- And sometimes, I have to
remind my beloved co-hosts
and producers on the show,
because we are in Los Angles.
And I harken back to 12 years ago--
- Alfalfa sprouts,
arugula, kale! (chuckles)
- Oh, I've been to some small
(audience laughs)
places, yeah!
- This is one of the sadder stories
and this show was just starting off,
and I went with a camera crew.
I was new in the television world, right?
And I went with a camera
crew and I drove with them,
from Nashville, up into Southern Kentucky
to go meet with the gentleman
who was 600 plus pounds.
- I remember that show.
- And he--
- [Andrew] He couldn't get out of bed!
- He couldn't get out of
bed and such a good person,
and one of the things he said is,
"I don't know where to
get a healthy meal here!"
Well, I was there all day
and when lunchtime came,
someone went to the only
store in town, to get a meal,
and there wasn't one option.
And I remember the meal, I was starving!
I remember the meal
they brought back for me
and I remember thinking
to myself, no wonder!
This poor individual here
and he's trying to do the right thing,
but I can't, I can't
find a healthy meal here!
He can't find a healthy meal,
how are we gonna win this battle?
And the saddest part
was, he lost his life.
- Yeah, we lost him, I remember that.
- He lost his life and one of the reasons,
- Sad ending
- He lost his life
is 'cause he couldn't, he, this is before,
this is quite frankly, before
we had online shopping,
which has opened doors,
for opportunities for
people even in food deserts,
to maybe get more healthy food options.
But there is a direct correlation,
between food options in communities
and the health of those communities,
and if people wanna make a
change, they deserve the option--
- Yes!
To make those changes and
whether it's, ah hell,
whether it's banning
certain stores or not,
I don't have those answers.
But I urge everyone out there,
to really try to promote.
If it's your community or
a neighboring community,
try to promote these opportunities,
so that none of us,
hopefully 10 years from now,
will live in these food deserts.
Sorry to go off on a
diatribe there, but it's--
- Yeah no--
- No, that why I like them,
but yeah, but bring
healthy, affordable options.
Don't say that dollar store
can't come to the community
and then bring your $25--
- [Andrew] Yes!
- Spinach, to the community.
Just make sure it's reasonable.
- And one last comment,
and I mean this as well.
One of the coolest
things I have seen happen
over the 12 years we've
been hosting the show,
is certain communities that
were considered food deserts,
what's happened, is you
actually have seen people
in these communities come together
and they've started to
build community gardens.
And I don't know if you
all have heard about these,
but these, literally, it's awesome!
(audience applauding)
- And, and...
They are building community
gardens for themselves.
And they're growing fresh
produce, fresh vegetables,
and they're doing it as a community
and it's a really cool thing.
- [Andrew] Like a co-op,
very cool!
- It's like a co-op
and in certain communities,
maybe the church is at the lead of it,
maybe a health clinic and we can't forget,
that the best produce store
and provider in the world,
is ground, right?
- Yes.
- And heck, you can even put
planters on your window sill
and grow fresh herbs and so
there's all sorts of things
that you can do.
