Food Lab Talk

Stephen Ritz is an educator and the founder of Green Bronx Machine, a non-profit that builds healthy, equitable, and resilient communities. Using a school-based model, the Green Bronx Machine is inspiring healthy students and healthy schools through inspired education, local food systems, and 21st Century workforce development. On this episode of Food Lab Talk, Michiel speaks with Stephen about the importance of listening, how passion and authenticity can inspire change, and the power of a supportive community to push you in the right direction. 

Stephen Ritz: “This work is hard and it requires a lot of courage, to be sure. But the opposite of courage isn't cowardice. The opposite of courage is conformity, because even a dead fish can go with the flow. And I am no dead fish. I'm gonna swim. You're gonna swim. We're gonna keep getting upstream until we spawn. And I find those amazing people and those amazing opportunities that just give me one more hop. That's what it's all about. For far too long, people have gotten fat off the dysfunction of communities like mine. Many people are well intended. But they are thriving while our community is barely surviving. And we need to flip that script and flip that ownership.”

0:43 Intro to Stephen 
1:33 What a cheese hat has to do with the fight for equity 
2:49 How onions inspired the start of Green Bronx Machine 
10:01 Green Bronx Machine’s mission: equity and access 
11:03 Food as the most important school supply 
12:31 Fighting for the underdog: the students 
14:01 Courage and swimming upstream 
14:47 Get started, show up, and be consistent 
16:03 Building courage by finding your community 
17:25 Inspiring long-term habits through early exposure 
19:35 Secret ingredients for win-win partnerships 
21:38 Sparking real change through policy and grassroots engagement 
23:25 Examples of purpose-driven companies 
25:02 Nail it before you scale it 
27:48 Creating the next generation of heroes 
28:48 Advice: don’t settle, don’t compromise 
30:46 Takeaways for changemakers 

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*The views expressed by the guests in this podcast don't necessarily represent the host’s views, nor those of his employer.

What is Food Lab Talk?

A better food system starts with one thing: vision. Food Lab Talk gives global food system changemakers a platform to articulate their vision for the future of food.

The series features interviews with inspiring individuals who are working on the frontlines of many of our most pressing food issues: reducing food loss and waste, enhancing food system transparency, facilitating shifts toward more balanced plant-forward diets, enabling informed individual choices for sustainable lifestyles, and accelerating the transition to a circular food economy. 

Join Google’s Michiel Bakker to meet the leaders taking bold action and answering what each of us can do to create a better food system for us all.