I usually don't write much about myself or the projects I work on, unless they have to do with someone else. Even then, the spotlight leans more in the other direction and I tend to lean out of it whenever possible. I love to be behind the camera, and though I am an actress I prefer to leave my acting life for character roles. But from time to time I find myself in front of the camera and I am comfortable there, so if I need to be there to help promote someone or something else I'll gladly do it.
Because of my background in youth and family development and teaching nutrition and health in the inner city for many years, I knew immediately when shutdowns began to happen that there would be problems beyond illness for people who lost jobs, and that those who were in shelters and going to food pantries and soup kitchens would be hit very hard. When the restaurant shutdown happened in Hoboken, near where I live, I spoke with a friend who has two restaurants there, Chef Anthony Pino, and he had immediately thought the same thing. His restaurants were open for pick up and delivery and he wanted to help the community and make meals for people in need, but he needed the funding to do it, and so I started reaching out to different people to see what might be possible.
When September 11th happened I was living in downtown Manhattan, and because of the work that I have done for many years in public relations and marketing and collaborative events planning with Artists, Designers and small business owners, I started the Downtown Revitalization Project to bring business and a feeling of community back to that area. This current crisis is not only on a larger worldwide scale but also presents the challenge of not being able to bring people physically together. However, with technology we do have the ability to have online events along with the opportunity for a much larger reach, and I’m connecting Artists and Designers and small business owners locally, nationally and internationally into the project and planning an online venue where they can be highlighted, with a portion of proceeds from sales of their work and products to be donated to restaurants for meals. I’m also planning online venues for performing Artists and Musicians such as shows and live-streams that could also be fundraisers.
As I began to reach out to people, I was amazed by the variety of responses. Some people had already begun their own projects or fundraisers, some people responded immediately that they would be happy to help in any way possible. Some people took a while longer to respond, and I realized that many people were in shock because things happened so quickly. By reaching out to others and continuing to update them on my progress and on the things other people were doing I found that people became encouraged to start doing things themselves. It’s been a challenge to keep going because everything is so overwhelming and uncertain, but I have very strong faith, and the beautiful kindness and connection I have been able to find with others through online methods, though physically distant, has been very powerful.
I want to make sure that this project develops in a professional way that is sustainable, because the future at this point for so many people and businesses is uncertain. By all reasonable estimates, life as we have known it may be profoundly changed for a long while. I have been taking it step by step as I want this project have the ability to help people in the short term and to grow and build into a larger community development project that will help rebuild communities and lives for the long term. In a way I’ve been discovering that the most important thing is the way that connections are being maintained, and that by reaching out to people with an idea of how to support others and help make the world a better place, people are beginning to be inspired to do their own projects and we’re supporting and encouraging each other to find ways to connect and create and share inspiration through social media and other online platforms. I recently did a play with the theater company I have belonged to since I first moved to New York right out of college. All the rehearsals and the performance were done on Zoom. It’s a strange thing for me as an Actor and Playwright to think about not doing this in person, but it worked and we were connecting and creating, and it's given me insight into more ways that I can use this technology to help and inspire others.
My company, the Good News Foundation, does what I do best, connect people and businesses to resources and to each other to raise funds and awareness about community issues and to network and grow community connections. My tag line is Connecting People and Communities, and the foundation of all of the work that I do is based in holistic wellness on the individual and community level. There are times that I feel as if things are going too slowly with this current project because I see how much need there is that is growing exponentially. 36 million people unemployed as of this past week with numbers still growing, children and families going hungry while farmers and ranchers have to throw away unused and unmarketable food and restaurants remain closed because they can't afford to open with only takeout and delivery options or they are too worried about health concerns for themselves, their staff and their families and patrons. But then I'll hear about someone who I shared a resource with who is now feeding their community through a newly developed church meal program, or an Artist who has started to create again because they wanted to do something and didn't realize how important their creativity was until we spoke about it. Chef Anthony Pino in Hoboken started a GoFundMe page, and within the first few days of posting about it he had already delivered 75 healthy and high quality hot meals to the Shelter. I felt so happy when I heard that! Sometimes all people need is someone there to encourage them to do what they have in their heart. As my own project grows, more people keep getting inspired, and they and other people inspire me to keep going too.
An Artist friend, Dana Gambale, created a logo for my project which I’ll share here. The inspiration was the story of Jesus multiplying five loaves and two fish to feed five thousand men plus women and children, with leftovers to spare, and the Old Testament story of the prophet Elisha who helps a poor widow multiply her oil, which is the only thing she has left in her house and she only has a small jar of. Elisha tells her to collect all the empty jars she can get from her neighbors and then to start pouring from her small jar. Only after every jar is filled does the oil run out, giving her enough to share and to sell so that she can not only survive, but because of the preciousness of oil in those days, she can have a comfortable life free from want. After Dana and I brainstormed by text along with some input by Chef Anthony Pino who suggested the ideas of a banquet and abundance, the name “Love and Plenty” came to me. Dana sent me sketches, and as the loaves of bread took shape I started to think about Chef Paul Gerard who has shared recipes with me for a nutrition and health pilot program I designed for a group of parents, children and mentors on Manhattan's Lower East Side. I asked Dana if she could make the bread on the logo look the way he serves it at Antique Bar & Bakery, the restaurant where I met him and where he is Executive Chef and Partner, and I sent her some photographs from the restaurant's Instagram page. And then I asked her to add a dish that looks like one of his, and that’s how this logo came to be.
I had though of Chef Paul Gerard and his food for this logo because there is another part of this project that is very important to me. The reason I had asked him to share recipes with me for the nutrition and wellness workshops I am designing is because I have a very specific vision of the kind of food that I believe everyone should have. On June 17, 2006 I walked into a soup kitchen for the first time. It was in the basement of a church I had just started attending in Manhattan's East Village, and they needed help from volunteers. I hadn't wanted to go. In those days I was newly born again and didn't have the heart I do now. But the first Sunday when I visited the church the week before, the Pastor had announced from the pulpit that they needed more people to volunteer to help. I heard the voice of God saying, "You need to go," and I argued back and forth silently for a while as I sat there listening to the other announcements. But finally, and firmly, God had the last word by saying, "You were almost homeless but for my grace. You're going." And it was true, I knew that only too well. The year before I had lost everything in a business partnership that went very wrong very quickly, and in the process though I found the treasure of God in my life, I had lost everything else including my home. By a hair's breadth I managed to find a place to live, but life at its best was precarious for a long time.
And so I begrudgingly went to help out in the soup kitchen, and on that first day when I walked in and saw the dingy, dirty walls and peeling filthy linoleum, when I smelled and saw the pan of oily white rice with a very few hot dogs cut up and stirred into it that had been made by a woman who, though she wanted to be serving in some capacity was feeling very overwhelmed and very unhappy to be there serving it, I heard the voice of God saying, "Only the best for my children," and that has been my word ever since. God opened doors then that were miraculous, and I helped that soup kitchen and many others over the years to provide healthy and delicious food and a safe environment for people to eat in. The people in that soup kitchen and many of the others where I have worked were the hard core homeless of Manhattan, people who lived on the streets and arrived in all kinds of condition. But to God they are precious, and over the years He has given me the passionate belief that it is not enough to just feed people in need with whatever food is leftover after everyone else has been served. Everyone deserves to have healthy, delicious, fresh food, and when we meet people wherever they are and invite them to the banquet we have been given, that's when lives can be healed and made whole and changed.
Love & Plenty
A Project Of The Good News Foundation
Connecting People And Communities
And Feeding Those In Need
With The Highest Possible Quality Food
Supporting The Arts & Creativity
And Inspiring New Life
Love Created
Love Delivered
Love Shared
Love Multiplied
Blessings,
Jannie Susan
