To Dine For with Kate Sullivan

[Ron Finley] I want to change the rotation of this planet.

[Kate Sullivan] Get ready to meet a true visionary with a green thumb.

Ron Finley and his garden have attracted worldwide attention, shining a light on just how tough it can be to get fresh food in this country, especially in our inner cities.

[Ron] Growing your own food, having...gardening to me equates to freedom.

[Kate] Today, Ron is taking me to his favorite restaurant in LA, to eat what he loves and find out why he loves it.

[Ron] We don't have anything like this restaurant around here.

I wanted this restaurant to exist.

[Kate] Then, we hear how a slap on the wrist from the city of LA fueled his passion for gardening as a conduit for freedom and equality.

[Ron] How do we change culture?

How do we change people's DNA, Kate?

That's what needs to happen.

[Kate] And then, Ron is taking me on a tour of his office in a former swimming pool.

[Ron] This one says, "Together," and the other one says, "We grow."

So, they can be switched and say, "We grow together" or "Together we grow."

[Kate] What's better in life than a bottle of wine, great food and an amazing conversation?

My name is Kate Sullivan and I am the host of To Dine For .

I'm a journalist, a foodie, a traveler, with an appetite for the stories of people who are hungry for more.

Dreamers.

Visionaries.

Artists.

Those who hustle hard in the direction they love.

I travel with them to their favorite restaurant, to hear how they did it.

This show is a toast to them and their American dream.

To Dine For with Kate Sullivan is made possible by... [Announcer] There are people in your life who count on you for what matters most.

American National agents are close to home and committed to our communities.

They'll help you find the right coverage for you, your family, even your farm and business.

You can learn more at americannational.com.

Lavazza has worked towards perfecting the art of blending coffee for four generations, celebrating coffee in all its forms.

Lavazza Classico can be brewed however you take your coffee.

Lavazza.

Devoted to coffee since 1895.

[Kate] Today, I'm in the West Adams neighborhood of south Los Angeles, on my way into a restaurant called "Alta," known for soul food, and I cannot wait.

I'm meeting a dreamer, a visionary, a man who goes by the title "Gangster Gardener."

I can't wait for you to meet Ron Finley.

[Ron] Hi.

[Kate] How are ya?

How's it going?

It is so nice to meet you Ron.

[Ron] The pleasure's mine.

[Kate] Thank you aw, thank you so much for doing this.

We're gonna have some fun.

[Kate] There isn't just good food at Alta Adams.

There's food that's good for the soul.

This West Adams neighborhood restaurant serves up California soul food: dishes that combine traditional West African recipes with California fresh.

The classics are reimagined here.

Cornbread with honey butter, black eyed pea fritters, fried chicken with hot sauce, all of the staple comfort foods.

In a city full of transplants, it can be tough to feel at home, but not at Alta Adams.

[Keith Corbin] It is a place of inclusion.

California soul food is another representation of including dishes, techniques, ingredients, stemming from West Africa to the Caribbean to the South.

And here in California, the perfect idea of America, it is when you walk into Alta.

[Kate] The atmosphere of inclusion is intentional and starts at the top.

Keith Corbin has had his own life experiences that he brings to the table literally at his restaurant.

[Keith] So I grew up in Watts in the projects.

Um, (clears throat) I participated in everything the street culture had to offer, which led me to spend ten years in prison.

I came home in 2014.

[Kate] After he struggled to get promoted because of his record, Keith decided he was gonna open a restaurant and run it his way.

[Keith] So, I felt that the system is unforgiving.

And without opportunity to succeed, right, we're gonna keep people in the same situations.

This restaurant, one, is a hub for opportunity.

So, we hire from the incarcerated.

We hire the 18-19 year olds that just come by and want a job.

I know their struggles.

I know how hard it is to come from never having a job or an impoverished community and getting a job for the first time.

So, that's my mission...right, is to be that beacon of hope.

That's what we're here for.

[Kate] It makes sense that Ron Finley picked Alta Adams as his favorite restaurant.

Ron shares the same mantra as Keith, his work is about giving people a chance for something better.

[Kate] Thank you for bringing me to Alta!

(Ron chuckles) I'm so excited to try the food here.

But I'm wondering, you are an LA guy.

[Ron] Yes.

[Kate] Who grew up in south central LA... [Ron] Yes.

[Kate] ...Of all the restaurants in LA, why did you choose this one as your favorite?

[Ron] The folks that own this place is like family to me, you know Keith and uh, Daniel.

And I know the struggles that they went through to uh, to get this place open, and uh, I was in here since day one, giving them hell, you know.

[Kate] (laughs) That's what they told me too, they said the same thing!

[Ron] Well, what's this cold cornbread?

(chuckles) You know so, so yeah, we used to have, we had a lot of fun.

It was a lot of banter, a lot of fun.

[Kate] They said you're the cheap critic.

(laughter) [Ron] Is that what they told you?

[Kate] Yes.

[Ron] Well, I mean, I want it right, and I want, the fact that they're still here, I mean I wanted them to be here, it was like, I, that was one of my prayers, I wanted this restaurant to exist.

And I know, you know, both of them... [Kate] And why?

Why was it so important to you?

[Ron] Because we don't have anything like this restaurant around here.

It hadn't been a spot.

And you see how sweet and how, I mean, kind this man is, but when you grow up in certain circumstances, you become a part of your environment.

I'm a part of my environment, but I'm not a part of my environment, 'cause I could've definitely went another way.

I mean, definitely.

I could've been a Keith, I could've been a bunch of people.

You know, and I tell people, you know, uh, I studied tailoring when I was 15 years old.

[Kate] So, you wanted to be a fashion designer?

[Ron] No, no, no, I wanted to be a master tailor.

[Kate] A master tailor.

[Ron] Oh, yeah.

I wanted to be able to throw a garment up in the air and it was so tailored that it would levitate.

You know, that was my goal, and nobody took, nobody took me seriously, you know, Black kid from there.

I mean, even um, the tailors, you know the Black tailors and stuff.

I didn't care.

I would've picked up pants, but I wanted to be a master tailor because I realized that clothes weren't made for us.

They were made for other folks.

The specs from all the clothes, they weren't made for us.

So, they didn't accommodate us.

So, at that young age, I realized I wanted my whole life to be custom.

Everything.

[Kate] Hmmm.

[Ron] I wanted... [Kate] You wanted your whole life to be custom-fit.

[Ron] I wanted everything to be custom.

[Kate] Uh-oh.

[Ron] Ooohh.

[Kate] Ooohhh.

[Waitress] Hi guys, here we have some fried chicken in our Fresno hot sauce.

[Kate] You're just gonna hit us with fried chicken, right off the bat?

[Ron] Off the bat?

[Kate] Wow!

I love it.

[Waitress] Yeah, that's the appetizer!

Followed by our sea bass with tarragon vinegar.

[Kate] Ah, that looks amazing.

[Ron] Ha ha!

[Kate] Thank you so much.

This was your request.

[Both] Yes.

[Kate] It's not on the menu, but they made it for you.

[Ron] I, well, they.

[Kate] Custom.

Custom-fit, Ron.

[Ron] Come on, come on Kate.

(Kate laughs) Custom.

You know you go somewhere... [Kate] I'm getting the script, I'm getting the script, right?

(laughs) [Kate] And, I wondered if you could shed a little light onto how you grew up?

[Ron] I mean, I lost my father at a very early age.

Um, drowned in some freak current in Michigan.

[Kate] Oh, I'm so sorry.

[Ron] So, I didn't know my dad.

Uh, but uh, the guy that my mother got with after that, it was, let's say less than um, (chuckles) pleasurable.

But, I grew up in a house with like eight of us?

Or so.

Eight kids.

[Kate] It was crowded.

[Ron] Yeah, it was crowded.

And um, but it was a good time.

We haven't started this yet.

[Kate] Oh, my God!

More food!

[Waitress] I have way more for you.

[Ron] You need to stop.

[Kate] The food keeps coming, from collard greens to braised oxtail over rice to the decadently delicious dish of mac and cheese.

This is a soul food feast.

[Kate] I'm not ready for that.

And what is that on the top is that like uh... [Waitress] Breadcrumbs.

[Kate] Now, that we have Ron's custom order on the table, and let me tell you, this is quite an order, I wanted to find out more about his very first garden.

[Ron] Just like 26.5 million other Americans, I live in a food desert.

South Central Los Angeles, home of the drive-thru and the drive-by.

Funny thing is the drive-thrus are killing more people than the drive-bys.

People are drying from curable diseases in South Central Los Angeles.

So what I did, I planted a food forest in front of my house.

It's on the strip of land that we call the parkway.

It's like 150 feet by like 10 feet.

Thing is, it's owned by the city.

[Kate] Take me to 2010 when you start planting (Ron laughs) a garden on city property, correct?

[Ron] Welll... kinda.

[Kate] (laughs) That's debatable.

[Ron] It's, to me it's still gray.

It's still gray because, if it's your property, then you maintain it.

[Kate] Yes, yes.

[Ron] You know, don't give it to me to maintain.

[Kate] Right, right.

[Ron] So, and that started because of, basically I saw the difference.

I saw the difference in, you know, going and working in other neighborhoods, and I saw these tree-lined streets with the tree canopy, which... [Kate] Yes, and the grass is all perfect?

[Ron] ...Which is by design.

Because they know that tree canopy is cooling the asphalt.

It's shading everything, the air is fresher, it's filtering air.

We didn't have none of that.

Growing your own food, having...gardening to me equates to freedom.

[Kate] So, what was the first thing you planted?

[Ron] I don't remember.

It was, the first thing I always tell people, I planted was beauty.

You know, and that's what this was about.

Beautiful.

I wanted to just have beautiful spaces that um, encourage beautiful faces and smiling faces, and healthy places, and that's what I wanted.

I just wanted people to see something, oh, different, and that's what happened.

I wanted people to, this is what we can do with these spaces.

[Kate] And you were cited by the city of Los Angeles.

[Ron] Yep.

[Kate] Gardening without a permit.

(Kate laughs) [Ron] Mm-hmm.

[Ron] That made me like, a gangster.

[Kate] Ok, you were cited for gardening without a permit.

Take me to that moment.

What was your emotion?

[Ron] Well, it happened twice.

Happened years before.

And they basically have to take everything out.

First time, years ago... nobody knows about that.

[Kate] They told you that you had to get everything out, you couldn't do this.

[Ron] Well, somebody came by and said, "You have to take this out and this out" and then somebody else drove by and said, "This yours?"

"Yeah."

"This has to go, all of this you have to."

I said, "I already did what the city."

And they go, "No, all of it has to go."

I said, "Okay."

So, I took everything out.

I had like agapanthus and jasmine, and banana trees, and it just hurt, it hurt me.

Me and a friend took all the stuff out.

So, years later, I did it again.

[Kate] Things went differently the second time around.

This time, Ron fought the citation.

After eight months of unreturned phone calls to the city, things took a turn when Steve Lopez with the LA Times picked up the story.

[Ron] Steve is like a bulldog, it's like, and Steve don't hold no punches, it's like, all of a sudden it's in the LA Times, it's in the NY Times, it's in the Wall Street Journal, it's in Financial Times in London.

So, the stories like, they think I got this machine behind me, and it's all organic (chuckles).

[Kate] So, what was the outcome of your fighting?

[Ron] I remember the councilman called me.

His office called me.

And I was literally, I'll never forget this, I was standing on the TED stage.

And I was, I was about to do a rehearsal.

They wanted to get photos of me and I was standing in front of the TED sign, this is Long Beach.

And the...I got a phone call.

He said, "Yeah, Ron, this is you know, calling from the councilman office, the councilman would love to talk with you.

We're happy for your success."

I'm like, what success, I'm not...it's not like, I'm making money.

He said, "Oh, you know, you're doing this, and you're doing that, and you were in this room, and you," that let me know they were tracking me.

And they said, "You're going to TED," I said, "I'm not going to TED, I'm at TED and I'll holler at you," and I hung up the phone.

They thought we got hung up.

They thought the phone got hung up, so they called me back.

(Chuckles) I was saying, "We didn't get hung up on, I hung up the phone."

He's like, "Oh, no, Finley, the councilman's waiting to talk to you."

So, I talked to the councilman.

That was the beginning of getting the ordinance changed.

(Inspiring music with strings) [Kate] Ron's passion was ignited.

This wasn't just about his garden anymore, it was about making a difference in his community.

[Ron] Growing one plant will give you a thousand, 10,000 seeds.

One dollar's worth of green beans will give you like, $75 worth of produce.

It's my gospel and I'm telling people, grow your own food.

Growing your own food's like printing your own money.

[Ron] You know, we call ourselves the Golden State.

We could really make this city the Golden City, by having someone help these people on the planet, and we don't.

You know, it's easy to do that.

[Kate] You got the weather for it, you got the flora, you got the fauna, right?

[Ron] We got the soil, I mean this was the bread basket.

Literally, people, you know, that's what people did here.

They grew food.

So how did we get to the space that we're in now?

I mean, that's what this is about.

How do we change culture?

That's what I'm doing with Ron Finley Project.

How do we change people's DNA, Kate?

That's what needs to happen.

(Urban contemporary music) [Kate] The Ron Finley Project's vision is to rejuvenate communities around the world through gardening.

To put it simply, Ron wants to grow food forests in cities where there are only food deserts, and he wants to do this one block at a time.

[Kate] What does the Ron Finley project do?

[Ron] What we do is advocate and demonstrate for people to change their life.

What I'm doing is showing people how to be free, from an oppressive system, from a system that really don't care about you, from a system that's literally killing you.

You think Flint is the only place that has bad water?

Just wait.

Oh, Mississippi came up.

You think they're the only ones?

They don't care.

Can they fix this?

Yeah, you can fix this.

They don't choose to.

[Kate] So, you know, you teach people to grow their own vegetables and food, but it's really not about the food.

[Ron] That's what people don't get.

You know, and I don't necessarily, yeah, I'm the guy who goes, "Oh, you're the Black guy that grows food, right?"

"Yeah, yeah."

"Oh, you're the ghetto gardener?"

"Yeah, yeah."

The gangster gardener, and it's like, I get all that.

But the bottom line is, I'm changing food culture all around the world without trying...

I didn't... You think...

This wasn't planned, Kate.

None of this was planned.

[Kate] You say that gardening is gangster.

[Ron] Mm-hmm.

[Kate] What do you mean by that?

[Ron] To me, farmers are gangster.

The right kind of teacher's gangster.

The real doctor that really help you and don't follow the rules that they learn, that know nutrition, that's gangster.

Not, not what we think of drug culture, gang violence, violence period, misogyny.

You know, it's like, to me, the things that we go, "Ah, that's gangster."

When I came up, when something was like-- when it was fly, when it was dope, when we thought that, that was cool, we said, "Ahh, that's pretty gangster."

It didn't have anything to do with the violence, or you know, what we consider the gang culture, none of that.

So, I'm like, "no.

If we're gonna talk about something being gangster, it's gonna be growing food.

So, that's where that came from.

It came from flipping...." [Kate] Making gangster a positive word.

[Ron] Yes, it came...just flipping the script on what we consider to be gangster.

[Kate] You say that gardens are life, so what do people learn when they begin the journey of gardening?

[Ron] They understand life, they understand, nobody told me, Kate, that a seed has a millennia already in it.

One tiny seed, already, that one seed is gonna give us this street.

It's gonna give us all this fruit that's on this street.

Just one tiny seed.

Nobody tells you that.

No, that it destroyed itself to give you that.

So, one seed can give you katrillion, katrillion, katrillion seeds.

(chuckles) Guess how you would look at life differently, if somebody told you that.

We shouldn't have babies in the street dying of hunger.

My thing is I want, if you come to the garden, you'll see there's a sign that says, when you walk in, that says, "Operate from happy."

And that's what I want people to be able to do... [Kate] I love that.

[Ron] ...Is to operate, because nobody tells us.

There's not a happy 101.

Should be a class.

[Kate] There should be.

[Ron] Because, it's not that hard.

So yeah, the Ron Finley Project does advocate and show people how to grow food, but it's, it's a mind shift.

What we want to do is show people what's truly valuable.

Because nobody's telling these kids that you are valuable.

You...no, you are the most valuable thing on this planet.

You can't buy value, you know, so that's what I want.

That's what the Ron Finley Project does.

(Funky contemporary piano music) [Kate] Ron recently took to the streets of Washington D.C. to fight for food equality.

He believes growing food is like printing money.

In fact, he gave out actual, compostable money with seeds in it.

These bills can be planted to grow fresh produce.

The value of the money corresponded with the value of the produce.

Twenty bucks was worth $20 worth of carrots.

One-hundred bucks could grow you $100 worth of collard greens.

Ron is on a mission to get people planting and taking matters into their own hands.

[Kate] How hard is it, if you have a small plot of land, to grow an urban garden?

[Ron] It depends on what you call small, it depends on what you call a garden.

I could have a shoebox, that's my garden.

You know, and so, my whole thing, people think the whole thing is about having acres, which is cool.

But if you have acres, that means you've got a lot of work to do.

[Kate] Right.

[Ron] I'd rather have multiple blocks.

[Kate] Yep.

[Ron] That way, I can finish this in a day, and then go to the other block.

It's the same thing, multiplication.

I can have, like, all of these slats on this table, if I put them all together.

[Kate] Right, like the size of this table, if you had land the size of this table... [Ron] Oh, yeah.

[Kate] This could be a garden.

[Ron] Yeah, it is a garden.

[Kate] And what could you grow, [Ron] Three, four by, 4 by 3?

[Kate] Yeah, 4 by 3.

What could you grow in this plot of land?

[Ron] Everything.

[Ron] Everything (laughs).

[Ron] Yeah.

What couldn't I grow in this plot with the right soil?

[Kate] Yeah.

[Ron] And the right atmosphere.

If I get sun, if I got light.

There's no reason for people not to be growing food.

[Kate] And we already know what people tell you, they know your name as.

But what would you like them to know or think when they hear the name Ron Finley?

[Ron] I don't know, first thing that came to my mind when you said that, I would, I don't know if I would, but the first thing is like somebody that cares about us.

Somebody that cares.

Somebody that literally, damn, he made a change.

You know, he made a change on this.

I want to change the rotation of this planet.

[Kate] So, how do you feel about the way your life has taken a completely different left turn?

[Ron] But it hasn't.

[Kate] How so?

[Ron] Because, people like, how do you go from fashion to gardening?

Where do clothes, where does fabric come from?

Where do colors come from?

It's not that big of a stretch.

It's another canvas.

You know, it's like, I was in a graffiti show here, one of the biggest graffiti shows ever, uh, "Beyond The Streets."

I had a garden in front.

And it's like, all these graffiti artists from all over the world, and I'm a gardener, because I said, this is my graffiti, but you can eat my art.

(Contemporary music) [Kate] After a delicious meal at Alta with this gardener and artist, I had to see for myself Ron's garden, his canvas, up close.

I wanted to see where he gets his hands dirty and what he's working on now.

[Ron] There's the little bananas.

[Kate] Yes!

And these are pomegranates.

[Ron] Yep, and those are tangerines, and that's orange, and that's...the last tree is a pear tree.

[Kate] Oh, this is heaven.

This is heaven.

[Ron] That means everywhere could be heaven, you know, if this is.

[Kate] This is heaven.

[Ron] This is corn, mint, spinach, artichokes, almonds.

[Kate] So, is this technically the city's land?

[Ron] I don't know.

They don't clean it, so technically it's mine, as far as I'm concerned.

You know?

[Kate] But is this the type of section of land where you got your first violation?

[Ron] Yes, this is where I got the law changed.

Yeah.

[Kate] Yeah.

Because this, right here, even though it's right next to your property, really is your responsibility, right?

[Ron] Yeah.

It shouldn't be, but if it's my responsibility, I should do... be able to do whatever the hell I want, where, if I'm not, you know, hurting anybody.

[Kate] Sure, so it's the process... [Ron] All of this is sweet potatoes.

[Kate] And it's regeneration it's not like, you're going out and buying anything, right?

[Ron] Look above your head.

They're bananas.

[Kate] Oh, yeah...oh, yeah.

[Ron] Do you want to see my office?

[Kate] Love to.

(Ethereal contemporary music) [Kate] The garden is planted in a repurposed swimming pool and is like a science lab for Ron where he uses trial and error every day.

[Ron] People ask me, "Now, so where do I begin?"

[Kate] Yeah.

[Ron] My answer is always the beginning.

So, it's like, where's the beginning?

And people look like, dumbfounded.

I said, wherever you begin.

You could tell a story at the middle.

You could start at the middle, you could start at the end.

You could start at the end, go to the middle, go back to the end, and go back to the front... To the beginning.

It's...people don't understand that it's your story, you can tell it the way you want.

Just because you are used to stuff being linear like that.

Change your mind, change your perspective, and that's what happens.

And that's why I think creativity comes in when people decide not to follow these rules that we've been shown.

[Kate] Is this your desk?

[Ron] Yes, this is my desk.

[Kate] Oh, wow.

[Ron] This is my desk.

[Kate] Oh, this is fantastic.

[Ron] See and I have these benches.

This one says, "Together," and the other one says, "We grow."

So, they can be switched and say "We grow together" or "Together we grow."

[Kate] Oh, I love that.

And do you do Zoom calls and everything right here?

[Ron] This is my office, literally!

I'm not kidding.

[Kate] I wish this was my office.

[Ron] That's my latest project.

[Kate] And do you have a favorite thing to grow?

[Ron] People are my favorite thing to grow.

Uh....because hopefully, if somebody grows they'll show somebody else how to grow.

And then, they'll show somebody else how to grow.

And then, they'll show somebody else how to grow.

You...gardeners are not greedy, you know.

So, that's why I say, gardeners are gangster.

[Kate] And that is Ron Finley: custom-made, just like the fashion he created at the beginning of his career.

He is an original: an artist, an activist, a grower of plants, but also of ideas.

A sower of seeds, but also of creativity.

He says, it's about the plants, and it's not about the plants.

He wants to redefine the word gangster and gardener and to capture the incredible potential growing inside every human.

Start where you are, there's no wrong or right way to do it.

Plant something today.

[Kate] If you would like to know more about the guests, the restaurants, and the inspiring stories of success, please visit todinefortv.com or follow us on Facebook and Instagram at To Dine For TV.

We also have a podcast, To Dine For the podcast is available on Apple podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts.

To Dine For with Kate Sullivan is made possible by... [Announcer] There are people in your life who count on you for what matters most.

American National agents are close to home and committed to our communities.

They'll help you find the right coverage for you, your family, even your farm and business.

You can learn more at americannational.com.

Lavazza has worked towards perfecting the art of blending coffee for four generations, celebrating coffee in all its forms.

Lavazza Classico can be brewed however you take your coffee.

Lavazza.

Devoted to coffee since 1895.