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In response to COVID-19, Louisville, Kentucky's LEE Initiative has grown rapidly from a 2-person non-profit to a national force, opening 19 relief kitchens in 19 cities. Co-founders Lindsey Ofcacek and Edward Lee join us to talk about taking care of hospitality workers nationwide and continuing to come up with new programs to support farmers, restaurant re-openings and to serve the legacy of David McAtee, a barbecue chef shot and killed by the National Guard in Louisville's West End on June 1. As Louisville continues to make headlines, hear what Linsdey and Edward have to say about fostering community and hope in their city. 

To donate to any of The Lee Initiative's campaigns, including the McAtee Community Kitchen, please visit:

https://leeinitiative.kindful.com

San Francisco Chronicle restaurant critic and co-host of the new podcast Extra Spicy, Soleil Ho joins us to discuss what a restaurant critic does during a pandemic and what we now mean by the term "restaurant" anyway. 

Disappointed with the work culture in fine dining restaurants, Matt Jozwiak left the world of cooking tasting menus to solve food insecurity in New York City. He co-founded Rethink Food with partner Winston Chiu in 2016. During COVID-19, Rethink's work scaled in remarkable ways, cooking and donating 645,156 meals from March through June while forming key partnerships with La Morada, Ghetto Gastro and Eleven Madison Park. Matt joins us to discuss innovating in the non-profit sector, an upcoming program pledging significant funds to neighborhood restaurants and expanding Rethink to Nashville, San Francisco, New Orleans and more. 

Soul Fire Farm's Leah Penniman grows food for people targeted by state violence and impacted by poverty and food apartheid. As those factors became more pronounced during the pandemic, Soul Fire Farm ramped up food production while also teaching an increasing number of people in their community how to grow food for themselves. Leah joins us to talk about her farm's activist mission, reparations, ending racism and injustice in the food system, her book, Farming While Black, the ways she fuses spirituality with social justice and what message the Earth is trying to convey to all of us.  

   http://www.soulfirefarm.org 

Ghetto Gastro's Jon Gray joins us to discuss radical partnerships, feeding the Bronx, ending systemic racism, fighting respectability politics, using storytelling as a tool to dismantle white supremacy, black joy as an act of rebellion, a six-figure T-shirt fundraiser, Ghetto Gastro's Juneteenth plans and much more.

Seattle's Addo restaurant, and its chef-owner Eric Rivera, have moved through this pandemic with maximal creativity, nonstop innovation and awe-inspiring output. Eric joins us to explain how he's using Puerto Rican food, online gaming, time travel, book borrowing, virtual cooking classes and camping, the cuisine of Russia, donated meals, and dozens more ideas and elements to keep Addo thriving. Plus, the future of the restaurant from service to the dish pit, a dissection of Eric's creative process and the ways he's planning to fight for social and racial justice for the long term.

Othón Nolasco and his partners Damian Diaz and Aaron Melendrez at Va'La Hospitality have spent the pandemic feeding undocumented hospitality workers in Los Angeles. Othón joins us to talk about turning anger at a flawed system into an effort to provide food to 660 families a week through their aptly named, growing organization, No Us Without You!

Basbaas founder and In Bibi's Kitchen author, Hawa Hassan and Colonia Verde chef-owner, Felipe Donnelly talk about fellowship, serving their community, using gratitude as a lifeline and summoning the fortitude to show up time and time again. 

His business partner died; COVID-19 closed his restaurant; and now, amidst civil unrest in Cincinnati, Christian Gill continues to fight for the safety and survival of Boomtown Biscuits and Whiskey. Christian joins us to discuss leading while mourning, grasping diplomacy through anger, the failures of police and the importance, for him, of doing his best with what he has. 

Honeysuckle's Omar Tate joins us from Philadelphia during an emotional week of protests and racial tension to talk about finding his way as a black chef in America and expressing the experience of blackness through his food. Hear why he interpreted the MOVE bombing on a plate, how he's discovered ultimate autonomy and what $100 bean pies could mean to the future of his cooking and his neighborhood.