Author Mitch Albom: Philanthropy, the Power of Food and Water Ice

Author Mitch Albom loves to have lunch in business situations, as well as with people he meets for the first time.

“There’s something that’s very formal about sitting at a table without anything between you,” Albom, author of “Tuesdays with Morrie” and the upcoming “The Little Liar,” told the Journal. “The minute you put food in the middle, there’s something that becomes very human about it.“

He adds, “Before you know it, you know you’re talking as friends, as opposed to business people.”

Albom’s favorite memories growing up revolved around the dinner table.

“I can’t say if we were talking first, and eating second, or eating first and talking second,” he said. “To this day my favorite thing is a long dessert with long coffee that adds an hour onto the meal.”

You’re eating, drinking and socializing. “It’s very humanizing,” he said.

A journalist, broadcaster, and author of numerous fiction and non-fiction books, Albom spends most of his time on philanthropic endeavors. He operates the Have Faith Haiti orphanage in Port au Prince and also runs SAY Detroit, which provides paths to success for Detroiters in need. Two food businesses – Detroit Water Ice Factory and Brown Bag Popcorn – help raise funds for his Michigan charity.

Albom’s food businesses came about, because, after a certain number of years in Detroit, people would see him coming and run the other way. He was always asking people to support his charities.

Albom said to a friend, “There’s got to be a way that we can sell something [and] take the money that we make from it, and put [it] towards the charities.’”

The solution? Water ice.

Albom grew up in the South Jersey-Philadelphia area, where water ice was a staple. Water ice is like Italian ice, except the flavoring is mixed throughout. Albom found a mom and pop water ice shop in New Jersey, and asked the owners if they ever thought about doing something for charity. The woman replied that she was praying for a sign to see if she should do something to help others.

The couple came to Detroit and showed Albom and his team everything they needed to know about making water ice.

“I now know how to make not just one flavor of water ice, but about 32 flavors of water ice,” he said.

He can also make gourmet popcorn, and has come up with a bunch of flavors, as well. That is the other food shop.

“To the outside you’d never know that they weren’t just … cool dessert places,” Albom said. “We give every penny that we make away to our charities; that’s how we help fund them.”

Although Albom is a healthy eater most of the time, he goes on a junk-food binge once a year for his birthday.

“I invite a bunch of my friends and family, and we always pick a different city,” he said.  “And we just eat junk in that city all day long; nothing healthy, just the best fudge, the best ice cream, the best pizza, the best fried chicken, the best pasta, the best [or] all the things.”

By the end of the day, Albom can’t eat another bite, and is good for the next 364 days. Recovery takes about two and a half days, he said.

When asked what ways people can help others food-wise, Albom suggested delivering meals to the homebound, which is something he does through another of his charities.

“No matter where you live … there are people in your community who are homebound, who need help with food, who can’t get out to go shopping,” he said. “Usually they’re elderly, sometimes they’re infirm or they’ve got an illness or they’re wheelchair bound.”

You can volunteer at your local version of Meals on Wheels or find another way to provide food for those who do not have it. For instance, help plant an urban garden or donate food.

There’s a huge food insecurity problem, Albom explains. People in poorer communities don’t necessarily have access to markets or grocery stores.

“There’s a lot of liquor stores and convenience stores, where you can pick up potato chips or pork rinds or things like that,” Albom said. “That’s what a lot of people in our community are eating … and people wrongfully assume that [they] want to eat that food. In many cases they don’t have a choice.”

You can also support international organizations that distribute food. Non-profits, like Albom’s orphanage in Haiti, rely on these donations.

“We have to feed 100 people a day,” he said. “So that’s a lot of rice and beans and bulgar and other things that we get en masse.”

Albom knows the impact of malnutrition, firsthand. He and his wife are raising a baby that came to them at 6 months old, weighing 6 pounds.

“She had had nothing to eat but sugar water for the first 6 months of her life,” he said. “She couldn’t open her eyes, she couldn’t walk and we had to put her on a nutrition program to get her brain developed.”

After being with them for 15 months, she is “brilliant” he says and very talkative. “She can speak three different languages, and she’s not even two years old,” Albom said. “We’ve watched how the food has nourished her.”

Watch for my interview with Mitch Albom on “The Little Liar” next month.

Learn more at MitchAlbom.com.

For the full conversation, listen to the podcast:

Debra Eckerling is a writer for the Jewish Journal and the host of “Taste Buds with Deb.” Subscribe on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform. Email Debra: tastebuds@jewishjournal.com.