Transcripts For KNTV Asian Pacific America With Robert Handa

Hyoshin na, who has a concert coming up in San Francisco. Youll hear from her here first, all that on our show today. Well, the census count for 2020 is shaping up to be one of the most important population counts ever, especially with 330 million people. But also for Asian Americans because its the Fastest Growing ethnic group in the us, but the least likely to participate. And our next guests want people to know that hurts the community. In order to highlight that, we are going to focus on the challenges facing Asian Americans in the east bay. Joining me now is alexander saingchin, the Vice President of Community Investment and partnership for the east Bay Community foundation, helping to fund efforts to get the count done. And vivian huang, the Deputy Director for the Asian Pacific Environmental Network, an organization with deep roots in the states asian, immigrant, and refugee communities. Welcome to the show. Alexander saingchin thanks so much. Vivian huang thank you so much robert vivian, give us an idea in terms of why the census count is so crucial this time. Vivian yeah, definitely. As you had mentioned, you know, Asian Americans are the Fastest Growing racial group in the country. And in the bay area, theres two counties, alameda and santa clara, where Asian Americans are the largest racial group. But unfortunately, a lot of studies show that Asian Americans say that theyre the leasttheyre the group least likely to participate in the 2020 census. Robert why dowhy is that . Is it a cultural kind of resistance . Vivian no, i mean, i think that what we see with working class asian, immigrant, and refugee communities is that many of them may not have a primary language of english, may lack stable housing, may not have consistent phone access. So, these are all factors that may actually serve as barriers to participating. We also know that for many Asian Americans, theyre expressing a lot of concern for how the information in the census might be used. So, an astonishing 41 of our Community Members have a lot of concerns. And soand i think in the context of where theres so many attacks happening against immigrant and refugee communities, you know, these concerns are living in those conditions. Robert a lot of intangibles here, huh . Yeah, of course, that makes it all the more necessary to have kind of a real operation going. Of course, that takes money, it takes time, it takes people. How does your organization kind of deal with that . Alexander sure, well, at the east Bay Community foundation, we are committed to advancing a just east bay. What we consider a just east bay is that everyone has a place to call home. Our kids can go to excellent schools, they can grow up and be part of an inclusive economy, and that ultimately we all have health, safety, and wellbeing. And as vivian mentioned, the census is critically important. It dictates our, you know, funding for roads, public safety, hospitals, parks, et cetera, and so many other basic critical needs that californians and people who livingwho are living in the bay area fundamentally rely on. And so, its for that reason why were partnering with the Asian Pacific Environmental Network and really moving about 3. 3 million to over 130 local and communitybased organizations that are stressing and educating to the public why its so important to participate in the census, and also providing them with the support to actually fill it out accurately. Robert were trying to cover as much ground as we can, but what canwhere can people go to get more information and to figure out how they fit in to all of this . Alexander sure, well, first, i would totally check out apens website, apen4ej. Org. We are partnering with Many Communitybased organizations across the bay area, not only api organizations, but latino, african american, et cetera, those types of organizations. And we actually recommend that folks plug into groups like apen or other organizations to really get involved not just with the census, but if you care about your schools, you care about your communities or whats going on in the national conversation, theres organizations out there that would love to plug you in to the work that theyre doing. And we will recommend that folks go to ebcf. Org to find out more. Robert now, of course its great if they reach out cause youre willing to help them, but do you have to go out into the community . Do you have to go on outreach . Vivian yeah, definitely. You know, for a lot of people that weve been talking to, people may not know about the census, may not know about its purpose, dont know how the informations going to be used. And so, its critically important that we are out in the communities actually talking to Community Members. So, this year, we plan on talking to thousands of people in the bay area about the importance of census, and making the connections between census and Critical Resources that support services our Community Needs. For example, in richmond, we areapen members are going to be hosting house parties and door knocking within the Laotian Community and Broader Community to be able to tell people how they can participate. Robert okay, well, this is not going to be the last time that we talk about this, so thank you very much for keeping us updated. Alexander thanks so much, robert. Vivian thank you. Robert well, up next, Online Grocery shopping with weee the largest and Fastest Growing asian egrocer in the us, and its based in fremont. So, stay with us for that. Robert weee as in were having fun, is the Largest Online asian grocer in north america, currently serving the bay area, seattle, and sacramento. And the Success Story behind it is equally impressive. With me now is larry liu, the ceo and founder of weee , who started this concept with a Service Called wechat. And prior to that, he was a Product Development engineer at intel. Welcome to the show. Larry liu thanks for having me. Robert so, tell me, how did weee become the title or the name . Larry because myi have three daughters, so when they slide down the slides, they would say, wee robert i knew it was a better story than mine. Larry thats kind of the experience we create for our customers, so. Robert sounds to me like this was an idea that kind of evolved, looking at some of the other things that you were involved in before. What was sort of the original thought that you had, and how did it evolve to what it is now . Larry yeah, absolutely. So, i came to the us 16 years ago, so it had always been a problem for me to find the authentic asian food. And then i became a father, and my daughters, i cook for them, its even harder for me to find those ingredients i grew up with. And in 2014, wechat became very popular. And i realized a lot of people were sharing the same problem, the same challenges i had for many, many years. So, i was inspired to create a solution to solve that problem. Robert yeah, and also too whats interesting is that it kind of has interest in the Broader Community, not just Asian American families, even though they are very focused on it. But youve been able to kind of achieve kind of a broader appeal as well, huh . Larry yeah, because the asian products are becoming popular, asian food have become popular among the mainstream folks. Robert yeah, now, you have some of the products that you have displayed here that you offer. How difficult is it to find the products yourself . How difficult was it to kind of set up the system . Larry so, the us supply chain is pretty advanced. There are millions of products that can be found, but most brick and mortar retailers, they used to sell just those products that they have been selling. So, they didnt offer or really know what the asian communities really like, and they didnt have the information. But we are very close to the communities, so our customers came to us and tell us what they wanted. And then our buyers, who are really good at sourcing great products, would find those products and offer to them. Robert now, a lot of times when you say online, people just sort of assume that youll figure it out, but basically how does it work . How do people get to your products . Larry so, its very easy. They can download our app, so the weee app offers those hard to find asian Food Products and also Fresh Grocery staples. So, people can just place an order, they receive the products the next day delivered to their door, free delivery over 35, all at a price thats comparable or even lower than brick and mortar stores. Robert really . Well, how do you plan to expand, or do you want to . Larry so, we are right now operating in the bay area, seattle, and sacramento. We are expanding to la, thats our next destination. Robert wow, when youre going to expand into an area that big, how difficult of an undertaking is it . Have you had to change your organizational structure or anything . Larry yeah, its definitely a challenge, but we have done that for seattle. We launched seattle in january this year, and its become really popular. And weour operation worked really, really well. So, now we have the confidence to go to la and offer our products and services to people there. Robert how about expanding your products . Do you know, do you plan to . You were talking about the fresh food and all the Different Things that bring about different logistical problems that you would probably get with doing that. How much do you want to kind of expand your product line . Larry so, today we offer more than 2,000 products to our customers. And comparing a year ago, we were only offer a little over 1,000 products. So, now were covering very broad categories like fruits, vegetables, meat, seafood, even restaurant dishes. Robert wow. Do you have to have like a lot of warehouses and a lot ofhave you had to do a lot of that kind of infrastructure . Larry yeah, yeah. We have once central warehouse in union city for the bay area and one warehouse in seattle. Robert how about for you . Is it quite rewarding to be doing this . I mean, you were with intel and doing a lot of other things in hightech. How personally rewarding is this for you . Larry i mean, its really solving my problem, right . So, my family robert your food problem at least. Larry exactly. So, we dontwe dont go to these supermarkets anymore because even for me, its a 20minute drive to the closest asian supermarket. Robert yeah. Larry so, its a hugely rewarding experience. Our customers came to us and say, hey, thank you for providing the products, and now we can have access to those, you know, trendy things in asia and all those really, really fresh asian fruits and vegetables. Robert im curious, whats themaybe the most popular product or products that you get demand for . Larry yeah, so i brought some robert oh, these are some of them here. Larry some samples here today. For example, the kyoho grapes, we sold a few thousands cases per week. And the korean pear and the winter jujube. And also this is some examples of the trending snacks in leadingin asian countries. For example, from korea, china, hong kong, and japan, singapore. Robert and all basicallyi was saying before that i noticed that you have quite a broad appeal. What is thewhats the kind of asian product that may be outside the Asian American community that you see the most demand for . Larry because our freshness is unparalleled, so for example, a lot of the fruits are also very popular among mainstream folks. Robert it sure sounds convenient. Anyway, great idea. Nice job, congratulations. Larry thank you. Robert okay, well, coming up, San Jose City college and its impressive Career Programs that benefit the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, especially the vietnamese americans. Well show you how, next. Tto harrison, the wine tcollection. To craig, this rock. I leave these things to my heirs, all 39 million of you, on one condition. That you do everything to preserve and protect them. With love, california. But ive had interactions with Many Community colleges in the bay area. And we have some of the best programs in the country here. And i can say from personal experience Community Colleges can be a crucial step in a College Career and a professional career. And one of the places making a difference is at San Jose City college. Joining me now is lena tran, Vice President of Strategic Partnership and workforce innovation at sjcc, who has extensive experience with Tech Companies in Silicon Valley and new york, as well as other major colleges. Also with us is minhhoa ta, the dean of business and workforce development. She comes from 25 years of experience in higher education, and currently serves in many roles in the community, including chair at ucsfs Vietnamese Community Health Promotion project. Welcome to the show. Lena tran thank you. Minhhoa ta thank you. Robert so, lena, give me an idea here in terms of how this Careers Program is worth in San Jose City college. Lena tran great, so, at San Jose City college, we offer many Career Program where student can actually have a choice in opportunity. For example, they can enroll in our Certificate Program that can be done in a year or two years. And theyre also a program that student can say, i can start at San Jose City college and transfer to San Jose State University or uc or csu. So, theres multiple pathway. We only like to believe at any point at San Jose City college, a student can get on the pathway and get off the pathway with the emphasis of a workplace, whether its internship, externship, or a fulltime position. Robert yeah, handson experience as much as possible, huh . Lena yes. Robert yeah, have you seen quite a response, especially i notice the vietnameseamerican community are very underserved first of all, right . So, they mustve been very anxious to see these kind of programs pop up. Minh sure, i think we play a very Important Role in san jose because san jose have the largest vietnamese population outside of vietnam and also in the us. So, 35 of our student population are Asian Pacific islander student population. And majority of that, 35 , are vietnameseamerican student. So, our San Jose City not only serving student coming from high school, but were serving the Vietnamese Community, the immigrant community. The adult population, its open access, so as long as theyre 18 years old, they can come and join San Jose City college. Robert how do you structure the program so that vietnamese americans and people who have not used to the system, how do they get involved and how do they make it, the transition . Lena yeah, and im glad you asked that because it truly is a wonderful open access system, open enrollment. But i think the Vietnamese Community generally because of our culture, our background thinking, oh, i have to apply, i have to get the sat score, i have to go through all this obstacles. And we realize that. So, most of our outreach is go directly into the community, we work with community organization, share about the admission process, share about our program. And i could share with you we just got a grant for to build apprenticeships. So the idea, you can go to school, get paid, and get working experience. But guess what . In computer programing. So, most folks dont think that, but were veryi like to say were in the gateway of Silicon Valley to offer training. And we hope that not only vietnamese, but all the Asian Community to really look at Community Colleges because you save a lot of money, the two years at the uc, csu. So, we do get into the community, we get into the high school, we work with the counselor. And slowly, we see the impacts, especially the Vietnamese Community realizing, oh wow, i dont really have the official application process. So, its moving toward a positive direction for us. Robert because it gets rid of that fear factor of the very first step, which is sometimes the hardest one for them to take, right . Lena sure. Robert yeah, it is pretty aff