September 15, 2016

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Business September 15, 2016

LeBron James Helps Young Entrepreneurs In 'Cleveland Hustles'

Small business entrepreneurs typically get money from family or friends. But an approach taken from the pages of Silicon Valley is being used in Cleveland. A new reality television show called Cleveland Hustles is the idea of basketball superstar LeBron James. The show documents this process as four companies try to create jobs and a business model that can be replicated across the country.

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

Reality TV has followed celebrities into the wilderness and small business owners into a shark tank. A new show on CNBC follows young entrepreneurs in Cleveland. It’s produced by basketball star LeBron James. The show is called “Cleveland Hustles,” and the idea is to pair the entrepreneurs with established businesses in the city. From member station WCPN ideastream, Darrielle Snipes has more.

DARRIELLE SNIPES, BYLINE: Reality TV is real life for the four small businesses being targeted. They make everything from bagels to natural sodas to luxury purses. They’re all going through significant growing pains while the cameras are rolling.

Like most startups, these face a number of basic challenges, like securing capital from a bank. On the show, successful business owners will act as both mentors and investors to try to take them to the next level.

PHILLIP WACHTER: We’re young business owners. I mean I really think wisdom and experience that an adviser, investor could bring to your business – I think that is priceless. You know, if anything I mean that really helps you set, you know – helps you set up your business for success.

SNIPES: That’s Phillip Wachter who, with his wife Jackie, own the company Fount which makes leather handbags. What was once their hobby became their business two years ago. At their studio in Cleveland’s midtown, huge windows provide natural light as the hum of sewing machines serenades workers piecing together leather bags. In the beginning their plan was simple – use their savings and borrow money from family to make the bags.

JACKIE WACHTER: Well, and our business model for the first year especially was to put every penny we made from the business back into the business so that we can continue to grow.

SNIPES: They were able to buy several machines, including a huge clicker press to punch holes in the leather. They did have to get creative, working deals with distributors for Italian leather hides. The Wachters managed not to take out any loans or lines of credit from a bank. Phillip Wachter says they’re trying to get credit now.

P. WACHTER: So it’s kind of tricky. And especially being a smaller business, like, if we are trying to move quickly with kind of growth and to try to pursue different things, it’s kind of hard to work on the timeline of the banks. But you know, you have to do what you have to do.

SNIPES: After a while, they actually turned a profit.

P. WACHTER: So we did at the end of the year make $2, which was really exciting.

(LAUGHTER)

SNIPES: They can laugh now that they’ve teamed up with Jonathan Sawyer. Sawyer is an award-winning chef and author who owns several restaurants here in Cleveland. They worked out a deal with Sawyer. He provides business advice over the next three years. In return, he gets 5 percent of Fount’s gross sales.

That advice already seems to be paying off. Fount is now manufacturing 150 handmade bags a week, and sales are up. The Wachters opened a retail store in a Cleveland west side neighborhood. Jonathan Sawyer says investing in young entrepreneurs is often risky, but it’s long been the bread and butter of the tech world.

JONATHAN SAWYER: I think that’s amazing to think about – Clevelanders thinking about business in that, you know, Silicon, Napa, you know, different platform way.

SNIPES: Karen Mills agrees. She used to work for the Small Business Administration. Mills says the direct type of mentoring and funding is critical for creating jobs across the country.

KAREN MILLS: This is the American way and the American dream – having local sources of expertise and capital dedicated to making sure that those ideas get to the next stage. This could be a real boost to the American economy.

SNIPES: Back at the Fount studios, the Wachters are now managing 21 employees and aim to have twice as many in the next year. With their mentor’s help and some hustle, they hope to be well on their way to making a profit that far exceeds the $2 they made in their first year. For NPR News, I’m Darrielle Snipes.

Copyright © 2016 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Health September 15, 2016

Skipping Meals, Joining Gangs: How Teens Cope With Food Insecurity

Many kids rely on school for food their families can’t afford. Two reports suggest one group is falling through the cracks: teens. Dogged by hunger, teens may try a wide range of strategies to get by. Meriel Jane Waissman/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption Meriel Jane Waissman/Getty Images

When Lanarion Norwood Jr. was 9 years old, he opened his family’s refrigerator to find it almost empty. His grandmother, unemployed because of disability, had run out of food for the month. So Norwood did what many young children adamantly resist: He went to bed early. Sleeping, he reasoned, would help him suppress hunger, and he knew the next day he could eat at his Atlanta school.

That memory is one of Norwood’s earliest recollections of being hungry, but not his last. As a teenager, his food concerns grew with his appetite. “I would plan out my meal[s],” Norwood says, now a freshman at Morehouse College in Atlanta. “I knew I could eat breakfast and lunch at school and I could eat again later at [an afterschool mentoring program].”

Lots of kids like Norwood rely on schools for food their families can’t afford. Federal programs like the National School Lunch Program offer free or discounted meals to children from low-income families. But two reports out this month from the Urban Institute and Feeding America suggest one group is falling through the cracks: teenagers. Roughly 7 million children in the U.S. aged 10-17 struggle with hunger, according to one report, which examines teenage access to food. Dogged by hunger, teenagers may try a wide range of solutions, from asking friends for meals to bartering sex for food.

To learn about teen hunger, the researchers partnered with food banks and, with funding from Conagra, conducted 20 focus groups across the country with adolescents from low-income families. The researchers found two challenges to feeding teens in need: First, some of the charitable programs that target young children — like backpack programs that allow kids to take food home over the weekend — aren’t always offered to teenagers. And second, even when programs are available, teenagers feel more self-conscious about accepting free food or may not realize that they are eligible for the assistance.

Lead researcher Susan Popkin of the Urban Institute explains why the challenges facing teenagers are unique: “It’s easier to get to little kids. They’re all in school. They’re certainly more cooperative. Teens are often seen as the problem. Not as part of the solution.”

Teens, Popkin explains, are more aware of the stigma associated with a free lunch than younger children. They’re also at an age where fitting in is paramount. So many teens will forego official programs and try to get meals from other places – by going to a friend’s house with a well-stocked pantry, for example.

Norwood says pride is a major hurdle. “Why should I have to go through a program just to eat when I’m almost grown?” he says, describing the attitude of some of his peers.

Even adolescents who do opt to take advantage of school programs may not get a good meal, according to Popkin, because they often receive the same portion sizes as elementary school children. What’s more, teens often squirrel the meal away for younger siblings.

“They feel the pressure that their parents are under,” she says. “They’re old enough to be aware of it and they want to help. They go hungry along with their parents.”

Teenagers cope with hunger in other ways too, the researchers found. Teenagers try to get jobs, but often struggle against the competition of adults with more experience and more flexible hours. The jobs they can get — like cutting hair or mowing grass — often don’t pay well enough to bridge the gap in the family’s food budget.

Sometimes teenagers turn to less benign methods to get money or food. Teenagers in the focus groups cited petty theft and even gang membership as methods adolescents used to put money and food on the table.

Most surprising to Popkin was that some teenagers, girls in particular, date older men with more disposable money in order to get food. Thirteen of the 20 focus groups talked about trading sex for a meal.

What can be done to improve the plight of food-insecure teenagers? Popkin says simply extending elementary meal programs to teenagers could be a start, as well as increasing portions with age.

Emily Engelhard, managing director of research and evaluation for Feeding America, says teens came up with other ideas as well, like tying free food to another less stigmatized activity – like movie night or a basketball game. She says an important takeaway from the research is “just how incredible and resilient these teens are.”

Better and more accessible grocery stores in low-income neighborhoods would also help, says Norwood. He says many people in Atlanta have to take a bus or train to reach a grocery store with fresh produce and can’t afford the time or fare, to say nothing of lugging the groceries home.

He sums up the importance of teen hunger simply: “It is real. It is serious. And it should be addressed. It affects the mind, it affects the body, and it affects the soul. Without that, what do you have?”

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Sports September 15, 2016

Radio Play-By-Play Announcer Describes Game Disruption

Kevin Harlan of Westwood One was broadcasting during Monday Night Football when someone ran onto the field. Harlan described him as a “goofball in a hat” and more. Police eventually tacked the man.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Good morning. I’m Steve Inskeep. Years ago, I worked as a radio sportscaster and admired those who did it well. Westwood One’s Kevin Harlan did on Monday when a pro football game was disrupted.

(SOUNDBITE OF RADIO BROADCAST)

KEVIN HARLAN: Hey, somebody has run out on the field – some goofball in a hat and a red shirt. Now he takes off the shirt. He’s running down the middle by the 50. He’s at the 30. He’s bare-chested and banging his chest. Now he runs the opposite way.

INSKEEP: TV didn’t show the action, but Harlan gave the facts until police tackled the man. It’s MORNING EDITION.

Copyright © 2016 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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