Gratitude:UnFiltered featuring Non-Profit – Murphy’s Produce with Purpose

Welcome to this special edition of Gratitude:UnFiltered featuring 501c3 Murphy’s Produce with Purpose.

About Murphy’s Produce with Purpose

From an early age, Jim Murphy learned the value of an honest day’s work alongside his father, Jack, a South Bay farmer. He spent his boyhood summers jumping in the back of his dad’s pickup truck to head to the fields and pick fresh fruits and vegetables. Given the opportunity to meet so many local farmers, Jim soon realized the prevalence of hunger throughout the region. He has made it his goal, mission and passion in the years since to help families fight food insecurity.

With a wealth of experience in both wholesale and retail produce distribution, Jim has built a network of connections to assist in charitable outreach while raising awareness. Partnerships with local produce distributors and the San Diego Food Bank, have assisted in this mission to build a Super Pantry in the South Bay.

Why Murphy’s Produce?

The community of National City and the surrounding area are working class and cannot afford a lot of what is out there, nor do they have reasonable avenues of nutrition that they can access. Half of the community reports that they do not have adequate amounts of food. Hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease in this area rank among the highest in the County.

Our facility is right in the middle of a “food desert” where there are no healthy options at all, much less access to food consistent with their needs.

Currently, 1 in 5 children who come from low-income families, struggle with obesity. More than 30% of 5th, 7th, and 9th graders at San Diego’s public schools have been declared overweight or obese.

Low-income families are not the only ones who benefit from us, though. Families from all socio-economic statuses, ethnicities, and cultures make up our clientele. Murphy’s Produce with Purpose brings people from all walks of life together in a shared sense of community, letting them know they are not alone and that we are all working towards bettering the lives of so many Americans.

Our store provides affordable prices, along with the voucher program that they can use to save even more money and stretch their dollar to achieve a nutritional diet. With a program like ours, mothers and fathers can keep their dignity and walk into our store with pride to feel normal and have a personal shopping experience.

Part of our model is also a food distribution center for other nonprofits out of the back of our space. This facility will also serve as a place to teach job skills such as warehouse managing, or running a forklift. We are actively speaking to different groups that help with re-entry programs, and we will be reaching out to local organizations to get the youth involved in learning employable skills.

GIVE TO MURPHY’s PRODUCE WITH PURPOSE

DONATE HERE 

Please welcome Rosie Montano, Adel Afkarian & James Murphy to Gratitude:UnFiltered!

Thank you for being a part of this broadcast on the Live Mana Worldwide – Multimedia Broadcast Network.

Live Mana Worldwide Foundation (audio)Gratitude:UnFiltered featuring Non-Profit - Murphy’s Produce with Purpose

Joshua T Berglan

00:00:01

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Gratitude:UnFiltered broadcast live on the live mana worldwide multimedia broadcast network. Thank you guys so much for being here. You are in for a treat today. We are with Jimmy Adele and Rosie from Merce. Murphy's produce with purpose. You guys are going to want to like share and subscribe wherever you're watching from YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Periscope, Apple TV, Roku, Amazon fire, Facebook, we're all over the place. And you can even download the podcast. Learn more at live mana, worldwide.org/multimedia broadcast. Thank you for being here.

Joshua T Berglan

00:00:42

We're going to have a great show. <inaudible> staring at the snow this morning. I wish I could move. I couldn't move the care more, but yeah, I got everything set up.

Joshua T Berglan

00:01:24

I don't want to Jack with that right now. We have snow everywhere. We have eight inches of snow piled everywhere in Minneapolis, and we're about to get dumped on some more and it helps fitting is it that we get to speak with some people in sunny, warm and beautiful San Diego, California, my former home, a place that man, I love place that I actually thought I was moving back to before God redirected my path and sent me into the loving arms of my wife, Jessica Lynn. Anyway, I'm grateful to be in Minneapolis, but I'm even more grateful to be a part of this broadcast to share about Murphy's produce with purpose. A lot of you guys know that follow our journey with our own foundation, the live model, worldwide foundation, and how we work with other organizations around the world, providing healthy food, providing meals, providing shelter, providing clothing for providing fellowship is a big part of what we do outside of our media services.

Joshua T Berglan

00:02:26

It's people like Murphy's produce with purpose that actually allow us to be able to go out and be the hands and feet of our, of our Lord. And so this is exciting to me, but what they're doing is really unique. And to me, it's special. And I gotta be honest with you. I hope that you guys watching out there all over, whether you're listening to the podcast, you're watching on social media or watching on TV, wherever you're watching from. No matter what you do. I hope that this inspires you and you support their cause because I believe that other organizations should follow suit. So ladies and gentlemen, it is a great pleasure for me to introduce a Dell, Rosie and Jimmy with Murphy's produce with purpose.

Joshua T Berglan

00:03:15

What's up guys? How are you? Good morning. Morning, morning to you guys today, You guys are all dressed, warm what's going on.

James Murphy

00:03:27

Well, it was sprinkling that age. So, you know, I was excited. We're going to see some snow with years, but not so much. Okay.

Joshua T Berglan

00:03:35

Hold on. Let me see if I can, you may not be able to see with the window, but those windows are very dirty. My friend, the sun it's blocking it, but there, there is snow everywhere, but it's gorgeous. But I have to say, I am definitely California dreaming. So Jimmy, this is your foundation. You're the one that started this. This is your inspiration, right? Well, tell us what led you to create an organization like this? I mean, first of all, just that the desire to provide food is one thing, but you have a very unique spin on what you're doing and what you're providing to the community in San Diego.

Joshua T Berglan

00:04:18

Would you tell us about that place?

James Murphy

00:04:20

Yeah. Well, my background and my father, you know, my father was in the produce business for over 50 years. So right here in San Diego, he would supply different markets, different, you know, organizations with food, for profit. And what we were finding was is the more healthy options, the more, you know, availability that we had to this food, we need to have a bigger outreach. So in 2015, my father passed away. I took over his wholesale business. And when I took over his wholesale business, I realized that I was getting mass quantities of food.

James Murphy

00:05:00

And sometimes we weren't able to sell all of it because it was just so much food. So I reached out to a couple of smaller organizations that were in the, in the community and I started donating and I was amazed at how many organizations, families just were so grateful. They get anything. I mean, it didn't matter if it was a box of pears or apples or whatever. So

Joshua T Berglan

00:05:26

No, I was going to say what a lot of people may or may not realize food waste is a massive problem in the United States. And it's more so the United States than anyone else can any of you speak to that epidemic and cause this, this what you're doing as a solution for that, can you, can any of you speak to that?

James Murphy

00:05:47

I, I can, because shortly after my father passed away, I started doing the wholesale and I had an opportunity to buy a retail produce store in national city. So I went ahead and purchased it. I was there in 2017, started doing the retail a little bit more. I was still doing the wholesale. And one day I walked into the back of my building and my whole trashcan was full of food that was bruised or maybe a little Mark on it. It was still edible and it was going straight to the landfill. So I, you know, at that point I, I brought my staff in.

James Murphy

00:06:28

I said, listen, not only are we losing money because you're throwing all this stuff away that I'm buying, but there has to be a fine line of where we can actually rescue this and revert it to organizations or to people because you're throwing away something that is so valuable that, you know, not everyone has access to this.

Joshua T Berglan

00:06:49

Wow. What, so wait, so Bruce fruit still good. Unfortunately that's probably the best really.

James Murphy

00:07:00

It's, it's amazing being in the produce business that everyone wants to buy that perfect Apple or that perfect orange or that perfect watermelon or that perfect cantaloupe and you, and you pay the price. You spend probably three times more for something that's just as good. If it's a little bit bruised or a little bit older, a little bit ripened Back to what we were saying. So, you know, we started a program in my store of redirecting all this food and we started a program. We started bringing in non-profits and every day we would donate four or five boxes of food. And basically what we did was we would get to that point in our, in our day when we realized that it wasn't going to sell because of people like you, Josh, the wants the perfect piece of fruit,

Joshua T Berglan

00:07:50

Pull it off,

James Murphy

00:07:52

We've been put it into a box or we would package it for organizations to come and pick up. And then they would basically donate it to families in need. Well, in 2000, I believe it was 2018 towards the end of 2018, we started Murphy's produce with purpose and that's our nonprofit, because we were getting mass quantity, we're getting mass amounts of food. And not only that people that I was buying from my growers, my, my farmers, all these people, there's just so much food out there and, and they can't sell it. So I let everyone know that I buy it from this and we're starting this nonprofit.

James Murphy

00:08:32

We want to help our community. We want to donate food. We have a food rescue program. I actually went to other stores and markets in the area to start them on this program because of all the amount of food that goes into the landfill. Obviously you got greenhouse gases and that's a whole nother animal, but our focus is really making sure that our community has food to eat. And so what we did was we thought a building that's a little bit bigger than my produce store in 2000 last year, actually around this time a year ago, I sold my store. It was a for-profit. I sold it and walked away from the retail to focus on our nonprofit.

James Murphy

00:09:18

And we've got a bigger building. We've got a bigger outreach. Obviously our platform is a lot different now because we're having to redirect our focus on really community and how we can gather as much food as possible. Right. Get that out to, you know, just basically, I mean, it's a, it's a crazy story. But when in December, when the pandemic hit, we were already a little bit about, you know, in front of the curve because our facility that we have a national city, we were doing drive-through distribution already. So we were already feeding 150 to 200 families.

James Murphy

00:09:58

What's that? How often were you doing that? We were doing that once a week on Saturdays. And it was kind of like, Hey, listen, we would stockpile all this produce. The thing is, is that by partnering with different organizations like the San Diego food bank and they they're real strong in canned goods, but the big focus lately has been, we can't get fresh fruits and vegetables. And when we get them, it's just such a small amount. So that's where we came in as that platform to be able to supply fresh fruits and vegetables, like that's our background, that's our strength. That's, that's really what we bring to the community. And that allowed us to partner with other organizations that were lacking the fresh fruits and vegetables.

James Murphy

00:10:43

I, so I, I keep wanting to ask you questions, but I'm going to go back to this because this is a question I'm going to save for later, but I want you to think about it. The cause a lot of these organizations are providing junk food. You guys are providing healthy food and, and I, and I understand why the junk food, because, well, we'll save that for a second. Rosie, how did you get involved with this?

Rosie Montano

00:11:08

So, you know, we ended up meeting through, you know, other, through the mix of other organizations and, you know, thus started a beautiful relationship, right? I have over seven and a half years doing distributions and advocacy and everything else. So when we joined forces and met, you know, both of our visions were the same. That's where, you know, coming into play as the director of operations taking over our vision is basically to make sure that we one focus on life skills to nutrition, which is the key factor of staying healthy and preventing any illnesses and things like that.

Rosie Montano

00:11:55

And three, most importantly, is resources with wraparound services. We don't see that very frequently. So we want to make sure, I mean, obviously when the pandemic hit, it made it a little bit more difficult to be able to offer these services because we can't do a lot of face to face, but our goal is to build up these resources, you know, not just with food, but with housing, with utility assistance and making sure that we mentor these families, that we don't provide just a temporary bandaid solution. We actually provide a true transformation for these families. So we can give them a way of life, a better way of life.

Joshua T Berglan

00:12:35

That's so on point and you're into me, you're solving two problems and I'm going to get to you in a second. Adele, I know you already just a pretty face it's in the corner over here, providing the nutritious food to me is a huge thing. Because being a former drug addict, I recognize that sugar craving that comes from whether it's alcohol, the alcohol hangover, or even the fix, you know, it's like, okay, I always joke around, but I'm being serious. Cocaine made me fat because I wouldn't eat for three days when I was on my bender. But when I did eat, it was cheeseburgers, donuts candy, like all in the same meal.

Joshua T Berglan

00:13:21

And it was that, that sugar fix. Like I've seen some of the people without homes around in my community here, or even when I lived in San Diego in LA, even Vegas, like you'll see people eat sugar packets because it's to help them get over. The one thing I've learned and even, even being like somebody that like w would using cannabis, like you always people go to the sweets, they go to the sugar. Cause it's like, it fixes something. I don't know. But fruit and vegetables actually work the same way. It kind of solves that fix. Have you either any of you noticed with some of the people that you serve by a difference in providing fresh produce versus the sugary crap that is provided most of the time?

Rosie Montano

00:14:10

Well, one of the things that I have noticed in itself is aside from the fact that people are able to function better. But one of the things that people don't understand too, is that protein actually in organic protein actually helps heal the body. So any type of, you know, any type of illness or injury, internal inflammation, believe it or not, that's what we need in our bodies. So that's why we are Murphy's proteins with purpose is huge on nutrition.

Joshua T Berglan

00:14:40

That's so cool. And then the, to add onto your services, you mentioned something, I forgot the wording that you used, but you're basically talking about all care, providing home shelter. Are you getting into the counseling services as well? Like tell us about that vision if you will.

Rosie Montano

00:15:00

So that vision entails, you know, mentorship, obviously there's, you know, different skills, right from youth all the way to adults. But one of the things that we've seen is that there's not a lot of opportunities for, for children, whether they come from broken homes or not. The reality is that most parents are working. They don't have a lot of time. School systems have changed. And so we want to make sure that we start building up our communities and that we start offering better options for our youth because they are our future. Aside from that, there's also the other scale of people that have already graduated from that. And maybe they were lost in the mix of everything and still are not sure where they're going.

Rosie Montano

00:15:43

We want to make sure that we service that sector as well. The other side of it is also the medium income. You know, maybe it's not that they qualify, right, but they might need some kind of assistance. And they're not sure where to go. We want to provide those again, those bridges be that bridge for the services to make sure that we help them to get to where they want to go. A lot of people think, Oh, I can't buy my home. And they stay renters for the rest of their lives. We want to transform that. We want to show them the way to a better living and be that bridge. And not just that, but also be the bridge for other organizations to build that platform because we cannot do this alone.

Rosie Montano

00:16:23

It takes courage to create change. And our vibe attracts our tribe here on earth and in heaven. And that's how we're going to build it up.

Joshua T Berglan

00:16:30

Hey man, hold on. I'm gonna read a couple of comments really quick. Other than my wife saying she loves me. I see food waste and food insecurity almost every day. You guys do good work. I got a light in front of me. I'm gonna move this thing. Mainly the working people are the ones who struggle because they don't qualify for assistance and it's all they can do to keep their utilities on preach, brother. He, health message is so needed and I absolutely love what you guys do. So cool. So how did you guys get a Dell involved in this? Well,

Adel Afkarian

00:17:08

So interesting story, Josh, when the pandemic hit and obviously, you know, I feel like I'm always been blessed, not only having food on my table, but the support of the family. And I noticed some of my friends losing their jobs, not having access to food and they really were a hit because of the pandemic. So I posted something on Facebook to a point that, you know, to all my friends and family, if you come short and food or you need any assistance, let me know, direct message me, nobody needs to know. And I'll be like the secret Santa and I'll drop, you know, food, whatever I can at your doorstep. And we'll just leave it as, and I want to say immediately five minutes later, Jimmy sends me a message.

Adel Afkarian

00:17:54

He goes like, what are you doing? I was like, did I posted something wrong? Did I insult someone? Right? Cause like what about a couple of months ago I started my nonprofit organization. Let me know how much food you need. And I let her, I mean, I was just like at the message. I was like, well, this is just crazy because you know, just, I immediately thought of something. And within minutes he reached out Jimmy and I would go back 25 years through coaching soccer against one another. We hated each other for 90 minutes. We would go for a drink or food. And I think it's been a blessing to come to a point in life where you come back in a full circle with friends that you lost contact over a few years, but then you come back for a good cause.

Adel Afkarian

00:18:44

So I'm privileged to be part of this organization. And as a former coach who has coached over 5,000 kids locally, we would come across that same family cannot afford, you know, for coaches fees or equipment. And there were so many underserved kids in the community that there were talented to be professional, be part of the Olympics. And their dream would be literally shattered because they literally didn't have a ride to come to practice. And obviously, you know, it comes back to nutrition, healthy eating. So we can together, we combined the two idea of how can we assist our local communities, mostly the inner city kids and communities that they were hit the hardest the most.

Adel Afkarian

00:19:30

And you know, I opened a few doors and through my network and Jimmy's background in food produce and vegetables and Rosie's resume speaks for itself. You know, we built a nice, I guess, good team that we all bring different flavor to the, to this organization, but a common goal. And just recently just what Roseann Jimmy was saying. It's just not about food. I mean, having access to different organization, I was managed to get 40 pairs of soccer cleats, and I trained with a group of athletes that there are, you know, they're talented, but they don't have access to equipment and transportation.

Adel Afkarian

00:20:13

And we try to cater to them once a week on Tuesdays. So I check in this cleats and really it was early present for them. But to see the joy in their faces was the biggest gratification for me. And it really brought me back to my youth that, you know, I don't come from a very wealthy family. My dad worked, my mom works and, but they were able to provide me with the equipment and it led me to the next level of playing the sport. And I want to really, you know, create that opportunity for this kids in our, my end, obviously with sports. But collectively we want to create this platform is just, it's a mentorship platform. And I wrote, you alluded to, it's not just about food.

Adel Afkarian

00:20:55

And I mean, it's, it's tough as it is for people, you know, you know, to come and wait in lines or in their cards and you know, what the shaming, their face, which we believe that shouldn't be that chase. And we want our community to understand that we are going through this as one and one might have one than India there's. But at the end of the day, if we can really support one another, we can move this vehicle forward. And I mean, it is a good time to do what we do, but unfortunately these are tough times and we want to get through this as a team, as a community, as a city of what happened.

Joshua T Berglan

00:21:32

I, you know, I, I love everything you just said, Adele, and here's what and have, and this is what I know to be true about you to rewind just a little bit. I was always one of those people that wanted to kind of help, but kind of at arms distance because you know, relationships have always been awkward for me. I, I don't, I don't manage them very, very well. I do much better at a distance, but Jessica has really, and I've always, I mean, I worked in skid row all the time and always went out and provided food and, you know, went out and had a conversation. But my heart Jessica really opened my heart to the point where like, I would watch her just go sit on the ground in these tent cities that we would go to MEA Apolis and she would just sit there and talk like she was sitting in a recliner at home, but here she is surrounded by homeless people, talking, passing out food, having conversation.

Joshua T Berglan

00:22:28

I really, really learned a lot about the value of in a way it's mentorship, it's fellowship. It's, it's, it's showing people love in a different way. It's empathy in a different level. And I, what I've always admired about you, like even being like most of our conversations have been centered around business, but I've always heard about your heart behind it and the way that you've stepped into other companies with your other ventures and kind of hearing your story and how you value family. Like, it's so cool to see you step in this because it's, to me, I've seen everything that you've worked on come like the fruit of it, be amazing. I've seen like, you know, the hairbrush and all of that stuff that you guys invented, like that was so cool to see you put that together, but I knew your heart behind it the whole time.

Joshua T Berglan

00:23:15

And now to see you do this, it's like the sky is the limit. Are you guys planning on taking this concept and what you have? Are you going to take it global or are you looking for partners in other States, other countries because what you're doing can be duplicated over and over and over.

Adel Afkarian

00:23:36

Yeah, well, I mean, and, and that was the, the original vision was to get our, I mean, we have a 5,300 square foot building in national and

James Murphy

00:23:46

It was perfectly located in the center of national city. It's got, you know, three offices for meetings and different mentorships and tutoring, different things. We've got basically 4,000 square feet of warehouse that we could utilize for social supermarket, warehousing food distribution. So it, the building was set up perfect for what we wanted to do. Pandemic hits, we pivot, we have to help the community. We feel it's our duty to really outreach the food. I mean, back to what we were talking about earlier, Josh, we were feeding 120 200 families on a, on a Saturday to now we're feeding over 2000 families a week housing and more people that are on board with us.

James Murphy

00:24:42

We're catering in rows. We can get into a little bit more, but we're catering to different organizations. I mean, it's, it's, you know, and, and it's funny because Jim Flores from the Sangha food bank, he's always talking about how they had a pivot, their mission right there. They've got 500 nonprofits and, you know, we're, we're fortunate to be one of those 500 and we're part of that super pantry program that they have. So we really, we really are proud of that relationship, but what we're doing now is we're trying to be that arm to all these other people that don't have access to food. And, you know, Rosie can get into it a little bit more about our, our closing the gap with different organizations.

James Murphy

00:25:24

If you want to explain a little bit about the mobile.

Rosie Montano

00:25:28

Yeah. So, so really quick talking about numbers, just to kind of give you an idea in November, we did over 21,000 people that we fed. And so that number we've seen it increase as, you know, COVID hit, it increased, you know, dramatically. We do mobile distributions aside from our regular site distributions that we do Tuesdays and Fridays now. And then we also do, we go out into the community. So this last Saturday or two Saturdays ago, we actually went out into another community that we heard was not being serviced.

Rosie Montano

00:26:07

And, you know, city council reached out and said, you know, we have a need, I heard about it. And I said, within, I think it was like two weeks. And I said, okay, no problem. We're going to service you. And they said, really, they thought we were going to do about 200. I said, Nope, we're going to do, we're going to aim for 500. We serviced over 600 families on that weekend blessing. We were able to provide, produce milk chicken, as well as, you know, dry items, you know, variety as well as a Turkey, you know, for the holidays was a big blessing. But again, it takes a village to create change.

Rosie Montano

00:26:47

A big supporter of ours aside from food bank has also been the iron workers local two to nine. They have been there every step of the way. So we give a big shout out to Johnny Swanson, national organizer for a low for iron workers, local two to nine, because they have been there every step of the way from the very beginning. So we appreciate it because again, we couldn't do it by our, by ourselves. Aside from that building trades have stepped in labor council, UDW local 39 30, you know, and they're helping us service all the different organizations like regional center. We service the disabled, we service the senior communities.

Rosie Montano

00:27:29

We have different people on our mobile distribution, sending out deliveries in different cities, surrounding cities in our area. So that's why we say all of San Diego County. And when we talked about, if we want to go global Joshua, I want to say that it sky's the limit. Okay. Obviously he's the one that's in charge, but we're going to reach to the crop because I truly believe that we can do a lot more and become on the more on the, on the higher scale where we're building and bridging for more organizations to do what we're doing, you know, and, and just really being the gap bridging, you know, to help them.

Rosie Montano

00:28:12

But it's, it's really amazing to see, you know, how it started off and where we're at now, how it's transpiring it's, it's amazing to see. But most importantly, it's amazing to see the transformation in those families, seeing the transformation in the seniors, how thankful they are, because they can't come out of their house to get food. And it's getting delivered how thankful I've had a group of nurses that weren't able to get food because of their income guidelines. And we're being able to service them. People are not being discriminated. Our biggest thing is we put our heart and soul into it. We wa we do everything with Hebrews 11, one, which is faith.

Rosie Montano

00:28:55

And, and so we make sure that everyone feels that. And we plant that seed of love. You know, every everything that we do, we also service the homeless community. We go out there, we're constantly brainstorming on ways to how we can help. And so again, it takes a village and that's why it's, it's really important on what we're doing. That's why we're, we're doing our GoFundMe because we have so many big plans. It's not just about, there's just, we have such a high demand and not enough supplies. That's the thing. So we have to build the bridges and make sure that we continue to provide, because like I said, in, in November, it was over 21,000 people that we've fed

4

00:29:38

December's numbers already went up. That's amazing. We,

Joshua T Berglan

00:29:42

Jessica and I, cause I can see her comments and I know I was going to offer, but you know, we communicate and make sure that we're on the same page before we offer anything. We're happy to support you guys on the media end any way we can, whether it's playing commercials during our broadcast social media promotion, your website is absolutely gorgeous, but anything that we can do, even with the help of outreach, being a bridge that connects to your bridge to connect other bridges. Because essentially our whole mission is to elevate, not just the voices for the voiceless, but also be the hands and feet of Jesus.

Joshua T Berglan

00:30:23

That is what drives us. And we are your organization as an organization that aligns with our values and anything that we can do. And we can talk about that off air, but anything we can do to support you guys, we're all in because San Diego, San Diego is my favorite. I love, I love Minneapolis, no offense to my new Minneapolis. LA is something I call home, but it's because of where I died and where I was reborn. But San Diego, the community in San Diego is special. It is, it is, it is just different. It is. I mean, it's awesome. Like there's no better place on earth to me and I, and that community embraced me and allowed me just to go beat me, which is not as it always been easy for me.

Joshua T Berglan

00:31:11

I love San Diego. I love the people of San Diego and that is all walks of life there. So anything that we can do to support you other than promoting the go fund me, other than telling you guys to go, you can donate here on their website. I'll make sure the GoFund me is posted everywhere. I love what you guys are doing, but can you go into a little bit more detail about the plan of action moving forward? What is it that you are declaring before God and the world that you are going to accomplish with this organization?

James Murphy

00:31:49

Do you want me to go ahead? So our, our goal for 2021 was there was three things. One was to really get ahead of our food distributions and really promote our mobile pantries. Our, you know, our outreach in San Diego. So basically what it is is we've got a couple of trucks that we go to different communities and deliver to, but we want to build that up. I mean, we we're, you know, our goal is to get a couple of really good delivery. Trucks is like a, like a 24 foot truck refrigeration that we can actually travel to Imperial Valley and help communities there.

James Murphy

00:32:35

I mean, we're, we're, you know, we, what we're really trying to focus on is our outreach in San Diego and really get a strong hold on how we do it and do it well, we can expand, you know, our, our, our expansion is very important. The other thing is, is starting to tie in our wraparound services with different organizations, you know, partnering up with different organizations. You know, we, we partner with Aetna, better health of California, and we did a food distribution sponsored by them. It was great. So yeah, we're, I mean, we're really trying to broaden our, our, our outreach, but we're really trying to bring in partners to help us get to that next level.

James Murphy

00:33:24

And our facility is really set up. I mean, there's organizations out there right now that we're partnering with and, and, and Rosie can go into a couple of those homeroom and different things. It's, it's all about community. I mean, right now we want to just be the best at what we do in our community. And then we can obviously, you know, we can obviously spread it out a little,

Joshua T Berglan

00:33:45

Jessica now assessed with food trucks and we want to, we want to make them where we go out into the community. So we go to like a regional bear with me for a second while I explain this, like, we have a facility like yours, we pull up into it in the morning. First thing in the morning, we load it up with food that we're going to prepare. We have a menu prepared in our mind, prepare the food and go take it out to various parts of the city in the community. And then cook prepared meals, have no prices on the menu, but anyone that wants to come cause we don't want to discriminate. So if you're a millionaire that looks like a surfer, bum is cruising along and they want food, or you have a gentleman who doesn't have a home, they want food, they can get it.

Joshua T Berglan

00:34:32

And you've heard about those restaurants that don't have prices on the menu, but you can, you're encouraged to leave a tip for the donut you donate and whatever you feel like donating you donate or not at all. Like if you can't afford it, you can't afford it. But everybody gets fed. Everyone gets fellowship and create communities around these mobile food trucks that do that. But that's like, that's a vision that we have that we want to do here in this city. But then people located around the world.

James Murphy

00:34:59

That's funny that you bring that up because we've partnered with Antonio who Alec Cozaar. He basically is chef Latinos. And we did a food distribution with him here in national city. And it was funny because he was telling me, he's like, man, you know, let's, let's start, let's start promoting not only your business and, and pushing product, but let's start doing tutorials. Let's start doing, you know what, you're what what's in these boxes. Let's educate people on how to cook these different items and how many meals we can do. And the box that we give out is about 25 pounds of fresh produce.

James Murphy

00:35:41

Nice word role was to break it down into, with these four items. You can make a meal, these three items, you can make a meal and put the recipes down. He travels all throughout the U S he goes into Mexico. He's I mean, this guy is phenomenal. His other point was, is let's get a food truck. We'll park it in front of your place. You already have all the items. We can make food for the people. So I love what you're saying. Obviously, you know, I think there's a partnership there with us and you on this, on this concept.

Adel Afkarian

00:36:13

Yeah.

James Murphy

00:36:16

What was for our building was to have that social supermarket inside of our building, where people are hungry, come in, you know, come in and get food, come in and get groceries, come in and get milk, get eggs. There's so much food out there going to waste that we have to set up this facility to really cater two sides. One is that it doesn't go into the landfill, but also the resources for people to come and get food from us to help them get through.

Adel Afkarian

00:36:46

Yeah. First of all, they are the force behind this. I just try to crack a couple doors here there. I mean, if we weren't Virginia and I envision, and obviously behind every two good men, there's a great woman and Rosie's mass city and hard work literally with all, you know, everything that she has outside with her personal life. It's been a blessing to have her, but you know, just like a car that needs to be fueled and move forward. Even the best of the best. If you don't feel it, it doesn't move forward. I'm on the kind of running the operation with the financing part of it and seeing that, you know, we need help donations and, and the donations will literally get us over the hump.

Adel Afkarian

00:37:34

Hence we set up our GoFund me, but yet we have a donate button, which you put on this, you know, on this screen. Okay. Right. You'll absolutely absolutely. One of our things. First when we started, we said that we hate to go ask people for money, but our goal will not get to the next level. Even continue if we don't get our peer support and we do get support across the board, but it was about a week ago. We decided finally to come up with a go fund, me and we posted it. And one of our donors didn't want to go on onsite, but he mailed us a check for 22,500, which is half of our alleging amounts.

Adel Afkarian

00:38:21

If you go to the go fund, me site, which I will share with you, and then you can share with everybody else, I have it. I'm going to share it when I have everything transcribed and we publish it. Yes. All that inside there. So you won't have, Jessica

Joshua T Berglan

00:38:36

Says, we need to talk to you about working on grants together.

Adel Afkarian

00:38:39

Yes. Yes. So again, as, as accomplished for one year old company, we are, we're still at an infant stage and we've gained so much with so much support, but we want to continue serving our community and it will help some financial commitment, whether the bigger organizations, donors that they contribute and they can help us out and, you know, maintain our momentum. Because as we're growing, we see there are more needs. There are more verticals that we can penetrate. We have access to resources and even helps that we get on daily, weekly basis.

Adel Afkarian

00:39:19

But it's the financial side of it that would delay this process. We're not going to stop it. We'll go. You know, we're, you know, we're going to get this mission going. And like you said, our goal is that to build this foundation so strong that we can duplicate that in a surrounding cities or counties and eventually go to nearby States and then go nationwide. I want to give a shout out to one of my good friends, churro Fletcher, who played for San Diego chargers. And now he's a pastor and with his active presence across the board nationwide in a different churches.

Adel Afkarian

00:39:59

And he blessed us with joining us. And his voice is going to be heard as a former professional athlete. And he's going to help us also to move this forward. And there's so much great things going on for us. Josh is this like every morning we wake up, it's like, what's our next president at someone else's joining us, another door opening and union being the great force behind us. And obviously Jimmy's mission and vision from day one was what can we do to help our community? And it's been awesome.

Joshua T Berglan

00:40:30

I I'm trying to be obedient here. And I keep hearing the name dropping my head. The first time you brought up miles Fletcher or Mr. Fletcher, I immediately thought this name. And I was wondering if there was a connection there, but miles MacPherson from the road

Adel Afkarian

00:40:46

Church. Yes. I know. Miles as well. Yes,

Joshua T Berglan

00:40:49

That guy and what you're doing there's I don't know anyone. And I try to keep my ear to the street about what different organizations do, because frankly, if I hear someone's doing something better, I want take, I'm going to take your idea and I'm going to use it if it makes sense, but there's, I don't know anyone that's doing what you're doing, the way that you're doing it in everything that pastor MacPherson stands for my miles. Yeah. My now I'm confusing my name's miles, two miles from the rock church thing that I know that he stands for. That that could be a good connection for you guys too.

Joshua T Berglan

00:41:32

So if there's a connection, I don't know, but the name just kept popping in my head. So

Adel Afkarian

00:41:38

I think it has been our goal. Now we're stepping into the new year. We have a mission statement per se. We've had a, an agenda and a strategy in place that how we want to utilize this public figures that not only they believe in us and our vision, but also practice themselves. So we can do a joint partnership. When you talk to them about the miles of the communities, or even on Pat Fletchers and other athletes, that poster career now utilizing the platform to do what we do to help the community, whether they're just showing up at a football game and sign a Jersey and give a hope to the next guy, or what have you.

Adel Afkarian

00:42:22

I think at the end of the day, we want to utilize their platforms because not only they're credible, but they believe in that. And they believe in us. I mean, there are other athletes that they haven't officially joined us, but they have their own foundations. And beginning of the year, I mean, they text me randomly a job. We love what you guys do. How can we help you? And that's, you know, it validates what we're doing out there. Just random individuals or public figure, reaching out to us. We need our local public, you know, officials, you know, the local politicians to help us. I mean, when it comes to running an operation locally, we need, you know, permits.

Adel Afkarian

00:43:05

We need, you know, certain things that without, you know, you know, the guidelines and the policies we cannot move forward. And those are things that we're trying to get our voice heard as well. It's not just about giving food, like, you know, Rosie and Jimmy said, is that to grow as a community, you know, as a team move forward

Joshua T Berglan

00:43:24

With food, food exposes you to everything, especially when you're providing it because food doesn't discriminate. I mean, unless we have like a peanut allergy or something like that, but you're going to see the homeless. You're gonna see, you know, people that are, you're going to see prostitutes. You're going to see drug addicts. You're going to see people that do work, but don't have homes. You're going to see a mix of everything. And so the fact that you have the heart for collaboration is important because listen, we're all the body. I mean, the body of Christ is the way I keep thinking that that's essentially what you are. You're the body of the Christ. And in terms of, okay, we're food and this is what we're going to provide.

Joshua T Berglan

00:44:07

But also you have an opportunity, a rare opportunity to be able to connect in an extraordinary story in an extraordinary way to be the missing piece for other foundations. Because human trafficking organizations, if they don't collaborate, they've got no shot to put a dent in anything, you know, and, and, and, and, and drug organizations that people are that trying to fight addiction. It's the same way we have to collaborate because we're going into a world where nonprofits can't fundraise the way that they normally do congregations churches. They can't raise money. Like they are used to doing.

Joshua T Berglan

00:44:48

They have to think outside of the box, we didn't start our foundation until COVID hit. Like I've been sitting on it for a long time going, I don't know what I'm supposed to do this. And then COVID hit. And I heard God go, go. The minute we started it, all of a sudden, it made sense. Why? Because media resources having our own network to be able to broadcast people like yourself, being able to expose you to the world, to bring in resources from around the world to support and supply your mission. Media is the most powerful medium in the world. It makes sense. So we get to be a missing piece for a lot of people. And I'm not promote patting my organization on the bed, on the back right now.

Joshua T Berglan

00:45:30

But I'm just saying you're the missing piece for a lot of other organizations. So any of you watching or listening out there, when any of the platforms in your, in the San Diego area, even if you're around the world and you want to like go, you love what they're doing, and you want to reach out to them. You want to sow into them, make a donation, reach out and just like, Hey, how do we partner with you? How do we work with you? Because they could be a missing piece for you that takes your organization to the next level. It is all about collaboration with like-minded people. When you align with somebody's vision, you want to kind of get into that draft and go with them.

Joshua T Berglan

00:46:12

So I love what you guys are doing. Is there anything else that you want to share with the audience?

James Murphy

00:46:17

Yeah. Josh, I want to, I mean, you brought up a good point because it's, it truly is about collaborating with just organizations. I mean, they're, it's, it's, it's weird. When I first got into this nonprofit forum, how much competition there were, there was for getting grants or people didn't want to talk about their resources or people didn't want to talk about where they get their food, because they were afraid you're going to take it. And since day one, we've always been about helping people. It's not a competition there. Do you want, you want to compete, leave your ego at the door and, you know, keep going or whatever. I mean, we just, we really feel that in order to make more of an impact, it's not about us and what we do.

James Murphy

00:47:05

It's about all the people that we bring in. I mean, we couldn't do this without our volunteers. We couldn't, we couldn't be feeding 2000 families a week. If we didn't have a group of 1520 volunteers, you know, that that want to give back, they want to help. They want, I mean, this is, you know, a non-profit world. People don't understand, you know, they look at it like, well, how do you make money? Well, it's a, I'm not going to lie when you're feeding people. You, you know, and the worst thing about us is we do hate asking for money. Like, that's the worst part about the nonprofit? Is it, you know what, instead of asking for it, because I always feel that when I ask it's for me, after seeing the impact we have in the community and, and all these organizations that were, that we're helping and collaborating with, I don't have a problem hitting a donate button.

James Murphy

00:48:00

Hey, listen, why is, it's not about us? We're not, you know, we're not collecting a paycheck here. We're just trying to keep the lights on. We're just trying to keep the building open and we want to just help the community. So if you have volunteers send them our way, if you have, you know, people that need food, if you know organizations, if it's seniors, if it's youth, I mean, we, we very rarely turn anyone away. You know, some days there's distributions where we go through 1200 boxes of food and there's school people showing up that we can't feed. So we'll go in the warehouse and most scraped together a box of canned goods or whatever it is. So, you know, we, we really try to do our best and, and really make an impact for every family.

James Murphy

00:48:44

It's not just about the numbers. It's about making sure everyone that comes in feels that they're, they're, they're a part of this, you know, and whether it's, whether you're getting food from us or you're donating food from us, or you're donating your time, or, you know, we, we, we, we want that hand up, not the handout. And, you know, it's, it's, you know, our, our partners that we bring in, everyone sees our vision. Everyone sees what we're about, you know, and it's just about, you know, helping our community. That's really what it's about.

Joshua T Berglan

00:49:15

I bet I forgot the past. I think it was my pastor in Oklahoma that says this. He says, so where you want to grow. And I believe in what you guys are doing. And I just, anyone that's watching and listening out there, this is an I, I can't vouch for the other two other than just loving their heart and loving what they're about. And, you know, seeing the work that they do. But I know a Dell and I've known a Dell for a long time, and this is, this is good soil to sow into. And I just want to encourage anyone out there. That's listening and watching. So into them. It doesn't matter if it's five bucks, thousand bucks, $10,000, 500 bucks, a hundred bucks, 50 bucks, 20 bucks, $25.

Joshua T Berglan

00:49:59

It all matters. So where you want to grow, and this organization is out doing good things. And there it's more than food. And the fact that they're providing nutrition and not junk is even more special to me. And I really, really appreciate that. And this is an organization now I'm talking like, you're not there. This is an organization that I believe in. And Jessica and I believe in, and we are, want to be a part of supporting and help grow so that their mission is fulfilled because I believe, and I believe with all my heart, that God has massive plans for you three and your organization, because you are being the hands and feet of Jesus.

Joshua T Berglan

00:50:41

I mean, whether you're out preaching the gospel or not, you don't need to throw the Bible at people to have a ministry, and you are reaching people with love. And the thing that a lot of people need most it's food and it fellowship. And I'm grateful for what you guys do. I'm grateful for your time. And I assure you that anything that we can do to support you, we will. So you guys can go to Murphy's produce. And that's M U R P H Y S P R O D U C a.org/donate. And then of course, if you're going to, to watch this later, you'll be able to find this in the blog, you'll see the GoFundMe page, but you can donate to either place.

Joshua T Berglan

00:51:24

And if you want to learn more about Murphy's produce it's with purpose, right? And with purpose, but you can go to Murphy's produce.org. There are a five Oh one C3 nonprofit. So that means you get to write off your donation, and they're just, they're doing amazing work. And I want to see what they're doing come to life. And I believe that it will, and I just wish nothing but blessings over all three of you. And thank you for the work that you're doing for that amazing community in San Diego. And I truly believe with all my heart that this is something that will go national. And because people are going to be inspired by what you're doing, they may steal your idea. But so what

Rosie Montano

00:52:07

We're doing something good,

Joshua T Berglan

00:52:09

It's something wrong when someone steals your idea. So,

Rosie Montano

00:52:14

So it's like, Hey, if more people can get on board and they do their own thing. And I don't care if we, and just to let you know, Joshua, like one of the other things that we did just to kind of give you also an idea, like the other day, we got a phone call of another community that needed help. And I want to say what, and less than two hours, we round up, I think more than three pallets and took it down to that community. And again, thank goodness for the iron workers, Johnny Swanson. Cause he, he helped us out with his muscles and the truck. We got it all out there. And before we even arrived, there was a long line already of cars and people waiting for the food.

Rosie Montano

00:52:57

And so we were able to kick it into gear. So at the end of the day, it's not about us. It's about what we're doing in the community. And that's how, that's our mission. That's what we focus on. And we're focused on making that impact. We're going to break ground.

Joshua T Berglan

00:53:14

Amen guys. God bless all three of you. Thank you so much for being here.

Rosie Montano

00:53:23

Absolutely. Jesse guys.

Joshua T Berglan

00:53:27

Unbelievable, absolutely amazing. I love the fact that they're providing fresh produce and look, it's, it's amazing to get a hot meal. It is. It is. And I, and thank God for the people that are providing food of any of any kind, but fresh produce, fresh fruit, fresh vegetables. There's just something special about that. And it's needed. It's really, really needed because you know, sugar, eating sugary foods, eating that garbage, eating the chemically, heavily processed food. It rots your brain. I mean, it just absolutely rots your brain, ruts your health. You don't feel good.

Joshua T Berglan

00:54:07

And then therefore, you're not going to really want to go out and change anything. But when you're eating nutritious food, as I'm talking, I'm talking to myself right now, I think about eating nutritious food, but you know, it makes you feel better. You want to work out, you want to take care of yourself. Maybe you go, yeah, maybe I don't want to drink that bottle tequila. Maybe I don't want to slam the methamphetamines today. Fresh fruit. I really believe just like, what does it say in the Bible about your body as a temple and honoring that. So if you're putting fresh food in your body, you're more likely to put other goodness in your body too. So ladies and gentlemen, please donate to Murphy's produce.

Joshua T Berglan

00:54:48

You can go to Murphy's produce.org/donate. God bless the work that they're doing. And God bless all of you. Thank you for liking. If you're watching on social media, whether it's YouTube or Facebook, thank you so much for liking and sharing, or you can even subscribe. But those of you who are watching on the live model worldwide network, I really appreciate and love you guys. You can't like have subscribed there, but I do appreciate you guys watching there and supporting the other ministries that are a part of our network. God bless you have an amazing week and gratitude unfiltered. We'll be back tomorrow and on Thursday, maybe a few other times this week, God bless take care.