Help the Children Become Happier, Healthier, and High-Performers One Vegetable Garden at a Time with Stephen Ritz

Good afternoon, and welcome to Essential Ingredients. I'm Justine Reichman, your host. Today, we have Steve Ritz. Hi, Steve.

Hello. Yes, dude, it's good to see you.

It's good to see you too. It's been so long. You look exactly the same.

Couple hundred pounds less I might add since the last time you saw me live.

But it's hard to tell that from here. In all fairness, all I see is from here up.

Okay. Well, here?

Oh, my goodness.

A few inch waist baby.

Wow. So tough, strong and lean.

Yeah. I'm eating plants.

Okay. Well, it's really exciting to see you after all this time. I'm so glad to reconnect. I have such fond memories of TEDx Manhattan and the whole event, meeting you and it really stuck with me all these years, it was great to connect with you back on LinkedIn and just hear about what you're up to. Can you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself?

Sure. So yes, we met at TEDx Manhattan, the talk that I think rocked the world, certainly my world a million and a half years later. But who knew? I think some people did know, I certainly had the fortitude and the will to get it done. But what is it now? Eight years later, I guess, and we're touching 2012? Or 2000? Yeah, I think 2012. We're now in 500 plus schools touching 50,000 students a day in 20 states in five nations. We were just given the 2020 game changer award. Along the way, I became a top 10 finalist for the global teacher prize. Got invited to the Obama White House. Let's be clear, I was asked to work elsewhere several times along the way. And that's okay, it happens to the best of us. But I got a PhD from the State University of New York. So I am a people in plant hugging dude. Calling Dr. Ritz, please. So amazing things can happen, and that's the power of good people in this amazing movement that we are all a part of.

Steve, can you tell us, so you are in all these schools, what are you doing in all these schools?

I like to say that we grow vegetables, our vegetables grow students, our students grow schools, and our schools grow healthy, resilient communities. We've kind of moved from, I guess, the Green Bronx Machine model, if you will, has really evolved from an after school program and somewhat of a workforce development program to a whole school program, K-12 and beyond. So we have approved a curriculum that is common core Next Generation Science Standard P21, Sustainable Development Goal aligned that is being used by the State University of New York to mentor teachers in whole school instruction. And literally, we have become the all you can eat buffet of Next Generation Science Standards based whole school instruction. So it is the art and science of growing vegetables aligned to old school instruction and behavioral outcomes across the country.

Wow. And this started as an after school program, right?

It started with me almost falling off the stage at TED. I'm still waiting to meet him. It started with a dream. It started with the dream that we could move children and young adults who were apart from success to becoming a part of it in ways that benefit all of society. And along the way, that started, you remember with green walls, green rooms and the green economy. And then we learned largely because of you and so many other people in the movement about food. I went from being an ornamental gardener to a vegetable gardener. And literally, we just surpassed 100,000 pounds of vegetables grown with students in the South Bronx. We have the national health wellness and learning center at CS 55, which was a great TEDx follow up talk that I gave, by the way, that has been visited by people from 60 countries around the world. And it's taken a school that was once the poorest performing school in the least healthy county in all of New York State, and the poorest congressional district in America to outperform seawide and statewide norms across New York City and across New York State. So from surviving to thriving from hope to the Pope, I got invited to meet Pope Francis. And from our little classroom greenhouse to the Obama White House, not once, not twice, but three times.

Wow. Yeah. So what inspired you to start this whole movement?

I needed a job. You can't go from seed to harvest without some nurturing, without cultivating growth. I'm of the mindset that I want to cultivate growth, I want to cultivate growth with children. It started literally with the desire just to see children get jobs, to take children who are hurting themselves, hurting each other and hurting the world to kind of healing it a little bit along, aligned to living wage jobs. And then I really realized the impact food you've used, so I got bigger and bigger, and sicker and sicker culminating with a heart attack, all kinds of issues and all kinds of heart health issues that were all food and diet related. So for me, food is really the most important school supply in the world, especially if you don't have it. And remarkably, I found myself working in a community where there was very limited access to anything that was really food, yet is a mesh manufactured edible, synthetic substances, and a whole lot of crap, calorie rich and processed food. But when you teach kids about food, you teach them about life, you teach them about ecosystems, you teach them about a sense of interconnectedness, you teach them that you can't rush growth, you can't go from seed to harvest without cultivation in the middle. And what I love to do is cultivate young minds, and cultivate young people, and cultivate healthy palates. And here we are now, back then it was jobs. Now, we have kids who are aspiring to college. I have a whole class of vegans and little girls who call themselves feminists. Feminists and don't want to eat animals and want to save water, and are boycotting Wendy's because they don't pay farmers enough for their tomatoes. It's awesome sauce.

Wow, that's quite an impact.

Yeah. Slowly, but surely.. But listen, make no doubt about it. It's one class, it's one student at a time, it's one classroom at a time, it's one school at a time, it's one community at a time. But we did the due diligence to come up with a curriculum that was beta tested across 30,000 students, and really put in our due diligence to not only be disruptive, but to deliver. And I'm thrilled to say that we are probably one of the most disruptive nonprofits in this space. Ranked top 10 Health And Wellness Program in America by the Harkin Institute, and top 100 Educational Innovations In The World by 100, which is kind of cool. Again, meeting that First Lady Michelle, she was gracious.

She's pretty active in the Health And Wellness Movement as it related to food.

She's got to the White House and said: "The way we treat our children is indicative of who we are as a nation." And of course, I was just so excited to see President Barack Obama get elected back in 2008. And then again in 2012. And here we are on the night before, what is the election of a lifetime. It's not an election, it's really about a direction. You can be a racist, or you can vote for the righteous, and I'll leave it at that. But I was so excited, number one, to see Obama, get to the White House, given what was going on in America then and what it stood for, and then to hear how she came out so strongly for children, for health and wellness. And then as she's sitting there, and I'm doing all these great work with children, and being celebrated by the likes of you, and Ted, and TEDx, and everybody else, to be 300 pounds, I had to be. About seven months later, there I was, a champion of change right back in the White House presenting, it was kind of cool. I certainly give her a lot of credit and to learn that she was talking about the work that we were doing in the South Bronx and to have our children go down there and be part of it. To bring children from public housing to the White House multiple times, and not only to meet them, but to meet the staff, and to cook together, and then to have the staff come and cook with us up in the Bronx. That's the promise of America, that's the integrity of purpose, that is the integrity of promise. I'm hoping tomorrow that we reclaim that, but that's what drives me.

Yeah, I hope I'm with you on tomorrow.

All right, listen, just please vote, vote, vote, vote, vote, vote vote, like your life depends on it.

I agree. Well, when this comes out, we will see where we are because it's not going out in time. But hopefully, by the time it comes out, we'll have a new plan, we'll have a new president in place, and there'll be a new plan for you to go to the White House to be able to integrate some of these great, and plan globally how you can then make this even more robust and expand for that.

Hope so. Listen, President Obama was very gracious. He cited our work in National Geographic, we put farms both inside and outside the White House and were invited to South Lawn. So make out about it, I think anyone in their right mind will get behind the work we are doing for happier, healthier, higher performing children. And most important, let's not forget what this is really about is changing the lens of public education because I believe public education is the greatest lever this nation has towards equity and justice. And that's what the food movement really embodies. Getting back to the Essential Ingredients and what this podcast is all about, it's really about justice. And food justice is racial justice. And that's the most important thing, it's really about creation, it's one thing to say, I'm not a racist. I want to know how you are actively non racist in every single thing that you do, that's the most important thing. How do we create and eliminate? How do we eliminate the barriers to justice and to equity? Not to say, Oh, I'm not a racist, but it's okay for those people over there to have all that crap in their lives. We need to dismantle the system.

Yeah. But I'd love to hear more about some of the stories of the kids, and how it's really directly impacted them. Both, as they're learning more about food, but how it's impacting them with their education, with their plans for the future, because it sounds like this is really integral to their development.

Well, input equals output. So good food means you're going to get better behaviors and better functioning out. But we recently did a screening, an online screening for our new documentary called Generation Growth. We had kids talking online, our students were present students saying: "Wow, Mr. Ritz, when I saw that documentary, I realized you tricked me. I thought my job was to grow vegetables. Really, you taught us to read and write." Similarly, I've been teaching now since 1984. Don't let the youthful good looks and boyish personality fool you, Justine. I'm definitely a card carrying citizen of that crowd. I understand that my time is somewhat limited, but I've had now two and three generations of students who got online and talked about the changes that have been in their lives, and even their children's lives. And that to me is heartwarming. We go back into the movie, you see kids who I had in the 80's, who are now incredible successes today, largely because someone was willing to give them a chance just like you were willing to give me a chance and so many of our friends.

Vice versa.

Yeah, and that's what this is really about. It's about sowing seeds and making sure you cultivate those seeds to a harvest of epic proportions. But let's get granular, what were we talking about in the South Bronx? We're talking about, I moved into a school that was slated to be closed, and I saw the school as a great place to build an urban farm. I love the notion of building this farming in the oldest school building in the Bronx, in the least likely place to do it. But along the way, I realized that if school didn't perform, the school would be closed and I'd be thrown the hell out so I better figure out how to keep that school open. And I have a wonderful principal who I'm blessed to be working with and gave me enough flexibility so long as I played by the rules and delivered, which I was willing to do, and we've turned that school around, and not by my standards, not by his standards, but by state standards. Realize that school was underdeveloped and underperforming in all 10 performance indicators by the State Education Department. We are now well developed and all of them. Our state test scores are off the hook, we saw a 45% increase in test scores. We had a huge jump in attendance, everyone benefits when our kids come to school. We're seeing better teacher retention, better teacher satisfaction, better parent engagement, all those things lead to happier, healthier, higher performing more resilient communities where they're needed most. So it has really been a whole school movement. And of course, to go on and write a book that became the number one bestseller, The Power of a Plant, that was used by school systems all across America, including my very own beloved New York City Department of Education, and it's helped fund the movement and fund the program is kind of put us on a scale of sustainability and self support. That means we don't have to be one of those perpetually begging non-profit organizations. And I don't want to knock them, that's not my goal, my goal is to not be part of that corporate industrial nonprofit complex, buy today, get tomorrow, double down, you're no, no, no, no, no, no, we want to be the ones we are waiting for. The calculus of my advocacy is not to be my brother's keeper, but to be my brother's brother. That's really who and what we want to be. A community that has never, ever been invited to the table is now built their own. And that's what it's about. For us, that's really, really, really what it's all about. So many people have gotten fat off the dysfunction of communities like ours. But the most important thing we can do is put the unity back into our community, bulletproof ourselves from the onslaught and grow something greater. And that's exactly what we are doing.

And what you've done is amazing. I can only imagine what you're going to continue to do.

I'm just getting started.

I can't wait, do you have plans for the next three to five years?

How much time do we have less? We are scaling, case in point, we've scaled with the National Hockey League and Jonathan Toews, the most valuable player in the league. And it's remarkable, he's a guy who's a three time Stanley Cup Champion, Triple Gold Athlete, top 100 players of all time, more awards and accolades that you could ever imagine. And what did he do? He became the Chicago end of the year, and the environmental Athlete of the Year by adapting our program. And it's not only been good for him, change his eating habits. And 60 of the formerly most marginalized schools in Chicago, we've seen herculean changes. So we brought together a model, we opened up the first net positive food and energy school in the world in the heart of the United Arab Emirates, from Canada to Cairo, from Doha to Dubai. We're connecting with children and people around the world, really to do something that really needs to be done. Address food security, and as you say, go from soil to shelf, or as I say, from our garden to your tummy.

I love that, from Tower Garden to tummyy. I may have to use that sometime.

You're always welcome to.

We're gonna take a short break and have a little announcement from our sponsor.

So talk to me a little bit about that. Tell me a little bit about the curriculum, what it looks like? And if I'm on a hockey team, if I miss a school, what does that curriculum look like? What would I be eating?

So super, super. Going back, I guess it was about three and a half years ago in the middle of the afternoon, I get a call from a guy named Jonathan who's a hockey player. I'm like, why are they calling me about hockey? If it's the niche, I'm interested. I'm willing to get in shape, but I never played hockey in my life. Don't even know the rules. Turns out that he's the most valuable player in the hockey league, the youngest captain in the league, just to play a rep. His name is Jonathan Toews. They call him Captain Serious, Olympic Gold Athletes, Triple Gold, and he happened to see a special about the Green Bronx Machine in defense of food. So big shout out to Michael Pollan, haller. He saw, and Jonathan was at a stage in his career where he was really worried about his performance, his recovery time. Listen, 13 seasons in the NHL is no easy task. That is a brutal sport. I did not realize how brutal and how physical it was until I actually saw it.

The best part of the hockey games are the fights, see those fights? They're brutal.

They're like nuts. It's amazing. And Jonathan is such a cerebral guy. I mean, he's just a tremendously talented athlete. You watch him on the ice and you start understanding what he's doing out there. And like you wonder where on the evolutionary chart of men these guys are, on the left and on the right. And then you get them off the ice, and you're sitting there having these deep philosophical conversations with him, and he's really such a philanthropic purpose driven guy. But bringing it back, he was concerned about his own performance and just his own recovery time, how he could get the most competitive edge as he was going into the later stages of his career. He realized it was 100% food based. So [inaudible], the academic that he is, and let me give him credit and take my hat off to say, he is a hell of an academic. He started just diving deep into anything about food nutrition, recovery, and wound up learning about Green Bronx Machine, reaching out to me, of course, I hung up on him, I had no idea. Remarkably, it turns out, I got back, and we got back, and we put together a program, a small, scalable, very affordable program that transformed 20 schools in one year.

Wow.

We went to schools that never heard of hockey, never heard of Green Bronx Machine. This was when Chicago, the city of Chicago is going through that great turmoil with the teachers union and Chicago Public School is in tremendous disarray, shall we say, in tremendous dysfunction, there was no unity, but here was the captain of an esteemed franchise coming together to do something great for children, and it worked. And guess what? We did it again, and it worked even better. We learn a lot, and now we are in 60 schools, we will be expanding. And most remarkably, Jonathan, being the absolute leader that he is, is now spearheading a movement to purchase liquor stores with players across all leagues, buy out their licenses, their leases so to speak, and replacing them with replicas of our classroom in the South Bronx that's feature entrepreneurship, fresh food centers, gardening centers, places of education, community and functionality--

Wow.

And he's bringing together teams and players from all leagues. I don't know if you are aware of a very kind off camera moment, he made a comment about the Black Lives Matter movement that went viral in support of Black Lives Matter. And let's be frank, the hockey in the National Hockey League does not have a wealth of people of color. So in some regards, it was a bit of a risk, if you will, but it spoke to his humanitarian and real principles which he conducts himself. Well, you're gonna be killed because you're in a red and black jersey. And the next day, Michael Jordan was out wearing Jonathan's jersey in public.

Wow.

And this thing has blown up. Just this past week, Jonathan and I were on a panel breakout session hosted by another friend of ours, Danielle Nierenberg. And Danielle was on, and I was on, and Jonathan was on, and Meserete Davis from the New York City Department of Education, otherwise known as Chef Mes in the private world, we were all talking about how we can make food access and food justice more commonplace in cities across America. So here's an athlete who stood nothing to gain and everything to lose by getting involved and being outspoken, and is really champion communities that have everything to gain and nothing to lose. He's doing it, bringing so many other people into it. And again, he was named the Chicago end of the year--

Yeah.

--in our humble little organization so go figure. And at the heart of this is curriculum. And what our curriculum does? It takes the art and science of growing vegetables and translates it into daily lessons. Reading, writing, math, science, inquiry, internet, art, project based learning, entrepreneurship, and provides a copious amount of food all year long regardless of season, regardless of space, super energy efficient, super water efficient. It's been game changing.

Wow.

I don't know anything about this. Can you tell?

None, whatsoever?

No. I'm kind of neutral about the whole thing.

Totally. It's very flat. Steve, I think we need re-record.

All right. Well, I've probably got a plant I could get my hands on that will change my attitude.

Well, maybe tell us a little bit about what's behind you, what might inspire you.

Right behind me is my hometown garden. I'm 12 stories up here in Boogie Down BX, where we are screaming education, not as fixation. And literally, when schools close down, I bring a whole farm and put it in my living room to feed my building and feed my community. But since we've gone back to school, we put some tower gardens elsewhere. But this is proof that you can have old foods in your living room, and that's exactly what I'm doing. And from this very tiny corner of the globe, at this kitchen table right here in my humble little apartment in the Bronx, I've been able to hold school all summer long. We've touched thousands upon thousands of students, and 10's of nations, and dozens of states by teaching them about growing food at home and realize that kitchen tables are the new classrooms, owned by the new schools. And food is the new language which we all need to speak about. And parents, if you're looking for a job for your gig in a safe manner, here's one right for you. So we are really making farming sexy, and making healthy eating sexy, and bringing it back to COVID, let's be real, the best way to improve your immunity is to consume copious amounts of fresh fruits and vegetables. I've been working daily in the absolute epicenter of the virus for the five highest zip code by infection rates in New York City, or where I live, work and play, and I remained COVID free, largely, because I believe in amount of fresh fruits and vegetables I consume, and also some digging in the soil and getting a lot of microbial exposure. So farming is the new sexy, you can do it safely, you can do it socially distant, and you can feed your family, and feed your community, and help end this virus all at the same time.

I even started a garden on my terris.

Good for you. What are you growing?

I'm growing a bunch of herbs. I did just get some lettuce, I got some kale, I got some cilantro, I get a lot of the herbs and stuff that I like to eat a lot.

Good for you. Listen, it all starts with something.

So I'm curious about some of your students, and the impact it's had on them, and how exciting this must be for them, can you share some of the stories with you about your students, one or two maybe.

It was very touching on the night of our world premiere of the documentary Generation Growth to get in touch with students who I had in the 80's, who many teachers had written off.

So wait, hold on, Steve, before you tell us the story. Maybe introduce the documentary so people have a little background, and then tell us the story. What do you think?

Okay, fine. I'm easy. I follow directions well.

Just so people have a little context,

About two and a half years ago, we were approached by Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, who by the way saw our episode called Growing A Greener World Episode 808. And Joe Lamp'l a guy you should look up, again, Growing A Greener World Episode 808 on TV. And that episode, remarkably, featuring our program in the South Bronx went on to win an Emmy award show. Yes, the first Emmy Award in New York City Department of Education remarkably for Growing A Greener World right in the middle of the hood, yo, yo, anything can happen. And remarkably, Anthem was looking at our outcomes with children around social determinants of health, and they started digging deeper. Fast forward, Anthem brought our program across America. The largest medicaid provider from marginalized communities realized there was an academic and behavioral benefit to what we were doing. And along the way, bring us to dozens of schools across America, urban, rural and some of the most diverse places you can imagine. We were in Appalachia, in the middle of Indiana, I was in a town that only had a population of 400. When I met you, I met you and 400 other people on the receiving line, this was the whole town. We're in the middle of nowhere, but it's absolutely somewhere to the people who live there. Long made short, in the process, they made a follow documentary highlighting the efficacy, and what would happen if people across America got involved with Green Bronx Machine. And part of it, people have always said that it's been a cult of me, or a cult of Stephen Ritz. And I've said, no, it's a cult of we and it's a cult of pedagogy. It's about quality teaching, quality learning and giving teachers and students tools in enabling them to succeed. And lo and behold, the documentary was evidence of that. In school after school, community after community, place after place, when you give people the ability to grow food for themselves and make a healthier choice, they opt in and an amazing shift happens, Justine. Lives change, things get better, schools perform better, children eat healthier, diabetes goes down, community goes up, people want to come together. So two weeks ago, we had this remarkable online world premiere brought to the nation by the McQuarrie Foundation group, God bless them, and thank them very much and we certainly appreciate it. We were able to connect with students of mine from the 80's. Students who back then were really marginalized and written off. There was one in particular who they were trying to throw out of school, and I kind of extended myself in an interesting and innovative way, mindful that I would ask that someone would do the same thing for my child. And lo and behold, that young man who came from a family where no one had even graduated high school, not only went on to a distinguished US military career, but now runs logistics for one of the largest American based firms in the nation. And his children have gone on to be tremendous successes as well, doctor and entrepreneur, doing amazing things. And then we had our younger students, our fourth and fifth graders are stemness feminist who got up there and realize that Mr. Ritz has really tricked them into reading and writing better by growing vegetables. One of the things that we're doing with children in school is we grow food for recovering cancer patients. So our children are growing highly prescriptive leafy greens and microgreens and certain kinds of vegetables that recovering cancer patients who are both food insecure and living in public housing, have neither the money nor the access to afford if they were there. And we're growing a healthier community and high performing students. And along the way, we have vegan students, vegetarians, environmental justice advocates, children and young girls who want to go to college, and people who are boycotting Wendy's and know that the King and D'Colonel are not the places of equity. Really growing food with us evolved and helped us distribute over 100,000 pounds of food this summer, came out and socially distance gardens help us build gardens, we're turning our local gardens into internet hotspots. You don't need to go to Starbucks and have an expensive cup of coffee. There's nothing wrong with Starbucks, but I'd rather get children get outside, get some fresh air, stay distant, have access to the internet in a place that's better for them and the environment and provides them with healthy fresh food in the process.

I love it. I love it. That's amazing. Well, you are doing so many positive things in the world, I can only hope to achieve a portion of that.

Well, listen, you do one thing, you do it well and you get better. I have a couple of kinds of golden rules. Number one, do something today that your future self will thank you for the degree to which we resist injustice is the degree to which we are free. You don't have to be great to start, Lord knows, I am not great yet. But you have to start in order to be great.

I agree.

And the opposite of courage is not cowardice. The opposite of courage is conformity. Because even a dead fish can go with the flow. So don't be a dead fish, swim, swim, swim.

I agree. I do try every day to have a positive impact in the world. It makes me feel, but I only feel, people go to work, right? I feel inspired doing what I'm doing, that's what gets me up in the morning. I feel energized, I feel positive about it, it keeps me happy. So that's how I know I'm doing a good thing.

I've never felt better. I like to say despite a bald spot, I've never looked better. I've never had more energy. I think you know me, I'm always filled with energy and excitement. I'm about 18, 19 hours a day between here in the work that I do, the time differences, it's crazy. But I'm blessed to be in the right place at the right time with people who want to make a difference in the world. And that's what makes a difference, surrounding yourself with quality people and not being afraid to fail. Listen, formula 409 is called formula 409 because the first 408 iterations did not work. That's why it's called formula 409. So I am far from perfect, I am a work in progress, but I will not let good get in the way of great. And I believe we are growing something greater. And it starts with us. It starts with me. If not us, who? If not now, when?

I couldn't agree more. So with that said, and I just saw as you raised yourself up, it said, SUSTAINABLE GANGSTER, can you tell me a little bit more about that?

I am the world's number one sustainable gangster. You can purchase this shirt for a mere $25, it is sustainably made, it is manufactured by women at living wage. And when you purchase this shirt, local family indeed gets a bag of healthy fresh groceries. You can also get our EDUCATION NOT ASPHYXIATION t-shirt, and that provides a local child with a backpack full of school supplies and groceries to take home for a weekend. Or you can buy a copy of my book, hold on, let me get it for you. It's called, The Power Of A Plant, it's a number one bestseller, please don't buy it on Amazon because Amazon sells it for less than I can buy it for. So please buy it from the Green Bronx Machine website, 100%, let me repeat that, 100% of all proceeds go to support the program. And with that, we've been hiring parents out of public housing to work in public schools. Because America needs public schools in Health, Wellness And Nutrition Programming. And go see the trailer, the trailer is called Generation Growth. It's on the Green Bronx Machine website, www.greenbronxmachine.org/generationgrowth/, just look it up. It's earning accolades around the country, we still have to figure out distribution. But I couldn't be more proud of the children featured, I couldn't be more grateful to Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield medicaid for providing the funding for it and for sponsoring scores of schools across America. But most importantly, I couldn't be more proud of those adorable children who are featured in it. And the teachers who work to change lives because there's one thing that I've always said, teachers change lives. And behind every successful child, there is a mentor, a teacher, an auntie and uncle, someone who is there in loco parentis helping to raise these children. But the most important food school supply in the world is food. And this movie gets to the heart of that, that good food and hood food, and hood food and good food can go together to create a force multiplier in public education. And that's what we see time and time again.

I have one question for you before we end our talk here. You said you've been doing this for decades, even though I look at you and I'm like, I don't think that's possible. But I can't believe I've been doing this for decades too.

You look marvelous.

Thank you. Well, our listeners can hear us, but on the YouTube video, they can see us. But question for you, you said you've been doing this for a long time. So you've had students come through over the years, you've worked with teachers for years, so imagining that you've seen these kids grow up and now become adults and go out into the world, can you share with us somebody that's gone through the program that's now an adult and often to the world, and the impact it's had---

Sure, we've got management up at Whole Foods. We've got kids working at green houses in Gotham Greens. Look at how big Gotham Greens has become. So if you can grow it yourself and you're in New York City, eat some Gotham Greens yo, they are locally grown, you know his logo and as delicious as you can get.

Wow.

Children who are teachers, it's just been remarkable. Two summers ago, I was hospitalized and I'm looking up, and some kid who's looking at me goes: "Yo, Mr. Ritz, do you remember me?" I look up and there's a bald guy with a beard. He goes: "It's me, [inaudible] from fifth grade." And I almost had a heart attack because I remember [inaudible] from fifth grade sitting in the back of the classroom picking his nose and eating it. You were my favorite teacher? Please, did you wash before you touch me? It is an amazing stories time and time again. I'm just grateful and humbled to be a part of this movement. The kids keep coming to school, and I keep meeting them there daily. They are filled with both resilience, gratitude, faith and courage. I just want to take a moment to thank the parents and teachers who trust me with their children in me with their careers on a daily basis. And thank you for believing in me many years ago and staying in touch. I want to thank the movement because the good food movement is about a good world movement. Food justice is racial justice, is planetary justice. And those are the essential ingredients for adjust and humane world that put the human back into being, and that's what this is all about. To eat well, live well and create a better brighter planet for all of us.

Awesome. Thank you so much, Steve, for joining me here today. Thank you to our listeners. If you like this podcast, please subscribe, download us, we're on iTune, iHeartRadio and all the regular channels. You can find us on Essential Ingredients. Download, subscribe, leave a review if you like what you hear, we're here every week. Thank you again, Steve. Thank you to our listeners.

Thank you. God bless you. And remember you are what you eat, so eat healthy, vote with your fork, your mouth. And at the ballot today, please, Dear God. Thank you. God bless you. Bye bye.