the german chancellor has decided it is in germany's national interest to provide the kurds with arms. the prime minister tell me when he thinks it would not be in britain's interest to do so as well? what would he require to make him change his mind? >> i do not think there is any difference between what the german chancellor is saying and what i am saying about this. if the kurds would make a request, we upon it very favorable because we think that is what they need. have we failed to respond to russia's imminent threat? doesn't the nato summit need to send a much stronger signal?

>> that is an interesting suggestion that i will take on board. it is not easy to get 28 countries around a table to agree on sanctions on the country and to do that as the the united states of america. i would argue that is what we have done. to have a sake shunts greater effect. they have had an effect. we need to signal not to and we must turn the wretched to and russia will suffer permanently from the economic isolation that that follows. >> a number of individuals from cars of feel -- can the prime how aer explain to me

young man has been able to use a u.k. passport to travel through eu? does he have flew confidence in the border force and is you sure there have been no serious weapons through the border, particularly with the number of weapons we have seen? >> i am sure the individual case that the gentleman put dishes -- i mean, we could not have given clear directions about passports, travel. a number of passports have been confiscated. a number of people been stopped. obviously, we need to do whatever we can to prevent this from happening. situation in the ukraine, when will the prime equipment, int to short, that there is a british battalion under the supreme

command. to ensure that we make a binding, long-term commitment to on defense. >> i recommend my honorable friend on his election to head selection ontant this house. many of them will be directly addressed at the nato conference. it is important that when russia looks at countries like estonian, latvian, and poland, that we have made real the article five commitment that we have. is very important. we have already taken steps to help with air patrolling. it was greatly received by the countries concerned. as for defense spending, i am proud that we are one of the few countries in europe that meet defense spending. leverage others to do the same.

we urge others to do the same. >> is the prime minister aware that he would be much more respected if his appeal of history and writing is as good as the garbage he talks out. namely, 12 months ago this prime minister tried to get the house of commons to join him in order harm the isolate guerrillas against the south? had it not been for the labour -- he hebron have been should get on his hands and knees and thank the labour party for not turning down that roma. memory of the discussions we had one year ago was about

the use of chemical weapons. my reading of history is that to the use of chemical weapons is wrong, and we should turn away from the use of chemical weapons. congratulating the prime minister on his robust stance in pointing out the ideology. , that't it go further eyesore represents a very substantial threat to the -- continued integrity of iraq. america has been happy and successful in supporting, wouldn't it be better if we joined in that measure. ukrainians go, we should -- i suggest

[indiscernible]. and assist in our own way through humanitarian aid to the americans. in terms of the ukrainians, i do not think that is the right approach. we should be demonstrating nato's stance behind all of its members, as we just said. we should be demonstrating nato has important partnerships from us with countries like ukraine. i do not believe the solution to the problems in ukraine is a military solution. what we want is a de-escalation of the military situation and an escalation of the military solution, recognizing the people must be able to choose their future. it is that that russia is trying to deny.

>> on the next "washington journal." the scoreboard at association looks at the school board and problems facing public schools. institutes fordham calls,es -- your phone comments, and tweets. washington journal is live this .orning on c-span tomorrow morning, several u.s. and minorityssors students. whether policies are hurting or helping their chances of getting into college. weekend, ucla's civil

rights project. live tuesday at nine :00 a.m. on c-span two. on c-span3, the ceremony marking the anniversary of de-day. grandson of former grandson george h w brush. hisill speak about grandfather being shut down 70 years ago while serving as a u.s. fighter pilot. our coverage from the world war ii memorial starts at 9:00 a.m. eastern. the discussion on global health issues. remarks from the future -- on the future of health advances. live atsee that event 3:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span. a look at some of our programming this week on c-span networks. on c-span tuesday at 8:00 p.m.

eastern, oral argument on aclu. the second court of appeals hears a challenge to national security agency's program. livesday at 7:00 p.m., coverage of a debate between andh carolina republican opponent. at 8:00, a senate hearing on sexual assault on college campuses. 8:00, schoolt at lunch nutrition. at 10 p.m. eastern, live coverage of the california governor's debate between jerry brown and opponent. on book tv c-span2, a look at the 1975 book about the news coverage of watergate. and authoright, talks about law enforcement's increasing use of technology.

on american history tv on c-span3, to stay at 8 p.m. eastern, the story of a battle and the burning of washington in the war of 1812. on wednesday, live coverage beginning at 1 p.m. on the symposium covering 200 years of war. find our television schedule at c-span.org and let us know about the programs you are watching. the number on screen or on twitter use #c one to three or e-mail us at comments at c-span.org. join the conversation. like us on facebook.

>> i am going to pot is here and introduce our keynote speaker. robert eight or nine years ago. maybe 10 years ago. it has been a while. he worked for d.c. central kitchen. he was a political guy. we're excited to have him here. he will take a chance to help us think differently. i encourage you to keep your questions at hand. at the end will have q and a.

please keep your questions at the ready. i am going to turn it over to robert to lead us through the keynote. he will join us later this afternoon. robert? [applause] >> thank you. inis a pleasure to be back washington dc. i have spent the last 40 years here at the nation's capital. this is the community of my youth -- where i opened up the l.a. kitchen. we're going to get to transitions, but nothing fills the heart more than walking the streets you are so familiar with. past couple the days visiting old friends, seeing or colleagues, going down to the biggest shelter in the amerco where i spent 21 years making a rough.

payroll. just like many of you. washington dc is a community that allows you to bring inspire yourself. it is appropriate we are gathered today to talk about the 50th anniversary. people who areny that old. -- ik around the room and was six years old, i am 56 now. i look around the room, and there are a few people are than me, but for many of us, in that era that expanded so much of our of our airhe leaders that sometimes decorate the walls of our office, they are memories of our youth. kept ourthings that parents and our older brothers and sisters active. that is one of the reasons i love coming back to d.c.

i don't like getting too far ahead of myself, but one of the things i like is robert kennedy's grave in arlington cemetery. i have often found myself walking across memorial bridge to go across and visit because -- as i said, d.c. is a town full of things that inspire, but as a young man living in southern california, i woke up that morning in june. my father came in the room and gave me the news that robert kennedy had passed.

as many of you know, this was just two months after dr. king was murdered in memphis, tennessee. that was a hard year in america. as tough as times are now for our parents and grandparents, that summer must have seemed like a miracle was just on the edge. it was give or take. you know, after his brother was assassinated, robert kennedy went into a deep depression. really, can't get out of bed kind of depression. dark am a dark place. he slowly reinvented himself. the robert kennedy many of us remember is a very different man than the man who helped run his brother's campaign. too many he was somewhat of a ruthless man, and he was definitely the man you would have to deal with if you messed with his brother. john kennedy like many ceo's in the room, got to be the nice leader, while the development director and the coo had to do the hard lifting every day. as a young man i became very enamored of robert kennedy. as many of you know in his journey, his resurrection, he

went to cape town, south africa and spoke at the university there. i urge you young men and women in the audience, and frankly anyone who has not taken the opportunity -- the glory of the internet is you can go on and hear the speeches and that is one of the best speeches you will ever hear. on the walls of his grave are etched words that still speak to me. every time a person stands up against injustice or fights for what is right, they send forth a small ripple of hope and daring and from all those energy sources, those ripples can create waves that will wash down the mightiest walls of oppression. to this day, that still reminds me of why i do what i did. i came from southern california here -- really, all i wanted to do was open a nightclub. i have told this story too many times. [laughter] i want to be real clear here. many of us were inspired by those men and women in the day, who really risks things -- you really risked things. that is something we need to talk about, risk. we have come to a point in the nonprofit sector, a crossroads

where we have to understand the people we admire, the people we .2, we honor, they risked. they were not risking a grant. they were not risking a paycheck. they were risking jail. they were risking firebombs. they were risking police dogs. that is risk. while i always advocate for calculated risk -- and i think it is time for the nonprofit sector to be much more daring -- i don't want us to be belligerent. i do not want us to think that our job is just to be opposed to things. we have tremendous power. and that is one of the things we will talk about, external as well as internal of the sector. as a young man, i left california and i witnessed something that had stuck with me to this very day, which is my parents and their friends argued about politics. we talk about america being divided today.

america has always been divided. and it has always been a frustrating struggle. my parents argued all the time about the politics of the day. yet at the end of the summer of '68, my parents had a party. i watched people who could not agree politically, my father put on a motown record and everybody ran to the dance floor. as a young man, i thought, call me crazy, but the lyrics to this song is saying pretty much the exact same thing that robert kennedy and martin luther king said that got them killed. but keep all -- but people accepted it as entertainment. that is why i wanted to open a nightclub. i understood the power of music. the power of subterfuge. i got to be on "oprah."

we can talk about opera at a different time. opera is a preacher. she wants your soul. she disguised her spirituality as entertainment and let people land. that is what i have always aspired to. for me, running a nightclub was the power of music, theater, art, dance, comedy. to get people to open up and hear things. let's be honest -- most people in america are decent, kind, generous people. you see people pouring buckets of ice on their heads raising millions of dollars for als. people give almost $300 billion a year to charity in america. we have raised an entire generation, the millennial's, they have been raised doing service.

and collectively, 80, 100 people volunteer, and it is not money or time our faith. but most people as kind as they are, want to hold onto stereotypes. if you are poor, it is your fault. if you are in prison, you must have done something to deserve it. to let go of that stereotype may mean they have to think differently about their role. i am in the bravery business. our job is to make people brave enough to let go of these old ideas that hold us back. for many of us who came up in that era, everything they taught me in church and in civics class, i witnessed as a young man on the streets of america in the 1960's. this is where people argued about things. and you are political about things and you ran for office if you thought you could change things. to me, that is what i thought it meant to be an american. that is the role i have chosen for myself. i came wanting to open a nightclub, but i went out one night, and i apologize because i tell the story too often, but i went by the state department on virginia avenue to serve people who are poor. again, there have always been people on the fringe of america, but this was becoming something

too big to ignore. men, women, symptoms family sleeps in -- sleeping on the streets. i always say my name is robert and i am a recovering hypocrite. i spent my youth talking about changing the world with music. someone said, that is great. go it on the street and feed one of your neighbors. i used every excuse in the world. i had all of these images of who i would encounter. i went out on this truck. i asked where does the food come from? i found out it had been purchased from the safeway in georgetown, which still remains

one of the most expensive stores on the planet. i knew our restaurant industry, the industry i had grown up in, the industry i knew intimately -- because if you want to put on shows in the front, you better know the backend of the house -- i knew how much food we wasted every night. and before i don't want, can we thank the men and women who served as our lunch today? [applause] i knew how much food was being thrown away. but more importantly, and this is where we really get to the meat of our conversation today.

i pulled up on a rainy night in washington, d.c., and commits to feeding minute women who had lined up down the street as they had night after night. i realized i was the one being served. i was seeing for the first time that while charity is not a bad thing, what it had become was more about, as i like to say, the redemption of the giver, not the liberation of the receiver. and that was what i decided i wanted to flip. i came back a couple weeks later with a small business plan. this is what is important to our conversation. when we talk about transitional leadership, i was just a volunteer. i was just somebody who wanted to help. somebody came along with fresh eyes and looked at an old problem and a respected, historic solution or process and

proposed something new. i just said, look, not only can you get the food from the restaurants, the universities, the hospitals, bring them to a central kitchen -- not only can you feed more people better food for less money, but if you let go of the notion that men and women can wait in line for the or show up and embraced these minute women as neighbors and bring them out of the rain and start a little cooking school, you can train them for work. you can shorten the line. then you can repay the restaurants with entry-level people who will show up on time and start making the money. everybody would win. this is something that stuck with me ever since then. because every single person i went to, every single nonprofit told me it would not work. they come up with every kind of excuse you could imagine. these were not bad people. mind you, these were very decent, kind people. but the point is, they were so

entrenched and they had so much ownership wrapped around the system as it existed that they were unwilling to see a new opportunity. and it got to the point where someone challenged me -- would love in their heart, decent person, make no mistake -- they said, you know what, robert, you mean well, but you are naïve to think you can train men and women who are homeless to work in restaurants. restaurants will not hire those men and women. i said, you have never worked in a restaurant. [laughter] everybody knows, that is the island of misfit toys acting on those doors. i guarantee you, even today. the people were so resistant to change, they were willing to see fellow humans as unable to rise up. that really stuck with me. now nobody -- nobody wakes up when they are 20, looks in the mirror and says, when i grow up, i want to lead a nonprofit and stifle innovation. you know? nobody wakes up and says, i want to be a boring old bureaucrat who just says no to everything. [laughter] we know and we see too many of our brothers and sisters have

become trapped. they are not bad. you have to really resist. that is what we're going to talk about today. how can you stay true to the dreams of your yezidi echo that is something i look at. as a young man, -- how can you stay true to the dreams of your youth? that is something i look at. we all look at the mayor and full ourselves with the reflection. an honest reflection. how can i work toward the man i wanted to be when i was 12 years old and looked out at the leaders i saw being murdered? how can i be like that? there are lots of ways we do this. at the deasy central kitchen i was not the highest-paid employee. i was the founder. i was the president. but my sense of who i was was not derived from my paycheck. my sense of leadership and the reason people followed me was not because i got the biggest check. the notion that that is what leadership looks like -- in fact i became more and more intrigued by the way we view leadership, because to be brutally honest, i have watched as leaders of the community have changed from being white men to people of color women. but too often people still mimic the same behaviors as the people

they replace, because that is what we all come to see leadership looks like. no matter how many different colors and shades and genders run our organizations, too many of them are still run in an old way where a single person at the top has to make every decision. this is critical to our discussion right now, because one of the reasons i left d.c. -- i come from the keith richards school. sometimes it is better to walk before they make you run. [laughter] i talked about leadership. like many in the sector, i had worked and we had almost 100 classes of men and women go through the dce central -- d.c. central kitchen. yet a lot of people i worked with said consistently two-minute women who walk through our doors "you must change your behaviors." yet too often we would do the same things over and over and over. we would sell people on the street you can't handle anymore.

yet if we go out to the foundation, we might as well bring a little tin cup with us when we go out. if you're going to talk this, you have got to walk this. it is time for me to move on and let another generation takeover the d.c. central kitchen. but i also was, and i remained as i like to call it an amateur futurist. i went to an event like this years ago. they said, oh what to do, what you do? you said, i am a futurist. i said what's that? you said it is about the probability, it is about trends. i said, that is what i do, too. first it was a heroin and alcohol town. then can crack. crack is a crazy drug. still is. and then all of a sudden women were coming out of their homes. i realized i could not just have

one kind of program and try to fit everybody into my program. my program had to be adapted to fit whoever's suicide he was putting at the bottom. again, that idea of dedicating our organization, our team, not just to be flexibility, but seeing the future coming to you. when i was a young man, i played a little baseball. c minor baseball, right? i was probably eight years old. middle of the game, coach, timeout, timeout. he starts walking toward me. i thought, what do i do question mark you said, son, what do you do at that ball comes to you? i had not thought about it. he said you have a man on second. there is a triple play right here waiting for you. you know what happens. the next ball crack, boom. triple play. they carried me off the thing. the coach said, son, always be ready when the ball comes to you.

i discovered -- there are three kinds of leaders. there are people who have their heads down just trying to make payroll. that is understandable. making payroll is hard business in america right now. i respect that. the second group of people is just like you. they raise their heads for a little bit and they can see, they can hear the fancy pants speaker, they can exchange ideas. too many go back, but their had write that down. that is understandable. respect. but there is a third kind of leader. these leaders see the future coming and say, i am not going to wait for it. i am going to march out to meet it. i am not going to wait for it to come to me. i could sit and wait for the ball, or i could will the ball to come to me. i became almost a hypnotist. i could sit there and make the ball come to me. that is what i do now. i make the ball come to me. i am out there in california. i know what is coming.

i do not know how many of you all do pantries or work with a food bank. think about this. our whole movement, our whole movement was birthed at a time in which america was going through an era of extra. world war ii, man, we fed to the world and rebuild the world. our industrial base was completely intact. and the farmland -- talking about montana. the miracle of central valley in california. produced a crop surplus that allowed you to get a lemon, a lime, a tomato in the deepest, darkest winter in montana. that was an abundance beyond anyone's comprehension. we get the extra. i made a living off extra food. extra buildings, extra clothes, give people extra time. that extra was abundant and allowed us to grow exponentially, but that air of extra is ending. the food that all the patches get, that i get, at the end of the day, make no mistake. that is lost profit. people bought that, they could not sell it. they give it to charity. that is cool, but their entire raison right now is not having

any extra. predictably you have less food coming in. i moved to california. i have an unlimited supply of fruits and vessels i can get for free or next to nothing. that is a big, powerful true -- tool. but was and what else is coming. every single morning in america -- every single morning short of an asteroid hitting the earth, 10,000 people wake up 67 years old. and that will go on for the next 20 years. every single morning. the baby boomers are coming. that is profound.

get your head around this. the next big wave of poor people in america are going to be our elders. they already are, but we do not pay much attention to them. the way we treat our elders in america, frankly, is one of our greatest chains. we have a throwaway society. that humble, plain generation, never complain, don't want charity, no matter how poor they are. well, get ready, because here come the baby boomers. and the baby boomers are not at all going to be shy about wanting what is their right. [laughter]

this is important. of all the workers in america, of all the workers in america, between 45 and 65 right now, has to not have 10,000 -- has to not have $10,000 put aside for their retirement. there are those who would see that as a bad thing. many people use the term the silver tsunami as a term of fear. but i go back to that robert kennedy line about how every time someone put -- sets forth a small ripple, they can wash away the walls of oppression. manage if we as the nonprofit sector can reach out to those older americans. that silver tsunami can actually be the realization of robert kennedy's dream. it is powerful, i will tell you. make no mistake -- it is a wonder you can't put your head out in the morning and hear a sigh as 10,000 people look in the mirror and see a 67-year-old looking right back. you have to figure, a big hunk of them are looking in the mirror, sign, and saying, how did i get so lost? how could i have seen with my own eyes after king, cesar chavez, shirley jackson? how could i have heard with my own ears john lennon and marvin gaye? how could i be suckered into believing if i just bought more i would be happy? i see them just pouring in. saying use me. i want you to get your head around this.

this is the deepest well of experience in america. no other generation has been this rich, this free, this educated. shame on us and shame on us as a sector if we do not bring them in instead of waiting for them to come to us. this is powerful. think about this. you have 100 million people under 30. i want to reiterate. the biggest generation america, the most diverse generation in america, will soon be the most educated and guarantee the most technologically advanced. these are minimum and raised doing service, and make no mistake, the generation that got barack obama not once, but twice -- every single election, you're getting 16 million to 20 million new voters. people who still believe in the american dream. interesting as it may sound or as far-fetched, i believe that there is a surprising shared interest between those who are old and those who are young. and that amazing opportunity, this is what is really important. oftentimes we think leadership looks this way. organizations run this way. but if you look at history, look at the history of our movement, you realize it was two groups

that people thought would not find common ground found common ground and in together. we sometimes look at the united farm workers and think, that was cesar chavez. it was not just cesar chavez. it was the filipino workers that went on strike and cesar chavez was brilliant and saw an opportunity to make peace. years ago i went to india. i read a little history book that said the british never, ever, ever in all of their years of control of india ever had more than 3000 officers stationed on the ground. never. i will be honest with you. i was mesmerized by that. and i needed a little break from d.c., so i took a little sabbatical. i allowed myself a full month to go over there and study and figure, how did 3000 do does -- dudes control through to million people. in less than 24 hours i had the

answer. i almost laughed out loud. as long as the british could give the indians fighting one another, it was a piece of cake. and i left out loud. i realize that was the nonprofit sector in america. eight versus art. it is all -- we have the keys. that is the thing i really want to reiterate. but what is important again, there would be those right now who want to divide our generations, who would want to pick old against young. tragically you see old people being manipulated with fear. to be quite honest with you, man, the oldest people should be crazy in love with new immigrants. somebody needs to come in here and start paying taxes so they can sit back and get their social security. bradley, old people should be out front saying, let them in!

the right to work. we have jobs right here. seriously. but let's take one more thing before i break up. i tend to free associate. in fact, it is funny, man. one of the things that really turns me on most to change was the fact in 1959 miles davis came along and released the album "kind of blue." up until then charlie parker was the preeminent usage and, -- musician, but he was limited to 12 are blues. miles came along and said, i reject 12-bar blues. i came along in los angeles and i am developing new meals for seniors. it is in effect the same plate you see in schools, and hospitals, in prisons, in any institution that says this is where the big piece of meat goes and everything circles around the solar system, but meat is

the sun. as a society with this many people he will need help, we can't afford a big piece of meat, nor is it sustainable or healthy. so i am just coming along saying similarly, i reject the plate, the tyranny of the plate. i am inventing a little tiny bento box. i will serve three ounces of protein, but i reject the notion that it has to look like this. i can give people ethnically diverse, beautiful, artistic meals for less money. i can hire people. the goal is to help young women and men aging out of foster care that are statistically on their way to prison or the street. and older people coming out who statistically will make a u-turn and go right back because there are no jobs for them. you know what -- i was you. i see myself. i just got back after 20 years and i am not going to let you go down that same road. an older man or woman can help the young reactor may to change. can they learn with and from each other as they prepare meals

for the immunity? i have always said, let's remove the false divide of the table that has volunteers serving the poor, and let's bring everybody to the same side of the table. one of the greatest pleasures is saying presidents of the united states come in and work side-by-side with men in women in the jobs training program. and inevitably -- no matter how smart -- god bless bill clinton. one of the smartest men. nobody loves a kitchen more than bill clinton. but i have to tell you, the man did not know how to cut a carrot. and the power of someone in prison saying, no, sir, you do

it this way. that is the problem -- that is the power of what we can show. everyone has something to contribute. no matter how old, how young. everybody has something to contribute to the great american story. but i think one of the most important places we are going to begin to reframe that, and when you start to look at that next set -- how do you revitalize immunity action. -- community action. do not forget our charter. you all were the very first on the war on poverty. again, this is no disrespect, because the reality is -- unlike the british in india, the way we get our money, the fact that we cannot being gazed in the political process puts us in a position where it is virtually impossible for us to solve the problems we have been tasked with. but the point is, if we continue to accept the structure -- this is how nonprofits behave, here is how you get your money, here is how you are led, or is how you can speak, then the next 50 years and not going to make them

as difference. flowers will bloom in every community, but the garden we sought to plants in 1950 when president johnson signed the fact will remain just as -- signed this act will remain just as elusive. while we deserve much credit for the work we have done, the road ahead cannot be the same road. it is the same journey, but we have to take a very different course and i think many of us can learn from some of the younger men and women humming to our sector. we are reaching a point -- because of low administrative overhead as the intellectual albatross around our neck -- overhead is things like retirement plans for our executives. what you have is a sector with too many leaders who cannot afford to leave their jobs. as much as we talk about people retiring, in many, many communities, you have people who do not have any money set aside. the question for them is, i may not be of the lead, but do i sought to govern the

organization the same way i did? can i open up and let younger members of my organization to exert their sense of leadership, their direct and, their new ideas? that has been a big part of my personal journey. i do not know how many of you do this. i just went through a review by my staff, our staff. and it was anonymous. and it was hard. i am like, hey, i am better than that. i mean, that is cold. [laughter] i can't believe you would treat me this way. i am signing your paychecks and that is the best you can say about me? but again, i don't want to think that way, but that is the point. how many of you let your staff evaluate you anonymously and how many of you have the courage to really listen to what they say? this is the biggest discussion we're going to happen our sector

right now. how are we going to do away with the old way of having one person make the decision and how do we just as i did, as a volunteer, with fresh eyes and say, the way we have been measuring success is not the only way we can. there are three or four new metrics you may be able to use. we were just out in california with the california association of nonprofits that just did a tremendous report on the impact of nonprofits in that state. the one nugget i have been praying -- praying is too hard a word. i have been hoping for. how much money the nonprofits of california bring from outside the state in. that is the first time, to my knowledge, any group has done that. what they clocked in at, $40 billion a year. let's be honest. if i am a rural mayor in georgia, montana, and someone says, these nonprofits can bring

in a lot of money. a staff of three people brought in $70 million over five years. we are the ace in the deck that most politicians do not even know they have got. we have to help the men and women who run for office realize we are steady partners. we are far from charity. we are major parts of every economy. i really want you to let this sink in. this is economics 101. there is no profit in america without nonprofits in america. you try to run the town -- seriously, you try to run the town, let alone attract new business. young and dashing young men and women to stay if you have arts and culture, if you don't have health care, if you don't have education, if you don't have clean air and water. that is what we do.

you can't make money without us. we need to on that fact that we are not the young brothers and sisters of the.com world. we are equal to business. no recovery plan will work without us in the mix. it is time for us -- [applause] -- [applause] there you go. if i may be so bold, and to close, this is the kind of transitional thinking i urge you to be open to as leaders. believe me. i do not want to discount the minute women of generation x who have been toiling in the field, waiting for their time. there are so many people with really bold ideas. we have to turn them loose. a lot of our conversation today will be around those ideas. how do we get our voices heard. and how do we learn to the spec not only the people of the organization, but the volunteers. we should open up and say to anybody who comes through our door, if you have a better idea how we can make our own money, how we can be engaged, how we can spread better word about what we do, let us know, we are all years. because we are

community action and we are here to stay. thank you all very, very much. [applause] >> if there are any questions, we do have a microphone. we will take one or two, given the time. don't give me this quiet stuff. there is a microphone right there. >> and you can just shout it out. >> what do you got? need some caffeine or something? >> if you would, could you give advice to middle leadership to help -- let's say current, seasoned leadership help understand that opening up is not threatening their leadership or their legacy. how would you frame that advice? >> wow.

thank you for that question. this is the core of what we are at. this is human nature. what we are talking about is ruffling that sense of i'm good right here. you know, this sounds lofty, but i think most people -- when i go back to most of those men and women looked in the mirror and they wanted to change the world. very peak -- very few people got in this business because they thought they were going to get rich. they wanted to be part of the american dream. we are the american dream. make no mistake. what we do -- we represent the best of america. we make the best profit and america. i think trying to challenge people to be that leader they wanted to be.

this is why i really push for the idea of a can be tough, but that idea of staff evaluation. i frankly think everyone in this room ought to consider going back. it is hard, but guaranteed your staff will respect you more if you ask for their honest evaluation. you know who we should be studying right now? that the eo of that grocery store in massachusetts who, they fired him and all the employees walked out. and all of the delivery people refused to deliver. the customers refuse to comment. that guy should write a book and go to every conference. who does not want to be that kind of leader? if the board says, your time has come. many of us would go, well, that was nice while it lasted. [laughter] have fun. and frankly, probably thinking, meet the new boss, same as the old boss. >> thank you. >> my pleasure.

>> [indiscernible] >> one of the things he said that really resonated with me was your trip to india where you saw how they kept people divided and really wanting to move beyond the circumstances. my question to you is -- and palm beach county, we see that level of division amongst a lot of nonprofits. everybody is competing for resources and sometimes it doesn't create the kind of environment where people are working together and working collectively toward common goals. my question is, what would be your strategy for dressing those kinds of issues and have you seen any communities where they have kind of found the answer and are working together. not necessarily competing against each other, but working

together toward the same goals? >> thank you, james. i have seen many communities that are working very hard together. the grant system is, in my opinion a foreign economy. i have written extensively about what i believe are the gender origins of modern philanthropy. in the 1970's there were only 68,000 nonprofits in the late 1960's. 10 years later it was bumping up on a million. i believe a lot of it had to do with my mother's generation of women who were leaving the home to get jobs because the economy shifted and the one income household did not work anymore. many women -- my mother watched, as she raised us, she watched from the sidelines the a civil

rights movement, the migrant farmworkers movement. they wanted to be part of it. women were only 21% of the workforce in 1960 and they were bumping up on 54%. you made -- you had a huge number of women coming into the workforce. i believe they were told by a large part of society, i love that you want to work, but you don't have skills. you are a mother. at you can do charity. and this was pretty much just white guys giving away other white guys' money. they said, we are not interested in funding economic empowerment. it is always important to remember dr. king was murdered on the way to washington to lead the poor people's campaign 04 economic justice. not the poor people's campaign for food banks and charities. that is what we should be working towards.

as long as we are funded this way, and in fact this is really even tougher now, because the reality is the people with the money after 2008 are the people who caused the problem in 2008. it for us more and more and more to get the grants we need, we have to go up to the people who have no interest in the conversations we must lead. i have got to remember i am on c-span and i am out here trying to raise some money myself. the reality is, many of the funders, many of the biggest funders for the lamprey -- for philanthropy are people who do not pay a good wage. or people who own large amounts of food. when we want to talk about nutrition or wage -- which are the two things we should be talking about in my business. again, this is with love in our hearts, but to escape from that, we need to have better control

of our finances. this is why i am intrigued, for example, in california -- they have talked forever about a credit union. the reality is if we put our money together, the top 10 nonprofits and anything will count put our money together and say in effect, we're are not going to merge our assets, the we're going to merge our banking business. if you want our business, we want access to capital. i don't know about you all, but in d.c., we had a $12 million theater organization. $12 million. if i was lucky, i get a 200,000 dollars grant. that was the big prize. you know how much money i may come through there with $12 million every year? you need to start thinking about the merger mentality. the think about all of the different ways we stand together. imagine if we create a little seal of approval. man, if you want less poverty, look for the community action seal.

every time you shop in the store, the store pays a living wage. every time you buy here, you make us go away. that idea of channeling the economic power of our volunteers. thank you for volunteering, but think where you spend your money. if you want more money in the treasury, less charity, you have to decide where you're going to spend your money every single day. i tell you -- there are 14 million of us. 14 million people live -- work and the nonprofit sector. i know we are some of the most loyal voters in america, but because our organizations cannot talk about --if someone came to the d.c. central kitchen and said, robert, what you think of these candidates? and i am a pro. i cannot say, based on my experience, this candidate has the best possible plan for limited and the need for my charity. if i do that, i have broken the law. the supreme court says a business can do that all day long, but i can't? these are the kinds of things we need to be much more deliberate about that. particularly for a young man, older leaders will oftentimes say we can't do that.

and we have to respect the trials they went through. the point is for your generation, you have to be polite, but firm and say, i'm sorry, we have to go a different road then, because we can't afford this kind of relationship with our government. we are doing too much hard work. we are doing too much artwork and the committee. it is patently undemocratic for the nonprofit sector to be silence this way. and going back to the risk that our forefathers and foremothers did, we need to embrace the same risk. not reckless, but calculated risk. the law, i believe, is on our side. i will have a conversation with anybody about this. i am living proof of this reality. no matter how efficient i make my business, and i am really good at what i do, no matter how

efficient i am, i should never be in this business. i love my work. i hate my job. the reality is, i feed poor people leftover food. that is just not america. that is not the america i was born into. that is not the america they taught me and my history book. that is not the america i see in the future. we must fight for something very different. we have to consider being employers ourselves. historically we train them, send them out in the broader economy, they are supposed to embrace them. it is hard to get someone to hire a felon, a working mom. what is the incentive? there is no incentive. we are the ones. we need to start the businesses. that way we can control the wage. we can reinvest in the community. let's get back to this. we are the best business in america. all we do is reinvest over and over and over. we are a mayor's dream come true. it is our job to make them see that beautiful light. thank you very much. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute]

[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] gentzel looks at the role of school boards. patrelli and neal discussed,luskey course standards. and your comments and tweets. >> tomorrow morning, several college professors release and their findings on minority students and current policies are helping or hurting their chances of getting into college. they will speak at an event hosted by the ucla civil rights project. at 9:00 a.m.ay eastern on c-span 2.

on suspend moral three, a ceremony for the anniversary of -- on c-span 3, a ceremony for the anniversary over japan day. coverage from the world war ii moratorium -- memorial. the center for strategic and international studies. we will hear remarks on the future of health advances and challenges being addressed in third world countries. you seem event at 3:00 p.m. here on c-span. >> a look of some of our programming. at 8:00 p.m.sday eastern, oral arguments in the versus clapper. a challenge to the national security agency's surveillance

program. wednesday at a 7:00 p.m., debate hagan andnator kay her republican opponent. at 8:00, a sit in a hearing on sexual assault on college campuses. thursday, the senate agriculture committee looks as a lunch nutrition. live coverage of the california governor's debate. drewspan book tv, lizabeth talks about her book, the news coverage of watergate. wednesday night, after words. law-enforcement use of surveillance. emily miller on her book. it describes her efforts to get license to own a handgun. in american history tv, tuesday at 8:00 p.m., the battle of

bladensburg. coverage of the symposium marking the anniversary of the war. coverage continues all day. find our television schedule at www.c-span.org. on twitter use -- or e-mail us at -- conversation,pan like us on facebook, follow us on twitter. at food safety issues and the potential dangers of pesticides and genetically modified foods hosted by the commonwealth club of california. this is hour and 10 minutes.

[gavel pounds] >> hello, welcome to tonight's program at the commonwealth club of california. our program for tonight -- food fights for the 21st-century first century. women's voices driving change. we have the executive director of moms across america, the founder and executive director of teens turning green and our host and moderator is the ceo of tech talk studio. now i'm going to turn it over to christy dames. >> thank you. thank you to the commonwealth club. we really appreciate being here tonight. i am really excited to have these really powerful women. some are moms. some are not.

my first question to deborah garcia. you have two major award-winning films. you're quite the vocal activist and speaker. you have a famous husband, jerry garcia. how did you come to make films about food? you have been a film maker for a long time. >> in 1970 when i was in college, i started making food, and because of that era, going natural about that, i became vegetarian, became kind of a organic fanatic and felt much better and felt very committed to that. i knew at some point i wanted to make films. i did not start off making documentaries. i did not make documentaries for many years. but i was when to make films about the food system and why people should demand a food system -- a healthier food system.

so, that first film i made was "the future of food" which came out about 15 years ago. that way was talking about the perfect food system. they were talking about the perfect pair -- pear, lovely bread. which is important. but i want to talk about the seas applied, all of this which was really under the water. i did not know that, and i was an extremely informed consumer. i was very popular. netflix bought it 50,000 copies. whole foods carried it. we had this great program where people could buy bulk copies, 200 copies and sent to all of their friends. after four years of that, i decided to go more deeply into that same realm, so i made the film "symphony of soil." which is about soil.

our relationship to soil. and it even looks at agriculture from soil's point of view. you do not want to poison it. you do not want to kill it. you want to give back to it. it is promoting healthy soil, healthy plants, healthy planet, which i think we need to demand. we deserve and we need to get it. >> beautiful. thank you. next, we have the executive director of moms across america. there is even a moms across the globe that has taken off. every year at the fourth of july there are 172 parades. she is a major voice.

she was just invited to the epa a few weeks ago because there was such a major storm that happened across the country and they asked her to come to washington. zen, how did you become involved in food activism? >> i love my kids. they have food allergies. dairy, gluten, nuts. the dairy, wheat, gluten, and nuts allergies, i had heard those before. and the carageenan -- it was like carageenan? it isn't just about everything kids like. even organic food, unfortunately. when i heard that it can cause stomach ulcers and cancer, what we don't see is extremely important as well. the inflammation on the outside is a warning light for what is going on on the inside.

i started to research about food. i watched "food inc." i watched ted talks. and i found gmo's, genetically modified organisms -- we went as gmo free as possible. my son's mouth swelled up. within four months, it was almost gone. when i saw my children's health improve, i got very involved in prop 37. it was election night. i was sitting in the back of the room. the leader at the front of the room, she had done landmark, which is personal training in leadership and all that. she had done it and i had done it. and i thought, why is she up there and i am back here?

what is my role in this campaign and this cause? and i realized i had just inconveniently involved. i was helping out. and i asked myself, what if i took on, i am the one to transform the food industry? not mean myself, but my actions. i am taking it on. i knew the results would be completely different than being someone who else out. so i asked itself, how can i let as many people know about gmo's in as short amount of time as possible. i came up with the idea of fourth of july parades. we will go to our local fourth of july parades where the permits, the porta potty is already set up. we will hold up a banner and say moms across america march to label gmo's.

everybody knows that a mom's only special interest is her children. this is why moms are so important. we have done lots of other things, too, which we will get involved in later. >> thank you. our third panelist is judi shils. she is the mom of erin shrody. the two of you did something amazing. can you tell us how you came to food? >> actually all of my life changed when my daughter was born. i read a book called "diet for a poisoned planet." in a day my entire kitchen went from conventional to organic and i never looked back. i realize the child i was carrying in me needs to come

into a clean world. she grew up and some years later i realized i needed to do for her and for her peer group everything i could possibly do to sustain the world, so we started something called teens turning green, which is now much more college turning green. so many of these students are here with me tonight. basically our goal is to march around to college campuses to really affect change. my role as my daughter's role and that is really to be mentors. we have to teach them how to fight the fight. food, this year, has become a huge one for us. there is a lot of food justice committees, as there should be. the food that is being sent to our children from the time they are in preschool through college is some of the most terrific food there is, i think we all know that. filled with everything we're hearing about.

this particular year, i decided we were going to do something about food. you can absolutely change the food in your school, the food in your life, in your refrigerator. but the school piece i never really saw happen. i decided we were going to focus on a school in our immunity, very underserved, which is in marin county -- marin county. our goal was non-gmo, zero waste. everybody said you're out of your mind. this can happen. i shot off an e-mail to the superintendent. i said, i want to change her food he --your food program. can i? he said absolutely. then i thought, who am i to change the food system? i did not really know what i was doing. i partnered with a local chef who had a lot of buying power and was pretty wkn