welcome to America's healthiest City I
am will Melton your host I am excited to
bring the show to you today and
introduce you to our guests the
wonderful Michael Sparks and Kate Houck
from underground kitchen Community First
and so many other things America's
healthiest city is a 10-year initiative
to make Richmond the healthiest City in
the nation uh and we know that in order
to do this we have to engage the entire
community and a multitude of ideas to
move the needles so we're bringing
people from the community who are moving
the needle in to tell their stories and
to encourage all of us to move in the
direction that we need to go to make
this happen I realize that not everybody
may see this idea as one that's
achievable so we hope to change hearts
and Minds through these stories so Kate
and Mike welcome to the show thank you
very much thank you so I will start out
just by kind of giving the audience a
background on each of you if you want to
just tell us a little bit about yourself
Michael I'll start with you I know that
you have uh you both have very storied
histories
in your in your wheel house you know
fashion to marketing to to food and and
art and culture and so many other things
so I'll let you say it in your words
yeah I'll give you the short term
um sort of thing I spent many years in
fashion
fell in love and left Europe and came
back to the United States and met a
doctor who been partners with for almost
18 years lived in New York for five
years and
uh he got a job offer to move to
Virginia to Richmond in 2009 and I
decided to move on down to Beverly and
we moved down here and bought a house in
the Museum District
and during that period
um sort of wanting a career change I was
doing some Consulting in fashion and
design and wanted a little change in
order to meet our neighbors I started
throwing dinner parties in our house and
those dinner parties turned into what is
now known as the underground kitchen
which is celebrating our 11th year
anniversary
after the success of the underground
kitchen kopicane and we decided uh to we
had a refrigerator full of food and a
bunch of chefs that couldn't work and we
decided that we were going to feed a
non-profit Kate and I and Kate during
that whole 11 years Kate year six
it's debatable five six or seven Kate
became my business partner and we had
always talked about when we get the time
that we're going to open a non-profit
and do this and help the community and
essentially kova gave us that time to
slow down and um you know it was okay
but brought so many bad things
for us and for the for the whole rest of
the world I think that it also brought
on some really great things and
underground kitchen Community First was
born through covid and uh Kate it's
under Kate's leadership uh We've served
over 275 000 meals since the beginning
of 2020 and Kate can tell you more about
that in her career
well I um food is such a beautiful
pivotal part to to health
um as as individuals and as a society so
we'll talk a lot about food in today's
episode
um and and Kate I um you know obviously
had to do a little bit of research on
people before you start interviewing
them and I know you too I did not know
that you had a PhD
um I did remember that you had a
background in uh and flowers and design
there so
um I'm sure there's even more of the
consultancy and the list goes on so
she's not just a pretty face
um yeah so I got my PhD in Clinical
Psychology at UVA back in the 90s and uh
practiced at a women's prison for
several years helping to run their
inpatient Hospital there before I
decided I needed a change I had two
young kids at home and my whole family
was in Richmond and I was commuting up
to Charlottesville every day and that
just got to be too much and so I went
into Consulting traveled all around the
nation doing consulting for all kinds of
different businesses from mining to
health care to casinos everything
and when I decided to come off the road
because I had said I'd build up the
Richmond Market my boss at the time said
okay and that's when I ended up in
Alaska for the first time that next week
I was in Anchorage Consulting
and so my husband and I went into
financial consulting together
and
um then came a time in 2016 when my
mother passed away suddenly and I kind
of put the time out on everything and
said I can't I just can't took a step
back and really searched for
um what would kind of give me more
energy and it was the creative side I
had started out before psychology and
art history and had always gone my
volunteerism and everything always went
towards that creative side and helping
people with that and that's how I got
into Floral Design so as you do PhD
started luxury floral design business
and my husband and I had actually been
at the very first four or five
underground kitchens uh and Michael and
I ran into each other again and he said
what are you doing I said flowers and he
said come do flowers with me so that was
kind of the beginning of all that and
now here we are
attribute to my mom every week Kate
would do more and more and more because
he didn't know how to set a tablet
it doesn't like you all certain women
exactly yeah so uh so my mom looked at
call me one day she says full if you
don't make her a business partner you're
an idiot so here she is the best best
decision that I ever made thank you now
before YouTube met did pop-up Revolution
exist
yes yes it yeah I think we had met
around that time too yeah right that was
the year of Christmas parties and uh I
mean yeah now did that give birth to the
underground kitchen it was it was it was
it was an LLC that I owned
um specifically for one big event and it
was so easy just to turn it over to UGK
when it was time and
um you know not really real not really
realizing what we were doing with more
experiential uh experience dining more
than a pop-up because a lot of people
say oh my deaf pop-up that goes and
we're really not a pop-up and we're not
Caterers for sure for our for-profit
where uh we give folks an experience we
tell a story with our males and that
story goes with who the farmers are who
uh how it's delivered who are chefs are
and how
um it's a whole experience which makes
us a little different and has really had
really prepared us more than we knew for
UGK Community First because by that time
we knew all the vendors we knew we had
gotten the attention of a lot of major
corporations that really were interested
in what we're doing well and at the same
time I described us as underground
kitchen as a traveling like food
Carnival we were rolling to town set up
the tent do our thing in that respect we
we were a pop-up but went from City to
city so we were really Adept at at
pivoting and figuring out how to do
stuff on the Fly because it never
mattered how much we planned for
anything something always went wrong
we'd get to a city and something would
go wrong and we would have to figure it
out and so it wasn't anything in our
heads when covet came and we said we
need to you know start getting food out
to people we just did because that's
what you do right that's what we do and
and not in that volume the first week I
think we served 150 170 75 meals yeah
and then you know since then like again
like I said 275 000 and I still think
about that today and I think Kate does
too and I don't know how he did it
no I mean quality beautiful wholesome as
close to free range and organic food for
free yeah and people have asked us that
before and we said if we stopped long
enough to think about it
like when I learned to play the piano
once I realized both hands were going at
the same time I'd screw it all up
because I had to like go into that Zen
spot that's kind of where
Kate and I delivered the food the first
week ourselves to 175 houses and people
around all around Virginia I can't even
tell you how many miles to put on our
cars and but Kate and I came back and
you know that Friday glass of wine and
we're like dude did you see this and did
you see that and did you see this and
like it was just and that was from every
spectrum because in the beginning
it wasn't just people with disparities
but it was older people in Windsor Farms
who needed food who were afraid to go
out it was uh it was the whole spectrum
of Virginia and Greater Richmond area
and Kate looked at me and she says you
know we can't stop this and as you know
we talk a lot we talk to everybody that
we dropped soups off to as much as we
could you know from our car to their
porch or I had a couple people who were
shot in for medical reasons
um and one woman would hold blurry cats
up one at a time and we'd wave and and
like scream through the windows at each
other so we we appreciated that I'm sure
they did yeah they had their cat trees
in the window I mean but we got to know
everybody those first couple weeks when
we were doing deliveries and the stories
that you'd hear and the outpouring of
just thanks for remembering we're out
here
um was profound it really hit both of us
that's right deeply and we said we can't
we don't know what we're doing but we
can't stop doing it we got to figure out
pretty quickly what we're doing that's
right because now we got to keep going
and donations started pouring in from
the public enrichment supported and they
put people around even our clients um
all nationally sort of started just
throwing money at us not throwing money
I just put it you know sort of giving
without us even asking and our attorney
said it's probably time that you guys
become a 501c3
[Laughter]
everything pivoted everything was
pivoting all the time it was like oh you
couldn't go out you can go out you
couldn't go out wear 10 masks uh wash
your hands you know it was just the
whole gamut and
um I remember uh that whole first week
that everything started shutting down
and we were delivering and it looked
like that Will Smith movie when they
were it was the apocalypse and he was
the only one on the street and it was
just us and we got um permission from
the the mayor's office to be able to be
one of the emergency be a part of the
group of the emergency workers you were
the only ones allowed to travel on the
street but having said all that
um that's what we did during kobit and
now that we're going into post covet
which has become really interesting
um
where we found our Niche we found
exactly what we want to do we want to
really concentrate on food and food
education and concentrate on our elderly
um as a as a main focus uh going forward
you're listening to America's healthiest
City on ESPN Richmond I'm your host will
Melton and I have Kate Hauck and Michael
Sparks some really wonderful Community
philanthropists here in the studio today
I want to talk more about what you guys
are doing now post covered because I
know you have some interesting
Partnerships going on and I want to talk
a little bit about the health component
because you've heard me say this before
in this 10-year initiative
um you know recognizing that health is
about more than physical well-being we
have to address some of these
foundational issues if we really want to
solve food you know for me my mentality
was if I'm going to sell food I can't do
it by feeding people there we have to
address these foundational issues you've
come into it and you've said we have to
do it by feeding people so tell me a
little bit about what that has looked
like from a health perspective from an
impact a measurable impact perspective
because this is profound for me and I
think there's real lessons and and you
know taking small steps to make a
difference
for for us obviously initially it was
just getting food out because people
literally were losing their their jobs
left and right and we had people who
would wait days and then say I've never
had to ask for anything before and we
don't know where our next meal is coming
from
um so as we were going along for that
first month or so we started getting
letters from the people that we were
um dropping meals to and one woman never
forget her let her say I've never eaten
so many vegetables in my life
um she had lost 25 pounds that was
within the first six or eight weeks
something like that
um her diabetes was under control and
she was off her blood pressure
medication so who knows what she was
eating before but our soups were full of
you know vegetables from Shalom you know
kale and zucchini and they were all
pureed so we called it stealth Health
like nobody knew that they were getting
essentially just this big old vegetable
puree but people loved it so we started
hearing about you know these anecdotal
stories about the results we were
getting
um and as we were traveling in the
community we really started to think
more about the families and I started
thinking in particular about the kids
that we were hitting because you know
fast food is is such a thing and when
people are working second and third
shift and
um you know prepping meals isn't a thing
and having the money to buy fresh
sometimes isn't a thing we really
started to think about
um
about how these families were able uh to
feed themselves and part of my clinical
background was in neuropsychology and so
I think about kids and their brain
development like when you talk about
foundational issues I talk like back to
at Birth you know prenatal we have to
get that brain development early because
that is what's going to really start to
significantly move the entire Community
needle is getting getting kids trained
learning to eat fresh and that that's
not something that's put upon them that
that's actually you know a privilege
that's awesome to be able to do and it's
possible it's just that all the wires
have been kind of crossed
um in in our Modern Age I think just the
food ways have the fast food ways have
opened up and those fresh food ways have
kind of gotten bumpy and rutted anyway
it's something that's even more
interesting Gates well Kate was we all
were focusing with families and and
children I had a big thing for all the
seniors that are on our route and I
would know which ones to deliver to last
because I was going to be there for an
hour and a half having a conversation
Pro quick if you're out there you're one
of them yeah and I love her very much
yeah but I would learn so much and
hearing that one of the people we
delivered to ask if we could deliver to
a friend of hers and I'm you know she
said that she was boiling a chicken on a
Monday and eating off it until Friday or
Saturday and that was pretty much all
she had that's pretty much all she had
to eat and uh that got me and I realized
that uh that we had to do something we
started to even at that time
um you know kind of in the chaos and the
turmoil
the my research brain started going and
I wanted to be able to you know collect
some kind of data but it just you know
we weren't in any position to to run any
kind of human subject study and
um the idea of doing that and trying to
write all the other grants that we
needed on top of it I mean it just it
wasn't what we're yeah we're made for so
we we started when we could kind of
casting out to some of the hospitals and
and medical groups to see and even the
community centers we were trying just to
get scrubbed Health Data they could they
could pick people randomly not tell us
who they were
you know just let us drop meals off to
them but you know again everything was
moving so quickly and
um really great drink and now we've had
a big shout out by some of the
researchers at VCU who are doing um how
food affects cancer which has been very
interesting for us we did a
demonstration with the Richmond fire
department one of their firehouses on
plant-based seating
um and we are looking to also work with
Richmond families to another area of the
cancer center to discuss diet health
obesity high blood pressure and all
those things and how our food affects uh
folks and we'll be able to get real life
figures going forward the the other
thing that we we found during this on
our for-profit side we started doing
virtual cooking classes and so with
kind of the
um promulgation of so much of the
technology that went out and a lot of
money went to that during covid to get a
lot of households up and online
um we found that that was a really good
way to be able to get to a lot of homes
that that otherwise we couldn't touch
um and so we're we're working on that
not to just teach people how to cook and
eat healthy but there are studies out
there that show that families that that
come together to cook and sit down to
eat that it's a stress reducer which
helps reduce drug use it helps reduce
violence it helps I mean it's just it's
not just sitting down and eating and
nourishing your body but you're actually
you know doing better for the mental
health of your whole family system when
you do that as well and it's not
something again in our society these
days people are going going going
um it's not something that a lot of
families have time to do anymore but
part of our education thing is trying to
gear families at least once a week back
to taking the time to do that so there's
this social component to it that you
know is missing in a busy society and
you're taking your experience in
education
um and and psychology and carrying that
over I'm curious about the experiential
side of things because that's how it all
started you know it was born out of
necessity but this was an experienced
business so you guys are obviously going
to go back to for-profit you know there
are going to be people out there that
continue to need help you're going to
continue to help them but we can help
everybody by creating a stronger social
fabric what lessons have you guys taken
away from the you know the philanthropic
effort that you can bring over to the
for-profit side of things to improve
experiences for people what I realize
will is that
everybody can eat healthy and eat good
food the Whole Foods or the fresh market
experience is not
uh just for folks with money uh that are
folks with disparities or who have
challenges financially can eat the same
way and it's just a little bit harder to
find we hope to give folks access
everyone access to the same way we eat
it for our for-profit side
that's back up and running and going
strong again uh the same way that uh
that they for a for-profit side to eat
in our non-profit side and it hasn't
been that hard
and as far as the experiential I want to
speak to that because we found
um on our you know it kind of goes back
and forth between the for-profit
non-profit
um in the the for-profit we teach
history we teach culture we teach about
social issues through the meals that we
do
um and we found it's like those multiple
Avenues of learning people because
they're eating it's something everyone
does it's a common ground people can
meet on but it's also something that
that anchors things in people's minds
you remember meals
for whatever reason just people like to
eat so they remember what they're doing
when they're eating typically and so
taking that and Michael's called it from
the beginning food with dignity so we're
already putting an experience on that
that this isn't just a handout this is
something that we don't



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