This episode originally aired on May 14, 2026.
Every person deserves to have a place to call home.
An overlooked aspect of homelessness is homeless youth.
Youth that grow up on the streets often have no safe places to turn to and they depend on charitable organizations. We’ll learn more about the only youth homeless center in the Dayton area.
Food banks might provide whole foods, but what about those who don't have the resources to cook their own healthy meals.
An organization at Hocking College takes food from food banks, grocery stores, restaurants and more, and turns it into warm and healthy meals for those in need.
Have you ever wondered who plans the trivia nights at your local bars? Here in Columbus it’s one guy who’s just really into trivia. We’ll hear more about his small business, Mixed Ologies Trivia.
It's all coming up on this week's Fascinating Ohio.
Guests:
- Courtney Patel, CEO, Daybreak
- Dr. Jarrod Tudor, executive vice president, Hocking College
- Jason Stafford, host/founder, Mixed Ologies Trivia
Transcript
This transcript is generated with AI. To ensure its accuracy, review the audio file.
Amy Juravich: Welcome to All Sides with Amy Juravich. This is Fascinating Ohio, a show from All Sides and WOSU where we introduce you to people from the Buckeye State with an interesting story to tell. Every person deserves a place to call home. Homelessness is a major issue that requires intense care and effort to mitigate.
An overlooked aspect of homelessness is homeless youth. Many people who have grown up with loving families can't fathom being kicked out of their house at a young age. Youth that grow up on the streets often have no safe places to turn. Youth depend on charitable organizations to get their basic needs met so they can take care of themselves.
Daybreak is the only youth homeless center in Dayton and CEO Courtney Patel is an expert in mental health and just recently became the organization's CEO. Welcome to All Sides, Courtney.
Courtney Patel: Hey, thank you so much and good morning.
Juravich: So Daybreak's vision is stable housing and thriving futures for youth and young adults. What kind of services does the organization offer to achieve that vision?
Patel: So we provide a whole continuum of services. We have outreach. So sometimes that means looking for young folks that haven't reached us quite yet. And that can be in a variety of settings. We provide shelter and then housing services as well. So we have apartments onsite and in the community that we link young folks with.
And then during their time with us, we provide additional support services like workforce development, educational services, and we also provide behavior health services as well and life skills because we wanted to make sure that we weren't just checking a box of getting folks shelter or housing, but that we were giving them the skills and the tools that they need in order to disrupt the cycle of homelessness.
Juravich: What do the demographics look like for your organization? How many people you serve and what ages are we talking?
Patel: Yeah, we serve as young as 10 and then all the way up to 24. And we, over the last couple of years, we have provided over 500, or we've provided services to over 500 young people each year. And at any point in time, we have around 100 young people in our community.
Juravich: And what does that continuum look like? You mentioned all of those services, but are you actually, do you provide actual housing? Are you providing like contacts to find places for people?
Patel: Sure, so we do have shelter on site, so each person can get a private room in our shelter. And then those that need support in housing, we move them into that program when there's space available. And that could be on site. We've got some efficiency apartments within our own building. And then we've got about 60 offsite apartments as well.
It's a combination, we lease some of those, and in other situations, the clients themselves lease those apartments. But the really wonderful thing is that we provide financial support in the beginning, and then as the young people get linked with an employment situation, they get a job, they finish their education, they start to assume more and more of that lease. So by the end, typically of a two-year stay with us, they can assume that lease and that apartment is theirs to continue to live out of for as long as they choose to do so.
Juravich: Wow, all right. How do homeless youth find Daybreak? Are you, like, well-known, or what are your outreach methods?
Patel: Yeah, so sometimes we go out into the community and we find folks from schools, sometimes we get referrals from other healthcare or social services agencies, and sometimes we're finding young folks that are in adult shelters when that may not be the safest or best place for them.
But we are, I don't wanna toot my own horn or toot the agency's horn, but. We are pretty well known. We are the only agency that does this work in between Columbus and Cincinnati. And young folks find us from all over. We have even had folks from Indiana and Michigan find us and hop on a Greyhound to come here to get help. And so we're grateful for that. We're grateful that we can serve that need.
Juravich: Wow, OK, so they don't have to be like at one point, you know, have date and connections for you to serve them.
Patel: Not necessarily, if they show up on our door, we're gonna find them the help that they need. Okay.
Juravich: You recently became CEO of the organization just in September. What made you decide to join? Yeah, so I...
Patel: Spent the last 15 years working in mental health. Really early on in that career path I worked with adolescents and children. I really love working around young folks and being able to have an impact in their life early on.
And so most recently I had been working at another psychiatric hospital, but it was a forensic hospital. And, so I was working with adults, people who really had kind of been on the later end of their illness. Unfortunately, sometimes that had led them to not getting the care that they need and ultimately then either being convicted of or accused of a crime.
When the opportunity at daybreak came up, I was so excited because it was an opportunity to get back in working with young folks in order to disrupt that cycle and give them the help they need and hopefully interrupt, you know. Path and set them on a new trajectory towards health and wellness and giving them really those resources that they need to go on and live a healthy, happy life.
Juravich: This is Fascinating Ohio from All Sides on 89.7 NPR News. And we're talking about helping homeless youth with Courtney Patel, CEO of Daybreak Dayton. I like the sound of the name Daybreak. Do you know the origins of the name, why it's called that?
Patel: Um, you know, I honestly don't really know, but I believe that it was very symbolic, you a choice to just represent that there's, there's light and soon, you know the, the night will turn to day and, um, we hope to be that for somebody, you get them through those darkest moments and, and soon the sun will rise and hopefully it'll be a brighter day.
Juravich: You previously worked as the CEO for the Mental Health and Addiction Services Department for the state of Ohio. So you have a vast background in social work. You mentioned another job that you had. Why is this type of work so important to you?
Patel: You know, I think everyone deserves an opportunity and a chance to live their best life, and I recognize that that's not always something to be taken for granted. A lot of folks don't have these opportunities, and I'm really driven by the idea that potentially through my work, leading organizations, through the work of the people who work card here.
That we can provide opportunities for folks that they wouldn't otherwise have. And so really my goal at the end of the day is just to help as many people as I can in the way that I can.
Juravich: How has your mental health background and all your expertise in that area played into the work you're doing at Daybreak? Are you incorporating more mental health awareness into the organization?
Patel: Yeah, we absolutely are. The needs of our young folks are changing. Daybreak has been around. We're rolling into our 51st year. And when it first opened, the young folks that they saw were just had a little bit less complexity.
We're now seeing folks come to us who have experienced significant trauma. They've been around violence, gun violence, substance abuse. And so there was. We recognized there was a need to expand our services to help our young folks deal with the things that they've been through.
So we have been working on that, expanding our behavioral health services, our mental health support, and taking an approach that really wraps around the young person in the whole entirety of a person, not just from the housing aspect. Because we all know if... We give them housing, but they don't address some of those experiences that they've been through and they don't get some coping skills and start working through their trauma, that those things are gonna probably pop back up later on. So we wanna provide the help now.
Juravich: Tell me about some future plans you have. I mean, you've been the CEO for a few months. I'm sure that you came in with plans and ideas. Is there anything that was first on your list?
Patel: One of our priorities for the next couple of years is to really look at prevention from a housing space. What can we do in order to keep young folks housed? They don't have to go through that traumatic experience of being exited from their living situation. So prevention's gonna be definitely something that we look into the next few months and years.
And then we wanna continue to expand those services that we offer. We are looking to add substance abuse counseling here. And we also are looking to add some medication management, some basic medical needs as well, because our folks typically aren't well connected in the community to those services. So we'd like to offer them onsite so that our young folks don't have to wait for a crisis to occur to get help. They can get help early and often so that they can just have a healthier existence all around.
Juravich: And my understanding is Daybreak also has a company that's a bakery, is it called Lindy's Bakery? Yeah, can you tell me about that?
Patel: Yeah, so we we did Lindy's in the early 2020s was operating and making dog biscuits and selling those. So our, you know, we've shifted that a little bit. So now Lindy actually prepares food for the folks within our care.
It still serves as a workforce development opportunity for our young folks. So they get some job experience there, but it also helps provide the food service that. That the people in our care need as well.
Juravich: Okay, you move past just dog biscuits, though.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, from dogs to people, you know, all good, good endeavors, but definitely felt that we needed to shift our priority.
Juravich: How involved is the community with Daybreak? Like does the city of Dayton or other community partners offer help and support?
Patel: Yes, we have wonderful support from many different partners. We get some financial support from local governments and local foundations, and of course donors.
But we also have partnerships across the community. We're working with schools, from interns and students. We also get tons of volunteers. And just in general, the community really shows up and supports us. They really see the value in what we do and also share that mission of supporting the young folks in our community so that they have brighter futures.
Juravich: Do you get help from the average person, individual donations, or do you have a lot of volunteers?
Patel: Uh, both of those. Yeah, we do. Um, so every little bit helps and we do get, um, contributions from the community and, uh, somebody might think, hey, my five bucks won't make an impact, but it really does. And we, we see a lot of those folks. Um and then we have people all the time coming out that, you know, have heard about us some way and they're just so interested in, in how they can get involved. So we have... Opportunities for volunteers as well and, you know, have a number of folks contributing that way.
Juravich: And you mentioned earlier that you service ages 10 to 24. How long are the youth allowed to stay with you? I mean, somewhere in that age range, I guess, but if you end up with a 16 or 17 year old, can they stay with and finish high school?
Patel: So typically with folks that we would consider to be minor, so those under 18, the goal for us is really restoration. We try to get them linked with a safe and caring individual in the community, whether that's family or another supportive person.
And that is also typically in partnership with Child and Family Services to make sure that we can do that. We provide them shelter for essentially as long as they need, but that tends to be a shorter stay for our really young folks.
Typically, they're here for a couple of days, and so we bridge the gap for them. Now for the folks that are 18 plus, they are typically ones that are going to stay with us a little bit longer because we're trying to get them into a housing program, and once they're in the housing program they can stay with us for two years.
Juravich: Okay, two years. So what happens when they're 24? You're working with them before they turn 24 to find a place for them, right?
Patel: Yeah, so the whole goal is over time to get them to assume more and more of that lease and to build their skills so by the end of that two-year period that they're ready to really launch on their own independently.
And we have several individuals right now that have already done that and they're only with us right now for just kind of what we might consider like a touch up But they've already assumed that lease, and they're really ready to go, but we're just hanging on a little bit longer to make sure that they're truly ready, and after that, they're on their own.
Juravich: What kind of work do you do when it comes to education, like making sure high school gets finished or if the person wanted to go to college, that they can still see that as an option?
Patel: Absolutely, so we actually have a tutor, which is provided to us through Dayton Public Schools, so we're very grateful for that partnership. That person helps anyone who is actively engaged in like high school work or middle school work, helping them with their assignments so that they can complete that.
If the young person's looking at a pathway that isn't like your traditional high school diploma, so if it's GED or if they're already past that looking at colleges. We have a program that helps them really explore all of their opportunities, and then we link them with the respective schools or program that they're interested in so they can explore that just like anybody else would, but with our support alongside them.
Juravich: If someone is under 24 and they have a child, do you help with mothers with young children too?
Patel: We absolutely do. So our on-site housing, you could have one child in that program. If you have more than one child, then we would link you directly with community apartment.
And so we would continue to support them just like we would anybody else, but we would get them an apartment that has the sufficient amount of bedrooms. We also have wonderful foundations who support our parenting program.
And so, we have access to supplies. And education tools for pregnant and parenting individuals so that they have the support they need because we know that that is such a challenging time and requires a lot of adjusting, so we're here to support them with that as well.
Juravich: Well, I want to thank you so much for your time today and telling us about Daybreak. We've been talking about helping homeless youth with Courtney Patel, the CEO of Daybreak Dayton. Thank you for your your time. Thank you so, much. It's a pleasure.
And coming up, we're gonna meet the founder of a kitchen that is rescuing food and giving it new life. That's when Fascinating Ohio from All Sides continues on 89.7 NPR News.
Speaker 5: You know every day on "Up First," NPR's Golden Globe-nominated morning news podcast, we bring you three essential stories. At the heart of each story are questions. What really happened? What really mattered? What happens next? At WOSU we stand for your right to be curious and to follow the facts. Follow "Up First" wherever you get your podcasts and start your day knowing what matters and why.
Amy Juravich: You're listening to All Sides. I'm your host, Amy Juravich. This is Fascinating Ohio, a show from All Sides and WOSU where we introduce you to people from the Buckeye State with an interesting story to tell.
Ohioans generate 1.5 million tons of food waste per year. That's according to the 740 Rescue Kitchen, an organization at Hawking College that takes food from food banks, grocery stores, restaurants, and more, and turns it into warm, healthy meals for those in need.
Jarrod Tudor, Hawking College's executive vice president, was heavily involved in the kitchen's launch this past year, and he joins us today. Welcome, Jarrod.
Dr. Jarrod Tudor: Thank you for having me. Good morning.
Juravich: Do you call it the 740 Rescue Kitchen? Do you say the numbers? Yeah, the 7-4-0, because that's our area code. Because that's the area code, okay, sorry. My brain went 740, and as soon as I said it, I was like, that's not right.
Okay, so the 7-4-0 Rescue Kitchen is a partnership between Hawking College, the Joe Burrow Foundation, and is it "La Soupe," Cincinnati? "La Soupe," out of Cincinnati, yes. All right, "La Soupe," out of Cincinnati. How did that partnership come about? How did you get Hawking college, Joe Burrows Foundation, and "La Soupe" all together?
Tudor: That's a great question. So about two and a half years ago, I'm sitting in my office and Kara Brooke, who's the president of the Foundation for Appalachian Ohio, gave me a call. I was in my Office and she said, "'Hey, Jared, I've got Robin Burrow in my Offices.'
And I knew it was important at that point. And she said how about starting a rescue kitchen over at Hawking College?' And she knew we'd be a good fit because we have a fabulous culinary program. I didn't know exactly what food rescue meant. So I Googled it while I was on the phone with her, of course, to find out real quick what it was. And Kara and Robin are wonderful people and if they had the idea, I knew it was going to be a great idea. I walked down the hallway, talked to President Young, my boss, she said, let's do it, and that's how it started.
Juravich: Wow, okay, so just like that. So the aim is to address the high demand for meals in Southeast Ohio. So tell me more about the need being addressed. Like what was the need for not just food, but the idea of meals?
Tudor: Yeah, so you think about children who need to be educated and their families who are in great need. So what we decided to do, much like "La Soupe" taught us how to do this, is work with school districts. So they know their families, they know the families that are in need.
So we built the system whereby, as you had mentioned, we take in food donations, repurpose them into meals and use principally the school districts as drop-off points so families can come there to get those meals. And there's four servings per meal.
To date, we've served well over 55,000 meals, 323,000 servings. And we're very proud of that work that we've done. But the need is there. And again, I had no idea what the need would be. I thought this would be a great venture. Let's see what we can happen. But as soon as we started doing this, the phone did not stop ringing. We get constant calls for help and service. And we do this on a no questions asked basis. We serve those that are in need and those that tell us that they're in need.
Juravich: Tell me about the meals. So it's an idea is is that it just is ready to go You just take it home and heat it up
Tudor: Ready to go, frozen, so we have two delivery trucks. They're both freezer trucks, refrigerated trucks. So we take them out to the destinations. They're packaged, frozen. All you gotta do is put it in the oven, put it the microwave, and it's ready to go.
Juravich: Okay, and are they individual meals or like do you do family servings?
Tudor: Well, they're family meals in the sense there's four packaged within one larger package and the family gets to divvy them up as they wish.
Juravich: I was about to ask you how long this had been on your radar to do this, but I guess it wasn't on your radar. It was brought to your attention. So tell me about that.
Tudor: Yeah, it was brought to our attention. So I've been with Hawking College about three years now and I knew we had a fabulous culinary program and I got to know Kara in my previous employment and I met me, Robin Burrow once because of some of the other work that she does.
And we started talking after that initial phone call, you know, what are the logistics? How can we do this? What are the resources that we need? And we found out that since we have kitchen space, since we a culinary program, really what we needed.
With some additionally donated equipment, which we were able to receive, volunteers, right, for kitchen help, as well as driving, as well, as of course, the food donations. And once we were to get the right people in place, I have three full-time employees that work for the 7-4-0 Rescue Kitchen. They are fabulous. We are very small but mighty. Small but mighty, yes.
Juravich: So do local grocery stores and food banks provide everything you need, or do you have to go out and buy some things sometimes, ingredients?
Tudor: Every now and again, we have to buy some things. So sometimes things like pasta every now and again, rice, but for the most part it is grocery stores, but also larger food suppliers like Sugar Creek, GFS, Bellisio, other firms that are happy to help us out with some of the surplus items that they have. They trust us with it. They know that the work that we do will certainly protect their names as well as we get those food products out to the families that need it.
Juravich: So you mentioned the demand. I mean, how many thousands of meals did you say?
Tudor: 323,000 servings.
Juravich: Wow. Okay. But and are you growing? Is there more demand than that? Like, can you keep up is what I'm asking?
Tudor: Um, yeah, so there is a constraint and, um, we, uh, we serve 10 counties in Southeast Ohio now and we're very, very proud of that.
Juravich: Wow, 10 counties, okay.
Tudor: Okay, and the phone does keep ringing so the more support that we have in the support course comes through food It comes through financial support that. We're grateful for as well Volunteer help we could possibly expand when we are able to
Juravich: This is Fascinating Ohio from All Sides on 89.7 NPR News. We're talking about turning leftover food into great meals with the 7-4-0 Rescue Kitchen at Hawking College. And we're talking with Executive Vice President, Dr. Jarrod Tudor. So let's get back to, you said you have some employees, but you also have a great culinary program. So is it students cooking it or other people?
Tudor: Well, it's lots of other people as well as students. So one of the great things about this is our students do get access to this program and they can get their hands dirty. Of course, they wash their hands before they start working on the food.
But nonetheless, they can start learning how food rescue kitchens operate. We have two full-time chefs, one administrative officer who help run the program, but a lot of volunteer help.
But our students are able to participate. Absolutely. But our volunteers come from all sectors, professionals that. That want to contribute their personal time, their professional time, but also high school students that have community service requirements for graduation are also helping.
Juravich: Tell me more about your culinary program. I mean, are you, how big is it? You're training future chefs?
Tudor: We are training future chefs and sous chefs, of course. So this is an undergraduate program. We're a two year community and technical college. This is a program that attracts kiddos from all over the state, but also internationally.
We do have international students. We're unique in the sense that we're a community college that does have residence halls so we can recruit regionally or internationally if we need to. And the students, this is some of the most fascinating group of students to watch.
I've been doing this for over 30 years. They really take ownership of their program. And the instructors are fabulous. I'm very, very proud of all the work that they're doing.
Juravich: So if you have lots of different cultures represented, some of these meals you're creating for the 7-4-0 Rescue Kitchen, they're not all just like meat and potatoes, I'm guessing. They're not meat and potato.
Tudor: They're not all meat and potatoes, but largely, that's a great question. Largely, it's dependent upon the donations that we get. What kind of food is being donated, but our chefs are always eager to try something new and delicious and easily warmed up, if you will.
Juravich: Do you have a favorite meal that they make that you've seen?
Tudor: Every one of their soups is fantastic. So they know when I come into the building and I'm walking down the hallway, whatever soup is in stock right, that's the one that I'm gonna wanna try. Yeah, absolutely.
Juravich: Well, you've had a career full of leadership at several different Ohio universities. You were a dean at Kent State, Ohio University, University of Akron, satellite campuses. How has your experience at working at all of these different higher learning institutions shape the way you're doing things at Hawking College.
Tudor: Well, my entire career has been at a very local institution. So even though I spent a lot of time at Kent State University, University of Akron, Ohio University, places that I absolutely love, I was always at a regional campus.
My foot has never left a regional campus, a local institution, where students would attend there that could compete anywhere, but maybe they didn't have means. And that's why they attended there. And they fought for an education.
They would do whatever they had to, to make sure they made it onto the regional campus or Again, in terms of Hawking College, a community college, and that is some of the most fabulous work any person can do in higher education.
But what we learned very, very quickly, especially in tying this to their food rescue kitchen, is that there are people that are in need. Yeah, there are in people in need of education, absolutely, but there are in people that in need to eat, so they can become educated.
Do you think about... Families with with young kids that need to eat before they go on to school if they're fed they can be successful at school and then Graduate successfully from high school and hopefully roll on to Hawking College at some point in the future
Juravich: And you mentioned you deliver them to schools, right? Like, is that the main place that you take them to?
Tudor: That's the main so we have 27 unique locations for drop us we do work with religious organizations non-profit organizations but it's largely the school districts and a huge shout out to all the school superintendents that we've worked with in southeast Ohio they've been absolutely fabulous
Juravich: Okay, so does the school contact you and say, hey, you know, we have families here that could use some meals.
Tudor: Absolutely, and probably one of the most, the proudest moment I had is that, we had a pretty rough winter, everybody did, but in Southeast Ohio, we had to close for a couple days and the biggest concern that those three people had that worked full-time for the 7-4-0 were how can I get in as soon as I can into the rescue kitchen, start making meals, because we knew families were stuck and couldn't get their kiddos to school so they could eat. And as soon the roads were open, when they were in the kitchen cooking.
Juravich: Okay. And you mentioned that you're serving 10 counties. That seems like a lot of driving, first of all, but that also seems like lot of people. Tell me about the impact you're making.
Tudor: Well, again, small but mighty, we're making such an impact that the phone never stops ringing for service. And it's not, you know, well, it's a disappointed person. They're always super happy, but how can you help this group, how can help this group?
How can you to help this within our 10 county area? And it is a lot of driving, it is a lot road hours, if you will. And you had asked a question about us being able to expand, probably what we would need more so is probably one more truck and a couple more drivers. So if there are anybody that wants to volunteer to be a driver and has a CDL, let us know.
Juravich: Okay, so you need more people to, you can make more food probably in your kitchen, but you need people to help deliver it. Yeah, exactly, yes. What made you decide to join Hawking College after you were at all these other satellite campuses and you've had a long career, like why pick Hawking college for your next step?
Tudor: I knew I would love the work, so Dr. Young recruited me, my boss, Betty Young, who's been a huge supporter of all this, and she grew up in southeast Ohio, so she truly knows the need. It's a great job. I have a great team. I got to know Dr. Young at my previous job at OU. We had done some lobbying together for funds for higher education, and I fell in love with the region, just a couple of visits down there, and absolutely, I live in Nelsonville, and it's terrific.
Juravich: I'm guessing that you do more than just the 7-4-0 Rescue Kitchen, right? Is that like a little aside of your job?
Tudor: It's a little aside, but again, at at Hawking College, we're again, we are small but mighty. All of us wear several hats and that's what makes the job enjoyable. Yeah, it can be exhausting, but you get a lot of energy returned to you because of all the excitement that goes on there.
Juravich: How did the 7-4-0 Rescue Kitchen end up particularly in your lap? Is it just because that woman you mentioned called you with the Joe Burrow Foundation? Yeah.
Tudor: Yeah, so Kara Brooke called me and said, Hey, what do you think? And Robin was it was in her office. So we had, you know, maybe about a half hour exchange back and forth. And I consider Hawking College to be lucky that we picked up the phone.
We answered the call, you know, proverbially as well, and and took on this responsibility. And I can't imagine I can imagine families not having access to this kind of food, because as you had mentioned. We're also solving another problem regarding food waste.
So think about the two problems that we're solving. So we have, and I've just got my little note sheet here, 52,000 pounds of food that would otherwise go to the landfill. We've been able to reprocess and get the family. So there's two problems we're we're that we are solving.
Juravich: And, and you said you get that food from that 52,000 pounds of food comes from either grocery stores or like wholesale places. They just have too much of a certain thing.
Tudor: They do, but they also wanna help. So they do set aside a little bit and say, okay, let's get this over to the 7-4-0 because we know we can make it happen.
Juravich: They're not just sending you like 10,000 pounds of radishes and being like, figure it out. No, no, no. Okay, yeah. Well, that's what I would picture, whenever you think of a place that has too much of a certain type of food, do you get a lot of one particular thing?
Tudor: No, we really don't. It's amazing. So a variety of proteins, that's good. A variety of carbs, vegetables. And when we started this, we weren't quite sure we would get enough vegetables. We haven't had any problems. But to address the point you made earlier. Yeah.
Juravich: Yeah, no offense to radishes. I was just making it up. Oh, no, I love radishes!
Tudor: Yeah, but we do work with food banks and food pantries. So a lot of times there's an exchange You know, what do you need? What do we need? We will go back and forth and we've created a heck of a nut network
Juravich: What future plans or visions do you have for Hawking College? We'll do the kitchen second, but for your job, where since this kitchen is just a small sliver of your job. What are you thinking about the future for Hawkin College?
Tudor: Well, our academic portfolio certainly needs to grow, just like every other community. So anybody that does what I do for a living is gonna tell you that. But the federal government, the state government, is certainly pushing education into the workforce arena.
So things that somebody can come to school at Hawking College for two years, or even shorter with some certificates, get a degree, get a certificate, a certification, licensure, and then get out into the work world.
So of course, healthcare is a real concern. Every Ohio nursing program could be filled and we're not going to have enough nurses. And so that's just one, but radiology, rad tech, and there are a lot of community colleges that do that. We would certainly like to add to our academic portfolio moving forward as well. But it's those kinds of things because we are a hands-on technical college.
Juravich: So what, and where are most of your graduates, what kind of technical skills do the majority of them walk away with?
Tudor: Well, they're all over the place. So again, I'm certainly learning. I didn't know anything about culinary. I didn't know anything about hospitality. So that's certainly one. But we also have a very significant population of students majoring in natural resources endeavors.
Juravich: Natural razor. So wrong.
Tudor: So wildlife management, all those kinds of things that I'm still learning about. My dean, Rob Weiler, is fabulous, and he's educating me as much as he's educating us.
Juravich: Well, that checks out for where you're located. OK, that makes complete sense. I would have never thought of that, of like going to school for two years and just learning how about the outdoors. That's amazing.
Tudor: They're very hardy students, so no matter how early I come in to work, those students are already in their gear, in camp, ready to go out there, and their instructor will take them to where they need to go.
Juravich: All right. Well, and then just to end on, tell me about future plans for the 7-4-0 kitchen specifically. I know that you just said you just that you need you would love another truck and more volunteer drivers. But, you know, if you did have all the money in the world, what would you like to do next?
Tudor: I would wanna make sure that any area, any family, any group that needed help, that they got help. And we could do whatever it is possible to help them. Because again, I didn't know what the demand, what the real need was until we started this. I can't imagine not working so hard to make sure the people are fed and they're nourished and they can do whatever work it is that they wanna go do.
Juravich: We've been talking about turning leftover food into great meals with the 7-4-0 Rescue Kitchen at Hawking College, and we've been talking with Executive Vice President Dr. Jarrod Tudor. Thank you so much for your time today.
Tudor: Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Juravich: And coming up, we're going to talk with someone who loves trivia so much. He made a business out of it. That's when Fascinating Ohio from All Sides continues on 89.7 NPR News.
You're listening to All Sides. I'm your host, Amy Juravich. This is Fascinating Ohio, a show from All Sides and WOSU where we introduce you to people from the Buckeye State with an interesting story to tell.
There are numerous trivia nights all over Columbus. And for several of them, there's one mastermind behind it all. He's been creating and hosting trivia since 2019 and is currently in business with his business called Mixedology's Trivia and hosts trivia nights four days a week at five different bars across Columbus.
Jason Stafford is the founder of Mixedology's Trivia, and he joins us today. Welcome to All Sides, Jason.
Jason Stafford: Thanks, thanks for having me. Have you always been interested in trivia? Uh, yeah, I think so. I think I've been interested. Well, I've always been interested in learning and learning things and in sort of making connections between things, which is kind of what trivia is all about. So trivia night is a great way to reward people who are interested in learning a little bit of recognition.
Juravich: Did you spend a lot of your childhood watching "Jeopardy" or anything like that?
Stafford: I love "Jeopardy," I'm a regular "Jeopardy" watcher. And then I played bar trivia for about 10 years or so before I started hosting.
Juravich: Would you consider trivia like a childhood hobby of yours? Were you the one with the "Trivial Pursuit" cards and stuff?
Stafford: If "Trivial Pursuit" came out at the family game night or something, I always did pretty well at it. I was all pretty excited to show off knowledge and now I get to reward people for their knowledge.
Juravich: So you said you attended a lot of trivia nights before deciding to start your own. Did you have like favorite ones you always went to and were you always winning?
Stafford: Yes, and no I did have favorite favorite ones and a regular team of players that I would get together with and everything And we did okay. We did pretty good didn't always win. Yeah, that's all right
Juravich: You weren't like the trivia ringer, bringing in, you knew everything.
Stafford: No, not necessarily, not necessary. The advantage I have now, of course, is that I have the answers written down in front of me.
Juravich: Yeah, I was gonna say, yeah. So you started hosting trivia back in 2019, and that's around the same time that Mixedology was born. What made you decide to start hosting your own?
Stafford: Yeah, I kind of fell into it a little bit. I was a bartender at the time, and the bar I was working at, which I'm still hosting trivia at now, had an unsuccessful trivia night, had a trivia night that was not bringing in a lot of people, and I went to the ownership and was kind of like, we could probably do better, and I took it over, and it became successful.
From there, it was sort of a gradual thing. A couple of years ago, two, three years ago now, I quit bartending job and went all in on the... On the trivia business. So now it's a full-time gig for me.
Juravich: Yeah, what made you decide to turn it into a business rather than just hosting this one trivia night at the bar you already worked at?
Stafford: Um, there was an opportunity for expansion. Somebody came to me and, uh, and said they were looking for, looking for trivia at their bar, um, so once I had two of them, I was kind of like, why not, uh why not keep it going.
Juravich: I can't imagine you know someone's you know when people say to you like what do you want to be when you grow up? Did you would you ever say? Oh, I'm gonna be a trivia host in a company
Stafford: I would never have known that it was even a possibility, and when I tell people that's what I do, a lot of times their response is, I didn't know that was a job, I don't know that was something somebody could do.
Juravich: Yeah, it's not like really a job you invented. I mean, other people have it, right?
Stafford: Other people have it, other people have it. Yeah.
Juravich: So tell me about the name. Where did the name Mixedology's come from?
Stafford: Yeah, I mean, it's a reference to the bartending, I guess, mixology, you know, meaning bartending. But then it's also a reference all the variety of subject matter that is asked at a bar trivia night, a mix of ologies, of studies, of subjects.
I was using that as a sort of a round title for science questions and stuff for a long time, and then I decided, oh, that's pretty good for, and it also sort is on brand for me because it takes... A little bit of explanation or a little bit of, you know, it's not always immediately understood what that is. So it's a conversation starter.
Juravich: You also provide people with the option to host their own trivia nights at their location So it like they they can use you as their like background. So how does that work?
Stafford: Yeah, I've done sort of corporate happy hour events, that kind of thing, birthday parties, bachelor parties, anything where people are looking for a little bit of a, maybe a little more high brow or engaging entertainment as opposed to just a DJ or something. Not that there's anything wrong with a DJ and dancing, but sometimes people want to think a little but. Yeah.
Juravich: So you have set nights where you do trivia at certain places. So tell us about those places, where they are, and tell me about your set trivia night.
Stafford: Yeah, yeah. Well, tonight and every Thursday night, I'm at The Wag, which is a dog park bar that recently opened in Grandview area. And that's a lot of fun. So people are bringing their dogs and hanging out and playing trivia and all that stuff.
On Tuesdays, I am at Parsons North Brewing Company on the south side. And, that's where I got started. That's where I was a bartender. On Sundays, I was at The Daily Bar in Italian Village. And on Wednesdays, Me and my partner, Kayla, who's in the next room there. We both host at North High Brewing. I'm in Dublin and she's in Westerville at the same time.
Juravich: And you said earlier that you kinda started this because there was a failing trivia night happening and you wanted to do better. So the goal is to bring people in. So tell me how you do that.
Stafford: Yeah, it's kind of an unusual job because my job is really to make people take a test that they're not allowed to study for and somehow that's fun, make that fun for people.
The way I try to engage people is with the questions themselves. I really think of every trivia question as leaving a trail of breadcrumbs for people to try to come up with the answer.
I always like every good trivia question has multiple ways in, multiple avenues to approach a question, discussion for, or fodder for team discussion. So the people, even if you don't know the central fact of the question, you can sort of figure out a way in.
I could give you an example if you want. There's a sort of a standard version of a trivia question that you might hear everywhere would be something like. In 1993, what singer changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol.
Juravich: Oh, I actually know the answer to that one. Yay. Yeah, Prince. Yeah, so we're talking about Prince.
Stafford: And that's yeah, if you know it great and if you don't know it, that's fine, too But it's it's kind of more fun to give people Something else to think about or to talk about or they're sitting with their team with a beer, you know so you could ask a question like in 1993 Warner Brothers Records initiated a mailing campaign where they sent out floppy disks containing custom font files to media outlets so that they could properly refer to who?
Juravich: Oh, that's not bad. All right, there you go.
Stafford: You're asking people to do a little bit more work. It's basically the same question. Yeah. But it's more fun, I feel like.
Juravich: This is Fascinating Ohio from All Sides on 89.7 NPR News. And we're talking about Mixedology's trivia with founder Jason Stafford. So how do you keep the people from cheating? Everyone has a computer in their pocket.
Stafford: Yeah, in my experience, it's very rare for people, most of the time, the people who are cheating, and it doesn't happen very often, are the people that just happen to be there at the bar for the trivia night. The people who're competitive, the people interested in trivia, they, for the most part, don't cheat. I mean, you're playing for a...
Juravich: So you basically make an announcement saying don't use your phone, don't cheat, and then everyone just is like, oh, okay.
Stafford: Yeah, I mean every once in a while you can tell and I can usually tell from from the way their answers are worded or the Wrong answers even oh, this is the kind of answer that chat GPT would say or Google would say Or something if it's not right There's only been one time when I had regular competitive players who I had to talk to about like come on guys
Juravich: That's what I was just gonna ask you do you call them out like for it, you know in front of the whole bar Be like, oh team such-and-such is there they're cheaters
Stafford: Well, in that instance, I was trying not to call them out publicly, I just gave them a zero for the final round so that they wouldn't be in the top three and wouldn't get the gift cards. And then I ended up having to talk to them about it anyway because they came up and asked me, hey, what's going on?
Juravich: Why didn't we win?
Stafford: And I said, well, it's because you were cheating.
Juravich: So yeah, so tell me about winning like do you you said gift cards do you always offer prizes?
Stafford: The prizes are whatever the venue wants to provide. So typically a gift card or sometimes it's merch, either provided by the venue or provided by the distributors that they work with or whatever. But in my experience, most people don't care too much about the prize. You're a team of five or six or whatever people playing for a $25 gift card split that way. But as long as there's something to play for.
Juravich: Do people come as a team or do you ever like set up teams? Like you're like, everyone gather round.
Stafford: Most people have a team that they play with, although I have, every now and then somebody comes, they're by themselves or whatever and they're, you can hook them up with other players who are by themselves. They come up and ask you. They're like...
Juravich: They come up and ask you, they're like, can you put me on a team with someone?
Stafford: Yeah, put it at the bar or the bartenders or whatever.
Juravich: Do you have a favorite types of trivia topics that you like to do?
Stafford: My favorite topics, my favorite trivia questions are the ones that involve sort of a combination of facts and some like wordplay. I did a did a round last night that I called No Rhyme No Reason, where I was looking for pairs of words that look like they should rhyme, that are spelled like they should rhyme but they don't actually rhyme.
Juravich: Because English is horrible.
Stafford: Because English is horrible, right? I gave a hard one that very few people got was I asked for a phrase, these are two word phrases where the two words look like they should rhyme but don't rhyme. And I asked a phrase that meant something like a starting point for a discussion about petroleum jelly. And what I was looking for was a Vaseline baseline. Because Vaseline and baseline look like the should rhyme, but they don't.
Juravich: I just had a whole conversation with my son last night about the fact that rough and dough are spelled the same way and they don't rhyme at all. Yeah, rough dough. That's a good one. Yeah, you can steal that one. He was trying to write a poem and it had to rhyme and we were struggling with rhymes and rough and do not rhyme for your records.
Okay, so can you give me an example of a question that stumps a lot of people? Do you have like, I mean, not that I want to give away your best trivia question, but what's something that stums a lot people?
Stafford: Yeah, I mean, my goal is never to stump people. I know I've played trivia with hosts before who are trying to, who feel like they're trying to- Ask the hardest question of all, yeah. I really want to make people feel smart, not to make feel people feel dumb, make them figure out. But yeah, obviously there are things that people, and I'm always surprised by what people know and what they don't know.
Juravich: Well, you can can you give away one if someone's listening today, then they attend your event tonight or next week. They'll they'll get they'll have a free answer. Do you have a do you have one?
Stafford: Oh, I should have prepared.
Juravich: That's okay. Or whatever you have prepared. You can get me a question. Oh, that's okay!
Stafford: Well, I did come with a couple of questions. Go ahead, yeah. Since we're on Fascinating Ohio, I did a round of a couple questions that are called Fascinating, Ohio. I don't know how much time we have. We have five minutes.
Oh, okay, great, yeah, so for these, getting some wordplay in here as well as the trivia questions. For these questions, all of the answers will contain the letters O-H-I and O in order, but not necessarily consecutively. Okay, I think it'll be, we'll be all right. So we're looking for.
Juravich: This feels like the Sunday puzzle. Do you ever listen to the puzzle on weekend editions? Okay, all right, continue, yes. So here's the question.
Stafford: So here's the question, here's first question. Sugar, bitters, and whiskey are the ingredients in what classic cocktail, which saw a resurgence in popularity in the 2010s due to the influence of the TV show "Mad Men"?
Juravich: I'm looking at my producer who I can see through the glass. Do you know the answer? Any help? Any help, any help? I think she's gonna type something. But okay, so "Mad Men". "Mad Men", yeah.
Stafford: "Mad Men", yeah, Don Draper's favorite cocktail on "Mad Men".
Juravich: Oh, an old fashioned.
Stafford: Old-fashioned, which has O-H-I-O in it.
Juravich: I got it. All right. Well, I was because I all I could think of was a martini and I'm like there's not no HIO in there. Yeah, all right.
Stafford: So listeners who don't drink might prefer this question. What period in American history began with the ratification of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution and ended with the gratification of the 21st Amendment?
Juravich: I'm waiting to see, because my two interns are the ones who got the old-fashioned question. Oh, yeah. And I said listeners.
Stafford: Oh yeah. And I said listeners who don't drink might prefer this question. That's your hint there.
Juravich: You're learning that I'm really bad at the Sunday puzzle. Oh, that's okay. Yeah, okay. Does anyone have it? What? Yeah, I don't know. Anyone got it? All right. That's prohibition. Prohibition. Oh, God, okay, yes. Prohibition. All right, one more. One more.
Stafford: Advertising for what 1940 movie featured the tagline, for anyone who wished upon a star. For anyone who wish upon a start.
Juravich: That's "Pinocchio". "Pinocchio", yes, okay. I was like, I'm like, that's a Disney movie. I gotta go. Yes, all right. All right.
Well, I did want to take, we still have one minute left and you have a partner in all of this. She also hosts trivia. How did she get involved and tell me about that partnership.
Stafford: Oh, that's actually a cute story. She was a trivia player before she was my partner. And she left her phone number on the back of an answer sheet. So kind of a funny story. And I was smart enough to call her after that. And we've been together for a few years now. And now it's sort of become a little bit of a family business because she hosts hosts with me, so that's great.
Juravich: Do you bounce trivia questions off of each other and like play the games at home to try to figure out, you know What's gonna work?
Stafford: We watch "Jeopardy" together. Yeah, I do bounce questions off her frequently to brainstorm and stuff, but she also plays my game on Tuesdays, so I can't, I have to keep that secret.
Juravich: Okay, got it. Well, tell me in the 30 seconds we have left future goals plans for mixed ologies Are you gonna go to more bars expand in the future?
Stafford: I'm open to expansion. Every venue or every expansion that I've done has come from word of mouth, from people playing my game and wanting me there. So I'm opened to it, but I'm not necessarily actively seeking things out. I'm good where I am for now too, so.
Juravich: All right, we've been talking about trivia nights and what it's like to own a trivia business with Mixedology's trivia founder, Jason Stafford. Thank you for your time today.
Stafford: Oh, thanks for having me.
Juravich: Yeah, this is Fascinating Ohio from All Sides on 89.7 NPR News. I'm Amy Juravich. Thanks for joining us.