The Scoop with Tanya Flanagan

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Tanya Flanagan 0:20
morning, and thank you for joining me for the Scoop with Tanya Flanagan. I'm so happy you decided to wake up and start your day with me. Here on the Scoop, where we talk about life, joy, funny moments, trending topics, and so much more. We promise to keep you in the know and find out what you know. So let's get started. Good morning, Las Vegas, and welcome to another edition of the Scoop with me, Tanya Flanagan, right here on 91.5 KUNV, Jazz and Moore. I hope you are having a fantastic summer and protecting yourself in the super hot weather by hydrating and just staying safe. It's a wonderful time of year to get outdoors and just enjoy yourselves and spend time with family. So I do want to thank you for taking a little bit of the time you spend with your family away from them or including them and spending it with me and this radio station here on the beautiful campus of UNLV. This morning I'm going to be welcoming a few guests to the show to talk about food insecurity, which is a major issue as many of us handle and struggle with the cost of groceries. Not all, but some, the accessibility to fresh produce. I mean, just trying to be more conscious of putting good things in our mouths and in our bodies. So I'm delighted to welcome to my show a longtime friend who's been a community advocate for some time, always trying to reach out, reach back, and pull others forward as he moves in a positive direction. So I have Bishop Terry Cox in the studio. Good morning.

Terry Cox 1:55
Good morning. How are you doing this morning?

Tanya Flanagan 1:56
I'm well. I'm well. Thank you for coming in and joining me. I'd also like to welcome, along with him, a new friend or someone that I hope becomes a friend. But very happy to make the acquaintance of the Reverend Dr. Khalif A. Smith. Good morning.

Khalif Smith 2:10
Good morning.

Tanya Flanagan 2:12
Thank you for coming over from Zion United Methodist Church.

Khalif Smith 2:14
I was so excited to be here.

Tanya Flanagan 2:16
Well, thank you for being here. As I mentioned, folks, we're going to be talking a little bit about their efforts to help others in the community with food insecurity. We have some really great community gardens going on in our community, and we may even get into a little bit of discussion about the legislation that I moved in our last legislative session, AB 405, which addresses food insecurity. Some of you may or may not be aware of that bill that I brought and that the governor signed into law, so we'll talk about the significance of that as we have this conversation. So, gentlemen, welcome. Kalief, I'm going to start with you because you are working on the urban farm, the Zion Urban Zion Methodist Church urban farm. Yes, tell us a little bit about before we get into that, like who you are and what what has brought you into this space?

Khalif Smith 3:03
Sure. So the way that the United Methodist Church works, they move pastors around according to need and abilities. And so I was assigned to Zion United Methodist Church on July of last year. Zion has started a community farm or community garden, and which expanded into a farm with the help of the city of North Las Vegas and some other partners. We expanded that that farm or the community garden out into a farm. It started in 2014 and has grown. We have three acres, an orchard, about 100 raised beds, a hoop house, and a geodesic dome, all for the sake of learning how to grow food here in the desert, distribution of fresh produce to our community, and to educate our community about food security and health and wellness.

Tanya Flanagan 4:04
Awesome! I really like that program, and I did talk about it when I introduced the bill in 2025 during the session. There are some co-ops, if you will, on food insecurity that involve memberships or you know subscriptions.

Terry Cox 4:22
Sure.

Tanya Flanagan 4:23
Do you do anything like that where a person, whether it be a sometimes it's restaurants that want to do farm to table, right, or it's families that want to find a way to access for less, you know, discounted discounted produce, discounted groceries, where you do a membership and that helps offset some of the costs. So I know North Las Vegas spent about 1.4 million. I want to say it was on supporting this project. Do you do the subscriptions, or how do you distribute and engage with the community? Sure. So we

Khalif Smith 4:53
we do a number of different programs. Right now we're managing about four different federal grants. One of which, or a couple of which, have come through the city of North Las Vegas, which gives us the opportunity to not only grow and design food programs, but also allows us to distribute the food free of cost. So that is one of the ways that we distribute food back to the community. Another is that we are teaching community members to, and actually we have offered micro grants up to $8,000 for people within the community to begin their own gardening programs or projects at home or at their business or even at our location. So we're educating them on how to do the work themselves, how to create a raised bed or a hydroponic unit or those types of things. So the fruit is getting back to them as they learn to to grow as well. And then we have some partnerships with local organizations that allow us to sell our produce at a very reduced cost. We're not a part of a co-op, so we don't have any membership fees or dues or anything like that. But when we do a farmers market, then we are putting the produce back into the community at a very reduced rate.

Tanya Flanagan 6:11
I love the self-sustainability component. Want to come back to that in a second, but I want to bring Bishop Cox into the conversation to talk about your commitment to food insecurity and what you're doing and how it plays into, or aligns with, or just complements what's happening in Zion.

Terry Cox 6:27
Well, you know, for the most part, I'm nosy, so I'm I'm going in different spaces. So, dealing with Pastor McCoy, who may end up calling in later on in North Las Vegas, he does he has a company down where his church, they do a food bank as well as a grocery store, and in that area where the Walmart closed down by Nellis Air Force Base, that is a huge area of the food desert. So meeting Pastor McCoy, and he this is Sunday morning, so a lot of things just spiritually aligned. So dealing with him and then Pastor Smith, his church is right around the street from my house. So being nosy, I go in the parking lot, I see the food, and then Johnny Hampton, who is the curator for the lot, very friendly. So I want to say, very friendly, safe spot. So Johnny was like, "Look, no, you can grow this and grow that. So the team at Zion was just so friendly, so they've gotten me off into, I'm trying to grow cucumbers, peppers, the onions, and the I got a video that I don't know when I'm gonna post it of me and my grandbaby eating the summer squash. I never had summer squash. Delicious, you know what I'm saying? You know, and the Bible talks about you know every fruit should have its own seed. So by being in these urban gardens or just doing yourself garden, you growing from seed. So that means that fruit has seed. So now I have four little trays on my little patio, and I'm marking them, melon this, summer squash this, because now I'm no longer throwing away my seeds that I get in whatever fruit. I'm putting them in the jar, and then Johnny said, "No, you don't want to put them in the jar. You want to put them in a paper bag, let them dry out. So I'm learning, and when I think about my family coming up from in Alabama. My dad had his own garden, and I remember, you know, raising your own food is healthier. And when I look at our community of illness, a lot of our illness comes from poor food. And one of the classes that I've attended, they were teaching us about the fact that sometimes just because people have food, it may not be nutritional food. So even being in the school district, a lot of sometimes the kids don't even want to eat the packaged, processed stuff because it's like, hey, just because they say food don't mean that it's nutritious. So my commitment to this is is spreading the word. I would love to see every church be part of this in some form of fashion. If there's acreage or footage on the church property where they can start their own garden, or at least have educational things. And what I've been learning about being that design urban garden, watching whatever they call a tower, so they have they have these tower things. It's just amazing on the different technologies and watching the young men and women who are coming through and learning how how to do this, so being committed, my commitment is one. We don't know what our government is going to do. I prefer in ministry to let people be healthy in the building as opposed to having to go to the hospital because I believe if we ate better, that would be less illness. And then also, when you have nutritional food, people-I don't think people tie in how domestic violence deal with food. Because we call this thing hangry. You know what I'm saying? You know, I'm not angry. I'm hangry because I'm hungry, and now I'm upset because I'm hungry. And if you feed these kids, they can learn better. If. You feed the family correctly. There's more. There's more peace at heart. And Dr. McCord, Pastor McCoy, he was sharing with me that at his facility, one of the people that come and buy foods says that their stamps, because of the the administration cutting different programs, their food, the EBT card was reduced from $700 to $300 So now, even people who are providing food in these areas, they're having to reduce hours because the people can't buy the food that they used to buy because now they've had a $700 allowment, and now that's over half.

Tanya Flanagan 10:37
Wow! Yeah, we are in troubling times when we look at the full landscape of food insecurity, the challenges families are facing with regard to affording economic affordability. Affordability is such a trending word in so many spaces. I appreciated that you talked about disease in communities, healthy dieting. What's made available to children, the idea that if you're eating well, you can learn better, which is not a new principle, but I think that as a people and as a community, we're evolving to be more astute, more in tune. There was a time when, and we've talked about this on the show before, produce was inexpensive.

Terry Cox 11:23
Yes,

Tanya Flanagan 11:24
you know what was expensive was buying meats, right? Right. It was cheap to go buy fruit and vegetables, but now that I think as a whole society is becoming increasingly more health conscious, produce is expensive.

Khalif Smith 11:37
It is. Well, fresh produce. Fresh produce is

Tanya Flanagan 11:41
expensive.

Terry Cox 11:41
Fresh produce, and the more I'm learning about just the food processing, I think the education part, understanding that certain corporations are forcing farmers to use their seeds, which is destroying their grounds. So now, much like I saw in the news, major food chain restaurant, their lettuce has been contaminated. Well, what farm did that come off of? How is that stuff not only grown? How is it processed from the field to the consumer? So, I believe not only just the price of

Tanya Flanagan 12:19
huge conversation because I was the cyclosporware conversation, right, right. It's that's part of it. The cyclospora conversation is huge, and I was looking at that last night, just and watching a little clip of a documentary on how food is handled on farms, the irrigation water, how clean it is, and then the the hands of the farm workers. And don't get me wrong. I always wash my fruit, but I'm like, yeah. But who just buys it and eats it anyway, right? But there are people that I guess think that if you go to, especially this type of form, an urban form, a community farm, oh, this is free in your mind. It's free of everything, right? It's free of pesticides because it's like you grew your own food. But there still are so many concerns to worry about in the space of what you two are doing in the education piece that Bishop Cox you brought up. What's your partnership looking like with universities? Because I know UNR has the Cooperative Extension program. Is that tied to your?

Khalif Smith 13:14
Yeah, absolutely. You know, so I my background, my actual doctorate degree is in food insecurity and asset-based community development, and so in the asset-based community development model, what we try to do is resource within the community the for the needs of the community. Right, we we're not looking at how do we find resources outside and then bring them into the the community, but how do we partner with organizations? How do we partner with people, nonprofits, for profits, to bring all of those resources together so that we might be able to provide for the needs of the community? And so we made we have partnerships with UNR. We have partnerships actually with UNLV. UNLV. through their arborist program just recently planted about 60 trees in our orchard, and so we'll be growing those trees. They're fruit trees and shade trees that give the opportunity for us to learn about how well different fruit trees grow in the desert. You know the shade trees provide shade and cooling for the that that space as well, and then our partnership with UNR is multifaceted. We we work with Dr. Nazin over at UNR, who is a part of our arborist our our orchard, I should say, and then she's also doing some some work around controlled environment agriculture as well. So so yes, we we try to bring in as many partners and as many organizations who are really concerned with providing for the need within the community within Clark County. If you didn't. It's like 16% of Clark County has has experienced food food security issues. We're looking at like 341,000 people in Southern Nevada, which have had problems with food security. And so, what we want to do is use the resources within the community to lift the community and and to provide for the needs,

Tanya Flanagan 15:22
I appreciate the bridges that you guys are working to build to connect people. I had mentioned when we got started with the show that AB 405 was based on food insecurity, and the the concept behind the bill was to look at the state in its totality to identify where across the state we could create urban farms or community gardens, so that there is a statewide. We begin to develop a statewide network to address food insecurity, to create places where we're growing first produce, where we're giving people a space for mental rejuvenation, community development, beautification, pride, connectivity, education. So that was the whole concept behind AB 405, which was really the continuation of work, in part started by former Senator, State Senator Pat Spearman, who ushered through a bill in previous session that allowed government. government agencies like how you have the support from North Las Vegas, but government agencies also to help identify spaces where costs could be reduced to do the startup. We are fortunate. There's the Abodo project as well as the Zion Farm to have these spaces, and then the the store that Pastor McCoy is working out of to deliver food to provide food to people as well. So we're fortunate to have some projects underway. What I liked about what you said, Bishop Cox, was learning to take the seeds. So it's the it's the education because you don't know that when you have a cantaloupe or a watermelon, maybe you could draw those seeds, and maybe you could create a little garden in your backyard. Like you think maybe you need to go buy these aren't the seeds. Are these seeds? Go buy more seeds. People just don't know what they don't know about getting started in a space. So I like that you're like, oh, I just kind of harvest this and do what I need to do, and there's a space for education to learn to do it.

Terry Cox 17:25
And let me share this part. When I got the summer squash, I'm thinking, well, I used my app, and this told me it was a summer squash. When I opened it, it looked like a watermelon, but the seeds were in a different placement. So I scoop the seeds out, and as I'm scooping the seeds out, I'm like, I don't have enough space to plant all of these seeds. I'm like, oh, that's where sharing comes in, or this is how you start a small business by keeping your seeds, and then you can sell those seeds down at a more economical cost. So now, your home garden or the garden that you're dealing with is people who want to plant plant some stuff. So I'm looking at how people at their homes can start a little small business on just doing starters. Because some people like, okay, well I don't I don't know if I can do a starter thing, but you can get a starter bed and just get the tomatoes started and sell them at a at a price, or like I said, for me, I'm just looking at an abundance of seeds that I know I do not have space to plant. So that's something that I can do with those seeds. I can give them, or I can sell them. I can do a combination. But what I'm looking at is in the spaces of urban gardens and community gardens to also build bridges between residents in the neighborhood that don't know each other. Because if I got collard greens, or if I have squash and you want some, then we can share. And likewise, you may be growing something at your home or in your garden. And I think with the collaborative effort in over on the west side where I live, we're dealing with a transition of languages, but there's a house down the street from me. They got chickens, so if I can bring them some cucumbers and I can get me some eggs, you know what I'm saying? Because yeah, yeah, because I love I love to put put eggs in in my salad. So now, now learning how through the, I think it's the hydroponics where I think Chef Mitchell was saying that the turnaround on the hydroponics, you can grow leafy vegetables like in a 30-five day cycle. So every 30-five days, I can have some fresh, deep green down. And I'm gonna say,

Tanya Flanagan 19:32
because I've seen those hydroponic grow devices, for lack of a better way to describe it, it's amazing to see how many different leafy greens you can grow on this. The one of my girlfriend had was standing up, and the leaves were just growing. Like it's almost like having a house plant, right? But it's a house plant that you can use that you can make some leaves off of it, and you make a salad for your. Yes, two were coming over to dinner, and it's really delicious. She made a delicious. She's from some from Africa, and she made us a delicious meal that day. And the greens came from her hydroponic,

Khalif Smith 20:10
yeah, grow, hydroponic grow. And so

Tanya Flanagan 20:12
I want to add another voice

Khalif Smith 20:14
to

Tanya Flanagan 20:14
the conversation. We have Reverend Dwayne McCoy, who's joining us as well. Good. Good morning. Good morning.

Dwayne McCoy 20:24
Good morning. Good morning. How you guys doing?

Tanya Flanagan 20:26
We're doing well. It's good to have you. Thank you for taking a moment to stop by, Pastor Cox. Bishop Cox has talked about a little bit of what you do, but why don't you go ahead and share what you're doing in the community in the space of food insecurity and responding to the community's needs.

Dwayne McCoy 20:42
Absolutely, my name is Pastor Dwayne McCoy. I am the founder and CEO of the Aftermarket. It is a hybrid grocery store located in Northeast Las Vegas, near near Craig and Nellis. It is 80% retail. The other 20% is a free food pantry, so that people have the dignity of coming to get service in an atmosphere that's already conducive for shopping, so to speak. There's not we don't have the lines like most food pantries in other communities. It's it's a simply shopping experience that's open five days a week, Tuesday through Saturday, from 10 to 4 p.m. So you get to pick the best time that works for you and your family to come and get what you need.

Tanya Flanagan 21:25
Okay, that's wonderful. I'm gonna talk a little bit more about that. When you talked about availability, I also want to make sure people know, Reverend Smith, when they can come by Zion.

Khalif Smith 21:36
Oh yeah, sure. We so we are typically on premises from about 7o'clock in the summertime until about three in the three in the afternoon. We try not to stay out on the farm too late in the summertime because of the excessive heat. So anytime between those hours, you're welcome. Anyone is welcome to come by. So

Tanya Flanagan 22:00
are they welcome to come by and participate by growing? Are there certain days that there's food distribution? Like, how are the programs work? Say a mom wanted to introduce a child to something positive, some form of community service. Are there those types of opportunities for engaging in either one of you guys' spaces around that type of work?

Khalif Smith 22:18
Yeah, thank you for that that question because that is an important part of our model, if you will. Our garden is open to the public all of the time, so we we invite and welcome for for folks to stop by for many different reasons, whether or not they just have never experienced an urban farm and want to see what we do. Oftentimes, when people show up and they are able to walk through and pick their own lettuce or pick some some produce out of the garden, it becomes an experience. And I often say that our harvest really isn't produce. Our harvest is community because when people come and visit the farm, they take something out of the farm, whether or not they leave with produce or not, and that is connectivity, right? Connectivity to a larger body of of people who are willing and excited about helping the community, whether that's education. So you can come to the farm. Bishop Cox talked about our garden manager Johnny Hampton. Johnny is phenomenal in just sitting down with folks and and helping educate when they show up. You know.

Tanya Flanagan 23:28
So say I'm a little bit lazier and I don't want to come pick it. I just want to come get it.

Khalif Smith 23:32
Sure. Wow. Hey,

Tanya Flanagan 23:36
look. No, there are

Tanya Flanagan 23:37
people who are busy, right? Everybody, they're moving around, but I'm saying that because sometimes you'll see community gardens, urban farms stocks of produce in a space where you can come and purchase, and they don't have a lot, so it's always a limited supply. But it's fresh, and you can get you know fresh produce. I know there's one. I'm from Phoenix originally, and Baseline used to have a lot of farms, right? And and florists like all kinds of stuff. There's still some over there where people can even have weddings. I have another question for you in that vein, but you can stop in this little store, yes, and you can get fresh strawberries and

Terry Cox 24:12
absolutely

Tanya Flanagan 24:13
mangoes and whatever, right? Honey that's locally sourced. So if you have allergies and you want to take honey, use honey that's locally sourced. You can find things like that in stores like that. Do you offer that option too?

Khalif Smith 24:24
Yes. So we are currently in the process of building out our food pantry slash store, which will provide fresh produce out of the garden as well as some shelf stable food for those who are in need of shelf stable food as well. Now, is

Tanya Flanagan 24:39
there any partnership where your operation supplies Reverend McCoy's operation? Have we grown to that point yet?

Khalif Smith 24:46
Not yet, but things like that are in the works. Had some conversations just yesterday about the opportunities or possibilities of expanding what we do in collaboration with farm. Like Greenside Up and Chef Mitchell, who Bishop Cox had mentioned, to not only be able to provide for other growers and and have that shared, you know, what what we can grow, maybe you can't grow or don't grow, you know, those types of things, and have that collaboration, but also to go literally from farm to table in some of the restaurants who are out here in in in Las Vegas. So

Tanya Flanagan 25:30
I can open a restaurant and come get on my.

Khalif Smith 25:32
Absolutely, yes. We we would like to create an agro tourism, right? I mean, if you think about it, people go, and when you go to a different city, you go to different restaurants. What would it look like if you went to that restaurant? You got some collard greens. You were like so impressed by those greens, and the owner said, "Go right down the the way about a mile, and you can see the farm where that those greens came from.

Tanya Flanagan 25:54
That would be. I mean, I think it's if I were doing a restaurant and could you know go and get locally sourced food like that. I went to a restaurant in Canada once, and one of the coolest things about it was they changed the menu every week. So it was like you walked in and you didn't know what was going to be on the menu. I think it's very cool to do that to do something because now you're making what you have for the week. But as long as your food is good, people are like, "Well, let's go see because it won't be the same. But we know it will be good. I thought that was a pretty cool. Hey, did you

Khalif Smith 26:23
know that? So, in order to receive the Michelin star, right, restaurants actually have to have locally sourced food.

Tanya Flanagan 26:32
Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. So,

Khalif Smith 26:34
if you didn't know, not many restaurants in Las Vegas have the Michelin star because of that reason. And so, what we're trying to do now? Well, you can.

Tanya Flanagan 26:42
Well, I think you. Well, well, we know where you're going. We know where you're going with that. And being that I used to work in gaming for a little while, we already know, right? We know where you're going with that.

Terry Cox 26:52
Let me let me hit a Dr. McCord. Hey, Bishop, Dwayne. Yes, sir. Oh, look here. I was sharing with them that, and this is a challenge for the pastors and leadership members. The two pastors that are with us, Tanya, they are more than just farmers. They are supporters of the community. I had the blessing during the last election cycle to be at Pastor McCoy's place, and because he does what he does, some of the people that were coming in to get food, he said, "Look, if they voted, they go to the front of the line.

Tanya Flanagan 27:31
Okay, that I didn't see that curveball, but

Khalif Smith 27:36
that's a curveball. That's

Tanya Flanagan 27:37
a curveball that I didn't see coming, but I can appreciate you know reward for action. I suppose. So, we're getting into the last couple minutes of the show, and I want to make sure people know how to find more information, where to find you. So, you want to share any social media, any websites, just so people can get more information.

Khalif Smith 27:56
For us, we can be reached at the the ZionUrbanFarm.org. ZionUrbanFarm.org, and you can go to the website find out some of the programs that we have right now. We are offering some classes. We are working with an organization called To Improve Mississippi Economics, which has given us the ability to do a grant program. So yeah, go and find information out there on our website.

Tanya Flanagan 28:24
Sounds good, Bishop Cox. Really quickly, any social media you want to share? Ways people can keep up with you and what you're doing?

Terry Cox 28:30
Nah, just Bishop Cox on Facebook. All

Tanya Flanagan 28:32
right, and Pastor McCoy, we are in the end, and we're grateful to have had your voice for a little while here with us, where can people keep up with you or learn more.

Dwayne McCoy 28:42
You can go to theaftermarketlv.org.

Tanya Flanagan 28:47
Awesome. Well, folks, this has been a really interesting conversation, and when they're good, the clock always ticks out, and there's never enough time to talk long enough to share with you what I'd love for you to know. But I hope you found the information useful, and it maybe inspires you to realize you can keep those seeds. Don't just eat the watermelon. Don't just eat the cantaloupe. Put them in a paper bag. Let them dry out. Get some good soil and get started with growing food that will make you healthier, maybe even happier. Thank you as always for tuning into the Scoop with me, Tanya Flanagan, to my guests. Thank you for joining me. Thank

Khalif Smith 29:19
you.

Tanya Flanagan 29:20
Have a wonderful week. Stay hydrated. Stay safe. And enjoy summer. I want to thank you for tuning into the scoop with me, Tonya Flanagan, and I want to invite you to get social with me. I'm on Facebook and Twitter. My name is my handle: T A N Y A F L A N A G A N. You can also find me on Instagram at Tanya Almonaise Flanagan, and if you have a thought, an opinion, or a suggestion, don't hesitate to shoot me an email to tanya.flanigan@unlv.edu. Thanks again for joining in. Stay safe and have a great week.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai