More than 60,000 Austinites
work in the city's food industry.
And a local nonprofit wants to help
these food workers get health
insurance.
We're going to tell you about the
work that they're doing.
And peaches from Fredericksburg may
be harder to find because of yet
another warm winter.
More from the Texas Hill Country.
That's coming up on today's show.
The Austin Signal is a production
of KUT News, hosted by
Jerry Quijano.
Plus, an Austin food influencer
is moving from the small screen to
the big screen with his new show,
highlighting immigrant-owned
eateries across town, what he's
learned by going inside the kitchen.
And World Cup 2026 kicks
off tomorrow.
Our soccer slash football expert
will have some teams to watch and
a local connection to the Canadian
national team.
More about these stories coming
up next here on Austin Signal.
Howdy out there, you are listening
to Austin Signal.
This is community powered public
radio KUT news.
It's Wednesday the 10th of June.
I'm your host, Jerry Kihono.
We are glad to be part of your
day.
Around 65,000 people work
in Austin's food industry and
many of those servers, chefs,
and food prep workers make low wages
and they don't receive benefits like
health insurance.
KUT's Olivia Aldridge reports a
local non-profit wants to change
that.
Every morning at Brentwood Social
House, there's a glimmering case
full of fresh-baked bread and
pastries.
What customers don't see is all the
heavy lifting that made it happen.
Lead baker T Nguyen says slinging
around all that flour and sh-
sugar isn't light work.
Up before dawn five days a week
to start the morning bake.
She says she loves the work, but
it is physically taxing.
And up until recently, she was
putting off regular checkups because
she didn't have health insurance.
She said her health plan was pretty
much just crossing your fingers.
Sick, will I be okay?
Stuck with like a huge bill, is it
gonna break me?
That changed this year after she
was accepted to a pilot program
through Good Work Austin, a
nonprofit with a mission of
improving conditions for local food
workers and businesses.
Good Work, Austin partnered with the
local publicly funded organization,
Central Health to cover insurance
premiums for a small cohort of food
workers in 2026.
It's a really tough industry to work
in and our city kind of
depends on that industry.
Hanaoka.
Is the executive director of Good
Work Austin.
Like, we're known as this food
city now. We're known for our
Michelin stars, and that's our
tourism, and in turn,
our sales tax, and in term,
that's what funds our city
government.
Hanaoka sees a lot of parallels
between Austin food workers and
Austin musicians, two groups
that are integral to the city's
culture, but may struggle to keep up
with the cost of living.
A lot of times musicians are,
you know, they don't have a stable
employer, they're kind of bouncing
around, and a lot of time food
workers are really similar like
that.
But musicians in Austin have an
established resource available,
the Health Alliance for Austin
Musicians, or HAM, which
provides insurance premium
assistance for thousands of people
each year.
This served as the model for Good
Work Austin's Health Care Access
pilot.
It started small, with just 25
participants.
To qualify, they had to make less
than $31,300 per
year. That's the federal limit to
qualify for something called the
Advanced Premium Tax credit.
Which offsets the cost of
marketplace health plans for low
earners.
Pilot participants enrolled in
insurance from Sandero Health Plans,
Central Health's marketplace
insurance option.
They received the tax credit, and
Central Health paid for the balance
of their premiums.
Moving forward, Hanaoka would like
to expand the pilot to make these
benefits available to more people.
She also wants to brainstorm ways to
support people who make too much
money to qualify.
Quite a few people who applied for
the program made a little bit
too much.
It's a lot of people that are in
that 40 to $45,000
range that are just kind of being.
Soon, that group could include Ti
Nguyen. Last year, her income
was low enough to qualify for the
pilot, but she's since picked up
a second job to bring in some more
money.
I'm going to get the most use out of
it I can right now, get like all
my physicals done while I have this
free healthcare because I won't
be broke enough to qualify next
year.
Anaoka already has some ideas about
other ways to support healthcare
access in Austin's food industry.
One is a proposal for the city to
create a tax rebate program for food
and beverage businesses that invest
in healthcare access, paid leave,
and living wages for employees.
She's also already looking ahead to
year two of the pilot.
She briefed the Austin-Travis County
Food Policy Board on early takeaways
from the program this week, and
will present to Central Health later
this month.
I'm Olivia Aldridge in Austin.
When mid-May rolls around,
Texas peach lovers descend upon
the hill country.
The area around Fredericksburg is
famous for its peaches, and they're
best enjoyed as close to harvest
as possible.
In recent years, though, the peaches
have been harder to get your hands
on because of a series of small
crops.
Texas Standard's Michael Marks has
more about that story.
At their farm stand outside
Fredericksburg, Eckhardt Orchards
has all kinds of local produce
for sale.
Watermelons, squash, jalapenos,
tomatoes, but the peaches are
the big drop.
I've been coming here since I was
a little girl to Fredericksburg
to buy peaches.
That's Marlene Russell, she drove
100 miles from her home in
Fort McCavet on a clear Thursday
morning to get Fredericksburg
peaches.
She likes to stock up so she can eat
some, free some, and make cobblers
too.
If it's a big crop, sometimes
I make three or four trips down
here.
But it's not a big peach crop
in the hill country this year.
In a kitchen that smells like
coleslaw and cobbler attached to the
farm stand, Diane Eckhart says
the small harvest is due to a
warm winter.
The piece that we were
lacking this year to
have a full crop was the
cold hours, the chill hours,
we were marginal on them.
Diane is part of the third
generation of ecarts to grow peaches
in the hill country.
After the first frost of winter, she
and other growers start counting
chill hours, generally defined
as time between 45 and
32 degrees Fahrenheit.
Particularly January and February,
is when we get the majority of our
colds.
We want those nice, cloudy
January and February
days.
Too few chill hours in the winter
means the tree won't bear much
fruit in the spring.
So that's been the big struggle
the last three years is
we just haven't had the
cold weather.
That's Larry Stein, professor and
horticulturalist for the Texas A&M
AgriLife Extension Service.
He's been studying Texas peaches for
40 years.
Stein says that year after year of
minimal chill can stress trees
long-term.
It can impact fruit quality as
well as quantity.
Low chill peaches are elongated
and they don't necessarily develop
full quality like a
typical peach would.
The hill country became a peach
mecca because it has the right soil
and climate.
The winters were cold enough without
freezing too frequently.
A layer of clay under a sandy loam
helped carry the trees through
droughts.
Earlier growers could rely solely on
rainfall to water their trees.
That's harder to do now with drier
weather.
Eckhardt orchards now irrigate some
of their crops to supplement
rainfall. Behind the stand,
in a small orchard, Diane points out
trees with skimpy branches.
This is a variety that did not
set real well this year.
This is Dixieland.
So there's very, not a whole lot
of fruit on these trees.
Eckhart has some peaches for
sale.
Availability will vary as different
varieties ripen throughout the
summer. The day I was there, you
could buy an eighth of a bushel,
about six pounds, of crimson
lady peaches, for $29.
Drought and warmer winters may
make it harder to grow peaches.
But Eckhart, has no plans to
stop.
For my generation, I was gifted
with it. I didn't have to buy this
land. And it's a gift
that it grows, wonderful
thing. So that, just like you can't
ignore that.
You kind of feel like you gotta
do what the land does best,
you know?
She's going to plant some new crops
for the fall in order to make up for
the small peach harvest including
pumpkins, okra, and blackberries.
I'm Michael Marks for the Texas
Standard.
Thank you for tuning in to Austin
Signal here on KUT News.
This is listener-supported public
radio.
We've got more show for you coming
up after this break.
Welcome back, this is Austin
Signal.
Ever been to a spot around town
where you take a look at the menu
and you want to eat, well, just
about everything that they have?
Well, luckily for our next guest,
part of his job affords him the
chance to do that very thing.
From social media food influencer
to Austin PBS docu-series
host, David Douglas' new show
premieres today on Austin PBS
and YouTube.
It's called David Eats Everywhere.
David, welcome to Austin Signal!
Hey, thanks for having me.
It's great to be here.
We're glad to have you and we're
excited to learn more about your
show as we understand It's about six
episodes in this first season taking
a look at several well-known Austin
eateries But tell us more about
you in case our listener might not
be familiar You've got two hundred
thousand followers on Instagram
where you review food already
Why did you want to make the jump
from the tiny screen to the big
screen?
Yeah, I mean, I love talking about
food on Instagram.
I think it's a perfect format for
basically giving you the rundown of
a place and saying, hey, let's
go there this weekend.
That's what most people, I would
say, do with my videos.
They check it out. They're like,
this looks good.
Send it to their buddy.
We got our weekend plans to eat some
dinner.
But for the show, you know, I
really wanted to, like I spent a lot
of time in these restaurants and I
got to know some of these owners and
they were really cool people and
their stories were really
interesting.
A lot of the places in the show
they, put a lot more
effort in than like a similar
style of restaurant and
it was kind of curious like what is
like really motivating them to work
so hard to like go in early
and prep stuff to roast the coffee
beans themselves to kind
of do all these extra steps and it
was mostly because they had some
passion for it from their childhood
or their grandma or they miss their
you know the food from home every
episode of the show is a restaurant
that's either immigrant owned or
first generation.
So that's why a lot of these people
are motivated.
They kind of have these outside
heritage factors that are like
really pushing them to make the best
food in town.
And hearing about their stories was
a lot more possible in like 10
minutes than it is in 45 seconds
with me just kind of yapping on on
Instagram.
Is that something that you
identified early, talking to
immigrant-owned restaurants?
Is it something that sort of just
happened organically as you were
creating the show?
I think it was just a natural
interest of mine.
A lot of the restaurants I go to
for Instagram and for my normal
work are that.
And that's just because I grew up in
Jersey with a lot of immigrant-owned
spots around me.
My mom's an immigrant.
You know, I ate all Arabic food
growing up.
And so the idea of eating food
from another country has just always
been appealing to me.
Kind of came through on my Instagram
work and then just
felt natural. If I was gonna tell a
bigger story, those are the stories
I wanted to tell.
What's been the most challenging
part, moving from a more
short-form video into longer
TV episodes?
I had zero prac-
practice working with other creative
people.
Mostly you're just setting up your
phone on the table.
I'm guessing in recording these
reviews. Do you normally have
somebody with you?
Nobody's with me, nobody edits with
me. Nobody tells me my jokes
are too crazy or
you know, I should do this or that
thing and the other thing.
And so when you're working with
other really smart, creative people,
it's really smart to get their
opinions and to make a
show that's been built together.
So you got to, you know harness
everybody's skills and everyone's
talents and opinions.
And that was just so new for me.
I was like, Oh, wow, we can't do
every single little idea that I have
because we have other people
and we're paying for their time.
And it's not just like.
Me can edit this at 9 p.m.
When, you know, I'm bored.
So that was the hardest thing.
I was like, oh man, I really gotta
work on this as a skill.
Yeah, and I'm assuming that with
most of your Instagram reviews,
you're going to the place of
business while they're operating.
I know for one of the episodes, you
woke up really early to go and meet
with the staff from Comandre
Panaderia and Mariela Camacho,
a James Beard Award-winning baker.
What did you learn during your visit
there?
I got reinforced the idea that
being a baker is incredibly hard
and difficult because
the hours are really intense and
they're usually baking things all
in different sequential order.
So they have to start one dish while
they're finishing another dish.
You have this oven that's kind of
like your that's your zone and you
got to move everything in and out of
that as it best flows.
And to do all that multitasking
at 4am, I could barely talk
like the episode I barely talk in
that episode because.
I'm trying my best to engage with
Mariela who's so articulate and
so passionate and so well spoken.
And I'm just like, that is,
that's so great.
And I just had no thoughts coming to
my head.
So waking up early and
having to see them do all that work
and all that multitasking
was super impressive.
What are some of the other places
you're highlighting in this first
season of the show?
The third episode will be Desnudo
Coffee, which is run by
two Colombian brothers.
We also talked to the folks at
El Granpa Barbecoa, which the only
in-ground whole lamb
barbecoas in central
Texas. They're up in Georgetown,
I believe.
We also have an episode about El
Camino Barbecue, which a Chinese
barbecue over charcoal.
That guy's story is really
interesting because he's an asylum
from China. He had, uh, political
issues there with, uh...
Hiring Uyghur people, which are
a minority in China that are
discriminated against by the
government, and then the last
episode, Tatsumi Sushi,
which is a really
great story of someone who's
putting a lot of effort into
sourcing fish from Japan,
spends a lot of time over there, and
we got to know some of the people
that are involved with the sourcing
of the business as well.
All right, sounds like a lot of
great stories to come from those
episodes.
I'm a kid of the 90s, I watched a
lot of Food Network growing up.
So many different kinds of shows.
How did you want to set yours apart
and how difficult was it
to make it your own?
I think it's very challenging.
I think I did a great job
picking the restaurants and picking
a talented team to work with.
Getting all of my ideas into
a show the first time I'm doing it
was very challenging.
And I think one thing, you
know, I'm very proud of the show,
but the other thing I kept thinking
was, oh, I'm so new at
this part. Like I can talk about
food, but usually I'm writing it.
You know, I can rewrite it.
So talking about some food live on
the spot, every time I was like,
I'm gonna get so much better at
this. Like if there's a season two,
if there is another show I get to
make, I'm going to be so much better
at that.
And that's really exciting for me
too, to just be even better at
conveying the hard work that these
restaurateurs put into their
businesses.
How did you get started talking
about food?
I had a friend in college
who was finishing film school while
I was finishing a business degree.
I had not done any creative work in
a while and we were in New York
and I started describing this
bagel tin. This was sesame bagel and
I was talking about how it's so nice
when you toast the sesame bagel
because not only do you get that
extra roasted flavor from the sesame
but the texture of that
toast really contrasts
with the like creamy soft nature of
the cream cheese And that's just
like a really satisfying bite.
And he was like, Hey man, did you
ever like think about doing
something with food? And I'm like,
what do you mean? He's like, you
could like write about food or like
make videos about food or something.
And I was like huh, never thought
about that.
A couple of months later, when I was
finishing college, I started writing
a blog.
Nobody read that.
I did food photography after working
in corporate, uh, lost all
my money doing that.
Uh, and I kept making these little
food videos.
Nobody watched. I wasn't very good
at making them.
Um, they weren't very interesting.
I didn't really say anything in the
videos. I'd kind of just show
off food.
Kind of poorly and blurry and
eventually I got kind of good at it
and I had a video that took off and
I kept doing that style of video,
which is a little bit similar to
what I do now.
And, uh, yeah, just, that was like
three and a half years ago that that
first video got some traction and
it just kept snowballing.
I think I got a little bit better
over the years as well at
communicating and showing off food
and then now I get some really
cool opportunities like working with
Austin PBS.
All right, David Eats Everywhere
premieres today on Austin PBS.
We're gonna have a link in today's
podcast, Show Notes.
We have been speaking with the host
of the show, David Douglas.
Congrats and thank you for your
time. Sweet, thanks for having me.
The World Cup kicks off on
Thursday, and here to tell us more
about this year's tournament is Juan
Diego Garcia.
He is one of the hosts of the Vamos
Verde podcast, all about Austin
FC and World Cup 2026.
He's with us now, hi Juan.
Hi Jerry, always a pleasure.
It's great to have you back in the
studio. It's an exciting time, lots
of great sports happening around us.
So first off, tell us, is Vamos
Verda doing anything special for
this year World Cup?
We are, in a way,
yes, we are going nationwide.
You can hear Jimmy and I on public
radio stations pretty much across
the country at some of the
host cities.
Very cool!
We're gonna be covering the whole
tournament there and we'll be
talking all sorts of World Cup stuff
on our podcast feed as well So make
sure you look out for that
Alright, well let's get right into
the action since I know you're
keenly aware of what's going on.
Games are going to be happening across
three countries for the next few
weeks.
Which teams are going be playing
just a few hours away from us here
in Austin?
Well, folks here in Texas have
a treat coming for them because you
got a good mix.
You have some perennial heavy
hitters, those sort of title
hopefuls every year, including
Germany, Portugal, the Netherlands,
England, Argentina, defending
champs.
You also have this upstart Japan
team that I think could cause some
folks some trouble.
They're looking to be pretty good.
And also some tournament debutants,
you've got Uzbekistan, Kurasal,
are all gonna be featured in games
here in Texas.
I think if I could give you two
games to look out for, for sure,
two games happening in Dallas.
The first one on the 14th,
Netherlands takes on Japan.
And on the 17th, England will
be taking on Croatia.
And those two are teams that,
every time the tournament happens,
always show pretty well for
themselves.
It's a very exciting time for the
soccer world here in Austin.
People over the weekend were posting
pictures of Lino Messi and
College Station, and that's not a
sentence I ever thought I was gonna
say. No.
Lino, Messi, and College station,
but that's just what the World Cup
has done, and it's been really
great ramping up.
As I mentioned, there are three host
countries, the U.S., Mexico,
and Canada. They all automatically
qualified for the field because they
are the host countries.
Of those three, Juan, which do you
think has the best chance to advance
the furthest in this tournament?
Canada is still relatively new
to the World Cup stage.
Mexico always performs well when
they host the tournament, but I
don't know if I'm entirely sold by
the current generation of
Mexican players.
So I'm gonna give it to the U.S.
Men's National Team.
I think they have a good mix of some
experienced players.
They have a lot of exciting young
talent, a lot it playing out in
Europe, some of their talent
playing right here in Major League
Soccer.
But one of the biggest things is
they're led by a coach that has
proven they can win it all at club
level. It's this guy Mauricio
Pochettino, and he's gonna be
trying to show the world that he can
do it on the international stage as
well.
So my choice is the U.S.
Men's team.
One thing that we're gonna be
keeping an eye on for sure is
the temperatures at some of
these games. We're already
experiencing it here in Texas.
Not only is it hot, it's extremely
humid.
And lots of these game are going to
be played in a similar type of
climate. How are the games adapting
to the climate that they're gonna
played in?
Well, FIFA themselves implemented
something relatively new for this
tournament, which is a mandatory
three-minute water break.
They are going to happen right in
the middle of each half, so soccer's
played in two 45-minute halves.
Halfway through, you're going to get
three minutes where you see all of
the players going to the sideline
for a hydration break.
That's, I guess, the way the
folks that are running the
tournament are adapting to the heat.
Something that I think is worth
looking out for, for folks that
going to be paying attention to the
tournament is uh...
This heat might make for
some very boring football,
usually more defensive teams,
teams that are not going to be
running down the pitch,
kicking and screaming, trying to
score a goal.
Those teams that will be more
designed to sit back, absorb
pressure, and then hit when
the time is right.
Those teams could use
this weather as somewhat
of a...
Almost home field advantage, if you
will. The team that comes to mind
that I think could spring a big
surprise this year is Ecuador.
They are extremely well drilled
defensively.
They're going to hit you on the
counter. They're probably gonna get
one or two opportunities to hurt you
in a game and they're gonna take
advantage of those.
So I would keep an eye on Ecuador
because the way they play the game
is kind of built for this kind of
heat and the war of attrition that
happens from that.
So that's a team that might surprise
some folks, but ultimately only
one team is going to come out on
top. Who do you think right now,
Juan, going into the World Cup,
who do you expect to come out on the
top in a few weeks?
The decision is not as tough.
Tough as you might think it is,
in my opinion, at least.
Uh, I can't look past Spain.
Now they do carry one question,
which is, uh, their star player,
La Minha Mal, he got hurt in
the sort of latter end of
the Barcelona season.
Uh, if he can come back fully
healthy, there's nobody
stopping Spain.
Now, if she's dealing with a
little bit of an injury still,
I still think Spain is...
The deepest team, the most talented
team at the tournament, with or
without Lamin Yamal at 100%,
I would put the betting odds
on Spain winning a
second World Cup this year.
Okay, once you've given us maybe a
Dark Horse team to keep an eye on,
is there a local connection from
Austin FC that we maybe can just
root behind a local guy?
Yes, Jaden Nelson, the
winger for Austin FC,
was a very late addition
to the Canadian national team.
He's taking the spot of someone
who's unfortunately not available
due to injury, which does
tend to happen right around the time
these squads start to come out.
There's preparation friendlies and
some folks will pick up some knocks.
Some folks, it costs them their
tournament, but he gets a benefit
from that and make his
debut for the Canadian National Team
at the World Cup.
He's already played for the Canadian
national team.
This is just another feather in his
cap that he gets to say he did it at
the biggest international tournament
there is.
That is Juan Diego Garcia,
he is a host of the Vamos Verde
podcast, and they're gonna be doing
some special things throughout the
World Cup, so be sure to listen to
Vamos Verdes wherever you get your
shows, Juan.
Thank you very much and enjoy the
games. You always flatter me, Jerry,
thank you.
And that is it for today's
show. Thank you for spending some
time with us. We're gonna have links
to the stories we shared with you
today in the podcast show notes and
at kut.org
slash signal.
Casey Cheek is our technical
director, Alexandra Hart is our
producer, and Kristin Cabrera is
our managing producer.
I'm your host, Jerry Kihannel.
We'll talk to you tomorrow.