Our Daily Show Interview! The Chef & The General: Block Party for Good on 9-27
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ALTON - AltonWorks, Food Is Love and Currency of Caring will host a Block Party for Good, complete with free groceries, hot food and check-ups.
From 2–3:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024, at the Alton Amphitheater, community members can take advantage of these services for free, with no residency or income requirements. Lasse Sorensen and John Michel, who oversee Food Is Love and Currency of Caring respectively, explained that their goal is to provide resources that the community needs.
“We come in, we deliver hot food, we provide free groceries, no questions asked, produce and everything,” Michel said. “It’s challenging to build infrastructure at places where people can get to them consistently, so we said, ‘Hey, what if we use the power of mobility?’ We started with the food truck movement to effectively replace soup kitchens, but we said, ‘What if we can start to layer in a whole series of services, increasing the access to the things people need?’”
The Block Party for Good event is scheduled for the last Friday of every month at the Alton Amphitheater. September’s block party was rescheduled to Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024, due to weather.
Michel explained that the goal is to bring fresh food and groceries to food deserts across the Metro East region. On Oct. 3, the OSF Health and Wellness Mobile will also be onsite to provide free check-ups. In the future, they hope to bring in legal aid and other free resources.
Michel and Sorensen began collaborating a few months ago. Sorensen hosts the Emmy-nominated show “Food Is Love,” which features restaurants across the country. He has worked with Michel to expand the Food Is Love platform.
“We want to use the platform Food Is Love to focus on this area called food insecurity,” Sorensen said. “I think that with Food Is Love as the platform, we can help direct people to understanding what I didn't understand prior to getting into this — that there’s an incredible need out there, that we need to be part of this solution.”
Through Currency of Caring and Food Is Love, people can purchase tokens for $8 and distribute them to people in need throughout the community. People can then exchange these tokens for a free meal at participating restaurants, including Tab’s Cafe, Alton Sports Tap, Heaterz Hot Chicken and Flock Food Truck Park and Bar in Alton.
Participating restaurants also have a lantern where diners can donate tokens. When they collect 100 tokens, Currency of Caring dispatches a food truck to go into a neighborhood and distribute 100 free meals.
Food Is Love has also been working with the St. Louis Food Bank to promote nutritional education. Sorensen hopes to break the “generational malnutrition” that many families face by educating kids and families about nutrition while providing access to healthy foods.
“It’s such an evil cycle for them. They eat terrible food and then they get sick later on in life because of those choices,” Sorensen explained. “We really have to start with the kids.”
To learn more or contribute to the Food Is Love and Currency of Caring programs, you can visit CurrencyOfCaring.com or FoodIsLove.tv. Michel and Sorensen noted that these programs bring people together, and they hope to do more for the Riverbend community in the future.
“All it is is nothing but joy, nothing but gratitude,” Michel added. “Even from those who have the least, in these moments, it allows them to know they’re seen. They’re valued. And it’s just beautiful to see. That’s originally the idea; we’re just bringing the power of the table to them.”
If you are struggling with food insecurity, check out this article on RiverBender.com for more resources.
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