities in this country that was fortunate enough to be part of this initiative was Boston. So yes, I remember Panera Cares was operating for quite some time. And I was very sorry to see it go. Because I think that as much as I criticize the political class, and I think that they've done a lot to cause the problems that we have, I think that ultimately moving forward the way to combat food insecurity on a regular basis, an ongoing basis, it's going to take partnerships between the government and community. Because a lot of these nonprofits, these activists, people have to understand that these people are individuals who, in some ways, in many ways, are just extension of the government. They really are. They rely upon the government to function themselves and they work hand in hand with the government. So there's no gentle pushback of what I might even call a collaborative, a respectful pushback, you know, collaborative in the sense that, yes, we work together, yes, we work, we could say even closely together. But, you know, under that umbrella of wanting to be productive and wanting to continue a successful or meaningful collaboration, I'm going to offer an alternative. So we don't have that. We just don't. And so I think that I just think that so much needs to change. I think so much needs to change. Ron Shaish gave us a blueprint, if you will, ways that differences can be made. Right? Because even if I do acknowledge that even if the wages matched the cost of living, and I don't know if that's really possible, just because the cost of living has become so outrageously expensive. We would still have, I believe, food insecurity for different reasons. But the idea is to do something now to combat it because it's crisis. So we don't want it to be a crisis. We want it to be, I mean, ideally we'd like to eradicate it, right? But at the very least, we want it to be a problem that we can quickly address and we can work with people in need right away to connect them with resources. So whatever discomfort that is being experienced can be stamped out as quickly as possible. But let me share some of what the government is doing. And I think this speaks to my overall frustration because again, I think that obviously I want to eradicate food insecurity, food injustice. Obviously, I understand that it's not just down to wages, not keeping up with the cost of living, but that's clearly the root of it. There might be some other issues, but that's the root of it. Because there are other issues, that's why I say that even if everyone was making over 100 grand, there would still be instances where people don't have enough to eat, or they're not eating properly. I think we need to have both some long-term goals, a long-term plan in place to address long-term goals, to reach long-term goals, and a short-term plan to reach short-term goals. It's just, it's very, very frustrating. So let me just kind of give an example of some of what the government is doing. So we have here in Boston, we have the mayor's office of food justice. And it's a new, relatively new concept here in Boston at any rate. And the idea, I quote, "to build a food system that is equitable, resilient, sustainable, and just." And I just, the government has to be a lot more intelligent. We don't put nearly as much effort into creating a healthy business environment. We don't, I shouldn't say wait, they, because I'm not part of that, they don't put nearly as much effort as they need to into making smart decisions with their resources. So people can, can live more comfortably. Let me, let me read a little bit more about this, this office of food justice. So that word "equitable" again, I prefer quality myself, and just. So there are strategic goals that are listed. And so one is to build equitable access and distribution systems for fresh, culturally relevant, and/or regionally grown food citywide for food insecure communities. Leverage city food procurement to increase city department food purchases from regional producers and people of color. Putruises, increased food recovery from public and private institutions and strength and pathways to connect food insecure residents with fresh, healthy, recovered food. I just want to say that no one is going to steal your ideas more than people in government. Let me say that again. People, people are not going to have their ideas stolen by anybody more than they would by people in government. They, they have no respect for intellectual property, they have no respect for the efforts, whatever form they may take of people that just come forward and say, "Look, I want to, I want to help out. I have this idea. I have this concept. I have this plan. I have an agenda that people will nod to you and then they'll take your idea and run with it." So it's really incredible. And the reason why I bring that up is because the third goal that I mentioned is actually, it's already in practice. We have Daily Table. And Daily Table, they, you know, recover food, if you will, and they sell it. And it's good food. It's nutritious food. And they sell it at prices that are reasonable. And I just, I don't know if the government should be in the business of trying to dictate, or even, you know, to, to maybe different businesses that have that model or, or, or trying to be in that business. Another option along those lines itself. I, because it's, that's, that's not what they're there for. And then I guess the fourth goal is increased food production and neighborhoods, including in public spaces like parks, housing development, schools, and community centers. Okay. I, look, I don't mean to be rude. I don't mean to be disrespectful. But we only have so much space. So we, we have an abundance of resources. I did say that. I always say that because it's the truth. Not only in Boston, but in Massachusetts, but we can't, we can't be wasteful. Right. Because eventually what's going to happen is we're going to, we're going to look and we're going to find that there's a gap between what we need and what we have. We have to understand those resource and how they can be used. It's not just enough to say, Oh, we have this resource. There has to be a concept of this resource would be best used in this way. We can make the resource stretch further, go further. It would be more beneficial. There's no cotton. There's no such thinking along those lines, either in Boston. And it's not nearly enough of that on state level. So let me, let me draw it back to the goal so people will understand better what I'm trying to trying to say. They have so much space, right? The mayor is intent on ripping up streets, the redesign, the reconfiguration of our roads to create bike lanes. That's a whole, that's a, that's another topic that deserves lengthy, that deserves the lengthy discussion as well. But I mentioned bike lanes because, you know, we're taking roads and we're reconfiguring them. We're creating lanes just for buses. We are building, you know, affordable housing. At least that's what we're told only to find out that we're affordable housing has been built. The units, the property, it's not affordable for most people. We are living under the, the erroneous idea. Again, I say we just don't do that. They, under the idea that the amount of space that we have is, is infinite. That's not true. And so taking our public parks, I resent that and using them to grow food. I resent that. Leave our parks alone. Use the resources that we have smartly. And start addressing the root cause of food insecurity, food injustice. People are not making enough money. They are not. And it's not because the cost of living has become so outrageous. It's not feasible for everyone to be making 150,000, right, or 120,000. So what we need to do, and I'm just talking about single people, by the way. I mean, people have families, the numbers go up and it's really quite terrifying when you sit down and think about it. But we need to think of ways to keep inflation down, to have a robust economy, to create pathways to entrepreneurship, to create incentives for businesses not only to stay here, but to want to come here. I mean, we have to work within the parameters that we have. We can't just say, well, you know what, we didn't make the right decisions. We don't understand the issues. So we're just going to create solutions to a problem that we created because of our mismanagement, but we're not going to still, we're still not going to address the root. We can't have that. We can't have that. So I think that the office of food justice, I think it's a waste of resources. I do. I think that if the government wants to support initiatives in the community, okay, if the government wants to partner to a certain extent, okay, but I mean, certain things the government can do and I approve of. So like on a state level, I mentioned this last week, we have the wonderful Senator Sal Di Domenico and he's been a strong advocate. He's phenomenal, by the way. He's just incredible. And if all elected officials were like him, I wouldn't have a problem with people in the political arena, but not everyone's like Sal. Sal is just terrific. He's smart. He's competent. He's knowledgeable. He knows the issues. He looks at addressing the roots of the problems, just really, really good. He's been a strong advocate for, as I've mentioned, actually many times for pre lunches for everybody in schools. And I support that. So I think that that is something that the government can do. I think that that is, for me, a smart use of resources. But I just don't, the Office of Food Justice, I find that I just think that that's a waste. I do. I like the idea of, you know, during the summer, you know, in Boston, lunches, breakfast and lunches are available to BPS students. These are initiatives that I support, but an Office of Food Justice with the strategic goals that I just mentioned, that's just, that's a waste. That's an absolute waste. I want to kind of pivot to another subject, another topic. But really, the takeaways is that if the root is not addressed, and that's the wages that can't keep up with the cost of living that haven't kept up with the cost of living. It's just going to be taken the resources that we do have and the mismanagement is going to continue. More effort needs to be put into maintaining a healthy economy. And I understand that, you know, what happens at municipal levels affected by what happens at state level and what happens on national level. I get all that, right? But I feel like here in Boston, we could be a little bit more nimble. And I feel like at state level, we could be a lot more nimble too, so that what we have is used smartly, intelligently. And we don't continue to waste at the expense of the people. The next subject I want to talk about is candidates. You know, the candidates see people standing up to run pulling papers saying, "Hey, I'm running for this seat. I'm running for that seat." It's a continuation, I think, of a lot of what I have been discussing. But, you know, a lot of these themes, it's just we need ongoing discussion. Until things really change, we need ongoing discussion. But let's just take a quick little break. Let all of that settle. I said a lot. And then, yes, when we come back, we're going to pivot to this next topic. The impact of a meal goes well beyond feeding our bodies, because when people don't have to worry about where their next meal is coming from, they can truly thrive, like Marta. And now we'll hear from our class, valedictorian, who with our hard work never ceases to amaze us. Please welcome Marta Moreno. And Alex. Hey, Alex, how did the interview go? I did it! I got the job! I can't believe it! I knew it. Let's meet up later to celebrate. And Diego. Mom! I got first place at the Science Fair with my volcano project. That's amazing, sweetie. Congratulations. Because when people are fed, futures are nourished, and everyone deserves to live a full life. Join the movement to end hunger at FeedingAmerica.org/ActNow. FeedingAmerica.org/ActNow. A public service announcement brought to you by FeedingAmerica and the Ad Council. Are our love bugs and companions? They are our pets, our family, and they make life better. When we face unexpected challenges, so do our pets. That's why we're on a mission to support people and their pets. Whether donating a bag of kibble, sharing an Instagram post of a lost cat, or welcoming a foster pet into your home, every bit of kindness counts. Visit petsandpeopletogether.org to learn how to be a helper in your community. Brought to you by Maddy's Fund, the Humane Society of the United States, and the Ad Council. Hello, and welcome back to Bostonian Wrap. My name is Rachel Meiselman, and you, of course, are listening to me on WBCALP102.9 FM Boston's Community Radio Station. So, while I'm pivoting to another subject, as promised before we went to our quick break, in some ways it is an extension of what I discussed. So, it's about the competency, the capabilities of people who stand up to run for office. So, I'm going to keep on hammering this point home. It's not because someone can run for office that someone should. And I don't want to discourage people from running. I don't. What I would say is that running for office, because I've done it, is not easy. It is not. It takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of energy. And you have to be comfortable with asking people for money. And some people are very comfortable asking people for money, and they get it. Whether they deserve it or not is another story, but regardless, if you run for office, you need to be comfortable asking for money, because you need money for things like literature. If you want to run ads on Facebook, or really just, you know, anyway, if you want to make ads, so I say run ads, I'm thinking of boosting posts, excuse me, but if you want to run ads on Facebook or anywhere else, I mean, I refer to Facebook, meta, but honestly, that's not the only platform, of course. And, of course, their ads, newspapers, you want to send out mailers. They can be expensive. So, it's really important. And I want to get back to time, because that's actually more important than money, because people need to see you out and about. People need to know who you are. It just takes a lot of energy. And honestly, some people just stand up to run, because they want the attention. While they might have a chance, not because of who they are, but because of the landscape, so to speak, they think that, "Well, I have a chance, and if I won, that would be awesome, but I'm just going to stand up. I'm going to get my name out there, and if I lose, then I'll go down a warrior." You get into every race with the goal of winning. You know, when I stood up to run against Diana Presley, I know people thought I was crazy, because a Republican had not run in that area for that seat. I mean, of course, there was redistricting, but that area, so that's why I say that area, since the late '90s. With the pandemic that saw even Ed Markey struggle to get signatures, I, unfortunately, could not get signatures into combat. The difficulties that I had as a Republican, my own party at the time, as I've shared, did not provide me with a list that I could use, and I did not have help from members of the party. Everything went to my opponent, like all the help went to her, and I was very much on my own. Unfortunately, I did not get on the ballot, and on top of that, I felt guilty about asking for money, because people were scared. This was unprecedented for many of us, most of us, this pandemic, and I said, "You know what? I'll ask for money if I make the ballot." And don't ask me how I did it, because I was essentially a one-person show. I ran. I knew the odds were very much not in my favor. But I said, "Well, I'm making an effort, so that's already more of a chance than what I would have had. But I not run." But I'm going to tell you that my platform was solid. My ideas were solid. My knowledge of the issues, all of that was solid. And that's why people gave me credit. I, unfortunately, couldn't get the votes, other than a few dozen, in the primary of September, and in November, I could only get a dozen if that. And it was tough. It was tough, but I respected the will of the people. Everything went to the candidate that the then-chairman, Jim Lyons, the person that he was pushing. Everything went to her, all the resources, all the support, so she got the votes. But I will say that I'm incredibly proud of the race that I ran, and I will forever be grateful to the people that voted for me. God bless you. God bless you. And I, whoof, to know that you voted for me, oh, thank you, thank you, thank you. But I'm telling people that story because when you run, and perhaps this will underline everything else I said about standing up and running for office, when you run, it doesn't leave you the experience once voting is taken place. It stays with you. And especially if you care, which I did, which I do. So, I want to see new faces. People know that I help out. And I have crossed party lines when I have honestly believed that it's appropriate. And then certainly a nonpartisan racist, such as a city council or the mayoral race, I've, I'm known as someone who will help out. Whether it's knocking on doors, lit drops, ideas for the campaign, phone banking, showing up at events, marching in parades. I'm a reliable resource volunteer, whatever you want to, whatever label you want to attach to me. But I have to say that if you want to run, you've got to do it in a way that's going to make sense. And the way it's going to make sense is if you stand up and you understand what I just said, that it's going to take time, energy, and yes, it's going to take money. And if you know that you're not going to be able to get as much money, or you're going to be very limited in that area, then you've got to be creative to overcome that. And that's going to take more time and energy. That's what you've got to understand. You've got to know the issues too. You have to, because if you stand up and you don't know the issues, honestly that's insulting to the people that you claim you want to represent. You have to know the issues and you have to be able to argue why you would do better than the incumbent or why you would be a welcome addition to a body. So, for instance, let me take the example of Henry Santana. I love Henry. I love Henry Santana, Boston City Councilor Henry Santana. I love him to bits and pieces. He's wonderful. And what people need to understand about me, I don't need to always agree with somebody. As long as I know that if there's a disagreement that I can sit down and talk with that person, and that that person is going to try to meet me in the middle and give me a fair audience, give me an audience, that is really the most that I can ask for, and that's what we should all respect, right? At the end of the day. He's wonderful. He's very accessible, and he cares. He cares, and he didn't stand up not knowing the issues. I don't mind people, you know, some people might say, "Well, you seem to have a problem with politicians, elected officials not knowing the issues." Well, you can learn an office. Okay, I agree with that. So, it's entirely possible to learn the extent of a problem, different facets of a problem. My issue is when a person has no knowledge at all of the problem. That's my issue. I don't mind if someone gets into office and learns. You should learn. It's an ongoing process in your effort to be an effective public servant. But you already have to have this base of knowledge, a certain foundation of knowledge when you stand up to run. So, Henry Santana, when he ran, I mean, we have heard it before, but there was an authenticity about it. And he said, "I'm a fresh voice." And I feel like that's what he's been. He's genuine. The word authentic really fits Henry very well. He's sincere. And he's out there really trying to make a difference. And he takes the time to listen to people. A lot of people who get elected to office want to talk. Henry's more than happy to listen. So, we need people that understand all this when they stand up to run. All these things that I've outlined. Instead, we have people who stand up. And like I said, they stand up because it's like part of their bucket list, if you will. It's maybe to help, I mean, to be very cynical. But actually, you know, I know this to be true. I know at least one or two candidates who stood up to run. And they obviously got into a race that they thought they could win. But otherwise, they wouldn't have done it. But there was also this desire to benefit personally, to enrich themselves. And so, one person in particular, he wanted to help himself professionally. He wanted to get contacts to help his business, which I find pretty gross. I mentioned last week I spoke about Gianna Thomas, and she is running in the Third Suffolk District against Lydia Edwards. Lydia is not -- you can't run against Lydia and not know the issues. Lydia is smart in different ways. Lydia has been very present in the political scene. She has not entered it and then kind of done her own thing. I mean, not many elected officials do. But she's been very smart. She's actively networked within the political scene. And she is known to be someone who helps different people when they are running. So what I'm trying to say is she has a lot of support. She has a lot of money. And her image is of one of someone being articulate and intelligent. Right? We all have images when we stand up, you know, and we ask others to take note of us publicly. We all have that image. So I'm not using image as a way to say, well, she's not really articulate. She's not really intelligent. No, no, no. I mean that we all have our images. Hopefully the image that I have, Heaven stood up, is positive. Right? There's some positive aspects of it. I mean, I certainly hope so, right? When can only hope and pray? But Lydia, I think a lot of people, even if they disagree with her, they don't think she's an articulate. They don't think she's unintelligent. So I think it's important to stand up and be able to speak to issues in detail. It's very important. And so Jiana Thomas, you know, she's been speaking in a lot of generalities. And I shared that she's running in a district and she doesn't know what's in it. So Jiana, of course, ran for state committee as well this year. So she doesn't know what's in the Third Suffolk district now. She didn't know what was in the Third Suffolk district earlier this year. That's unacceptable. That's unacceptable. And I'm not saying this to be overly critical or pick a you. I mean, this is, we're talking about nuts and bolts. You can't say that Cambridge is part of the Third Suffolk district. When Cambridge is in a separate county. You can't talk about East Boston as if it's its own municipality when it's a neighborhood within Boston. You can't talk about 3a, which is the law that has a lot of people up in arms in Massachusetts. And it's relative to finding space, designating space in communities that are near public transportation or public transportation system. And what has been said is that well, development isn't necessarily going to ensue, but it's hard to believe that any space that would be identified for development or designated under this law, then would just not be used for development. So I've talked about 3a. Well, Gianna has come out swinging on this subject. She didn't say anything about it when she was running for state committee, but she's saying plenty about it now. Okay. All right. But really, this has been the centerpiece of her campaign. And what I suggest to people very strongly is that, well, if you're going to essentially be a one issue or primarily a one issue candidate, then you have to know that that issue cold. Well, Gianna didn't even know, hopefully she knows now, that Boston is exempt from 3a. So it's, is there a time for for Gianna to kind of bone up in certain areas? Of course, but it's she's got to get on the stack. We have another race, the SJC clerk for the County of Suffolk, and you have Boston City Councilor who entered the race after Alison Cartwright. I've talked about this race, Alison Cartwright, let's, we will, we will, we will run through Alison's resume because it really is, it really is something. I told, I told, I've told people that Alison's resume, I don't, you know, I don't normally, you know, I'm not, it takes a lot to impress me, but I was impressed with, with Alison. So let me just see if I can pull it up here. So she went to a University of Michigan. She did some, she did undergraduate work, then she went to, looks like English and psychology, then she went to Michigan State University, and it was American studies, I believe, then she went to Boston College School of Law, and she's been practicing for 30 years, and she really, she's a very, very impressive person, and she understands what, what is, is required of, of the clerk, let me just, let me just pull this up here. Of course, the window I had up, ah, technology, let me just see here, if I can pull this up. Oh, yep, here we go. So yes, as I said, University of Michigan, so it was English and psychology, and then Michigan State University, she got a master's, American studies, but also English slash American studies, and then, yes, she got her degree from, her law degree from Boston College Law School. She has been practicing for, yeah, about 30 years. She has been a managing director for the Committee of Public Council Services. She has also been a trial attorney, you know, within her practice, it's important to say that she has been a trial attorney practicing in the Boston Municipal Courts and the Suffolk Superior Court. So she really has a very strong understanding of how the courts work, and in addition to that, she has managerial experience that speaks directly to the role of the SJC clerk. Aaron, no, I don't know why people are debating this. We've had people say, well, Aaron has experience, it's just, we have to look at whether it's relevant or not. Well, I looked at it. I personally, I personally regionalize them and have looked at it, and it's not relevant. Okay, so she worked as a teacher. She worked for 23 years for Boston Public Schools. The majority of that time, she was working with kindergarten age students and special needs students. I have tremendous respect for that work, but it's not going to enable her to step into the role of SJC clerk. And I don't even want to say hit the ground running. Just do the job, right? It's incredible. And then she's been on the City Council. She was just elected to her second term. She was, she served the last term, the last month, I'm sorry, of Michelle Wu. And she was elected to her first full term in 2022. And then in 2024, she was just elected to her second term. So she's very much a junior politician. And so we need people, whatever elected office that we're talking about, they need to know what they're doing. I mean, it, it, this shouldn't be an internship. It's too important of a job to be an internship. So again, run for office, but run for office if you know you can do the job. I'll have more to say on this, but that's all I have time for on tonight's show. Thank you so much for listening. And as always, I look forward to hanging out with you next week. The preceding commentary does not necessarily reflect the views of the staff and management of WBCA or the Boston Neighborhood Network. If you would like to express another opinion, you can address your comments to Boston Neighborhood Network, 302-5 Washington Street, Boston, Massachusetts, 0211. To arrange a time for your own commentary, you can call WBCA at 617-708-3215 or email radio@bnandmedia.org.