Support for food is love is provided by Wild Alaska Salmon and Seafood.

Catching, processing and delivering seafood directly to the consumer's front door.

From caught to bought wild wild salmon direct from the fishermen.

Information at WildAlaskaSalmonandSeafoodfood.m Here's to the local restaurants, to the chefs, owner operators, the staff the ones who love being in the weeds night after night when we go to work each morning, that's who we have in mind.

From where we source our food to how we deliver it.

Here's to them, the ones who are out there cooking for us every day.

Restaurants are the heart of everything we do.

We are Performance Food Service.

Proudly supporting Food Is Love.

When you add up the risks of owning a restaurant the stats can be intimidating.

It's common knowledge that restaurants have a high rate of failure.

The capital that takes to start up, hire and train help and the daily issues of supply and demand makes it an uphill climb for someone trying to get a foot in the door of the restaurant scene.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

But drive around St. Louis on a weekend visit the farmers market in Tower Grove and chances are you'll find a back door, so to speak.

Many of St. Louis' successful eateries have gotten their start on four wheels.

The public's enthusiasm for getting a meal from a food truck has grown exponentially also.

But what if I told you that food trucks could have a higher purpose, continuing to be profitable, but also serving the underserved?

As a chef, I need to stay curious in order to evolve.

For me, that means looking beyond a good meal to learn more about who made it and what inspires them to cook.

"La Comida es amor" every great city has great food.

I'm going on a journey around the world.

Right here in St. Louis.

I'm on a quest to find passionate chefs who cooks from the heart.

"I think it's the best."

To prove that food is love And it's going to be delicious.

Food is love.

Love your food.

Food truck parks like this have become popular in the last couple of years.

They're open air, offer a lot of variety, and they usually come with entertainment included.

St. St. Louis alone is estimated to have at least 150 different food trucks.

They only require one or two people to operate, and they're mobile.

If the concept doesn't take off, sell your truck and recoup your money for these reasons these reasons makes food trucks an easy gamble.

But the food truck sector is still in its infancy, and that makes some part of it yet undefined.

For retired Brigadier General John Michele, the lack of real organization in the food truck world provides a platform to apply his organizational and logistic skill set.

I'm here at Soulcial Kitchen to talk to John and check out his food truck operation.

At first glance, the setup looks like a restaurant with food trucks parked outside and technically that's what it is.

But there's a lot more going on here than first meets the eye.

John, I thought it was coming for food trucks.

So this is a brick and mortar?

It is, it's a brick and mortar.

But it's one that has a much more, I would say comprehensive or expansive mission to really be able to create consistent service variety and to really achieve the mission we want, we need the power of a brick and mortar because of the full kitchen, because the commissary because of things and the experiences wrapped around you.

There's a lot of similarities running a restaurant and being in the military.

Right.

We got the logistical nightmares.

Yes.

And every night we got a war zone back there.

That's exactly, that's a great way to you know, the reality is we know wars are won or lost on logistics.

We like to think it's always the fancy tools that we use for warfare.

We talk a lot about guns and planes and whatever we're using.

Right.

We talk about the training of people and all those matter.

But the end of the day, success comes from having a logistics system that can sustain the operation.

And a restaurant is exactly that.

We have all these moving pieces and parts with food and beverage and people.

And in our case, sometimes it's catering trucks, sometimes it's food trucks.

So what we have here is a mix of all those things.

So we have a comprehensive logistical operating base here if you want to use military parlance.

And it's very much like the military.

But when you retired, was that the first thing on your mind when you retired?

Well, now I want to be in the restaurant business because I heard it's so great.

Well, how did that happen?

That's actually funny.

Holly and I wanted to do some things together as well because we'd moved so much.

We really wanted to talk about how can we do something together and have a positive impact on the community?

And we picked food insecurity.

But then because of COVID especially, we started keenly paying attention to food trucks.

Different economics.

Yes.

It's a lot easier absolutely.

To get a loan for the food truck.

Right.

Well, whether you're doing that or whether you're I mean, it's more condensed.

So one of the big things I learned in the military and we really like to what we try to apply, we can, is the power of simplicity.

It's easy to overcomplicate everything, especially if there's a lot of pieces and moving pieces.

So everywhere you are, you want to be able to find out, how can I achieve the mission in the simplest, most straightforward way.

So we looked at how do we serve people great food, how do we get at doing something impactful in the community?

We kept landing on the power of food trucks.

So when we looked at it, we said, this is really something that has the potential to not just make a difference for the things we want to achieve.

But we realized that the food truck industry as a dimension of hospitality was significantly underdeveloped and really still pretty not organized.

And that's what we did in the military, and that's what we've done, is we come in and organize a system, and that's what led to why we're having this conversation at this table right now.

The purpose of the campus is, this is the camp where they go back and resupply and then go out every day.

Is that right?

It's exactly right.

So we like to say we connect and bless people through great food.

So if you're running a kitchen because you have so one dimension, it is a traditional restaurant experience.

So we buy from large purveyors.

Now we just levy the food trucks as part so they get the benefit of scale buying.

They get the advantage of drop offs, the whole back of this restaurant, really.

This is where the power exists behind this wall.

That's all a commissary, walk-ins.

Right.

Everything you need to organize the food trucks as well as the restaurant for success, the building also works as a training facility, and all of the different food trucks outside are operated by apprentices in John Michelle's food truck school.

On site food service certification programs are in the works as well.

It's like he thought of everything.

Apprentices gets the opportunity to run their own trucks and food concepts, which adds variety to the lineup at the truck park.

One of the things we did is we wanted to engage on the training program because there is none.

And we reached out to the Department of labor and found out that no one had ever created a food truck apprentice program.

An apprentice program is just that, right?

Like whether you're going to be an electrician, electrical apprentice, how do I learn all the dimensions from basic sanitation to just walk your way through the whole value chain.

And so that's effective.

What we do, our employees are part of.

They get entered in the food truck apprentice program, the first one in the United States.

That's impressive.

That's the power of training and organizing, right?

Yeah.

I don't know very much about food trucks.

I mean, you've really opened my mind up to it today.

So what is more heartwarming than soup?

I want to have a food truck, too.

A food is love food truck where we can do soup because it's nurturing.

Like your grandma, when you weren't feeling well, she would cook you soup.

There was a reason for that.

Exactly.

There is still something left in me that can say, well, I might expand and do something.

I hope so.

I would like to apply for that apprenticeship program.

Okay.

I'll get you an application here before we're done today.

So this fine swine, is that your flagship food truck?

It's the one that's most prolific and probably most in demand, the fine Swine, which was in multiple locations about New Baden, Mount Vernon.

And this one is very, very heavily booked.

We also have a trailer that we often we can also use if she's out a lot of time.

On Friday nights, we'll use the barbecue trailer, so we always like to have her open in the park.

But of all the different styles of trucks you see parked here, the most interesting one is definitely this.

Dubbed the Space Shuttle Cafe, it's built from a 39 foot long section of a DC-3 airplane fuselage that was used in World War II.

If this thing could only talk, it would have some stories to tell.

This is the main stay of the park.

So the Space Shuttle Cafe has their own menu, completely independent of everything in the restaurant.

Very, very I mean, literally, an airplane.

You cut the wings off.

They modified it.

Full commercial kitchen.

Philly cheesesteaks, chicken and waffles.

So a super food truck.

Right.

Wow.

It's hard to miss, that's for sure.

But believe it or not, the inside is even more impressive.

This is not just an ordinary food truck.

I mean, you could see this is tricked out.

So everything you could imagine, we've got two chefs in here.

No, I think it's Pilots.

She's the mainstay of our parks, and so we operate her as a diner here.

What an ordeal to make an airplane into a truck.

Yeah.

When you look at, between the chilling stations, all the things you particularly understand, this is beyond a workhorse.

This is the one I want.

Yeah, I don't blame you.

I mean with your background, you could do I mean, look at it flat, Char serving station.

You got everything.

You can go up in the cockpit and take a nap.

You can yeah, there's actually, if you want to go sit if you want to sit in those uncomfortable seats from World War II, then you could try to nap.

But you ain't going to nap long, because we literally, I'm like man, how did those people fly 14 hours missions back then?

This is a better kitchen than some restaurants have.

All right.

Original dials from 1944.

And then this is the one that has slightly been modified so you can get this thing on the street.

But for you, it's cool because you're a pilot.

I know you have these little cards.

You brag about what you can operate.

I mean, how many people can say they can operate this thing?

Only you!

Only us.

And the beautiful thing, Holly's a pilot too.

So we both got we got to, right?

We're like, this is perfect for us.

That's why it was originally we were just going to buy this and do the currency of carrying out of it.

And yeah, we got a little more now, but it's special with its heritage that it flew in World War II.

How cool is that.

Absolutely.

It's about as American as you get.

It's tough built, and now it's delighting people out the back window instead of moving forward to the front window.

Thank you.

Thank you.

It was a wonderful flight.

It was a wonderful flight.

A band is coming to play live music this evening and the park will be in full swing.

All the trucks are getting ready for the rush between the food truck park, the apprentice program, and the commissary restaurant.

You might assume you've heard the whole story, but in reality, there is much more to the master plan of all of this.

Before things get crazy, here, we sit down to talk about another side to the all, a charitable side.

What we really saw was an opportunity, going back to food trucks, to be innovative.

For one key reason being with the background that we have, we're looking for how do we and this is innovation, right?

Innovation is taking things that already exist and organizing them in new and novel ways.

We just take things that we didn't invent anything, didn't invent a food truck, but what we saw is the capacity.

You have something that's everywhere already, in every community.

What if we could take that?

Create an economic way to incentivize food truck operators, serve a need when especially the last two years, we've lost so many soup kitchens, as you know, and places that serve those who are struggling.

And what if we can now just turn that capacity for good while benefiting those who operate those trucks?

That way they can continue to do it.

So we created the currency of carrying this simple token system that people, the community, can participate in, they can contribute to.

We subsidize here through the restaurant.

And now everyone can either make an impact at a human level, or they can take the currency and donate it back to what we call the pay it forward bank Leading as an example, John uses the currency of caring at the Social Kitchen restaurant to collect donations for his own special food truck missions that he calls Love Thy Neighbor.

Once the threshold is met, john and his wife takes the food truck into an underprivileged part of St. Louis or the Metro East, and they hand out 100 free restaurant quality meals.

It's a concept that sounds so simple, it's genius.

And every time we as a community collect 100, we launch a Love Thy Neighbor truck into the community and bless 100 or more people with free food.

A simple piece of plastic has become a means of exchange to incentivize food truck operators because they get the money.

The money goes to the person delivering the meal in the food truck.

And the beneficiary is someone who doesn't have any choices.

Think about it.

When you're struggling or when you're home, you don't get a lot of choices.

You're like, you can have this or that.

What about if they could eat like you and I do walk up to a truck, have anything you want have the dignity of choice in that moment.

And that's what Holly and I wanted to do, and that's what we're doing.

We've subsequently, beyond our five trucks, We've now signed on four other trucks, and our vision is to sign..?

There's no reason this can't scale..No.

Every city that has a food truck which is every city.

Yeah.

You simply need an agent and you already got a meal.

John created the currency of caring tokens as a means of exchange for a meal of a token holder's choice from any participating food truck.

One currency of caring token is worth about $10 to the food truck and represents a quality dignified meal to the holder.

The kicker is the whole thing is funded by donations, all a part of something John likes to call dignified dining.

John even sees this as a way to replace the outdated idea of a soup kitchen by bringing the food to where the need is, a huge leap for the social stigma and perceived lower quality meals they're often looked at as handouts.

Outside, the music is getting ready to start and hungry crowds are showing up.

There is something about live music being outside in the summertime and the smell of the different food trucks that is just magic.

Like other food truck parks, john designed the layout to be centered around the entertainment.

This logistic background shines through in the execution of this concept.

It's a picture perfect evening, but as I people wach and reflect on it all, I can't stop thinking about the love thy neighbor missions.

So imagine when you could take your kitchen and literally bring it anywhere.

I can bring it to a really nice place.

I could take it to a beach.

I could take it to a park.

I could take it to a wedding.

I could take it to homeless shelter like we did last week.

It doesn't matter if it's got a way to drive in there or drive on it.

You can get to it.

So it really solves a lot of that...

So we talk about food deserts.

Yeah.

Why do you have food deserts if you have food trucks?

You'll probably feel a lot better about yourself, too.

In the end of the day, knowing that you're helping people that are struggling and has a hard time, I mean, we should all do that more.

It makes me want to help out if I can.

If I had my own food truck, it would be easy.

I can just start to agree to take the currency of caring.

After all, getting other food trucks to participate is what John would like to see happen.

But since I don't have my own food truck, maybe there's another way to help.

But for right now, looking forward to some chicken and waffles from the space shuttle cafe.

Oh, look at that splash down.

Oh, my.

Oh, yeah.

Chicken and waffle, man, that thing, that's a beauty right there.

You need definitely jump on that thing.

Thank you very much.

Oh, Magnificent Magnus.

Thank you.

And we got some fries.

So we got a flat fry.

We don't sell fries inside.

We're tots only.

So we got a brand new flat fry.

And the cool thing about it is, even if you let it sit for a while, it goes from like a hot flat fry to almost a potato chip as it cools down.

So 2 hours later, it's still good and edible.

Napkins, alright..we need utensils.

And then we'll go..I dont think we do utensils We're going to get napkins and we're going to eat like men!.

Okay.

I've never had chicken.. No chicken and waffle?

Is this really your first chicken and waffle?

That's the first time.

Oh, I am so excited.

It's got a nice little spice to it has slaw.

Yeah, so you get it.

I mean, that contrast is pretty nice.

Yeah, and who doesn't like waffles at like, 09:00 at night?

I mean, come on.

Wow.

Out of this world.

Cheesy pun intended.

The interesting part of this story is the word soulcial which we trademarked.

We trademarked that in 2006.

It sat on the shelf for 15 years.

And the whole idea behind soulcial, combining the fact that we're innately spiritual beings at our best when we're in service to others, that's what that word's about.

We trademarked that.

Wow, that and it sat on the shelf for 15 years waiting for a moment, and it just happened to manifest through food.

Yeah.

We knew a while ago we wanted to do something that could make the world a little better.

Hopefully inspire people to do their version of whatever and really bless people.

Because all that's all that matters at the end of the day, isn't it?

When you think about it, you want people to remember you.

that you bring a smile to their face.

It's going to be how you made them feel or how they felt around you or what you did.

Right.

It isn't going to be a lot of that other stuff that we, kind of easy to get caught up in.

It's been an interesting day, for sure.

Out of everything, I was most inspired by the stories of feeding the underserved communities.

I think the most important and beautiful work that you do is this currency of caring.

That's something really special.

It's simple, it's impactful.

You've seen the photos, we've seen the faces, but most importantly, it's scalable.

As I said earlier, there's food trucks everywhere in America, in every city.

There's food insecurity and people struggling in every city.

And a simple means of exchange, like the currency of caring means what we're talking about and what we're doing here in this part of the world can be done in every single city.

We both believe, Holly and I believe you certainly very much believe that food is love.

So to see how it's done, firsthand, John has invited me to come along on the next love thy neighbor mission.

This is my chance to contribute.

There is way more good in the world than sometimes we're led to believe.

And we're going to change that, right?

Yeah, absolutely, amen.

We're going to change that together.

One food truck at a time.

One food truck window at a time.

I agree.

And a little orange token.

With John's blessing, I'm going to make some of my signature soups to give out on the truck.

I'm very interested to see how this currency of caring is working.

And love thy neighbor.

I'm on my way to meet John at Soulcial Kitchen to warm the soups and prep the truck before today's mission.

On the menu for today is New England clam chowder and spicy chicken gumbo sodas.

Sodas, we've got water We'll tie that down...

This is the simple innovations communities are going to have to look at the next couple of years because we have growing food insecurity, right.

As costs go up so you have more people in need, we can't build more traditional, answer with traditional ways of just brick and mortar.

Food pantries are closing.

Church kitchens are closing because they can't meet the commercial standard.

So you have this convergence effect.

And like I've said before, two things we know for a fact.

Every city has food trucks.

Every city, regardless of what size, just the amount, the density changes.

And every city has people who are struggling.

I mean, that's a fair hypothetical.

All you do is you unite them and you need one agent per community.

That one meal is that one thing that really gets to give them hope in that moment..Hope in mankind!

The soups are ready and loaded into the truck.

Today's mission, like dozens of other John has been on, is simple.

Locate and coordinate with an organization already serving the underserved.

Show up in the food truck and start feeding people until the food is gone.

Today we will be visiting little Sisters of the Poor, an organization that provides housing for the elderly and poor.

In recent years, though, the facility has had to scale back on its services in St. Louis.

It's just a kind of gap in outreach that motivated John to do this in the first place.

We are glad to be here with you guys.

The varied reason that persons might find themselves here are irrelevant.

The mission is to show them love.

A line is already forming and today we're here to feed them a warm meal.

Well, this is the first time on a food truck and I made a mess because one thing is to cooking five star dining in the restaurant and this is like cooking on an airplane or train.

What would you like, New England clam chowder or chicken sausage gumbo?

So we're just here to make sure you feel love today.

food is love.

There is a lot of love in my gumbo.

You sure you can handle it?

Okay?

I'm just overwhelmed on how grateful people are, seeing a smile on their face.

A bowl of soup and a corn muffin.

That's all it takes to make their day.

And there is a little corn muffin there with roasted onions and thyme.

I've never experienced anything like this before, being out here and giving food away to people that experience food insecurity every day.

Been through about 100 bowls of soup right now.

Food is love.

This is what it's all about right here.

Giving back to the community.

The gumbo was the big winner, I think.

So I'm trying to get everybody to taste the New England clam chowder, which is a classic soup.

Its delicious.

Lot of love in here.

And it's an awesome feeling when you help people.

New England clam chowder.

It has fresh clams, bacon, and it comes with a corn muffin with roasted onions and thyme.

There you go.

Thank you.

What a satisfying evening.

I would say.

I mean, from the minute we got here, you saw they were in anticipation and then, when are you guys going to open?

And the surprise and the excitement about what are you serving?

And then you saw it, nonstop.

It was nothing but joy.

You looked through that window.

A lot of them recognized you.

I think we saw no matter where people are in life, they're watching the show, which is really encouraging because they want to be inspired.

I recognize you off the flip.

I've seen you a number of times.

Well, thank you.

Are you enjoying the show?

Oh yeah, always because im into cooking.

But it's just reflective of food connects people.

I know.

I mean, what's more heartwarming than soup?

But just the simple joy when you look over here at everybody, and this is where they spend their time coming to a place.

So we talk about food trucks, ability to get into any parking lot, get any food desert, get into any place.

By the time you pop that window, within five minutes, there's just joy dispensing outside of it.

I mean, you can get high on the feeling of helping other people.

Really?

That's what, I actually wish people would!

I mean, I don't know if it's the right word, but I mean, I can feel like, euphoric feeling exactly.

Helping other people.

Yeah.

There's nothing else like it.

Right.

When you think about the look in somebody or that simple appreciation, the fact that you're using your strength and your gift in that moment just to do something to bless them and even interacting with just somebody.

Paying attention to them, looking them in the eye.

Yeah.

Having a conversation, taking a picture.

Yeah.

Yep.

And they know, I mean, people are busy And then to stop the day to go to their place.

Their place to say, we appreciate you.

We just want to spend a few minutes with you.

Yeah.

I want to thank you so much for taking me on this journey.. and my dreams of a food truck now I understand the whole thing.

I think I'm going to stay on the sidelines and have you run that.

But it was such a great experience and what a great thing you do.

It really shows how much you care about the community.

And I think I speak for everybody I want to say thank you very much for what you do, and hopefully we can do this again.

I would love to do it again.

It spells food as love, doesn't it?

Literally, when we first met, I was like, this is food is love.

Right?

I know.

Literally, we're using food to connect and bless people.

At the end of this trip, I feel good about the work we did.

The mission of love thy neighbor and the currency of caring.

There is way more good in the world than sometimes we're led to believe.

And we're going to change that, right?

Yeah, absolutely, man.

We're going to change that together.

One food truck at a time.

One food truck window at a time.

I agree.

And a little orange token, but at the same time, it's just hard to walk away and wrap the episode with a flowery finish and a feel good hug.

For me, the Love Thy Neighbor trip really drove home the reality of how great the need is for what John is doing.

When you see how much a warm meal and a little of your time can mean to someone, you start to understand how much most of us take for granted in our lives and how valuable a good idea can be.

The ultimate goal of this mission is to get food trucks everywhere to accept the currency of caring.

Think of the impact this could have on food insecurity.

The first time I met John Michele, I knew there was something special about him.

Was it his background in organization and strategy?

His cool ideas?

His charisma?

Or maybe it's his perfect hair.

I couldn't put my finger on it until today.

When I saw his ideas in action, I experienced the selflessness and the thought behind it, and I witnessed the effect on real people in real time.

That's when I realized it wasn't any of the other things that made John special.

His innovation of the idea of how food trucks work and the way he's using them to serve others in need, it just serves as more proof to me that food is love.

And remember, food is love.

I love you.

You felt it?

You felt it!

Here's to the local restaurants, to the chefs, owner, operators, the staff, the ones who love being in the weeds night after night when we go to work each morning.

That's who we have in mind.

From where we source our food to how we deliver it.

Here's to them, the ones who are out there cooking for us every day.

Restaurants are the heart of everything we do.

We are Performance Food Service Proudly supporting food is love.

Support for Food Is Love comes from Natural Tableware, supplier of sustainable green alternatives to plastic tableware.

Support also comes from Moonrise Hotel, a boutique hotel located on the Delmar Loop in St. Louis.