Page 51 - Tom Steyer Issue

new awareness about giving to others, helping others. I said, “Really? It took you that long?”
concept of hungry kids in America, in California. Cooper: What’s happening if they’re not in school?
Steyer: (laughs) You nailed that! Let me just say, I have nothing but nice things to say about Kirk Douglas. I’ve never met him, only seen him on the silver screen. But better late than never?
Steyer: That has to be accomplished. That’s why we’ve worked on it for a long time. I know that Governor Newsom and his partner are absolutely committed to that.
Cooper: I asked him, “What can we do to have people think the way you’re thinking now, without them having a stroke?” He laughed.
Cooper: Where are things now, with schools being out?
Steyer: (laughs) There’s got to be a better way!
Steyer: Sometimes there are collection points. Going to the food banks as well, where you’re getting food to kids and their families twice a week. Often you’re get- ting a series of meals plus a bag of fresh produce. It’s ongoing, and we’re working to try to make sure that it is ongoing, that’s it’s better. We have some ideas about how to do it in new ways that take into account some of the issues with the COVID and the economic freefall. It’s something very much on my mind. I know it’s very much on the governor’s mind, and the task force is addressing it as well.
Cooper: (laughs) Aren’t you working with schools as well?
Steyer: Yes. We’re still doing it through food banks. We’re trying to enlarge it. We’re working with some other people who have pulled together to find new ways of providing food. That’s still very much a program we’re involved with, trying to make sure it’s healthy food. We were originally not involved with it because we felt it can’t be right near our ranch for the kids of farm workers to eat some of the healthiest, most deli- cious food in the world and then eating unhealthy, processed food for lunch. That seems so unjust. We thought we could help that one school district get farm- to-table so those kids can be healthier and can perform better in school. As any parent knows, you don’t per- form very well when you’re drinking soda and eating potato chips. So we started with that one school.
Cooper: I know you’ve worked with other groups. Have you ever work with the Citizens Climate Lobby?
And it was funny because we started and we were at a track meet for my daughter. She was in probably sixth grade; it was a long time ago. A teacher came over and hugged Kat Taylor for, like, five minutes, and I didn’t know who she was. And when she left, I said, “Kat, who was that woman and what was she so thankful to you about? What did you do?” And she said, “She’s a fifth grade teacher at a public school, and she was thanking me for getting fresh food to the kids because it’s so important for their health and for her ability to teach them in the afternoon now because they’ve had lunch.” We thought, “Oh, my God, this is something that’s got to happen. We can’t just feed the kids in one school district.” It’s important that kids get healthy food for their lives and their health, over their extended life, but also so that they can perform well right now, in mul- tiple ways, including intellectually in class.
Steyer: Yeah. The climate community is broad, diverse and very powerful. We try to work with everybody in that community and have a lot of respect for people throughout the community. Part of what has to happen between now and November is that community coming together to drive change and to drive positive change for sustainability. No question about it, politically.
Cooper: So some of the main meals for children were coming from the schools?
Cooper: I think people miss that connection. They just think climate change, and they don’t realize there’s so much more going on with the environment.
Steyer: Oh, my God, yes. If you are on free and reduced lunch at the public school, there’s a pretty darn good chance you’re not getting a terrifically nutritious break- fast. Often they were serving at least two meals a day. They were giving kids food for the weekend, having places they could go in the summer. I can’t abide the
Steyer: It’s a human issue. To me, climate is a human issue, and I see that as a race issue because when you go and visit the communities, you discover almost immedi- ately that this society vastly disproportionately poisons black people and Latinos.
Cooper: Have you had the chance to look at the connec- tion between an unhealthy planet and the health of peo- ple with disabilities? In other words, that people acquire disabilities because of the pollution, poor water quality, etc. Have you put those two together?
Steyer: Chet, that’s the biggest thing. Without teasing, just before I got on this phone call, I was on a phone call with a group of—I don’t want to make it sound too grandiose, but what I think are the most distinguished environmental justice people in the country, talking about leaking nuclear plants, inadequate water treatment facilities, and the horrible health conditions that result. In fact, I am a big climate person, but we do everything in climate and always have. We start with environmental justice and basic poisoning of people.
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