Podcast Transcription
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Telling it like it is bringing the community together and working for justice attorney Travis McConnell talks, politics, trending news, and how you can make a difference. You’re listening to you, We Trust Travis.
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Hello everyone I’m Sarina Fazan. I’m a journalist, host, and producer. Welcome to this episode of We Trust Travis. Travis McConnell is a personal injury attorney with a huge, huge passion for the community. So let’s get right to it and welcome Travis. Hi Travis.
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Hey there again. Good to have you back.
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So Travis McConnell is joining us actually from his law office in Indiana. He’s a practicing attorney in Indiana and Florida. And joining me, speaking of the community in the studio in St. Petersburg is Veturia Preston the founder of Our Daily Bread. I am so excited to introduce the two.
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Hi Sarina. Thank you so much for having me. Hi Travis. Nice meeting you.
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Thanks. So the reason why I wanted, I thought it was so fitting for you Veturia, to be on We Trust Travis is because Travis is also such a huge contributor to the community and doing things that make the community stronger and better, more unified. So Travis, let’s start with your projects first on one Warsaw and some of the other things you’re doing in Indiana.
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Sure. So one more site is a local community building organization that I helped to start that basically, that the mission is to inspire inclusion through support, education, and celebration of all people. So we really work to try and bring the community together and make it a more welcoming place for everyone. And we do that through a variety of things. Like we have a big event in September, it’s like a, basically a big town festival. That’s a inclusion festival that spotlights different organizations, doing things for different sectors of the population that gets their way to come together and talk to each other and eat food and listen to music and just have a great time and realized that, Hey, we have more in common than we don’t. And then we also do what we’ve called Be Kind talked kind of like with a Ted talk type idea, to go deeper and try and do some education type stuff. We did a whole series last year about racism and anti-racism with the Jordan White stuff that happened. We also have a Juneteenth event that we do, and that was the first Juneteenth of that year on works as well as a number of other things in which we to started working with the local schools to try and work with the local school level.
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So Veturia, before we talk, before we talk about what you do hearing about Travis, how does that make you feel?
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No, it’s wonderful. I wish there were more people like Travis who do things like that to help the community and do good and bring people together and help one another because really that’s. So it, it will make such a difference in all of our communities, no matter what state you’re in, it should be everywhere in my opinion. And that’s wonderful that you’re doing that. And thank you for, including me. I’m so happy to be here with you
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And the reason why I wanted to include you, because we wanted to talk about your organization, Our Daily Bread. So both of you, again, grassroots efforts, talk to us about our daily bread. You were the founder when you established it and what your organization does.
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Yes. So we I found that Our Daily Bread Tampa in 2012 with together with my other board members and we’ve been just growing since then. We, we have community partners that help us collect food and distribute it to families in need. That’s how we first started. Panera bread was one of my first community partners and then whole foods and many others followed. And in the beginning we were just supporting other organizations that I thought would benefit or that I met. And I learned that they could use our support and we’ve supported many like Ronald McDonald House, Salvation Army, and a lot of others. And then we have been quickly outgrowing our own on my own capacity. Cause I used to pick it up in my own car in the beginning. And three years ago I teamed or I was invited to Tampa Bay Harvest.
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And I I am now the vice president of Tampa Bay Harvest and together we ha they have the strong logistics that we need. We needed to pick up all of our donations and put them in a place. And we opened a free, cost-free grocery store three years ago right here in north Tampa. And that is where all of our food donations go now. And so all of the food goes there and we distributed from then. We also help a lot of organizations beyond the Tampa community when we receive very large donations, like 10,000 chickens or things like that.
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Like we have all get rid of fast
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So we can help more, even, you know, we’ve been helping even hurricane relief out of state. And as far as we can reach with what the donations we receive well,
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Yeah, it’s so surprising. I know, like what are the stats here at Veturia about how many people actually that go hungry? I
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Mean, it’s startling, it’s always too many. And especially with the COVID pandemic, we’ve seen an increase of course, in families that needed help. And so when they need help, they can come to a cost-free grocery store and we offer them our healthy foods. And we’ve been blessed with a lot of organic foods and healthy donations where receiving and our families can take that food and use their money to pay their mortgage. So they don’t fall behind on their payments. And so we’re just supporting one another, but really our pastor Sixto who runs the whole organization whom you’re going to meet today, I hope he has the vision that to open more free grocery stores throughout America.
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So traffic, maybe we should come to you
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Or somewhat there and do something like that where people can receive the help they need and status his vision to duplicate his artist, starting to implicating actually he can tell you more about it Sarina, but to do it in more areas where people need help so that we can have this program in other states as well.
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Wouldn’t it be great that then the two of you connected on your show, Travis, and then all of a sudden there’s also Our Daily Bread in in Warsaw. But Travis, speaking of that though, and food, you also have been talking about a food pantry as well. I mean, it’s so surprising on how many people go hungry in this country.
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Yeah. We’ve got way too many here too. Of course, if there’s one person that’s gone hungry in the community, it’s too many in our pantry. I mean, there’s more than enough that no one should go hungry. So yeah, I had the opportunity to help out myself with an organization. They reached out to me that their organizations, places, the instant Jeffress and they wanted to put in a community food pantry. And it’s basically one of those boxes that you would just see that you would get low or Menards or home Depot or wherever you go to the store. It’s like a little, what you might imagine, like a little garden shed, but instead of putting your tools in there, it’s you put food in there. And so they reached out to me about if I would be willing to host one at my office and I said, of course, absolutely let me call the city and make sure they’re not going to give me a hard time about it, which I did and talked to the city planner. And he’s like, no, you’re fine. Not an issue at all. And so they painted a beautiful van Gogh type art on this box and it’s behind my office on full of food and other personal hygiene products and things like that. The simple idea is if you can leave something, leave something. If you need something, then take it. And then, you know, it’s just a community solidarity support system. What a wonderful
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Idea. I love
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It. I love it. Yeah. We operate by the same principle. If you need something, come and take it. And if you can give something comment, give it or help another family and give back, help the family behind you in line. Like we, we believe in the same principles there. Yeah.
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And you know, so I wanted to, which is a one it’s a wonderful thing because it’s people like you that make the whole world a better place. Right. But Travis, with your, with your expertise as an attorney, because a lot of times in Victoria is you said all of this is voluntary based. Everything is voluntary based. So Travis, and I know for you too, but you are a lawyer. So what advice do you, can you give to people? Cause you also, of course you want to help people, but you have to protect yourself too. Right. So what advice would you have if someone is interested in star starting a nonprofit?
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Well, I mean, first thing you can do is we actually started a business entity as opposed to doing it yourself on an individual basis to protect you or yourself individually, make a company, then it could be a not-for-profit company. And then going from there you’re going to look at the different types of tax structures. If you want to be a 501C3 organization and get the benefit of a tax exempt status and tax exempt, given that a lot of people want to do, but some organizations that are looking to be maybe a little more political 5 0 1 C3 is not going to be a good fit because you’re not allowed to be political. That’s the trade-off and the top things and giving status. So if you’re going to be more political then you’re going to need to go a different route potentially, but making the actual organization itself and registering is fairly simple online, as far as making your articles of organization and all that sort of stuff that you need to do you should probably reach out to a lawyer and see if they’d be willing to help you with it.
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There are a large number of lawyers, all of us actually that are required to do a certain amount of pro bono hours per year. They should be offering that. They might be willing to help you to file those papers for little or no cost potentially. So reach out to law firms and ask them like, Hey, I’ve got this, do you guys do that? You might get no’s for awhile, but eventually you might get a yes.
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Well, Veturia, why don’t you ask him? Cause I, we both, we both had this look like we didn’t. So is that, is this nationwide that there are attorneys that are required to do some pro bono hours, Travis.
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Yep. And it’s actually required by the bar. I think pretty much every state, definitely in Florida in Indiana we’re required to fill out a statement every year that says how many hours of pro bono we did. And I guess they required, I don’t know what happened if you don’t do it cause I’ve never not done it. And, and, and there is an option instead of doing pro bono hours to give money in place of time. So some lawyers may opt for getting money with two other, or you can give money to a legal service agency, like the neighborhood Christian legal clinic or someone like that, would they provide free services. We’re supporting them with their money. They’re the ones actually doing the pro bono hours, but a lot of law firms, especially, and where you guys are at in Tampa St. Pete, a lot of the bigger law firms will have specific billable hour requirements for pro bono hours.
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Well, you know, and honestly the bottom line is, and I want you both to talk about this when you reach out and ask for help usually, and like your, even your own, I mean, your husband is the CEO of IDONEUS right at Jarrett Preston. We’ve got to give him we’ve got to talk about him too. He’s amazing. But his company has also stepped in to help. I mean, it’s, when did you say it is
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Wonderful from my own personal experience and I’m not so good at asking for help, but really once you get past that, w when you actually do ask, it’s very rarely that somebody says, no, you just have to get past that discomfort in the beginning and think, what is the worst thing that can happen? Really? They can say no, but that’s how it started. In the beginning. When I reached out to Panera bread or whole foods started asking, can you, would you like to become my partner? And sometimes they have to go through many steps to get there. And sometimes it’s not possible, but really a lot of people actually are happy to help you when you say what you’re doing, and they’re happy to become a part of it. You just have to get past that. Not to be uncomfortable to ask. Actually, a lot of people are happy that you’re reaching out well,
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What I’ve learned, but it’s not always, well, let me ask. And I want Travis to weigh on weigh in on this too. So I am one of those people too, that I have a very hard time asking. So what advice do you have Veturia for people to, to just do it? What is your advice? I don’t have any advice for you because nobody would say no to
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That, but for somebody else, I think you might maybe start with somewhere small, you know, go to a place where you are already a customer or you already shop, or you already know somebody to make that more comfortable for yourself and you know, reach out and see how their reaction is. And then once you kind of learn what, you know, what the questions are or what they’re, you know, where, how the conversation is going, then you become more comfortable going into a scenario where you don’t know the store managers, or you don’t know, but maybe it starts somewhere in your community and your neighborhood and just reach out. And it really we’re all just humans. And I think when we share the story with the good we’re doing, people are happy to hear that. And they’re really welcoming. Get
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Started. You have huge community partners now. I mean, we just mentioned Panera Bread, but you have Publix. You have, I mean, the list is huge.
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Publix doesn’t donate to us anymore right now, but they used to, well, we have a lot of community partners and it’s just so wonderful and they do want to help. And also they really have not many times they don’t have used for the products they’re giving us any longer. So they’re happy that they can give it to somebody who can put it to good use. They’re happy that they can give their you know, their milk that expires in seven days from now to somebody, to a family tomorrow in our grocery store, early needs that. So when they know, and also when we invite them to come and actually see what we’re doing, what we’re doing, all of our amazing volunteers and our pastoral six, Don Susan, that run the whole operation that is so much work, unbelievable, that they are really happy to see, to see when you see it with your own eyes and you see the families coming through and really makes you happy to be a part of it. It makes you happy to be there and you want to be there. You want to give back and you want to do something to contribute
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And that’s, and that’s exactly it. I mean, Travis, do you feel the same way that it’s just like, maybe it’s easier for you as an attorney to ask, right. Or what advice, what advice, what advice would you have?
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I’m, I’m not a bashful guy. So as far as having a hard time asking, typically in any organization, I’m a part of, I’m one of the askers. So I may not be the best at giving advice, but I think I’m mature her point about going and starting small. I’d echo that you can even practice it at home first to try and get yourself a little more comfortable, right out of script, if you’re not comfortable and prompt you and practice at home on your friends or family before you go out. But I th I think the biggest thing is just once you do it, when you get that first, yes, you’re going to feel so much better about it. And then as you continue to get more and more yeses like the no, and the fear is just going to go away, maybe say, it’s like an analogy to learn a foreign language.
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I speak Spanish in addition to English. And there’s this old saying that basically, you know, you don’t learn a language unless you live somewhere where you have to speak it to order your food. And there’s a certain thing about necessity. Like it must be because since you have to do it, that whole fear factor of not wanting to say something wrong is gone because you have to do it all. You’re not gonna be able to eat. And so you do it and you push through the fear factor and because you’re just doing it. So really it’s just the fact that you have to get out there and do it. And if you want to practice at home first, or another point would be, get an asker on your team. Somebody like me, who’s not afraid now.
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Yeah. That isn’t, that is good advice. And also from my own personal experience, actually I just remembered what really worked for works for me better personally. Sometimes when I just share the story of what we do, or I share somebody whom we helped, or a situation that had come to our attention and a family that needs help. And I only just share the scenario, then I don’t have to ask for help. And somebody who hears that will say, oh my gosh, can I do something I want to help? Like, what can we do to help this family I’m going to help you? And then I actually didn’t end up asking. So I always share the story and it makes people want to be helpful. It may, but when they know I can do something to help this family, when you hear some, a concrete scenario, that’s, that’s, I think that gets people to say, yes, they want to help you get there, achieve your goal, help, whatever you need to do. And then you actually didn’t even ask them for anything. I love
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Human nature. And there’s always someone like a Travis in the group, usually right around this. But there usually is someone, you know what I love when you said, well, I’m not bashful to ask. Right. But they’re typically in a circle of people, there is someone like Travis McConnell, that’ll come up and step up to help.
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Yeah. I think your point too, like so many people right now, even big corporations, you talked about like, it’s Panera and like, how do I get through? But even big corporations right now are looking to give back. They’re looking for ways to put it on their website, that they’re part of their community and how they support people. So then that their investors and shareholders are looking for them to do. And so they’re looking to do it, but satisfy their shareholders and investors.
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So, Travis, let me ask you though, does it not to, you know, to get to a serious point? Is there a point though that when you do start a nonprofit and I know you should go to an attorney and ask for advice, but should you have an attorney on, you know, and I know a lot of these are volunteer positions, but on staff per se
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Depending on the situation, maybe, but I mean, I would think for most organizations, you don’t have to worry about having somebody directly on staff, but you definitely like one thing that we use that I got from another organization, that was a part of that was in, what’s called a board matrix where you have your board fill out surveys about what their skill levels are in a variety of skill levels. They’re important. And you want to make sure and have people who have comfort and skill level and legal things. If legal things come up that you can turn to, or if you don’t have that on your board, then you want to have somebody who can fill any sort of gap, whether that’s legal finance, cause you’re going to have to do finance stuff, taxes. You, one of the things that we have is ask her, you know, do you have people who are good at fundraising? People that are good at HR type of things, there’s all these different categories that you want to keep track of and make sure that you try and get a broad cross section to fulfill the needs that your organization is going to have.
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That is actually, that is a great idea. So you would suggest putting at least a survey for someone to fill out. I mean, that’s a great idea. Do you guys do that? No,
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Thank you. No. Yeah. It’s because when we first started a organization, it wasn’t really a planned scenario. So I didn’t really strategize because I didn’t have the plan to start a nonprofit. So I did not consider all of these facts, but as we went, as the years passed, it is true. What he’s saying. And it’s so important to have like a ballot, a balanced team of people, you have different strengths than me, a different background, different experience than me and different ways of helping that is that is the good way to build a toe. How Travis proposed for sure.
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This is why I’m so passionate about, you know, doing shows and sharing shows because you learn so much, like just in these few minutes for me, what I’ve taken away, I’ve taken away a lot. But the two key points that I’ve taken away honestly is when you said to start small, like, you know, like start small, start in your own area. I loved what Travis said when he said, maybe even do a script, start with your family. Great way to practice. And then Travis, what you mentioned about putting together that survey.
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Yeah. Yeah. And it’s just like you put the categories that feel like they’re important and rank it one through ten familiarity, strength in this area, asking people to call it out, put it together into a Excel sheet or something like that, but compiles it. And then, you know, here’s our average strength on the board and what you’re weak at and what you’re strong at and what you need to try and recruit or find it from another source.
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Wonderful. Well, okay. As we wrap up the show, but Veturia, do you have any questions, Travis or any comments I should say?
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No, it’s so interesting. I want to learn more about it. So do you, do you think you can duplicate this in St. Petersburg location with the food pantry? Is that something you want to do in this area
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Or, or do you already potentially, yeah, we don’t have one there, but we could potentially put one then. Yeah.
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If you put it there, we can support you. But yeah, everybody can.
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Yeah. Yeah. I’d be fine putting up a box and then it’s just, I’m not there to check on it, but the other people that are at the office that could check on it. So yeah.
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I want to be in touch and I want to know about your events and that, you know, the events you mentioned that you were hosting, maybe we can come and visit.
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How exciting would that be?
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The big festival is September the 18th. If you guys want to come up, lots of fun.
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Thank you. See,
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You never know what could happen. So Travis, any last thoughts? On this? No, that’s
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It, it sounds like what you really need to talk a lot more often.
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The things you’re doing. Yeah. Yes. I would love that. Thank you so much. I’ll be in touch for sure.
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I’ll make sure to connect you both. Well, thank you guys so much for both being here for your show. Thank you, Travis, for having me on your show. Thank you Sarina for inviting me. Well, thank you everybody for participating in this show or watching this show for We Trust Travis. We encourage you to like it and share the video and stay tuned for more episodes, stay safe, everyone. And thanks again,
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To learn more about Travis McConnell, head to TravisMCLaw.com. Thank you for listening to We Trust Travis.
