- All right, my next guest has made it
his life's mission to help all those in need
in his Detroit community get the help they deserve.
That's why he is today's Rad Human.
(upbeat music)
Through his initiative, he provides
everything from school supplies for kids
to rent and utility assistance.
Now he's launched a new program
that's more needed than ever, a mobile food pantry.
All right, y'all, from the Tarence Wheeler Foundation,
we have Tarence dialed in right now.
Welcome to the show, first of all.
- Hey Kelly, how are you?
- I am so good, and you look so sharp.
I love your outfit right now, it looks so good.
- Thank you very much.
I am thankful and honored to be on your show.
- Well, we are lucky to have you.
Please meet John and Lindsay and Sophia.
Everybody say hi.
- Hi. - Hey.
- What's up, buddy?
Love what you're doing.
- All right- - Thank you.
- Well Tarence, what you do is so beautiful.
Why did you decide to start this food pantry?
- Well Kelly, as a child of poverty,
you keenly understand what it feels like
to be evicted, to be homeless,
to have financial insecurities within your family.
I grew up with a mother that was on drugs
and a father that was absent.
And I remember me and my mother
being in a food distribution line.
And I said Lord, if I'm ever blessed
to be able to use my resources
to enrich the lives of other people, I wanna do that.
And in particular, this Downriver community,
Kelly, has more marijuana dispensaries
than food options, and that's a problem.
And so when the pandemic hit, there was already
a pandemic of poverty before the coronavirus hit.
And so we had to step up and make it happen for the people.
- Well, so where does the food come from?
Is it all donated?
- Well, the food is donated through one of our partners,
Forgotten Harvest, which is our local nonprofit.
But also, we have some support
from Fiat Chrysler, from Comerica Bank.
And one of the things that we have is great volunteers.
And our volunteers organize the food drive
sort of like an assembly line.
You pull up and you pop your trunk and we put food in there.
But what we also doing is, Kelly,
is giving you a kind word, making sure
that you don't leave with feeling bad.
We wanna make sure that you have
your dignity and your integrity when you leave.
Thus far since March, we probably fed over 200,000 families.
And the need is greater every day.
And now people are more stressed, anxiety's high.
And once again, probably by November,
my goal is to be at 500,000 families.
People are lined up at 5:45 a.m.
for event that starts at nine o'clock.
That lets you know that the need is great.
We have one gentleman, Kelly,
that drives 45 minutes each way,
picking up food for him and his family.
Another gentleman is on a motorized scooter
with a prosthetic leg.
He's there picking up food for him and his neighbor.
And so we're not judging anybody.
It's a judge-free zone.
I've been there before, I know what it feels like.
And Proverbs 13:4 says "The soul of a lazy man
"desires and has nothing.
"But the soul of a diligent man shall be made rich."
I will never be rich as Bill Gates.
But I'll be rich in love and empathy for my people.
- Which is worth far more.
(audience claps)
I love that.
Well, speaking of just people in need in communities,
I know John and Lindsay,
especially after the big tornado hit there
and then COVID hit, and then ...
I feel like there's just been constant struggle,
whether it's flooding or disasters in Nashville,
and it's hit a lot of people there.
How is it looking there right now?
- I think we can all say across the world
that we have seen some dark times.
But I mean Tarence, I'm so inspired by what you're doing.
'Cause you really are just this
bright shining light in a dark time.
And I think that's what everybody is looking for.
So you're truly inspiring.
What you're doing is amazing.
- And we wanna help, let us know how we can help.
- Absolutely. - Yeah.
That's another reason why I get everybody on this show.
And have you seen anything in your community?
Same kind of things happening?
- Of course, I mean, we're in Los Angeles, right?
You don't have to drive too far away to see
tents down the streets with homeless and families.
And Tarence, what you're doing is you're not only
gifting them with food to survive,
but with hope and with love,
which the world needs now more than ever before.
And I was looking into your foundation.
And I watched the video, and I think in August
it was 150,000 meals and now you're at 200,000.
You're a hero, and you've chosen to do this right now.
And I admire you so much.
And like you said, whatever we can do, we're here.
- Yeah, that's a big reason why I like
to have just I call them heroes.
And Rad Humans is our segment for today.
But I love to highlight y'all,
because you're doing these amazing things.
And a lot of people,
it's funny, I've had conversations with friends
and family, and it's like sometimes
even when we're down ourselves and we're having
our own kind of moment, it's nice to do something
for someone else and not think about your moment.
And somebody else might be having a hard time.
And it really does bring and lift you out of your own moment
as well, while you're helping someone else.
And that's why I love
highlighting people like you, Terrance.
It's amazing what you do.
But so what all does your entire organization do?
- Well, we have an annual Back To School rally
where we provide a thousand brand-new Nike backpacks,
courtesy of Gary Payton.
But Kelly, those backpacks
not only have school supplies in 'em,
they also have toiletries,
because some of our young people are homeless.
Some of 'em are living with friends,
some of 'em are living in shelters.
So those toiletries are body wash, toothpaste, deodorant.
Then I created a female hygiene campaign,
because a lot of times, young females
don't come to school if they don't have
the products that they need on a monthly basis.
And that creates chronic absenteeism.
And we have our All-Star Give Back,
which is our turkey drive.
We provide over 5,000 turkeys with all the trimmings.
But me and Derrick Coleman started that 22 years ago,
Kelly, with just 200 turkeys, now we're at 5,000.
Big Sean partners with us, Nas, Chauncey Billups, Mike Epps.
And it's called the All-Star Give-Back,
because every person has value, from the janitor to the CEO.
We all can give back and help people.
- Yeah, people deserve to be seen.
Now Tarence doesn't know this, but we have some people
on the line who say the pantry has done more
than just feed them, it's given them hope.
Let's bring in Theresa, her daughter Jayvon
and Jayvon's two-year-old daughter, Morgan.
Hi. - Hi.
- Oh y'all look beautiful, I love that green.
So what was happening in your life, before everything hit?
- Right before the pandemic actually hit, I was working.
Once it actually came in full-force,
we were actually sent home to work from home.
And at that point I knew that,
hey, I have to have a budget because times are uncertain.
I don't know what to expect going forward.
- And I actually lost my job.
I am self-employed and I worked in a small office.
And when that shut down, I didn't have any money.
And I was really alarmed.
What was hard was when the pandemic hit,
I went to the grocery store to stock up.
By the time I got there, there was no eggs.
There was no milk, there was no juice.
There was nothing.
And I was really worried and afraid.
And my sister-in-law said,
"Why don't you go to the mobile food pantry
"at Ann Visger's school?"
And that's what I did.
- Yeah, so well,
tell us about your first time going to the pantry.
- My first time going to the pantry,
I got up around five o'clock
to be there at seven to line up
because the food distribution started at nine o'clock.
And when I got there, I was alarmed.
There was car after car after car after car,
family after family after family after family.
And it hit me the enormity of what was happening.
I wasn't the only one, it was my neighborhood.
My neighborhood was in peril
because we didn't have the food that we needed
at the most important time, when we was unemployed.
- I've been that family whenever I was younger
when we definitely needed help.
And our church really provided a lot of that
when we were younger and we had hard times.
So what do you wanna say to Tarence?
He's a head of this whole foundation that ends up helping
not only you, but your entire community
kind of get back on their feet
and kind of keep everybody treading water.
Is there anything you wanna say to him?
- I wanna say thank you, Mr. Wheeler.
In my time of need, in which I never expected,
ever in my life to be without food,
I wanted to say you came in when our own government
didn't seem like it was going to answer our cry for food.
You were able to give me food, milk, juice,
whatever I needed for my family.
And I wanna say thank you so much.
You triaged a community.
You didn't only service my community or your community.
You serviced (indistinct) River Rouge,
Dearborn, Dearborn Heights.
You serviced people from out of Wayne County.
And that is something that a lot of people do not do.
And this is a heartfelt thank you from my heart.
I really wanna say I am honored to know you,
and I'm honored that you were able to do something
for somebody other than yourself.
And I appreciate you.
Thank you so very much.
- So many people helped me, Kelly.
No one in this world is successful by themselves.
Someone has to nurture you and support your greatness.
And like I said, she's talking about Ann Visger
and leadership over there, Nicole German
Dr. Coleman supported this initiative.
And all you wanna do is help families.
And if Theresa and her family is helping,
they're helping neighbors, Theresa comes every week
and grab food, not only for herself, but for other people.
And she's a pillar herself in the community,
and she's of the people.
So she knows how great the need is.
I'm just an imperfect vessel that saw a need
and had some relationships,
and wanted to make it happen for my people.
- It's a beautiful thing.
It's a nice ripple effect though.
You know, you give someone hope.
And so they were able to fill themselves up,
and have fuel in their tank and hope in their tank,
and they could give some to somebody else.
It's a really beautiful ripple effect.
So I mean, Theresa and Jayvon,
I know you've been struggling, so we wanna help you out.
We reached out to our friends at Save A Lot,
your go-to neighborhood grocery store,
and they believe everyone should have access
to fresh high-quality and affordable food.
And that's why they are giving you a $5,000 gift card.
- Woo. - Oh that face!
- Thank you.
- Thank you so much for sharing your story with us.
And thank you Tarence, for doing such a beautiful thing,
and teaching us all that we can do better
and we can do big things.
- Thank you. - Thank you, Tarence.