- 7 months ago
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LifestyleTranscript
01:38Hello, everybody.
01:41I hope you've been enjoying this enriching day of content in this house.
01:46My name is Jasmine Grant, and I'm an associate lifestyle editor here with Essence, and I'm
01:51about to speak to some very dynamic people who have been doing incredible things in the
01:55community to give back.
01:57First up is Dr. LaPrincess Brewer.
02:00She is working on an incredible project to help reduce health disparities in the African-American
02:05community.
02:06She's a preventative cardiologist as well as an assistant professor of medicine in the
02:11clinic department.
02:12Dr. LaPrincess, welcome.
02:15It is so great to see you.
02:19I'm great.
02:20And I would just like to thank Mr. Rich Dennis and the entire Essence family for this opportunity
02:26to share our community outreach in the African-American community.
02:31Thank you for being here.
02:33And, you know, I'm really excited to talk to you because you are doing some phenomenal
02:36work, starting with your faith app.
02:39And I would love to give you a chance to talk more about that and how people can get involved.
02:44Oh, awesome.
02:45So I just wanted to kind of give our viewers a background on who I am.
02:50So as you mentioned, I'm a preventative cardiologist here at Mayo Clinic in Rochester,
02:54Minnesota, and I have a heart for the community.
02:57And my passion for preventing heart disease stems from my upbringing in the Black church.
03:03And unfortunately, I witnessed so many of our congregation members passing away prematurely
03:09from heart attacks and strokes.
03:12And these people were like family to me.
03:15And I carried this with me, and it inspired me to become a cardiologist and also instilled
03:21in me a sense of service to uplift the African-American community.
03:26And I've been so blessed to be able to merge my interests in cardiology and community outreach
03:31to African-American churches.
03:34And as the founder of the FAITH program, FAITH is an acronym that stands for Fostering African-American
03:41Improvement in Total Health.
03:44And it has a goal of eliminating cardiovascular health disparities within the African-American
03:51community through community-based interventions and solutions.
03:56And we work very closely with African-American churches to develop and implement health promotion
04:04programs for the benefit of their congregation members.
04:07And with one of our most recent and successful projects, we developed the FAITH app.
04:14And this is a digital smartphone app which we developed with our community partners to promote heart health
04:22to African-American churches.
04:24And at the heart of the app are education modules on key heart disease risk factors from Mayo Clinic health professionals.
04:33So we talk about high blood pressure or hypertension, diabetes and obesity.
04:38And we also have a special module on stress management.
04:42And we focus on unique stressors of the African-American experience.
04:47We also have a tracking feature for diet and physical activity, as well as a sharing board in which users can share their successes and challenges with a healthy lifestyle.
05:02And it's similar to a Facebook or Twitter feed for interaction.
05:05And users of our app had significant improvements in their blood pressures.
05:12They were eating healthier and they doubled their physical activity.
05:17And I just wanted to share just a quick anecdote about two moms who met on our sharing board for the first time.
05:25They were from two separate churches and they were incredibly intimidated by the gym and just exercising in general.
05:34So they posted that they wanted to become workout buddies and they ended up loving exercise.
05:41They loved the gym and they were able to hold each other accountable.
05:46And that shows that the power of social networking.
05:51And our app is currently being refined by our community members.
05:56And it's undergoing rigorous beta testing with funding from the American Heart Association Amos Award.
06:03And the National Institutes of Health.
06:06And we hope that we can expand to other communities.
06:08That is so impressive.
06:11And I wanted to expand a little bit on why you chose the black church as the focus of this project.
06:19Because, as you know, the black church is invaluable in our community.
06:22So why was it important to reach the church first?
06:25Yeah, so as I mentioned, you know, I grew up in the black church and the black church has been the long standing backbone of the African American community.
06:35So anytime we there is a crisis, we run to the church and it's always been a place of refuge and service for our people.
06:44So why not use it as a vessel for health promotion?
06:51That's incredible.
06:52And, you know, as you know, African Americans are at an increased risk for heart disease.
06:58And because of the COVID pandemic, you know, we are an especially vulnerable group.
07:03So can you speak a little bit about how underlying conditions like heart disease and hypertension can put us at an increase and how that kind of correlates to us for COVID-19?
07:16Yeah, so unfortunately, COVID-19 has afflicted America, but it's hit black America even harder.
07:25And the reasons for this are multifactorial and complex, but includes socioeconomic inequity, structural racism and lack of access to quality health care as well as lack of access to COVID-19 testing.
07:40But we're also seeing that patients with COVID-19, excuse me, who have, you know, other medical conditions, as you mentioned, like heart disease and major risk factors are at a greater risk for serious illness and death.
07:55So some of these major heart disease risk factors include hypertension or high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and chronic kidney disease.
08:05So African Americans, even before this pandemic, were disproportionately affected by many of these conditions.
08:14So just want to emphasize that African Americans have the highest high blood pressure or hypertension rates in the world.
08:21I'll repeat that. African Americans have the highest hypertension or high blood pressure rates in the world.
08:27So if someone develops, unfortunately, you know, it becomes infected with the virus and they have a high burden of these uncontrolled heart disease risk factors.
08:38Unfortunately, it's very hard for them to fight off the virus.
08:43And this leads to major complications and death.
08:47That's certainly troubling.
08:51And, you know, I know I speak for a lot of people when I say COVID-19 has definitely made me want to reevaluate living a healthier lifestyle and making some lifestyle changes to have a better overall health.
09:04And I'm finding that, you know, in conversations with different people I speak to, a lot of people truly don't know what it means to live healthy and to live well.
09:12Even if we think we know what it means to be healthy, eating well, exercising, those are given.
09:18But we don't really know the true details about the lifestyle changes that we should be making.
09:24Can you speak a little bit more about how we can make positive changes to maintain optimal health?
09:31Yes, Jasmine, this is extremely important for many of the reasons that you mentioned before, you know, that African Americans are at a higher risk for developing heart disease
09:41disease and these risk factors. So we really need to focus on preventing them in the first place.
09:46And I see this time, you know, within the pandemic for us to come together as a collective body to change the narrative around cardiovascular health disparities and African Americans.
10:00So we can write our own story and press the reset button, if you will, towards doing what we can to live healthier.
10:09So that's the whole purpose of this Essence Wellness House Summit, right?
10:15So I would encourage our viewers to be very mindful of what you're eating.
10:22So eat more fruits and vegetables or whole grains and plant based proteins while eating less of processed foods, those that are high in sodium or salt,
10:37fried foods and fast foods.
10:41I also encourage us to move more.
10:44And this is particularly important for us as African American women, as we are the least physically active group in the United States.
10:54So I repeat that we as African American women are the least physically active group in the United States.
11:00So use this time in the pandemic to be creative in your own homes and communities.
11:07So watch new online fitness videos or simply walk or dance to music in your home.
11:14Just try to get some sort of regular physical activity.
11:17And I've even started exercising and stretching in between my daily plethora of Zoom meetings.
11:26So we love those, right?
11:28But it actually gets me in a better framework and mindset to prepare for the next meeting.
11:35And lastly, I would say that it's really important that at this time we practice gratitude.
11:43We all have something to be grateful for during this challenging time.
11:48And this is especially important for our spiritual, mental and emotional health.
11:55So I would say to our viewers, take this time to, you know, create your own new normal towards healthier living.
12:04And I would also just like to emphasize that I devised a Ten Commandments for a healthy heart during the COVID-19 pandemic that our viewers can download from the Essence Resource Center.
12:18And I hope that you all please share this with your friends, families and communities.
12:23Thank you so much, Dr. LaPrincess.
12:27That gives me a lot to think about.
12:30And I think that is great advice.
12:32One last thing.
12:34I would love to know more about what the work that Mayo Clinic is doing to address the patient doctor trust, which we know can sometimes be lacking in black and brown communities.
12:46A lot of African-Americans don't have a primary care doctor.
12:51They're not getting checkups regularly.
12:53So what is Mayo Clinic kind of doing to address that?
12:56Yes.
12:57So this is very timely and important for us at Mayo Clinic that we meet patients and people where they are.
13:06So we are building our patient provider relationships through our community outreach.
13:11And Mayo Clinic has supported our efforts in providing trusted, relevant and reliable health information and community-based resources to underserved communities.
13:24And we've been doing this through social media and town hall discussions.
13:29And the content that we have been disseminating has been focused on financial insecurity, budgeting, as well as building technology infrastructure in African-American churches to keep them connected with their church members during this time of social and physical distancing.
13:50And also Mayo Clinic, our colleagues in Florida and Arizona recently held town hall discussions on COVID-19 and health equity.
14:02And this reached over 1,000 community members and the numbers are still counting.
14:07And another outreach effort that we are doing in tandem with African-American churches is we're assisting them in establishing emergency preparedness ministries and teams within their congregations, not only to address the current health crisis of the pandemic, but future crises.
14:27So when a congregation member is unable to pay their rent or utilities, if there's a domestic violence situation or a natural disaster, God forbid.
14:40So we're also providing them with emergency preparedness starter kits as well to spring them into action.
14:48And one last outreach effort that is extremely important to me, and I'm very grateful to Mayo Clinic for their support in fostering our ongoing partnership with the local community health center.
15:03And it's Open Cities Health Center in St. Paul.
15:06And we're helping to provide them with more rapid COVID-19 testing, which will decrease the turnaround time of results from COVID-19 from well over a week to less than 24 hours.
15:21And this clinic serves over 10,000 patients.
15:24Most of them are low income African-Americans, and there are essential workers on the front line.
15:30So there are nursing home workers that they are working in the grocery store.
15:35They're delivering our packages.
15:37They're working at transportation and warehouse sites, so they don't have the luxury of staying at home.
15:44So this is a very crucial service that we're providing to the community to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
15:52And we're hoping that our efforts will help to mitigate the health disparities that we're seeing in COVID-19 cases and outcomes here in Minnesota and across the country.
16:04And, you know, this clinic is very special to us as well because it was founded in the basement of a black church, actually, by two African-American women in the 1960s.
16:17And it's continued to flourish and to serve the African-American community in the Twin Cities metropolitan area.
16:25And we can only imagine, Jasmine, the strength and courage that these women had during that time in the face of adversity to establish this clinic.
16:37This is so inspiring.
16:39And I'm so appreciative, Dr. Brewer, of the work that you are doing.
16:43Before we wrap it up, I just wanted to give you the opportunity to let people know where they can find out more about the Faith App and also how they can get involved in helping close some of these health gaps that you've addressed here today.
16:57Yes, thank you.
16:59So please go to the Essence Resource Center and download the Ten Commandments for a healthy heart during the COVID-19 pandemic.
17:08And I also have my contact information there.
17:11And there's also a link to our video about the Faith App.
17:15And I would love the opportunity to spread the word, not COVID-19, about Faith to the rest of the African-American community.
17:27And I would also like to send my heart out to COVID-19 survivors and also my condolences to those who have lost loved ones to COVID-19.
17:39Thank you so much, Dr. Brewer.
17:43I appreciate you being here today.
17:45Thank you so much for your time, Jasmine.
17:48Of course.
17:50That was amazing.
17:52I wish we had more time with Dr. Brewer.
17:54We learned so much from that.
17:56But next up, we actually have two people from my neighborhood of Harlem who have used their resources and their gifts to help emergency frontline workers.
18:08right here in the city of New York.
18:11It's Lori Davis West, who is a principal consultant at Lori Davis Consulting.
18:17And AC Eggleston, a transformational beauty executive.
18:21They are friends and they have teamed up to help those on the front lines who can't stay home but are interacting with COVID-19 every single day.
18:33Lori and AC, welcome.
18:36And thank you.
18:40Thank you for having us.
18:41It's good to see you.
18:42Thank you so much.
18:43Thank you for having us.
18:46So, you know, we had spoken earlier about your phenomenal organization, Cuz We Care.
18:51And I want to open the floor and let you guys talk about what it is and how you were inspired to do something to help us stay unprecedented times that we're in.
19:04I'll just start by telling you we were sitting in our homes as we are as New Yorkers sequestered at this point.
19:11And we hear the sirens, we hear the need, and we just felt overwhelmed with the desire to actually help and lean in and see what we can do in this moment.
19:24So I was on the phone with one of the ladies that we're working with in Austria and we couldn't figure out what we should do.
19:33So we thought, hey, you know what?
19:35We don't have the right minds thinking about this.
19:37So we expanded it and now there are five of us simply got on a Zoom call and discussed the issues, discussed our resources, discussed the impact we wanted to make.
19:50And that was on the weekend.
19:52By Wednesday, we put up the GoFundMe page and the Cause We Care now GoFundMe page.
19:59And we wanted to reach out to our networks and provide them with a pathway also for making a contribution and making a difference.
20:08Yeah, it was a Saturday or Sunday.
20:12Yes, it was.
20:13And Lori calls and she's like, jump on the phone.
20:15We need to talk.
20:16And I'm sitting there and she told me, she said, we're sitting in Harlem and the community is devastating.
20:21We're seeing all this publicity about what's happening and what's happening with hospitals and all the people on the front line.
20:27But what about our hospitals in Harlem?
20:29You know, they're already under resourced.
20:31So who's looking after our hospitals?
20:33And we know how disproportionately this disease has impacted black and brown communities.
20:40What can we do to help?
20:41And I'm sitting there thinking, wow, you know, we're all working through, we're working at home and dealing with issues.
20:46But it's nothing compared to what's happening out there.
20:49And so, you know, we said, what can we do to make a difference?
20:53And we started talking about Harlem first and then where else in the community there was need, because we knew that we could use our network and our resources to make a difference in particular and helping keep our community safe.
21:07So we started with medical front liners and Laurie in Austria.
21:11And we have two other women that work with us.
21:13Dr. Ray Allen and Kathleen Trigg Jones had some contacts at Harlem Hospital and said, where do you need help?
21:21And they're like, our our employees are working like crazy.
21:25They don't even have time to eat and we don't even have food.
21:27Right. So we started there.
21:29And then Laurie, you know, Laurie, you may want to mention, you know, business you knew that was struggling in Harlem.
21:36And that's where it started.
21:38Yeah.
21:39And it's actually literally leveraging your your network and to solve the problem.
21:47And actually, we assign responsibilities to each member of the team.
21:51And it is such a pleasure to be actually be able to provide a bridge both to the health care workers who have served this community so well, as well as the struggling business owners.
22:05Right.
22:06People aren't out.
22:07They're not.
22:08They're not shopping.
22:09They're not in our restaurants.
22:11They're not in our bars.
22:13And so we had an opportunity to actually tap into the capability of one of our neighborhood restaurants.
22:21He provided healthy meals and we connected the we made the connection and we're just really excited about that.
22:29And I know that the business owner is thinking about reopening because he is actually in a better place now.
22:36Right. Right.
22:37And the people at Harlem Hospital, we've we are happy, very, very happy to talk about the bridge that we were able to serve for them because the medical frontliners, the emergency room, the ICU room teams were we were able to provide some meals.
22:53And now they're on another side because another organization has actually taken it upon themselves to make sure that the people at Harlem Hospital are fed.
23:02So now, as A.C. said, we're in a position where we can and we will take our initiative into another community that needs assistance.
23:12That's actually the perfect segue because they have seen this have not only to mobilize local businesses and been able to get resources to Harlem Hospital,
23:22but you've also raised a total of twenty thousand since launching this initiative, which is so impressive.
23:29And I wanted to talk a little bit about how you've expanded from just Harlem to other boroughs and other cities eventually as well.
23:40A.C., I'll let you take that.
23:42OK, so when we started, we were focused on Harlem.
23:47So the name of the group we started is Cause We Care because that's how we got together.
23:52Heart Harlem Emergency Assistance Response Team.
23:57And then with the progress we made in Harlem, what we were seeing is the need was beyond Harlem.
24:03We saw needs in so many underserved communities in the Bronx and Brooklyn.
24:07And we had contacts and hospitals that we knew also needed support.
24:12Harlem actually because of the bridge provided.
24:15They no longer needed us anymore because they actually had a much larger organization provide support for them and meals.
24:26So we extended the meal coverage into the Bronx and into Brooklyn.
24:32And in addition to that, I was listed as a beauty executive.
24:37The company I work for and run the beauty business for is Unilever.
24:41And one of the products is Shea Moisture and the Shea Moisture team and so many of the businesses also wanted to figure out how to help.
24:53So in addition to Harlem Hospital with Bronx Care Health System and Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, Shea Moisture actually provided lotion.
25:03You know how much we're scrubbing, washing our hands, how dried out we are, how much we're taking showers.
25:09And so imagine the medical front liners always washing and cleaning.
25:13So we asked, what do you need?
25:15They also said, we need lotion.
25:16Can we have lotion?
25:17So Shea Moisture jumped in and provided, you know, more than a thousand units of lotion.
25:22It's of lotions to the hospitals that are in the process of being distributed now.
25:26So there were a few areas that we expanded.
25:28We expanded the service from for the medical front liners from Harlem to other New York communities, the Bronx and Brooklyn, as I mentioned.
25:38But in addition to the medical front liners or other first responders that are in need that we were providing recognition to.
25:45And then outside of the first responders, which has been discussed during the day, their actions we can take outside of emergency responders to take care of ourselves.
25:56You know, basic habits like washing our hands, having masks can actually save our lives.
26:01So that's the other area that we're working on.
26:04So lotions are a part of it, but also hand washing products and donations to give to not hospitals, but also people in our community.
26:11And then the last area that we're expanding to is what Dr. Brewer was also referenced in her talk a bit was domestic violence.
26:20As we think about what it takes to keep our community safe.
26:23We know that today, you know, with the kids at home and in school and the tension and the stress caused by the quarantine, the domestic violence is on the rise and people don't have the outlet.
26:35So in total cause we care is all about keeping our community safe.
26:39It's a medical front liners.
26:41It's daily habits to take care of ourselves and it's habits in our family so we can stay physically safe.
26:48And if you want to donate, which we'd love you to, you can go to search and Google go fund me cause we care.
26:57Go fund me cause we care.
26:59And it'll take you directly to our page.
27:01Any donation helps.
27:02Our goal is to raise a hundred thousand dollars to get to 10 cities, New York, Chicago, Detroit, Birmingham, Alabama, Newark, New Orleans, LA, Philly, Indiana, Gary and Cleveland.
27:15So we'd appreciate your, uh, your support, you know, and if you see issues to help in these times, we call you to action to, uh, use your network to see where you can make a difference.
27:29Incredible.
27:30You know, one of the other issues that, um, has really surfaced ever since social distancing went into effect is the rise in domestic violence.
27:40Um, one in three women will experience domestic violence in their lifetime.
27:44And it's being reported that domestic violence, uh, emergency 911 calls are up 20% nationally, which is super alarming.
27:52Um, what do you think the answer is and how will cause we care addressed, um, that issue as well?
27:59Lori?
28:00Well, so we're actually learning what we can do in that area in particular.
28:05Again, our goal is to focus on the vulnerable people within our communities.
28:11And as AC discussed, you know, and we all are aware that there are heightened tensions in the household.
28:18And so we have women, we have children, we have men, we have a number of people who are victims of domestic violence.
28:24And our goal is to partner with the people doing the work in our communities and to actually, um, do what we can do, um, to relieve some of that tension.
28:36Uh, we are going to, as AC discussed, um, provide some, um, self care packages and, um, masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, things that people can do to keep themselves safer.
28:52And that relieves a little bit of the tension.
28:54But again, we will be partnering with the, um, organizations within our communities who are doing this work and we'll be doing what we can to support their efforts.
29:07Thank you so much, ladies. I wish we had more time because this is incredible stuff.
29:11But, um, if you could just leave us with one piece of advice for folks out there who want to get involved, but just feel frustrated.
29:18They don't think they have enough resources. They don't think they have the connections.
29:23What advice can you leave them with, um, about how to help out during COVID-19?
29:29So I would say it's very simple. Um, let's take action.
29:33It's really imperative that we show the communities that are under fire that we are not indifferent to the struggles that they are going through and that we are here to support in the ways that we can.
29:44So I challenge all of us to take that on as a personal mission and to actually take action, build something.
29:52And it really simply starts with a conversation and engage the people in your networks, because within our networks, we have the power to solve a variety of different problems.
30:02So take that first step, take it on, engage your networks and build something.
30:12Amazing. Thank you so much, ladies, for taking the time to join us at Essence Wellness House today.
30:17This is fantastic. Thank you so much for giving back and thank you for being here.
30:22And thank you for all you're doing for this platform. It's incredible service to the community.
30:28Yes. Thank you so much. So glad to be here and participate.
30:31Thank you so much. Thank you, again.
30:33Thank you, ladies. We'll definitely. All right.
30:35So that was amazing. Um, I, again, it just goes to show that when you're determined and you care about your community, there's no act too small to give back.
30:47And speaking of giving back, we have another, um, panelist, last but not least, we're going to be welcoming Tony Waller, Senior Director of Constituent Relations for Walmart, who is here to talk about what Walmart is doing, um, to give back to the greater community at large.
31:02How are you today, Tony?
31:04I am doing fantastic. How are you?
31:08I'm great. Thank you so much for being here. We have some exciting stuff to talk about with Walmart and, um, not only how you're giving back to customers, but also employees and the community at large.
31:20So can you talk a little bit about, um, what Walmart is doing to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and also give back to those who have most greatly impacted by this pandemic?
31:31You know, it is incredible, uh, just, uh, the kind of time that we are in, uh, who would have ever thought that, you know, that at this time of, of, of 2020, as we start this new decade, that we will be confronting such a, such a, you know, incredible challenge like this.
31:53Um, and it has been quite, uh, an experience as you can well imagine. Uh, it's something that's new for everybody and we are all trying to figure out how do we best provide, uh, service to, uh, to our associates, to our customers, uh, and to the community at large.
32:14And so, uh, as we embark on this journey, there are some things that we, you know, that we know that have taken place.
32:21Number one, the fact that people are very much in need, uh, the fact that people have lost their jobs or, and, and lost ways of gaining income.
32:31And so they're trying, everybody's trying to figure out how we can be upheld to each other, because at the end of the day, we are all in this thing together.
32:40Uh, I, I kind of look at, at, at Walmart and what we're doing and how we've, and how we're trying to deal with this in kind of three, uh, three kind of facets.
32:50One, looking at how do we help our associates?
32:54Two, how do we help our customers?
32:57And last but not least, how do we help the community at large?
33:01So if we're looking at our, uh, what's happening with our associates, you know, they're the ones right there at the front line who are doing work in every day to make sure that our customers have what they need during this time.
33:16And so, uh, it's, it's a, it's, uh, it's a, it's a, it's a yeoman's job for them.
33:21And we want to do everything that we can and we are, we're doing as much as we can to support them and what they need.
33:26Uh, one, we made sure that our associates feel comfortable with working.
33:32So one of the things that, that I know people are often concerned about is that if I don't work, I don't get paid.
33:39Well, we want to, to assure our associates that we have their back so that if they do not feel comfortable in coming to work or feel symptoms, we put in place an emergency COVID response, uh, for them so that they know that they're going to be taken care of.
33:58Whether it's for, from a salary standpoint or if they need medical attention.
34:03Uh, one, one, one great service that we offer all of our, the majority of the, uh, many of our associates is the fact that you can access telehealth, right?
34:13And for us, you know, it's a minimal cost of about $4 every time you call for a telehealth, telehealth doctor for those opportunities that you don't necessarily have to go into.
34:23But, uh, but, uh, but, but still need some, um, uh, need some assistance.
34:28Typically it's about $4, but we have waived that.
34:31So our associates who may be feeling something, but not all the way, uh, you know, not all, not the full blast of, uh, of, of, uh, symptoms, but need some advice and counsel can call in, uh, for free and get some help.
34:47Uh, and then the other thing that we have done to make sure that, uh, that we're, that we're taking care of our associates is, um, making sure that we're taking temperatures as they come into the, uh, into work every day.
35:00Uh, checking in on them to make sure that they feel good.
35:04Uh, and if they don't, you know, give them advice and counsel, you know, what steps to take next.
35:09So those are some things that we are doing for our associates.
35:14Something else that we've done, uh, our associates typically receive a quarterly bonus.
35:20We accelerated the quarterly bonus this year because we know that there's some things that come up that, you know, were totally unexpected.
35:28So we wanted them to have access to that money.
35:31And in addition, what we did, we provided a, uh, an additional amount of money to each of our associates, $300 for all of our full-time associates, $150 for all of our part-time associates.
35:46Again, to try to help and deal with those things that were unexpected as a result of what's happening with COVID-19.
35:53So, um, uh, you know, and we continue to look for ways to help.
35:57One of the things that we've learned very, very early on, uh, you know, at Walmart is that our associates always have the best ideas.
36:05So we're always checking in on them, making sure that they have what they need, because at the end of the day, sometimes, you know, we don't think of everything and they have a better sense of what's going on than we do.
36:15So that's just kind of what's happening with our associates.
36:18Yeah.
36:19That's super impressive.
36:21Yes.
36:22So, you know, when we look at what, thank you.
36:27Uh, you know, I wish I can't take all credit for that.
36:30We, I work with some amazing people.
36:32I just, you know, so I'm very, very fortunate on, on the, on the, uh, on the, um, customer side.
36:40One of the, you know, we've tried to implement some things to make it easier for our customers as well.
36:45One thing that people probably have noticed is that we've shortened the hours of operations in our stores.
36:51So typically many of our stores are 24 hour, uh, 24 hour, seven days a week establishments.
36:58We've reduced our hours for a number of reasons.
37:01One, it gives us an opportunity to reach, to properly restock our stores, because we know that there are a lot of things that are, that are, uh, that our customers need.
37:11And we want to make sure that it's available to them too.
37:14We want to make sure that they feel safe.
37:16So we take the night hours to, to, to thoroughly clean our stores, our carts, um, so that when people come in, they feel very comfortable in coming in for shopping.
37:28We also realize that there are some customers that probably are for one reason or another really cannot come in.
37:35So we offer different ways of shopping, whether it be shopping online and having things delivered for them using our online grocery pickup, uh, service where you can actually order things via, uh, walmart.com or on your Walmart app, schedule a time for pickup.
37:54And you can just drive on up our concierge turn around and put everything in your car for you.
38:00Uh, so those are some of the things that we're doing for them.
38:03And including, we added some additional hours so that they are able to do shopping, uh, so that people who want to have access to online grocery pickup or want to have access to, uh, delivery are able to do so, uh, uh, a lot easier.
38:20And then last for our communities, uh, Walmart foundation made a, made a commitment of $25 million, uh, to, to, to deal with the issues impacting communities as a result of COVID.
38:32And so organizations like the NAACP, uh, National Urban League, uh, National Black Child Development Institute, 100 Black Men of America and on and on and on have been able to access those funds to be in the communities that they're trying to, to help out.
38:49Wow.
38:50Wow.
38:51That's incredible stuff.
38:52And I'm so glad that that's being made available, especially in smaller and rural communities where Walmart is kind of the one-stop shop for everything.
39:02And as you know, Tony, you know, there were health inequities that existed in, uh, communities of color even before COVID-19 came along.
39:11And so I understand that Walmart is, um, focused on a commitment to helping increase, um, the health, healthcare, uh, resources in those communities where folks are not getting to the doctor as often as they should be, or simply just can't afford it.
39:25So can you speak more to that and also to what Walmart is doing, um, to increase testing centers as well?
39:32Sure.
39:33So, uh, prior to COVID-19, one of the things that we have really focused on has been our health and wellness, uh, uh, operation.
39:42And our health and wellness team started by first introducing what we call our wellness days.
39:49So once a quarter, all of our stores are open to do free testing for our customers from, uh, from, uh, blood pressure, diabetes, uh, um, and, and, and, and, and, and hoping to educate individuals of, uh, you know, of things that they should be watching out for.
40:09Uh, we've then turned around and expanded it by trying something new.
40:13So one of the things that our health and wellness team is doing is looking at putting clinics in some of our stores and we're testing that out right now, uh, in Georgia in particular, right now, we're doing that.
40:25Uh, and it's an opportunity because we know, just like you said, Jasmine, you know, in many communities, Walmart serves as the center.
40:33So, uh, why not be able to provide services at a reasonable cost, uh, to our, to our customers who may need, uh, some help from a, uh, from a, from a medical standpoint.
40:45And then you, you talked about testing.
40:48We made a commitment, uh, in partnership with a number of organizations, as well as the Department of Health and Human Services to help with the issue of testing.
40:57As you well know, testing is a real critical issue right now because of its availability.
41:03And so we have been working steadily in getting, uh, testing sites set up at our stores where people can go in and get, and get testing done.
41:16Thank you so much.
41:17We're so grateful for the strides that Walmart is making to help us manage in these very crazy times.
41:24So thank you so much, Tony, for joining us.
41:27Jasmine, thank you.
41:28And thank, uh, thank Essence for what it is doing.
41:32Uh, y'all are doing a wonderful job of making sure that our people are well informed, uh, and educated during this, during this, uh, incredible, uh, this crazy time.
41:44Thank you so much.
41:46It was good talking to you.
41:51Well, thank you so much for our participants that, um, were involved.
41:55We're actually going to be reporting and just spreading the word about how our people are contributing to the community during COVID-19.
42:03Please follow us on Essence.com for more information as we continue to spread the word.
42:07Thank you for joining us.
42:08Thank you for joining us.
42:09Thank you for joining us.
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