Ep.10 / From Fashion to Fighting Food Insecurity | Asmeret Behre-Lumax's Unexpected Path

0:04Hello, I'm Natasha Jakubowski and this is my podcast Professional Jealousy where I talk to people I'm impressed by, and yes, a little bit envious of. I'm hoping that you two will enjoy hearing about all of their enviable achievements so that we can all learn from and be inspired in our own journeys. Today, I'm talking to Asmaret Baer-Lumax, a force for positive change with a deep commitment to social justice and giving back. She's the founder and CEO of One Love Community Fridge, a Brooklyn-based non-profit organization dedicated to addressing food insecurity and increasing access to healthy foods.

0:46She's also a passionate advocate for girls empowerment. She's board chair of Dream Maker and its phenomenal Girls Club and she's been recognized amazingly as a UN Women Champion of Change. This is actually the first time I've spoken to someone that I've known for quite a long time. I've always admired Asmaret's style, her coolness, her ability to balance work and being a mum. But I'm also just incredibly impressed by the fact that over the years, she's really seemed to found her calling after a successful kind of career in fashion and beauty. So, hello, Asmaret. I'm so grateful to have you on here I'm so honored to be here amazing um so why don't we start with for anyone that hasn't kind of uh doesn't know much about One Love Community Fridge I'd love you to talk about it I know it started as like a personal project with you stocking a single kind of community fridge and it's just taken off can you give us a quick overview of how it started and what it is today?

1:59Yes. So when we started, we were in New York City during the pandemic. Myself and my family, I'm raising a family along with my husband. We have two kids. And just needed to take action. I was volunteering with a few other organizations that addresses food insecurity. And I think it's very difficult. I mean, very different, I would say, you know, to read numbers, as opposed to like seeing or knowing people behind the numbers. So we wanted to take action. So initially we set up a community fridge. We would go buy food every day to stock the fridge. And then I think as I was learning more in terms of numbers around food waste and the situation, you know, obviously during the pandemic, it was even worse than ever.

2:51So meaning like we had an issue with food waste where close to 50 % of all the food has been produced in US and during the pandemic was even worse, was being wasted. What we had fast, like growing numbers of Americans that weren't able to feed themselves with the most basic food. So it was born from that. And I think what I really loved about the community fridge is it's really something that allows so many people to participate in and be part of their journey and contribute in ways that work for them. So, you know, we set up a fridge, we would go by and, you know, then we started working with food partners to help redirect their excess food.

3:38And then, you know, fast forward 2025, we are a nonprofit. Our mission is really to connect and empower and engage our community. We do it through education and providing access to fresh food. and the thing that kind of leads us in everything that we do is respect dignity and health and now we're you know going from myself and my our two daughters we are like this amazing um incredible volunteer community of over 600 volunteers that um help redirect food um every day of the year. Amazing. And how, I mean, it's kind of amazing that it went from something that you just, you know, started doing to help.

4:27And then it grew and grew when what was the point at which you thought, okay, this could actually be a nonprofit, it could be something that we can grow and build as a as a brand as a business, almost. I think it's one we started with in terms of our food partners to be honest with you why we decided to actually become a non-profit was more in terms of liability and because we're working with large and like a lot of national and global brands and you know but I also think we're always evolving so I don't know if I have like this exact exact point but I think more like you know when people reaching out saying hey I love this how can I support?

5:14What can we do? And I think one of the earlier things I recognized was how much people want to be connected, how much people want to be engaged in their communities, but they don't know always how to take the first step. So one of the things that we thought about earlier was like, hey, you know, we want to build this space that really like invites people to take that first step and then kind of continue on and like also work as a catalyst um and then the other thing that we thought on early on was like don't want this to be an emergency relief response really want to make sure that it's about addressing public health and like any initiative that we started we want to make sure that it has longevity and then i think myself coming from design and fashion and beauty understanding how powerful design is in terms of not just inspiring people uh but also make people like in terms of how people feel about themselves or how they contribute in community also decided earlier on that we want to use design as like one of the tools yeah in terms of building this yeah i mean that is really striking obviously you know your branding is gorgeous you look you look like you've spent a lot of time kind of thinking about what the brand means and how it comes across like what was that process did you work who did you work with to help design it the number one thing was we wanted to focus on I don't really respect dignity and health and for me design is connected to the respect part maybe and then also you know I don't look at what design in terms of visually, but also like how it's functioned.

7:08And meaning like, you know, we design something that's like really serves its purpose. And then the other part is the beauty of like design too. And like not discarding what beauty, like the power of beauty is in terms of, again, how people feel in spaces or how they feel like they can show up in the world. I was really fortunate to one old colleague of mine that we used to work in fashion with that I have loved from day one, Miguel. Early on when we were doing this, he said, you know, he reached out and said, how can I support? And I was like, absolutely. um we we work really really well together in terms of um our i think our values and how we really want to use design and he's an amazing um creative so he's he's part of this yeah um i also think one of the interesting things um has been you know you're you're so humble um what i've love to see is you've almost had to put yourself in this position of being someone that can inspire and motivate and create a movement around um around one love um how has that been because i i i mean maybe i'm uh maybe i'm wrong but i feel like that must have been quite a stretch for you Like, I don't see you as someone that's naturally so, you know, confident and out there.

8:46I do prefer to be in the background. I think even like in terms of fashion, like the areas that I chose to focus on was in product development and production, supply chains management. And, you know, it's areas that are, you know, not in the, you know, it's in the back. Making sure everything kind of works and making sure that the different ideas are actually turned into, you know, products that align with the different brands and companies, the priorities, you know. With One Love, I think it's very different. One love is really, for me, a combination of personal experiences and my professional experiences kind of all coming into one where everything that I've been involved with, maybe outside of my professional journey, but also being able to combine it.

9:47And many people that joined us in supporting Helping This in the beginning are people that I've either worked with or friends that also really believed in our mission. But I do, yes. I'm laughing at things. And it took me a moment to feel more comfortable about it. But at the same time, you know, what we're doing with One Love is so incredible. And I can say that also because there's so many people that are involved that, you know, creating the space that so many people can work together, can meet, can bridge that probably wouldn't have met otherwise for something that we're all building, like, you know, working towards a more positive future for us all.

10:46I think it makes it easy for me. It makes it a lot easier for me to be on the front of it. It's not really for me. It's for all of us. Yeah. Yeah, I think there's an element of one of the things that I think is so interesting is that obviously you've got lots of passions. You're in fashion, beauty. But this, I, you know, this kind of is almost, I really feel like it's like you found your calling, like it's something where you've kind of evolved and found your passion, found something that feels right. Is that right, Ona? Yeah, well, you know, I work in a fashion. I love the work in a fashion. And the reason why I loved it was, I think, especially growing up as an immigrant, you know, coming, I was born in East Africa.

11:43We moved to Sweden because of war. I was also always been fascinated in terms of, like, what fashion represents. And for me, it represents this idea of, like, creating your identity or like you know communicating your identity and how we do that using clothing and we all wear clothes and I think even for people that are not in fashion or say that they don't care they're also making a statement by what they choose to wear every day so I was always fascinated by that and I think also part of it was also this idea of like you know being able to create your own worlds around it. So I always loved it.

12:22And then I think I was also very fascinated about solving problems in terms of, you know, working with creative directors or founders that have this idea of vision. And they're like, how do I actually like break down that idea and touching products and products that make sense for the consumer then? so I always love that but I think and then this is just another aspect of it because you know food food is extremely powerful like we all need food as humans it also you know has this amazing power to bring people together to show people that there's so much more that connects us than separates us And I think that's the part that I'm really interested in and I'm really fascinated by it because even prior to this, the organizations that I was involved with focused a lot in terms of educational opportunities.

13:34And for me, previously, education was kind of like the greatest equalizer in terms of opportunities for people. but I think coming to the U.S., raising a family here and understanding kind of the food system, also realizing on another level like how important food is, you know, beyond, you know, being able to bridge people and like between different cultures, but actually like being the foundation of health and how, especially for children, even if you have access to a great you know education if you don't even have food food or eating is part of making the sick yeah so it all kind of came together all connected I love that so you know your experience in fashion actually helped in terms of problem solving and figuring out how to bring people together um i do yeah i'm interested what the windows logistics so many logistics so many logistics i mean i'm assuming that's a big part of one love like organizing people figuring out how to bring sponsors in partnering with companies um um yeah it's super super interesting I am I was going to ask about the the your immigration story because it's obviously such a huge part of who anyone is um to have moved from East Africa to Sweden to me that's as someone that's moved from England to America like to me that was a culture I can't even imagine from East Africa to Sweden.

15:24It just seems like a massive, massive change. And then obviously you've moved to the States as an adult. How do you think your kind of immigration experience has impacted how you think about the world, how you think about giving back and service, et cetera? I mean, it definitely impacts how I look at it all the time in terms of just creating bridges and bringing people together. because I think it has allowed me to have a perspective that, you know, can consider many different ideas and understanding where people are coming from when they feel a certain way or like, you know, they have certain thoughts about things.

16:20So I think being able to be exposed to so many different cultures and people from all over the world definitely impacts, you know, everything in my thinking. And then I think a lot of my opportunities and, you know, we had to leave everything behind when we moved to Sweden and had to start over. And, you know, even though I came here as an adult, it's also kind of starting over again. But it's also been always been about community. and I think me has always been for everyone that's opened a door for me or exposed me to new experiences or taught me something new to be able to pass that on to another person but it's interesting because even looking at fashion growing up I knew like founder and you know creative director or no actually I would say designer but I didn't know everything else that exists within that space so you know just learning that and being exposed to that and makes me also think like how how would people even know how they can contribute to their communities or you know work and if they don't even know that exists so and that kind of goes to single food how do people make educated decisions around you know what to eat if they don't even have access to it they don't even know exist yeah no um i mean it's definitely a pretty worrying time in terms of some of the impact of what's going on in the world the anti-immigration movement i mean how do you feel about that is i mean how do you how do you stay positive and say what do you say to you know how do you counter that with everything we do you know how i mentioned earlier like really like the power design in terms of inspiring people are the work we're doing one level is really again about inspiring people so the way we look at it is like how can we break down these huge issues like you know hunger and food insecurity are global issues right But how can we break it down into small actionable steps that people can incorporate in their lives and then ensure that our community feels empowered to participate in that process and then also bring joy into it?

18:49And I think it becomes really important because it shifts how people look at things and, again, think about what they're capable of doing. um so you know now focusing on you know and it's not about disregarding what's currently happening but focusing really giving people the tools to again to be hopeful yeah to understand the power that they hold and how important for them is for them to participate in different processes within their community and you know so that's why a lot of um the work that we're doing it's not just really about what we're doing is like how we're doing it yeah so we put a lot on like community building you know how do we get people together how do we get people to connect how do we get people to you know you know learn new facts but also attach it to actual like communal action as well and again like thinking about like how can we encourage people to incorporate this in their like everyday life so teaching people how to take all those small steps yeah together will be become like these big steps yeah I feel like a lot of it is you know interaction community building um that seems to be kind of the thread whether it was you know building a community in fashion and beauty whether it's building a community for one love um yeah whether it's coming to a new country and building your community that feels like a kind of red thread in a lot of what you do what are ways that you foster community involvement um in in the operation of one love like i i do think that you've you've managed to build this brand and it's very similar to building a brand and a business like what are the ways that you market what are the ways that you build engagement because you've got such powerful kind of volunteer networks and relationships with big brands?

20:52I mean, the number one thing was to really wanted to create the space that a lot of different people could be a part of. Because I think from personal experience, I think some of the organizations that have been part of before might have just had like a very narrow like demograph in terms of who they, you know, who was able to participate. So FOS was like okay we want to create this space that a lot of different people can participate in ways that works for them um so that was like number one and obviously that requires a lot more work but i'm also so confident that that creates longevity and also you know sustainability in terms of anything that we take on and and just also looking at it like okay how do we create a space that basically has like a circular movement so when people are coming into the one love space and when i space say i don't mean just like the physical space just like the community yeah you also have a physical space don't you we don't have a physical space as well But now I'm talking about like, just like within like everything we do, it's not about giving back.

22:13It's really about, you know, giving and receiving and this constant circular movement. And we think about that when we design like, you know, our volunteer like events or when we're, you know, even when we're thinking about the resource guides or like just we always think about how do we want people to feel when they're doing something. with with one love what we want them to think about when they leave and how do we want them to speak about their experience to others to be able to bring the to bring um to bring more people on board and i and i think that has been part of really creating like and then keeping that human connection about um i think that's been like the foundation of yeah of our community i mean in a funny way it's the elements of good branding you know thinking about your consumers yeah and what they what they need the kind of out outcome that they can get the benefits that they can get and then thinking about how you build that out in the experience across every touch point yeah i'm really taken with how you know you you've really built this as as a brand in in a in an interesting way I mean, the way we see us, I mean, we are a nonprofit, but I really see us sitting on this because, again, thinking about, there's a couple of things I thought about in the beginning, you know, what is sustainability for us?

23:46What is efficiency for us? That was an important one because is efficiency about bringing as much meals as possible or is efficiency about, you know, longevity in terms of volunteers are coming aboard? So just the thought really around like what is efficiency and like as we're building something. But I really kind of see us sitting on this. This intersection between for profit, nonprofit, public and private organizations and companies, because I really see that where we can have the most impact in terms of bridging different types of communities and people's people and the work that they're doing.

24:28And I think, especially if we're thinking about like efficiency, where we want to have as much impact as possible, there needs to be partnerships and collaborations across different sectors. So that's another thing that also I spent a lot of time thinking about. And then what does that look in terms of who are our partners? Yeah. And who are, because you've got some great partners. What are some of the companies they work with? In terms of companies, like, you know, Infatuation and Chase, Apple. I mean, we have quite a, like, there's a wide spectrum. But we also, you know, partner with a lot of, like, smaller nonprofits as well.

25:18But then, you know, it's been Volu or Saqqara. I mean, we're fortunate to have really, really amazing J.Crew. We're working on something really nice with J.Crew right now. Corporate partners, but also a lot of amazing individuals that share their time or support financially or share their networks as well. and figuring out ways to not just involve their, you know, their work, but also their families, which I think is incredible. Yeah, amazing. So what are your ambitions for One Love in the near term and the long term? Okay, let's see here. I mean, we want to just continue having more impact. Currently, what we're working on is we set up in Seattle last year.

26:12we're going to do set up a second post in Seattle. This year, we're also going to be in LA and hopefully Atlanta, but that might be 2026. So the way we're kind of looking at the work we're doing also is like, we're building these toolkits. So we're building toolkits for the community. We're building toolkits for the actual fridges. You know, we have four kind of big programs around One Love, which is food to fridge, farm to fridge, chef to fridge, and school to fridge. So we're just deepening that work as well. And in the long term, I mean, I would love this to be known in so many, in as many cities as possible in the U.S., but also globally.

27:00And I mean, there's really literally something for everyone to contribute with. um so we just want to have more people involved yeah amazing um what what advice would you have for people looking to start their own kind of thing whether it's a charitable or just brand because i think actually i think what's interesting is you really you you're a founder and um yeah and i'm just curious like what what is the advice that you can give just take that first step that would be my first because i think sometimes people overthink it um to overthink it i think like take that first step then you take the next one take the other one i do think it's important to just think about like to understand the why why are you doing this um and you know in terms of if it's a non-profit space i would also think like you know you know why you're doing this but also thinking about it like like who for who you're doing as well because i do know like even within non-profit space sometimes the intentions are great it starts with a great why but not as much as thought is given in terms of really making sure you invite and include the community you're you know, and we're well meaning we want to kind of serve, but like, you know, what is really needed and what is the best solution?

28:39I think, and with one love that, you know, we have our foundational pillars, but the work around it otherwise is very dynamic and flexible because we always want to be in a position that it's not us pushing out something, it's actually us building something with hyperlocal communities and responding to needs instead of having a fully developed product that we're trying to push out. Yeah, learning as you go and figuring out what works. Absolutely, because even you can look at just in New York City, just between the different fridges that we have in New York City, the need on the Lower East Side is a little bit different from Bed-Stuy, a little bit different from Flatbush, you know, or Gowanus, because it's different communities.

29:33So yes, the basic need is food, but then it's also like, what type of food and how is it served and how do you want to build a community around it? So all that to say is, one, take the first step and let's really think about the whys. yeah amazing um did you write down your why do you know like could you articulate it just out of interest oh no I did not but you know I think okay so this is what I'm working on since we're building the toolkits we're working on really putting that all down because a lot of it has been in my head yeah a lot of it's you've just been building it as you go we've been building as we go you know um had we had this conversation two years ago i think some of my answers would have been different like the core would have been the same but just like in terms of um how we're operating would have might have been different and i think the thing with one love is we're always going to continue to evolve and we're always going to be be able to be dynamic and responsive to um what's currently happening uh in the world um but i'm working on that i mean i think the why is really like it's super simple that you know food is a basic human right but it shouldn't just be food she that should be healthy food and food that nourishes our bodies so that's kind of that where this that we started so i guess that's my why that's my why perfect um I still need to work on my why um that's that's part of this web podcast is like talking to people who have like you know done all this stuff and I love that you've kind of found your way into an amazing why like I think I'm probably still searching for my why what advice would you have for your younger self my younger self i think okay the advice i would have for my my younger self would be um it's okay um just wait you know why because i have actually never had i've i haven't had like a very linear path and i think especially you know growing up as in like in a very traditional immigrant family, fairly conservative.

31:59The idea of just working in fashion was fashion was like a hobby, not something you choose as a profession. And I actually studied finance. I did finance actually before I started working in fashion. And I think I've had a lot of cross, do you say crossroads? Yeah, you come to these intersections and there's a lot of people telling you this is what you should be doing you know in order to be successful or happy or you know and I I've kind of gone with my intuition and gut feeling which is easy to say afterwards you're like oh I'm so happy I did but in those moments it might not be the easiest decision to take the easiest thing might be to you know just follow society's norms of like what you should be doing but then looking back you know I'm really happy because it's gotten me to this point that I where I am today it's been you know enabled me to have so many different perspectives and being able to look at things from different angles and also really being able to like bring people together but you know everything from you know choosing the different paths or like even I think one of the things you know natasha you're a mother as well that you know uh when having kids and what that meant in terms of professionally especially when you're in time and i at least for me when i when we had our first daughter um i was very much defined by what i was doing professionally like you know i was defining myself by my my title and what i was doing so i think looking back i said you know it's not every road has to be linear to be successful and i think you know giving hopefully people can take the time to um to define what happiness is for them and what they're like what their goals are yeah yeah amazing um yeah i think i definitely feel like i've meandered and I'm pretty sure my uh my mother still would secretly hope that I'm a going to become a lawyer or a doctor something proper uh how do you keep your kids grounded now obviously you have them you know they're part of one love your whole family is like um do you think about that do you think about how do I you know I do I often think about like could be misinterpreted um I do think about a lot and I do um and I don't want this mistaken in the wrong way but I really believe in okay what's the best way to say is it was that the right I was going to say almost child labor but it could be taken away but i do think like especially here in this part of the world um we might not give kids as much responsibility as they actually can handle um and i think you know in meaning like uh with our daughters we've always been open with them and talk to them and also included them in everything that we do.

35:23And I think because the thing for us has always been important is like, you know, we want them to have a work ethic, like a great work ethic. We want them to, you know, be happy. I think we're very fortunate to be in a place where they've been exposed to so much and they have opportunity to choose certain things. But we also want to, I think it's important that they are involved and engaged in the community and also that they do have a responsibility within the community. So they've been a big part of One Love. They both have student clubs at their school. They volunteer quite a bit. I'm really excited because end of last year, we just created a junior board and a junior committee, which the idea is honestly to just have teens come up with ideas and then we'll support them and I'm excited to see what they come up because I honestly think they have better ideas than we do That's amazing Oh my gosh Alright, we don't have long left I know the Black Beauty Club amazing obviously focused on again giving back and thought leadership within the black beauty space um give me i'm going to ask a very frivolous question any of your favorite beauty products what's your secret okay first of all the thing with the black beauty club it's actually it's the same thing as one love for me when i the reason why i co-founded was it was the same in terms of access inclusion education they just have a different um language beauty product one of my favorite favorite beauty products is um it's a brand called epilogic um it's the founder is actually new york city based and she's a she's a plastic surgeon and she created this skincare brand i have very sensitive skin and it's one of my favorite all right i'll look that up i know you're a a big runner um what else do you do to just keep yourself grounded sane you know growing connecting with people I I always get so inspired by people that I meet and like um even in one love I think it tends to bring out the best in people so that's one thing I gotta keep laughing laughter is a it's a it's a medicine itself and I think just like staying connected um with people has definitely made me like stay very grounded and just taking action a lot of times I think there's a lot of anxiety in the world right now people are very stressed I think a lot of people feel overwhelmed but just taking that first step and connecting with an human it's it's it's a huge makes a huge difference I feel like you're and maybe it's because you've always been you know So, I mean, yeah, into design, fashion, culture.

38:33How do you stay, you know, tapped into culture? What do you do to keep up? Are there any, I don't know, sub-stacks, podcasts, influences that you... No, you just keep having kids.

38:49In the know. All right, last few questions. These are going to be quick fire questions. tell me one of your guilty pleasures oh Reese's Pieces mine is Nutella best career advice worst career advice okay best one would say try it and if it doesn't work out you try something else worst one you made a decision you need to stick with that perfect um what would you say your superpowers are that have helped you be successful i mean i kind of want my superpower to be about singing but i i'm completely tone deaf but my superpower in terms of work i again i i would say like staying curious and being able to connect dots across, you know, different fields.

39:49I'm being scared of trying new things. Favorite restaurants in New York, Brooklyn? I would kind of have to pick Taranga, which is not in Brooklyn. But also because my husband, it's my husband's restaurant. Yeah, that's a good plug. It's a great restaurant. I've eaten there. Okay, Taranga. um what does success look like for you personally happiness and also having the freedom to continuously learn new things tell me about someone or something that you're professionally jealous of okay i actually i'm gonna pick you because no because you know natasha you're one of the women's that I met when I first moved to New York.

40:42It's like, if you think about it, it's so long gone. And I love the fact that you brought me to a new community. You're constantly connecting people. And you're also always on the forefront of pushing ideas and product. and um so i think just being able to reconnect with you now in so many ways at this at this point and the fact that you are what you're doing today is something that you've been doing for a long time but it always take different shapes i think that's amazing oh my god you're gonna make me cry it's really it's truly amazing and it's such a I'm so happy that we reconnected and you know I'm hoping we do more together me too yeah okay um I'll help you with your why if you need any uh strategy and the toolkits um thank you so much um quickly tell people um how they can get involved with uh one love they just go to the website yes you can yeah website is one love community.org you can also reach out to us we are we're on instagram as well one love community fridge and yes you know any questions and just take that first step to get involved you can make a huge difference in somebody else's life amazing oh my god ask Brett thank you no you're amazing