I’m posting today my podcast episode with Tina, who volunteers with me delivering food from stores that would throw perfectly good food away to a community fridge for anyone to take for free.

This video was recorded by one of the TV crews doing a story on me. They didn’t use it so let me use it. She was more quiet and reserved when I turned the microphone on, but this video shows her more usual style and form. She’s a firecracker.

This video came when we met on Fifth Avenue when I came with a load of groceries and vegetables, some of which she was going to deliver to others so she was choosing things she knew they would like. The rest I would take to a shelter. It was January, I think.

Here are my show notes from the episode:

Tina is one of the central characters in that group that everyone knows (another is Kevin Fucillo, also a podcast guest). We go back a few years. She was born in the south in 1933, so you can do the math, but you’d never guess. She’s at times a firecracker, full of life, ready to handle anyone. She’s friendly to all, but ready to police anyone overstepping bounds. She’s always caring about the community as a whole and each person in it. She goes out of her way to help people beyond just delivering food. The community wouldn’t be the same without her.

We talk about volunteering, homelessness, slavery, Africa, the South, and more. She worked at the Lone Star Cafe, which was a famous club in the 1970s and 80s, so shared some big names of people she hung out with, like Willie Nelson, James Brown, Courtney Cox (we couldn’t remember her name), Bruce Springsteen, and more.

We recorded in the lobby of her building, so you can hear people coming through and some sound issues. She spoke more softly than her usual self when I turned the microphone on, so I urge you to watch this video to see her energy outdoors. It was taken by a TV crew doing a story on me but they didn’t use it.

She asked me not to share her picture, so I’m only showing her side picture here, during a winter delivery, but she’s okay with my sharing the video that still came from.

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