We officially kick off this year's Season of Giving with a nonprofit we are proud to support: William Temple House. The charity's executive director joins us to talk about their mission - always important but more important than ever this year.

With the holidays now upon us, we talk about the latest in kitchen gadgets in our first segment.

William Sikkens, Bill Snodgrass, Gretchen Winkler

Welcome to We Are

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Technologies User Friendly 2.0 with host

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Bill Sikkens, technology architect.

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And this is User

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Friendly 2.0 welcome to this week's show

Bill, Gretchen Welcome.

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Hello.

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So as we started talking about last week,

we are entering the season of Giving.

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And this year we're proud

to support the William Temple House.

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In our second segment,

their executive director is going to

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come on and tell us about their program

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and what they're trying to do

and the services that they give out.

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And this is an amazing charity.

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They've been around for a very long time.

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He'll get into that.

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But their services,

which deal with mental health and operate

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a food bank, are even more important

this year than ever.

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So stay tuned for segment two.

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We're going to jump to that

and give you an idea of exactly

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what the season of giving

is going to be about.

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Are you guys,

what do we have in the news this week?

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All right.

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The Mandalorian and Grogu grew trailer

just broke

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a 47 year old Star Wars role.

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All right. So I'm going to talk about

what's going on here.

25

And then Gretchen I'm going

I want to get your opinion on this.

26

Since you are our resident

Star Wars expert.

27

So the trailer just came out

as it said, it

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features Grogu,

who is the alien Yoda type?

29

And then, Din Djarin,

who is the Mandalorian?

30

So what we're looking at here is a case

where you have someone

31

in a mask, a helmet, and an alien.

32

So what is being whined about here

is that this is unusual for Star Wars

33

not to have human characters

and feature alien characters,

34

although I'm not sure a mandalorian

qualifies as alien in my opinion.

35

But that is where they're going.

36

They're going to say

37

this is really a change

from all of the other Star Wars movies,

38

and they're going to be placing the more

human characters in the background.

39

So, Gretchen, what do you think?

40

See, I kind of disagree with this

41

because, it's it's a buddy film,

42

just like the Han Solo, the solo film

that was a buddy film.

43

You have Han Solo and Baka.

44

Yeah. You know, and so it's kind of like.

45

And then you have the Ahsoka series.

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She's the main character, so.

47

And she's not a human or human

like character.

48

And so I kind of disagree with this.

49

I don't really, I just don't agree.

50

Yeah,

51

I don't I think, you know,

if I had to make a comment on this,

52

I would say that I don't think this is

particularly relevant to other the movie.

53

So it's not I don't know.

54

What do you think about all this?

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Is it necessary to have humans

in the first part of a science fiction

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film, just because others have

done it in the franchise?

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No. So far it.

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Yeah, it's like it's

the same thing with Farscape.

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Look at all of the aliens.

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There's just one, you know, or two, two

characters that are like humans, right?

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And it's like,

we don't need to have everything.

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Look, it's what's what's inside

the character that you relate

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to, not the outside of the character.

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You know what I mean?

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Yeah, I agree completely.

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I think, you know,

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and by the way, the feedback on

this is basically the same thing.

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It's all it's about.

Your answer answers just no.

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Why are we talking about this?

This is ridiculous. Right.

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And even if you're

looking at the franchise,

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I don't know about the characters,

but certainly episode eight and nine,

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I felt like they were written

by aliens, illiterate ones.

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But the thing of it is, is, so,

you know, you have that interaction to.

74

Yeah.

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I mean, what's next on this?

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Is legacy code

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in technology systems

reaching a breaking point?

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So this has actually been an amalgamation

of listener questions

79

that have been coming in that

we didn't get to the Q&A last week,

80

and I did a little research on

I wanted to put in the news

81

because it is actually something

that is important.

82

And what this is talking about is

computers are now, you know,

83

I mean, they've been around

microcomputers,

84

been around since the 70s, mainframes

and stuff before that.

85

And today as we sit here,

oh, that goes back to that

86

era is still being used in some system,

specifically things like banking

87

and travel and all of that,

COBOL, Fortran, and it works.

88

And part of the reason

why they continue to use it works.

89

So the question that's happening here

is, is you have

90

this type of old code

in software and hardware.

91

Is it causing a problem is, you know,

is it

92

sitting out there

and doing different things.

93

So I'm going to go ahead

and describe this in this way.

94

Let's look at technology.

95

We talk about sci

fi here on the show a lot.

96

But let's look at this

from a hardware perspective.

97

Let's say that you have in the 1970s

98

technology

that was created to make cyborgs.

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Okay.

100

And then in the 1990s,

101

you have someone that modded

at that point, and the superior lifeform

102

had all of the upgrades

that would be current at that time.

103

Now, fast forward to 2025,

and like any other complex system,

104

there's maintenance

and things that are done

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and you're swapping out parts

and upgrading things, but you still might

106

have some of the original technology

embedded in the system.

107

Same thing applies to software.

108

So what ends up happening in some cases

is if you don't have

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someone that knows the entire system or

some of the original source code has been,

110

you know, ended up marriage, conceivably

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you would have it, but not known

about by the current programmers.

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It becomes easier to trigger

something that you don't know

113

is there that can cause problems.

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So that's what raises the question here.

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Is it time to throw it all away

and do something new?

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Is that required for security

and that type of a thing?

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General research on this says no, but

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is you're working on

and working with legacy systems.

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Been around for a while.

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It is important that the engineers on it

understand where it came from.

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Maybe not how to program it from scratch,

but you should know what's in your

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in your source code and stuff.

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You know,

124

if you look across the character,

I think he's a marvel character

125

that was a cyborg

126

and had, things programed into him that,

if you triggered certain things.

127

So Winter soldier, Winter soldier.

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Oh, okay.

129

So let's say

130

your cyborg is something like that,

based in their original source code,

131

and you don't know about it anymore.

132

Then somebody comes out and triggers it.

133

Like, you know,

134

I don't know, maybe the base frequency

of a subwoofer or something.

135

And that causes the, cyborg to react

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in a way that, wouldn't be terribly nice.

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Right?

138

And have this, again,

science fiction imperative.

139

But you can have the same thing

in real world systems.

140

So in other words,

you need to know what you're doing.

141

Yeah.

142

And in this day and age,

things do change quickly.

143

And sometimes it is very difficult

to cover just new code going out

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from point A to point B, much less

understanding the base of what's going on.

145

But if you can't do that, then yeah,

it is time that you would look

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at changing things out.

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However, the time consumption of something

like that might make it

148

worthwhile to know what the code base is

that you're writing on.

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So is there a way to, let's say let's say

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something's written in an older language,

like a cobalt or a Fortran?

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Is there a way to take that language

and give it,

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a little bit of a modern injection,

or is it just old

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and it's not going to be able

to be upgraded?

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Okay.

155

So generally speaking,

in these type of environments,

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and I'm going to speak from when

157

I've had to deal with some code like this

that we've used for clients.

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Basically what you have going on

there is it's an old language.

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If you have someone that knows

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that you can inject modern elements, it's

not like it can't be changed today.

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But what ends up happening is modern

programmers don't know the old language,

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so they end up relying on resources

that are there that they can get to.

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But yet, as far as what kind of is behind

the curtain they may or may not know.

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So what's generally done is the old code

is encapsulated and you access certain

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elements of it in your modern system

and put the two together like that.

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I don't consider

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that to be a good way to work,

because you have this exact problem.

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There might be other parts of it

that are dormant

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that could accidentally be

and not even nefarious.

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You send in a command to do something,

171

and it does something weird

because you didn't know

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that's what it was set up to do

in the first place.

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So okay, I'm

going to ask another stupid question.

174

Oh, why can't you train an AI

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to understand these older languages?

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Maybe your keyboards are clicking again

on the comments with that question now.

177

Okay. What what what?

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Well, if you don't have humans

who can understand it,

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then how could you develop eyes

that understand it?

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Actually, that's that's already been done.

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And generally speaking,

from that standpoint, what you do

182

is let's say you have got ChatGPT analyze

the code.

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You could certainly do that.

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And then what you want to do, to be sure,

is they have, you know, say Gemini,

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analyze ChatGPT response,

you know, and give its response.

186

So you get opinions from different eyes.

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And that will allow you

to look at these different things.

188

You take that feedback

189

and then if you're getting a commonality

where, there's 10,000 lines of code here

190

that you know, aren't being accessed

or are being used any more,

191

maybe it's a good idea

to look at that part of the system

192

and either understand what it does

if you need it and remove it if you don't.

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Okay.

194

So interesting.

195

So in layman's terms,

what's going on is you have a foundation

196

that is old code

and a new building is built on top of it.

197

But nobody knows exactly

what's in the foundation anymore.

198

Right. Exactly. Okay.

199

That's a

that's a very, very good analysis.

200

So anyway, you know, as our systems

get more complicated, we're going

201

to need to deal with these things.

But yeah let's.

202

So what's the answer to that.

203

Is that at a breaking point. No.

204

But it does require that, you know,

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you have someone that can at least

understand the foundation.

206

All right.

207

Maybe pull some people out of retirement.

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Yeah.

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Jeff Bezos will be co CEO of a

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of an AI startup

project called Prometheus.

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Yeah.

212

You know we all have things change jobs.

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And you know I guess you know

just tired of you

214

know, current set up selling

a lot of things like you know everywhere.

215

So it's time to do something new.

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Actually, I shouldn't poke fun at that.

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I'm doing the exact same thing.

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I just I'm not Jeff Bezos and I

don't have his bank account, which I did.

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But that being said,

yeah, he's, moving over

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to, this new project as you say,

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and they're putting together

something that, could be very interesting

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and building AI that's going to be

in a number of different things,

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including embedded systems

and some other things like that.

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So, you know, some of these things

could be spacecraft exoskeletons,

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and so on, goes from there.

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And this also gives you

a little bit of a difference

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in the idea of, you know, bank accounts

and where you're coming from.

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They're saying that they think

they're reasonably funded, maybe at 6.2

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billion and venture capital,

you know, I'm

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sorry, they're having a startup on that

shoestring, you know, cash,

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cash.

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Removable spyware on Samsung devices

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comes pre-installed on Galaxy series

devices.

234

Yeah. So this is kind of interesting,

isn't that?

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And the other thing that's kind of,

really even more interesting about it.

236

It's like Samsung, don't do this.

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Is this only seems to be the case

on their budget models,

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the Galaxy A and M M-series.

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So if you get your, you know,

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one of the like the folds or,

you know, some of the newer ones, the,

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galaxies and all that kind of thing,

you're not going to have this problem.

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And what happens with

this is a lot of these

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applications

are built into the operating system.

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So these phones run on Android.

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And while these would not be a part

of a stock version of Android,

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you don't get a stock version of Android.

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You get the one that comes with the device

that is highly customized by both

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the device manufacturer and usually the

cellular companies that are on Verizon.

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They have their customizations

that they require on it.

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And that's also why when updates come out,

they go at different levels

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because it's not just one update,

or the update has to go to the vendor,

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and then it has to go to the seller,

and then eventually it gets to you.

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So what's happening here

is these apps spyware and marketing

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and these different kind of phones

are being shipped with these phones.

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And you can't really uninstall it

without jailbreaking

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the phone or something like that,

which most people don't know how to do.

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And if you do do what it can screw up

your warranties and things like that.

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So the only option you really have

is number one.

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No it's there. That's the first clue.

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You know, that you're going

to have to know what to remove.

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And then there is a way to go in

and disable it.

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But basically you're turning it off.

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You cannot remove it, but you can

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disable it

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from functioning and then hope

that it actually really is disable.

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So the only time that I've ever worked

with one of these budget

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models is

my mom had a series a while back,

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and that got replaced because it was

either that or meeting therapy

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every time I needed to show her

how to add a contact or something.

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It was slow.

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It was clearly monetized in my opinion,

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or making up for the fact that

the phone itself was cheap to begin with,

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and things that are basic functions

274

in most phones it didn't have as a,

for example, a QR code reader,

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and the only way to get one is

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you had to install an app,

and that app comes with in-app purchases.

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And, you know, other things,

your higher end phones

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that's built into your camera function,

you know?

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So it's, definitely a situation

where this is being targeted.

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In my opinion.

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It is from what it looks like,

and it is a thing.

282

So one of the old things

283

that I've been always told is re

can be very expensive.

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So it's not really free.

285

You're paying for it in some way.

So the price is less.

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You know, some of these phones are $8,090

for a full smartphone.

287

But of course you're selling

personal privacy, your analytics

288

and other things that you can't

289

necessarily disable or turn off

to get the lower price on the phone.

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Because even with how cheap it is,

the manufacturer electronics

291

these days, a full functioning smartphone

that's done right would still cost

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more than 80 bucks to make,

293

you know?

294

So you got to look at it

from that perspective that it's not really

295

cheap, it's

just monetarily less than the other ones.

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And you're have a trade off for that.

297

Wow. That's me.

298

The Kindles of the way or the candles.

299

Yeah, yeah.

300

Or you could

or you can if what you're talking about

301

is you buy it, it's cheaper,

but you get ads

302

and if you pay more for the same device,

then you don't get ads.

303

Yeah.

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Okay.

305

Cloudflare down

X and more apps hit by internet outage.

306

I'm sorry, I haven't.

307

We already done the story

like twice in the last month I know, yeah.

308

It's, yeah, we have this time

it was Cloudflare.

309

Yeah. So what is Cloudflare?

310

Because that is definitely a question

that we talked about.

311

Cloudflare before.

312

We've talked about it. Yes.

313

And but again, it's one of those things

that's kind of hidden in the background.

314

So what's unclear is, is that the cloud

management service and its cloud service,

315

and it also handles authentication,

316

to try and stop things like denial

of service attacks and stuff like that.

317

So when you go to a website that uses

Cloudflare, it's going to deliver,

318

you know, based on cost to servers

and that type of stuff automatically.

319

And it's also going to try to check

your browser to make sure that you're not

320

like a bot trying to harvest information

from a website or something like that.

321

So as far as the service goes, it's

actually quite valuable in my opinion.

322

We use it for a lot of our clients,

including our own sites, but like anything

323

else, technology is subject

to having problems.

324

And Cloudflare had one of these problems.

325

This last week that took down,

as you say, apps and other things.

326

GPT was out for a little while.

327

I think even

WhatsApp was affected, maybe,

328

but there were some other things like that

that were just you couldn't access them.

329

And same kind of feeling of something

going down

330

like, AWS and these your problems

over the last couple of weeks

331

for a different reason.

332

They've issued an apology

and you'd get things back up and running

333

pretty quickly.

And this is another example,

334

like the other ones

of where something has been fixed.

335

But it takes a while to get things back

online.

336

But yeah, that's what happened.

337

Dude.

338

Newly released images of three Atlas

confirm

339

Harvard astrophysicist suspicions.

340

I'm think they might.

341

Okay, so what we're talking about here

is something,

342

that he has been

343

looking at the idea

that this is a super alien spacecraft

344

and looking at different things

from it to try and substantiate that.

345

So, you know, everything.

346

What would be an opinion on that?

Let's set that aside for a minute.

347

Just talk about what's going on here.

348

He's looking at the fact

349

that it is, in a lot of ways,

not acting like a normal comet.

350

It seems to be able to correct course.

351

It seems to be able to have thrust.

352

The normal pale of the comet

sometimes goes in the opposite direction.

353

The exhaust from a, contains elements

that we have never seen

354

naturally created in space

before, like arsenic.

355

So there's a lot of things going on here

that would tend

356

to substantiate a position like that,

if you look at it from that standpoint.

357

Now, needless

to say, the scientific community

358

is, let's just say, not been terribly

accepting of this theory.

359

You know, he's

been seeing counter stories.

360

So I guess

just curious to see what you thought,

361

because, of course, you know,

aliens are impossible.

362

We're the center of the universe, yada

yada. Right.

363

So the thing of the guys is,

at the end of the day, he's just saying

364

that he's looking at an alternate approach

365

and there are all the reasons why.

366

And it's changed colors

and other things like that.

367

So there are some things

about this spacecraft, I mean, comet

368

that would tend to say

369

that it's a little bit different

from anything else that we've seen.

370

There's a lot of good pictures up

now with the government reopening.

371

NASA is releasing their stuff.

372

ESA, the European Space Agency is putting

stuff out and it's going to get closer.

373

I believe December 19th is the closest,

flyby when the aliens will actually come

374

visit us. So, you know, we'll have to see.

375

I thought maybe it was a probe,

you know, like an exploration.

376

You know, like a voyager.

377

You know, for my understanding,

the story of the Alpha Centauri

378

since they've already been here

with their probe.

379

So, you know, I guess they got

all the information they can that way.

380

It's all right.

381

You know, I walk here.

382

Oh, man, this took a really weird turn.

383

So let's go to something

completely different and talk about

384

some of the kitchen gadgets used for,

385

So we're going to be doing our annual

holiday show next week and talking about

386

some of the more general stuff

that's out there,

387

but we get asked questions

a lot about kitchen gadgets.

388

And this is something

that, more and more of this,

389

like anywhere else in the house,

you're seeing specific things.

390

But to give kind of an idea of a wrap up

of what is on the list for those that are

391

chefs, and I had to look all this up

because I am not my idea of,

392

you know, cooking something is boiling

water and putting, you know, Chef Mike.

393

But there are others

that can seem to do a little better job.

394

And to do that,

a lot of these devices are,

395

kind of cool.

396

One of them is the a Vona Precision

Cooker 3.0.

397

Okay. So this is described as a smart.

398

So it's vide how it's spelled circular

399

and upgraded Wi-Fi connectivity

and better controls okay.

400

So my question is well okay

that's all very nice.

401

But what is it. Right.

402

And this is a device

403

that is a immersion circulator okay.

404

And that's where the so aside

on comes from designed for immersion

405

circulator immersion circulator.

406

So you attach it to a pot of water.

407

It heats and the host water

to a precise temperature.

408

And then you can immerse

vacuum sealed foods.

409

You get consistent

410

restaurant level results,

at least according to the manufacturer.

411

Yes. SUV.

412

SUV. Okay. Yeah.

413

Like I said,

I was. I should say it's allergies.

414

I was wondering about that.

415

Yeah.

416

But it's it's interesting

because all this stuff is Wi-Fi connected,

417

you know, smart devices

and looking at some of the other things,

418

there's one that is about $90

and it's a meat thermometer body.

419

It is wireless

and it has some kind of AI in it.

420

So it can sense

421

what you're doing with your holiday meal,

whether you're roasting or whatever.

422

The case may be,

something that they say is very giftable.

423

And I guess you get advised

when you need to

424

when your item is cooking or has finished

cooking or reach a certain threshold.

425

I'm still dealing with the fact

that my refrigerator texts me

426

when the water filter needs to be changed.

427

So, you know, I. I find that annoying.

428

I think I'm just happy with my Breville.

429

It does the air fryer thing.

430

It reheats food.

431

It's a toaster.

432

It's a really awesome thing.

433

I'm speaking of which, the next three

items on the list are air fryers.

434

So this is saying, well, so you know,

you're right on the head there.

435

I and I have to say, I have a ninja air

fryer that's a few years old now.

436

And I do use it.

437

It's just easier to deal with.

438

And, you know,

439

I actually can handle that a little better

than something as alien as an oven.

440

So, you know, I kind of.

441

And it goes from there.

442

But these are popular items.

443

And, like

444

I say, the next three, the, Breville,

if I'm saying that right, has a smile

445

on their face.

446

That's how I said a problem. You're right.

447

And, high tech meets everyday

cooking again, a smart device, being able

448

to monitor things and, another one

that's a little more budget friendly is.

449

Okay, I'm really not.

450

I'm doing well with the namesake

or Mania French or Airfryer Bawumia.

451

Yo, you are am I apologize,

I know I'm saying that right.

452

But again, it's another air fryer

that cost a little bit less

453

and has a lot of these features.

454

And then the third one is another one

by the same company

455

that is a little bit more expensive.

456

It features a window

where you can see the cooking progress.

457

My ninjas that you are

not sure that's a new feature,

458

but it's as they say that they blend

utility and cool design.

459

So these are some of those items that you

probably would actually need to go to,

460

you know, be real old fashioned

and go to a brick and mortar store

461

to check out

462

and see what the differences are, and only

get so much from the pictures online.

463

But air fryers are a big deal

this year, and I can, like I say, okay.

464

Joking aside, the fact that I can't cook,

I do understand that.

465

What was that? Gretchen?

466

I, I know the Breville works

467

because we had, a previous one

that was just a toaster oven.

468

And when we got the Breville toaster

469

oven, air fryer,

we knew it was going to work.

470

Well, yeah. And it, you know, it's

it was worth.

471

It's an impressive.

472

Yeah. Yeah, it does cost a little more,

473

but in these cases

you do get what you pay for.

474

I think, you know, you know,

and if you actually want

475

to go to the other side of that, fine.

476

If you're stocking stuffers,

that type of thing.

477

Williams-Sonoma has a holiday spatula set.

478

It's holiday themed, you know,

479

spatulas, whatever it does with that,

I don't know how much to say for it.

480

This isn't QVC where I can talk

for an hour on something like that,

481

but it would be kind of cool for somebody

that's cooking.

482

And the other one

483

that kind of falls along these

lines is a product made by Ice Diver.

484

It's a 33 ball ice. Mold set.

485

And you can make custom

ice cubes or ice balls

486

made out of different ingredients

for drinks and whatnot.

487

And unlike the ghosts that we tried to use

for Halloween,

488

I was able to make them work.

489

I was able to make them work. Yeah. Okay.

490

Well, again, it's me in the kitchen,

so, you know. Yeah.

491

There we are. Heaven help us.

492

All right.

493

Our next segment, we are going to be

talking about our season of giving.

494

This is user friendly.

People know we'll be back after the break.

495

Snow's coming down this time.

496

I'm watching home.

497

You guys, I love people around.

498

And maybe any time

499

my the church fell down.

500

This is user friendly. 2.0 welcome back.

501

As we enter this year's season of giving,

502

we want to talk about an amazing charity

503

that user Friendly is proud to be able

to support.

504

William Temple House in Portland

is working to make sure every neighbor

505

feels the warmth of the season,

506

from their food pantry and warm clothing

program to counseling and essential

507

support services, they help families

facing hardship and instability

508

this holiday.

509

They're bringing comfort,

510

dignity and a little extra cheer

511

to those who needed it most and have been

doing this for many, many years.

512

For details on them,

check out User Friendly Dot show.

513

We're going to have a link

at the top of our page,

514

and right now I'd like to welcome

their Executive Director,

515

who's going to tell us a deep dive

into their program for this year.

516

Joining us

517

now, Graham, executive director of William

Temple House.

518

Welcome to user Friendly.

519

Hey, Bill.

520

Thank you. Gretchen.

521

Thank you.

Thank you for having me here. Yeah.

522

Thank you for joining us for this year's

season of Giving.

523

Your organization

is absolutely incredible.

524

And before we started recording,

we were talking that, you know,

525

I've worked with some of your people

for a long time now,

526

but it's the first year

that we're going to be able to have

527

the pleasure of directly supporting

such a just needed pause right now.

528

And what I'm going to do

is just kind of throw this over to you.

529

If you can give us

some of your background,

530

what you're doing,

just the general for one one.

531

Sure, sure. So,

532

we were formed, 60 years ago

533

this year to provide,

free mental health counseling.

534

Originally to this neighborhood

where we're located in northwest Portland.

535

Since that time, we've

536

stuck to our mission of of free

and low cost mental health counseling.

537

Although now we serve

538

Portland and the greater

Portland, Vancouver, Washington area.

539

Along the way,

we added a food pantry because we realized

540

we heard from our mental health clients

that, that was another big obstacle.

541

And, really being, well,

542

for a lot of them

was also food on the table.

543

So now for the past at least 20 years,

we do, free and low

544

cost mental health counseling and a free

a free

545

shopping style food pantry.

546

How does that work?

547

This do do people that are in need

just kind of show up

548

and they make appointments?

549

Tell us a little bit about how,

you know, what somebody would see.

550

Sure.

551

The most visible part is the food pantry.

552

It's open three days

a week. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.

553

No appointment is needed.

554

It's we open our gates

and we keep working.

555

And so either, you know, we run out of

food or there's no, there's no line.

556

And when I started

557

and I started in this role about two

and a half years ago when I started, 75

558

people coming to the pantry in a day,

what was was it close to a record?

559

You know, fast forward to 2025,

560

the first Tuesday of November last week,

561

we served 167 people.

562

Wow, wow, wow.

563

And that's closer to normal, 145

now, it's not a record.

564

It's just a normal day at the food pantry.

565

Wow.

566

The mental health support

and counseling is a little bit different.

567

People request our services often online

or by telephone.

568

And then

and then those are by appointment.

569

And, folks usually see a therapist

about 50 minutes

570

for a 50 minute session, either

once a week or once every two weeks.

571

So that part's a very busy part

of what we do, too.

572

But it's not as,

it's not the first thing you see.

573

It's a very one on one.

574

Right.

575

Well, yeah, especially for I could see

where the food would be more front facing.

576

And, especially this year,

because food insecurity is a problem.

577

But this year it's really been a problem.

578

And, I can imagine that that's somewhat

taxing to any food bank, including yours.

579

The changes that we've been dealing with.

580

Yeah.

581

You know,

so as I said, we've we've been seeing

582

a steady uptick in demand

for two years or a little more.

583

Then we started to see a

584

decline in supply about a year ago.

585

And it only got worse

with the change in administration.

586

So the decline in supply was a thing

was happening before the administration,

587

the new administration,

then the new administration

588

made some pretty important cuts

to the USDA budget,

589

and that resulted in less food

coming from farmers

590

to regional food banks,

where we get a lot of our supply.

591

So over the past year, we've seen demand

go up and supply go down.

592

And so that was the situation

593

before the government shut down and before

and before cuts to snap.

594

So, of course

there have also been rolling cuts to snap

595

and efforts to make snap harder, harder

to get and to get people off snap,

596

which obviously also increases the line

at our food pantry.

597

But all that kind of came to a head

in the last week of October.

598

We came together as a team

and talked about what are we going to do

599

in November

if people don't get their Snap payments?

600

Everything I have just

described is only going to get worse.

601

And there

is a lot of trepidation on the team.

602

I could we do anything else

in the context of steadily

603

increasing demand and decreasing supply?

604

Is there something else we could do?

605

And we decided

that we had to try to do something.

606

And so we made a pledge

that, we'd find more food

607

and for the month of November,

no one would go home empty handed.

608

And that was a scary pledge to make,

609

because over the last year,

people have been going home empty handed.

610

I think as as I, as I said a minute ago,

you know, we tend to close the pantry

611

either when the food runs out or the line

runs out

612

and there have been

some type of the frequent times this year

613

where the food's run out

and we've had to say,

614

we're done,

we're sorry, we're done for the day.

615

We'll have to come back

at a different time.

616

So it was scary to say in November,

we're not going to turn anyone away.

617

So far we've been able to do it.

618

So far, the community has stepped up,

we found more food.

619

We've gone out and bought food,

620

because most of our food is donated,

but we've gone out and bought food.

621

And so far, this is November 13th.

622

We haven't,

we haven't had to turn anybody.

623

Well that's amazing.

624

I mean, you're pretty much halfway

through the month and holding to that

625

pledge, which I could see

would be extremely difficult

626

with everything in such a state of flux,

you know.

627

So we'll talk about in a little bit

how people find you on the way

628

to seek help and that type of a thing.

629

But what I'd like to do is dive

into the funding aspect of a little bit,

630

because it's certainly

631

a question that we are going to get

from the audience is, how do we help?

632

And we have a lot of amazing people

633

out there trying

not just even this time of year,

634

but to give back and support

community programs like yours

635

that really kind of make some people's

lives worth living versus not.

636

I mean, that really is

what it comes down to.

637

And there's a couple of ways

I know that, that you raise money.

638

And what I'd like to do is get you to go

into that, you know, monetary donations.

639

And, I understand

you guys have a thrift store as well.

640

We do? Yeah. We do.

641

Yeah.

642

And so,

you know, money's always the best thing.

643

Because when we have

644

money, for two reasons,

you know, and one is easy to understand.

645

When we have money, when we have a budget,

we can buy whatever the thing is

646

that we're most missing in the moment.

647

Right?

648

So, the other thing is that we can buy

we're in a coalition

649

with nine other, food hunger

focused organizations in Portland.

650

It's called the Cafe Coalition Cafe

Advancing Food Equity.

651

And we band together

and purchase food wholesale.

652

So if people give us money,

653

we can buy more jars of peanut butter

654

with the same money than if they went

to the grocery store and bought a jar.

655

That said, you know,

I know people like to do that.

656

I know people like the concrete.

657

There are a lot of places

churches, schools, businesses,

658

especially small businesses

in this neighborhood that have a barrel,

659

you know, in their lobby.

660

And they take food donations

for us as well.

661

And that we appreciate all of that

as well.

662

You know, whenever we can, we tend to say

like give and get, like if you want to

663

give us a jar of peanut butter

and then give us 25 bucks

664

so we can buy ten more jars like that,

that would be that'd be perfect.

665

We also do

666

fund a part of our operation

through our thrift store.

667

So we, we run,

we own and run an award winning

668

thrift store,

on Northwest Gleason in Portland.

669

And, that generates,

670

around 10% of our budget,

which, maybe doesn't sound like much,

671

but it's a great 10% that,

we can count on that.

672

We raise ourselves that, you know,

we don't have to go out

673

and write a proposal for

or or run a campaign and hope we get,

674

and we're growing the thrift store

we need in these crazy, uncertain times.

675

You know, the more revenue

that we can earn ourselves

676

so that you don't have to depend on it

from from donors.

677

It's it would be great.

678

So we're we're also working to, to, to

grow that thrift store business as well.

679

Okay.

680

I'm going to just ask the question on this

because I've heard this before.

681

Award winning.

682

Tell us what that means.

683

There's a couple of different.

684

Well, actually,

there is a lot at this point.

685

A lot of different, you know,

top ten lists and that kind of stuff.

686

One of the most recent ones was

we were in The Oregonian, as,

687

as one of Portland's ten best nonprofit,

thrift stores.

688

So there's a concrete answer.

689

There's a bunch of

there's a bunch of top ten lists.

690

We keep appearing.

691

I know that the reason I bring that up

is because I've seen it,

692

like you say,

in a number of different places.

693

And and I throw that out there

because a lot of times you'll see

694

award winning and,

you know, whatever that means.

695

But you guys really are award winning.

696

And I think it's important

to point that out. Yeah.

697

That not just gold remit to 1903.

698

Like, you know, every beer has that.

699

And there you are.

700

You know coming from Nevada,

every buffet was award winning too.

701

So, you know, you got I,

I got to go through all of that. So.

702

All right, how does someone donate like

go ahead and give us tell us a little bit

703

about the specific campaign

you're doing this fall.

704

And how somebody would

get to your website, donate monetarily.

705

What is the exact process for that?

706

You know, the easiest thing like,

I know you're going to you're

707

going to help us out by by posting a link.

708

But, you know, people can just

709

look up William Temple House online

and our campaign page is on our website.

710

That's probably the easiest.

711

And then it's,

you know, it's just click and give.

712

Yeah.

713

And there's a lot of options,

I know for one time donation or ongoing

714

and and then your organization,

of course, is a 501 C3.

715

So there's all the relevant

potential tax deductions

716

and things that come along with that too.

717

I would assume there are. Yeah.

718

And thank you for mentioning

monthly giving.

719

That is that's a great choice.

720

If somebody is thinking about,

giving us 100 bucks or

721

if they would be willing to give us ten

bucks a month, that would be even better.

722

Yeah.

723

And and you can do all this

on an automatic setup.

724

So it's not even like

you have to think about it.

725

And I think that is one of the,

one of the best things to do.

726

Because, you know,

we all get busy and you might forget

727

or you might not want to deal

with the accounting.

728

So you can just set it up

and it's good to go.

729

And at the end of the year,

you know what, you donate it.

730

So I like I like it when it's easy.

731

We try to we we try to make it easy.

732

I mean, people are trying to help us

and we don't want it to be hard for them.

733

And that totally makes sense.

734

You have outside

of what we've talked about,

735

are there any other specific needs that

that your organization has this fall?

736

Well, if anybody is listening

and has a great source of free

737

or wholesale, eggs or meat

738

or her, shelf stable milk,

that would be great.

739

Those are things that we're finding

sometimes even when

740

we're trying to buy them,

we can't find enough,

741

available wholesale.

742

That's probably not a surprise.

743

I think we've probably all

had the experience

744

now of going to the grocery store and

745

for some reason, one week

there aren't any.

746

There's no milk or there's no, you know.

747

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

748

No, it's. Yeah.

749

Since Covid it's been like that.

750

I mean the excuse was Covid, but now

it's like it's just still the same thing.

751

And, and then it seems like

with inflation and stuff,

752

when you do find eggs

you need an armored car to take them home.

753

Yeah.

754

That's why I listed those things.

755

Those are, those are your things

that people come to the pantry

756

really seeking, and are the hardest

for us to keep in stock.

757

You know, you know,

there's a lot of gentleman farmers around.

758

I say, gentlemen, there could be women,

759

that have chickens in their backyard,

and sometimes they have extras.

760

So hopefully, if we have any listeners

who are these kind of people,

761

maybe they will think of you

and bring their spare eggs over to you.

762

It would be great.

763

Yeah. Those are those things.

764

Or at least those are the things

that we struggle to keep on the shelf.

765

And then I know people are really.

766

Well, yeah, I mean, basic staples.

767

And that's really

what all that comes down to is.

768

That's what that is.

769

So all right, on the thrift store side,

770

do you just take anything and everything

or are there

771

specific donations you're looking for

and when can people donate?

772

You can donate whenever the store is open,

which is, every day

773

Monday, Monday through Sunday,

it's closed.

774

The only time it's closed

is the third Monday of the month.

775

That's a lot for people to remember,

but it's on our website if you.

776

But otherwise, we try to take donations

as long as we're open.

777

And I say try because occasionally,

778

we get flooded and we have to put aside,

ask things inside.

779

But again, we try to be easy to help.

780

So, you know, if we're open 11 to 7,

781

we are we?

782

Our intention is to take donations

whenever anyone comes.

783

We, we take clothing,

furniture, housewares.

784

The most valuable things for us

785

are often women's clothing and furniture.

786

But again, we are,

so we love to get that stuff.

787

We are trying to make it easy for people.

788

And so we, we take a broader range

and we resell a broader range,

789

clothes and housewares and furniture.

790

And that's great to kind of

have that across the board.

791

And and I appreciate you saying that

because, you know, we've all run into the

792

you know, I want to donate something

that's a great item. I don't know.

793

We don't take that, you know.

794

So it's good to know

795

that you're a place that you're

796

not going to get disrespected

when you bring something.

797

You try hard,

you know, the things we can't take.

798

And and we also spend a lot of time

sorting.

799

But but we,

800

we know that people,

if they want to donate their stuff,

801

they don't want to go to three different,

you know, so we try to make it as easy.

802

Now. Absolutely.

803

All right.

804

So over the next

six weeks here, give or take,

805

hopefully we can hear back from you

on how things are going.

806

And we're going to be talking about,

what's going on and updating every week.

807

And to our own listeners,

if you have any questions

808

for William Temple House

or anything that like to find out,

809

go ahead and also go to user friendly

dot show.

810

Send them in there.

811

And as we were just talking about,

812

the link to be able to

donate will be at the top of our website

813

as well as William temple.org,

which is the website

814

for your charity, the general website,

and correct me if I'm wrong on that.

815

That's true. That's right.

816

Absolutely. Right.

817

Now that sounds absolutely amazing.

818

Is there anything else

you want to tell us?

819

You know, I, I,

we spent a lot of time on food

820

and that's fair

because Oregon has an official,

821

you know, food emergency

for November and December.

822

But, we are seeing very similar things

happening on the counseling side as well.

823

We're seeing a record number of people

coming to us

824

looking for mental health support.

825

We are seeing around 200 clients

right now,

826

and we have another roughly

100 on our waiting list.

827

So, you

know, our, our our kind of tagline,

828

you know, is William Temple House food

counseling and connection.

829

And we're seeing just

830

a huge demand for, for all of that

right across the board.

831

Now, now,

I can only imagine in this time, too.

832

And, you know, as far as that goes now,

833

can somebody seek counseling from you

that doesn't have insurance?

834

I mean, you know, because that's

always a question that comes up. Yes.

835

And that is how a lot of people end up

coming to us.

836

We we are free and sliding scale.

837

Our sliding scale starts at a dollar.

838

There are plenty of, clients that and

839

and their clients that, that,

that pay farther up that sliding scale.

840

But a lot of them are here.

841

A lot of our clients are here

because they don't have insurance.

842

Surprisingly, at around

a third of our clients do have insurance.

843

But you might have run into yourself.

844

But sometimes

just because you have insurance

845

doesn't mean you can find a provider

who will accept.

846

Yeah.

847

Oh, no.

848

Never had that, at any time.

849

Our chasm sign, right?

850

Yeah.

851

Yeah, I think that was a shock to me

when I started this job, but

852

that we are not processing insurance

and yet.

853

And yet around

a third of our clients are insured.

854

They just can't find a provider, so.

855

Yeah.

856

And it's,

857

you know, it's a little bit scary

going down that road

858

because it's it's

both sides of the things.

859

There's a lot more need for help

860

and there's a lot, you know, taxes,

anybody that offers these things.

861

But the thing of it is, is a donate

a dollars go far.

862

You know, even with the inflation,

everything going on.

863

And if you know how much it is

just to pay for a counseling,

864

you know, session straight out,

I know just a donation of

865

$100 is one session that covers,

you know, the whole thing.

866

And and so we're not talking about huge

big bucks for some, you know, Fifth Avenue

867

deal that, you know to get in there

and even walk in the lobby is $1,000.

868

It actually you get a lot when you donate.

869

You get a lot of bang for that buck.

870

Absolutely.

I appreciate you saying that as well.

871

And then, you know, something else

872

that I did not say was not,

we are also a training center.

873

And so we currently have about 15

graduate student interns

874

in the counseling department.

875

A lot of our therapy is provided

by those interns overseen

876

by a more senior, fully licensed,

therapist.

877

We're really trying to attack the mental

health part of the challenge in Portland.

878

Both that and so we are treating people's

immediate needs right now.

879

And we're also helping

educate the next generation

880

of kind of community focused,

community based mental health workers.

881

Because,

882

you know, Oregon ranks

near the bottom of the list.

883

We are ending on which list?

884

Either either dead last or 48th

885

in the country

for access to mental health services.

886

And so, we're working as fast as we can

to provide mental health services,

887

but also to help build out

that pool of educated providers.

888

That Portland needs.

889

So in you're talking about more of a long

term set up there in it is so important

890

because if you don't do that well, right,

you have someone today, but people retire

891

and people move

and different things happen.

892

And all of a sudden

you don't have the experts anymore.

893

Yeah, exactly, exactly.

894

And we we know we can't do it alone.

895

But that is kind of the shorthand

for us, for our mission

896

is we want to get Portland

off the bottom of that list.

897

We you know, I want to be 50.

898

You know, Portlanders love Portland,

899

you know, and we should be really upset

that we're at the bottom of that list.

900

And so we're we're

trying to get up higher,

901

and that's great.

902

Well, check out William temple.org

or go to our show website.

903

User friendly dot show for the links.

904

All of the information will be there.

905

Feel free to ask your questions.

906

And in this season of giving, I know

things are a little tighter this year,

907

but your help really does go a long way.

908

Graham, thank you for joining us today.

909

Gretchen. Bill, thank you both very much.

910

So there's always two sides to every coin,

it seems.

911

And while there are a lot of amazing,

real, genuine charities out there

912

like William Temple House,

913

it is important to vet

anybody that you would support,

914

especially if it's somebody that

you're not particularly familiar with.

915

Now, William Temple House is a 60 year

plus background in Portland

916

and has been doing their job

effectively for a long time.

917

It's easy to know that they're real,

but like anything else, this time of year

918

we get busy and the scammers know that

and they try to separate you

919

from some of your money, making

you think that is going to a good cause.

920

There are sites like Charity finder

and you can also, in the United States,

921

look up on the IRS website

if a charity is registered.

922

Same thing exists in the UK and in Canada.

923

So these are some ways to go

about doing it.

924

Now I would be looking at a charity

and the million other things

925

I have to do this time of year

and probably wouldn't go out and do that.

926

So while that might be the smartest way

to do it, let's talk reality.

927

Go online and check the references

just like you would for a product

928

you're going to buy or a business

that you're going to support.

929

And from that, you're going to be able

to get a lot of information.

930

Is this group real? Is this group genuine?

931

Look out.

932

If you want to dig in a little bit more,

how much of

933

if they are a registered charity,

how much of the contribution goes

934

to things like administrative costs and

what goes towards the actual goal of it?

935

Is the charity effective or are they 95%,

you know, to pay somebody's

936

salary or something like that?

937

These are all things

that are important to look at,

938

and if something feels like

it has a red flag, listen to your gut.

939

And in that case,

if you still want to donate,

940

then do take the time to do

the further research.

941

We're seeing a lot of things out there

where it's looking very good.

942

We talked about AI on the show

all the time,

943

and something that all of us

have our own opinion on, but with that,

944

it's allowing the scammers

to look a lot better than they used to,

945

and it makes it a lot harder

to be able to really know.

946

You know, it used to be a year ago,

if an email came in, it was a scam.

947

When you really looked at it,

there would be things that were off

948

and you could kind of tell

not so much the case anymore.

949

So if you're going to give money,

if you're going to hire a company,

950

if you're going to buy something

and it's out of an email that just came

951

in that solicited or a phone call or

something like that, first of all, don't.

952

And second of all,

953

I really do

954

want to check it out

because there are a lot

955

of good small businesses out there

online still.

956

So it's not only go to the big guys,

957

but go online, find the website

that actually belongs to the company,

958

service, charity, whatever it is

that you're wanting to look at, support

959

and check into it using the information

on their actual website.

960

Don't use anything that came in the email,

that type of a thing.

961

It's the same rule of thumb that if you

get a name that you know, your Chase visa

962

card has been charged in $10 million,

and if you don't want to call this number,

963

there's

probably something wrong with that email.

964

But if you do want to check it out,

don't call a number in that email.

965

Go to your Chase credit card.

966

Look at the number on the back

and use that to contact them.

967

Same rule of thumb holds

for pretty much any of these sites.

968

And that being said, there's

a lot of genuine charities out there

969

that really can use support.

970

This year that are very good

and very genuine and very worthwhile

971

to get and help people

that really are in need of help.

972

Just don't like your dollars.

973

Go to the wrong guy.

974

Until next week.

975

This is user friendly

2.0 keeping you safe on the cutting edge.

976

Hey everybody, this is

977

Bill Snodgrass Joe and user friendly

and supporting the people of the Ukraine.

978

President Zelensky's United 24 campaign.

979

Help is needed with health care,

980

de-mining and many, many other things.

981

You decide where your support goes,

go to user friendly dot show

982

and click the Ukrainian flag at the bottom

of the homepage for more information.

983

User Friendly 2.0 Copyright

984

2013 to 2025 by User Friendly Media Group.

985

Incorporated. All rights reserved.

986

Content is the opinion

of the show's participants

987

and not necessarily this station

or platform.

988

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989

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990

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991

and EU residents and any other feedback

992

may be submitted at userfriendly.show

We welcome your input.

993

Thank you for listening.