Carolyn Federman - Feeling Stuck? Could Joy and Gratitude Be the Key to Aging Well?

The laughter is flowing in this conversation! Carolyn Federman founded the Charlie Cart Project, a mobile kitchen initiative to provide children with food education. She is the protégé of Alice Waters of the Edible Schoolyard Project. Lauren and Carolyn explore finding your passion, the complexities of aging, touching on how they feel physically and mentally as they grow older. They discuss the importance of physical activity and the challenges of news consumption in today's world and share valuable advice for aging well. They talk about how gratitude, especially in relationships, helps one to cultivate a meaningful life.

https://charliecart.org/

New Favorites for New Cooks: 50 Delicious Recipes for Kids to Make

If you want to get in touch with the show, email us at lauren@agelikeabadassmother.com; we'd love to hear from you!

Transcript

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Hi, friend. This week I talked to Carolyn Fetterman. She's a philanthropist who founded the Charley Cart Project, which brings cooking education to children. Carolyn was a protege of Alice Waters, the pioneer of the farm to table movement, and she shares her experiences about working with Alice. Carolyn is funny and irreverent. From the first moment of this interview until the last, and she teaches us what contributes to a joyful and meaningful life. So listen to find out if you're doing those things. And don't forget, of course, you can watch us on Spotify or YouTube now and leave a comment. I love hearing from you and I promise I will answer you back. Of course, you can also email me at Lauren at age like a badass mother.com. And please keep sharing this podcast. You're helping us grow. I appreciate it. Thank you again for making this podcast one of the top 10% of all podcasts. You mean the world to me. Thanks, friends. Hi friends, I'm Lauren Bernick and I'm flipping the script about growing older. My guests have been influencers since before that was even a thing. Welcome to the anti Anti-Aging podcast. Welcome to age like a badass mother. Thank you so much, Lauren. You said that also beautifully. Do you want to come work with us? That Charlie can't? I don't know. I am, yes, I'm trying to be more intentional so that I make sure that I can give my all to whatever it is I decide to to do. So. Yeah. Yeah. Well. I said, I'm 56 and. Because I just spent some time putting mascara in my hair. What was your beauty trick? I actually thought maybe for a while, I thought maybe I was the only person that did that, but. But then I ran into a few people that also do that. Yeah. So apparently it's a really good hack and you can get mascara and all different colors now. So. That's the best. That's the best. I have a really good. I have a really good friend who, We went out one day in New York City, and we were trying, we said we spent like, three hours sitting in this place. It, does hair extensions, and I. I guess the woman had nothing to do today, that day. So she just let us try all these things on. And, my friend ended up buying this thing that kind of like, it goes under your hair. It's sort of like a half wig or something. Anyway, it looked like she had this super thick, long, full head of hair, and it was a dramatic difference. And she went home and she put it on before going out with her family, and nobody noticed. Yeah, yeah. Right. Yeah. Of course. Yeah. Thank you so much. Yeah. So it's been a real labor of love, as I, you know, you said in the intro that I worked for Alice Waters and, her whole thing is food, education, teaching kids, you know, through this delicious avenue to understand and participate and growing and cooking and consuming fresh food that is good for you and good for the planet. And, I was quickly converted to her way of thinking and saw the impact on kids. But I realize it's pretty resource intensive to build out teaching kitchens and especially in schools and the teachers, the educators are really interested in in promoting programs like that. But, you know, as I said, they it's resource intensive. They can't all have a teaching kitchen. So I thought, what can we do if we can't bring the kids to the kitchen? Maybe we can bring a kitchen to the kids. And so that's what we did. We designed a little mobile kitchen, a little kitchen on wheels that you can roll into a classroom and you can unpack a whole bunch of equipment, kind of like a clown car. And it holds everything and has a sink and an oven and, mixers, whisks, you know, all kinds of things, a Vitamix. And, and then you can just convert the, classroom into basically a prep kitchen. And kids are measuring, they're chopping, they're tasting, smelling, experiencing hands on, cooking. And, and so since then, we've been expanding. We have about 600 sites across the country. We're in 47 states. And, we're reaching about 500,000 kids a year with the program. Yeah. Oh. Yeah. Thank you so much for saying that. Actually, it does happen that people are like, no, I'm not familiar with that. So I'm glad you called that out. And, so Alice Waters is the, founder of the restaurant chain Penney's, which has been around for 50 years now. Yeah. And, she is the mother of, Farm to Table. She started farmers markets in this country. She, she created the organic food movement here and propelled it to where it is today. And she runs a program in Berkeley, California, where I live called the Edible Schoolyard, project. And it's a, kitchen garden program in a public school where kids go into the garden, they harvest, they plant, they harvest, and then they go into the kitchen and they prepare food as part of their academic day. And so the the Charley cart project was, a way to take the Edible Schoolyard and make it mobile. There are so many reasons, but, and it depends on your lens. But for me, it's it's not just about their health. You know, what they consume, but it's also about, discernment and informed decision making. Right? So, discerning fact from fiction, from fiction, discerning, you know, kids are exposed to basically an avalanche of food marketing every day. It through social media, through television, through billboards and they there's no way for them to get out from under that if you don't give them basic information. Right. So having hands on experiences with food can really change a child's perspective on food. It can change their palate, it can change their entire attitude and it can change their life. Right? They they become more open to trying new things. They kids come with preconceived notions about what a vegetable is and what a thing tastes like. And, so you can completely turn that upside down. And then there's, ramifications to that. There's there's implications. Once they have opened to trying something new, they then start to like it. They then start to want it and they start to ask for it. They take the recipes home. They ask their parents to make it. They ask their parents to buy those things in the grocery store. They learn to recognize those foods in the grocery store. And then beyond that, they start to make the connections. They're making the connections between what happens to this food when it goes in my body, what what how does different food behave differently in my body? What happens to my body and what also happens to the planet in the growing and processing of this food? And then what happens afterwards to the food? Right. We also in the curriculum, we talk about, you know, you're not just learning about fresh produce, but you're also learning about compost. You're learning about food waste, you're learning about food processing. You know what? You start with corn and and corn kernels, corn on the cob, and you get all the way. By the end of the curriculum, you get all the way to, corn sirup, you know, ultra processed corn, corn sirup. Right. And, and it's important for kids to understand like this. What's in my food? How is it grown? What's happening to the planet? And kids are much more connected to these issues these days. You know, I think social media has played a big part in that and helping them understand that they can actually play an active role in what happens to the planet. And they have agency, but they don't have agency if they don't have information. So that's why I think it's important. With the cart, with the program? Yes. Yeah. It's we work more with, low income communities, than we do with, I mean, you might think that in our, program like ours, where we have to pay to purchase a program, that there might be more private schools involved, but actually, we're, primarily in public schools. I think we have just a really small handful of private schools as public schools, a lot of rural locations, lots of libraries, lots of VA clinics, an interesting variety of organizations that, you know, purchase the program. And then we do trainings. So we help network these organizations together and, help support them for success. Yeah. My, family, we're both very into food and cooking and also, really philanthropic. My sister has worked in development her whole life. My, dad is a philanthropist. My mother was a a teacher and a social worker. She worked with at risk youth. So, yeah, it's like in the blood. Yeah, yeah. Oh, sure. They, They are. They love to cook. They have been my muses for this. They've tested every recipe a million times that they were for the cookbook. For the Charlie Kirk curriculum. We have 54 recipes. The Charlie Kirk curriculum. They they are, they are the guinea pigs for everything. They test everything. They. Yeah, they've helped with everything. And my son went and worked at the place where we manufacture the carts over the summer. So they've been involved in every aspect. Yeah. I think it's both of those things. Plus plus plus. I had a lot of ideas that I never was able to bring to fruition. So, you know, maybe it's sometimes it's also timing, you know, and lots of help from lots of people around you, but, yeah, for sure, but I the attention to detail definitely helps, you know, kind of looking down and taking one step at a time towards something. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's a funny question. No, I have eaten with Jamie Oliver. I have any. He, He put a fork or a knife into a tomato that was on a pizza, and it spurted out all over my shirt. So that was funny, but, I've eaten Alice Waters food quite a bit, and, Yeah, one time we went somewhere on a plane and she was sitting in first class, and I was sitting in economy, and she came back and delivered me, lunch in a bag that she had made for me. It was a steak sandwich with Cornish. It was amazing. It was like the best lunch I've ever had. And the little paper bag. Yeah, yeah, I do, yeah. Well, you know, I so I worked there obviously for a long time, so, Yeah. Well, the, the, the Edible School year project was before it called the Japanese Foundation. And, it is connected physically and otherwise. No, no, no. So the Edible School Year project is like a national organization that's helping other Edible Schoolyard arts, you know, and then they fund this program at the middle school and the middle school. It's they they're growing food that the kids in the school. Yeah. So the restaurant does actually have a farm that they work with, but, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no. So I, I hope that I didn't cause further confusion. Does that make sense? Yeah. No, no. Yeah. And so we used to go, when the foundation was smaller. I mean, it's got a bigger staff now, but. So this is some years ago, but, I would just go downstairs to the restaurant and have staff lunch every single day. It was crazy. Right. Yeah. Said the restaurant has two parts. It has a cafe upstairs, and it has a what's called the restaurant downstairs. And the restaurant has a fixed menu and it's only open for dinner. The cafe is open for lunch and dinner. And there's a menu where you can choose. Yeah. So there's a little bit more casual upstairs in the cafe. Yeah. They, they serve a ton of vegetables. A ton of vegetables. With everything. So you you can ask for vegan. They don't they don't make a point of it. But you can ask for vegan dish. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. You have to go. You have to go. I mean, she she's a magician with vegetables. They they do magic with vegetables. And, Yeah, especially for people who are really into vegetables. As a vegan, you, you know, you'd be surprised. There are things that you've never tried and never heard of and never imagined. Yeah. It's beautiful. Beautiful food. Yeah. It's. Maybe it's genetics. I'm the youngest of four. I think being the youngest gives you a little bit of it. You know, get to keep your baby ish ness. Maybe longer, you know, let's see a lot of joy. We we we practice a lot of joy around here in this house. Good sense of humor. We're always laughing about things. Definitely. And I have, eaten tons and tons of vegetables my whole life. I've always been a giant vegetable lover, and I and I think that's made a difference, too, in my health, my skin. Yeah. We just try to have a happy household, but we we we just laugh a lot, you know? We just. We are a funny family, and. Everybody has a really good sense of humor. And I think we spend a lot of time laughing and making light of things and trying to make sure that we're getting, you know, that squeezing that into the day, every day, as much as we can. It's good. Right? I mean, maybe it's not, something that you or I and our families have kind of, like, articulated before, but I do think it's a practice. I think you actually have to. You have to prioritize a little bit. Wow. That's a great question. Lately, I feel so much older than ever. It kind of feels like it happened overnight, that suddenly I. I feel older. I feel, I feel, Well, because I'm just not as I feel. I don't know if I should admit this. I just feel not as sharp, but I, you know, I used to. I used to be able to sit in a two hour meeting and never have to take a note and be able to, like, carry everything forward, and, and I can't, I can't do those things anymore. I can't, pull an all nighter if I have a grant do or something like that. I used to be able to just power through, and now I just cannot, so I. So I either have to give myself enough time or I have to forgo certain opportunities. Like I just can't, you know, shove everything through the way I used to. And I guess it's the same thing with my body physically, right? I used to be able to do a lot of things that now, if I hurt myself, then I kind of have to hang back for six months for a thing till, you know, so everything changes, right? Ma'am. Yeah. Where's my phone? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's hard. It's hard to know that you can rely on your brain and your eyes. Right? And things like that. Like so completely. And then. And then suddenly, if I don't have these readers on, I can't see anything. You know? Yeah. Yeah. Yes, yes, yes. So how how old do I feel? Well, tell me about you. Can you ask the question? Yeah, you ask the question. Yeah. That's so manipulative. I mean, on the other. On the other hand, I feel so young, you know, it's like a funny combination, right? On the other hand, I feel. I mean, knock on wood for both of us. We're so lucky, right? I mean, knock on wood. Right now, everything works, right? It's working. And may not be working the way it did 20 years ago, but it's working. I feel so fortunate. And, And I feel some days I wake up and I'm like, yeah, I'm ready to just conquer the world. You asked me about doing yoga, and, I have this. I go to this yoga class and the teacher is she's just one of those life changing yoga instructors, right? She's just so amazing. And after the class, you know, after, like, an hour and a half class or whatever it is, I don't know if you get that, if you even do yoga or any kind of sports. Right. Like I used to get this with running to that kind of runner's high afterwards that you just feel like, you can do anything. You know, you walk out of there and I'm like, I'm going to be the next president of the United States. Like, right. Which is how I felt after I delivered my first child to. I was like, if I can do that, I can definitely run this country. So it's a it's a mix. It's a mix. Yeah. Yeah. That too. Did you feel that? It does feel like that. It totally feels like that. Wow. I haven't this. It's. I don't read any more. But I walk the dog in the hills, and I do yoga. And I actually ride the peloton sometimes, but I really love. And I know it's kind of culty and weird, but I absolutely love it. Yeah. That's great. That's awesome. That's So. No, but it's but, you know, but it's actually so much better for you than just sitting there, right? Like your movie or moving and, Yeah, I find it just in terms of exercise stuff. If I don't go for a walk in the hills at least three days a week, my brain kind of combust. You know, I really it all starts to just crumble in on itself. I realize I don't notice how much it helps me until I don't do it. And then when I don't do it, I'm like, oh my God, I think I'm, you know, the sky is falling. The other thing I do sometimes, but, speaking of eating that I think is really helpful is, swimming in the bay. I, I don't do it very often, but I do do it occasionally. And I think it's, a great thing to do as your body gets a little older and, Don't be impressed. Don't be impressed. Lots of people do it. Lots of people do it, and I. I wear a wetsuit and I don't. It's not like I'm just going in there, you know? And my bathing suit, a lot of people go in their bathing suit, you know, but, But anyway, it feels so good to talk about a high. Feels amazing. Like, the whole rest of the day. Feel amazing? Yeah. Yeah. If you don't enjoy it, then you don't enjoy it. You know? It's a good thing you live in Austin. Oh, wow. Oh, I didn't know that you guys got that kind of weather. But. Yeah, those are tiny little Charley cart stickers. I think there is one in Austin. Right. Hey, maybe my imagination. I can send you a site list, but. Yeah, yeah. It was. Well, I, I was a big news person. And then, I don't know how much you get into politics on your, Yeah. I'm. Yeah. So it's changed a lot, so I, I, I just listen to NPR every day, and then in 2016, I slow that down quite a bit. And, then, I. I. I did, I, I read the New York Times, I read the Guardian, I read, occasionally I'll read like The Economist. I, so I try to get and I read The New Yorker, so I try to get some variety. I guess I'm, I'm reading a lot of, like, really kind of, in theory, left leaning, and not a lot of right leaning. Yeah. Yeah, but I'm kind of on a news pause right now. Yeah. How about you? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's funny. I mean, industry wise, I get a lot of news from LinkedIn. You know, people announcing what. What initiatives are taking on and what's happening in the industry, and food generally. And I subscribe to a lot of newsletters, actually, actually, that is a way that I get a lot of news. I subscribe to a lot of things on Substack. Yeah, yeah. But it's not I'm not getting my news through X or like, and I don't have a television, so we're not, you know, we have never had a television. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we watch lots of shows, plenty of shows on through the streaming and lots of movies. Yeah, yeah. No, I mean, I did have a television growing up, and I had a television until, 2001. My son, was a an infant. And, you know, when and we watched 911 happen on, you know, on a TV and then we got rid of the TV after that. Yeah. It was just I don't know. That's a good question. You think you want to be more connected to the news? I think it was just so disturbing. And so I don't know. Yeah. It's. It is weird. What do you think made you. What do you think made you ask me that? Yeah. Yeah. So after the pandemic, I. I mean, before the when the pandemic happened, obviously, there were no more, you know, theaters anyway. And a lot of the theaters in Berkeley closed, which is like a lot of my favorite theaters. There's hardly any theaters here anymore. Yeah. It's so sad. There's one there used to be like six and there's one. So I don't really go to the movies. I watch, I watch movies, I go to the movies, like, very, very occasionally, but I, I do watch movies. And I have a really close friend who's a filmmaker. And so I, two close friends who are filmmakers. And so I get to hear a lot about what's what I should be watching, what to look out for. And that's really fun. Yeah. My best piece of advice for aging. Well is. To focus on the things that you have in your life and appreciating those things that you have in your life and not. Thinking about what you don't have. And maybe that sounds like, oh, the practice of gratitude and whatever, but I, so maybe that's another way to put it. But I think it's really important to focus on your orbit, your orbit, you know, especially right now. Right. And it doesn't mean don't try to help the world. Don't try to also expand your reach and your knowledge and all that. But but making sure that you acknowledge all the good things that you have and that you put consistent effort and, energy into the relationships and the people around you to make sure that your, you know, your neighbors are good, you're good, you're your friends are good. Those relationships are solid. Your kids are good, your loved ones are good. I think that is the key to a useful and joyful life. Recently, I was at a temple service, which is funny because I don't really go to temple, but I went to temple in Hawaii, of all places, I know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I guess, apparently. And the rabbi was so awesome, and he said, and I think he might have been quoting someone else too, but he said, to live, to make a life of meaning, you have to live a meaningful life. And I just left that. I thought that was so beautiful and kind of goes along with the things we were just talking about. To make a life of meaning, you have to live a meaningful. Yeah, yeah. It's good. Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's life. Yeah. Mom has passed. I have a step mom who's also really lovely and supportive. Yeah, yeah. Oh, my God, they are amazing. They are so amazing. Yeah. They do everything and they do not stop. They they read nonstop. They're always consuming information books. They they literally read, like, they just plow through books. They consume tons of culture. They're always listening to new music and trying new things. And, you know, they watch new series and they they're big consumers of culture. They go to concerts and try new restaurants and they travel a ton. And they don't let anything slow them down. Not going to wait again. Yeah. I can't wait. Yes. I use this face oil called, tuba Tentacles, and I love it. It's supernatural. It's all natural. It smells really nice. Yeah, I love that. Yeah, that's really cool stuff. Yeah, I like it with natural oils and everything. And actually, I often use, castor oil. Yeah, that's the best, right? It's just you can buy it on the internet. You can buy organic castor oil, and, I love that. Yeah. Just like a little essential oil. Yeah. I mean, there's so many, but I, I saw, well, there's two. Can I say two? Okay, so the first one was, When shortly after I had my first child, this close friend of mine called and said, I've got two tickets to see prints at the DNA lounge, which is a tiny little club, and I. And he's like, I'm bringing you, you know, which is so amazing. And he and I came, you know, I had just had a baby, right? It was probably like, not even three months. Yeah, exactly. I know I was so proud of myself. It invented have me babies and it was probably not even three months. Right. And my friend because a guy he comes and I was wearing, you know, whatever I was wearing, I don't know, whatever I could get on. Right. And I come out into the living room where he's waiting for me, and he looks at me, and he was just so off the market. They have. Anyway, that concert was absolutely amazing. Okay. And then the other one was, when I worked at the Shake Knees Foundation, we did a fundraiser in the downstairs restaurant with Katie Lang, and I really didn't know her music at all. And, it was very intimate because that the downstairs only holds 54 people. And we had she had a baby grand piano in there. Was it baby grand? No, not even I don't know. It was a big she had a big piano delivered and I had coordinated the whole thing. And so when she was singing, I was standing almost right next to her, you know, I could see the hair on her face, and I, And she sang Hallelujah, and I cried. I mean, I have just never experienced a musical moment. Like that was so amazing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's so fun to be, you know, to be introduced to a new person and a new person's music. And usually when that happens, you know, it takes a while to get familiar and into it. And I just to have it be so really. Yeah. Thank you. Lauren. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for listening, friend. From my heart to yours. Be well. Until we meet again.