#300: Lucas McLawhorn - How This Teacher and Cancer Survivor is Feeding His Community with Plants
In this heartfelt and inspiring episode, Rip sits down with Lucas McLawhorn—educator, cancer survivor, and founder of the plant-based food truck Well Fed Ed.
Support the mission of Well-Fed Ed
Lucas shares his powerful story of transformation, from the classroom to the kitchen, driven by a deep desire to serve and educate his community through healthy, plant-based meals. He opens up about his battle with cancer, the life-changing role nutrition played in his recovery, and the family and cultural influences that shaped his approach to wellness.
Listeners will be moved by Lucas’s reflections on:
The intersection of education and nutrition
The challenges and triumphs of launching a food truck business
His decision to return to the U.S. after living in Switzerland
The joy of building community through food and service
His love for the people of Eastern North Carolina and the United States
This episode is a testament to the healing power of food and the importance of purpose-driven living. Whether you're passionate about plant-based eating, curious about food entrepreneurship, or simply in need of a little inspiration, Lucas’s story is sure to resonate.
Watch the documentary on YouTube
Episode Resources
Watch the Episode on YouTube
Watch A Well Fed Education Documentary Film
well-feded.com - visit the Well Fed Ed website and Support their mission with a donation
Follow Well Fed Ed on Instagram and their menu
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Full Episode Transcription via AI Transcription Service
I'm Rip Esselstyn and you're listening to the PLANTSTRONG Podcast. As the saying goes, heroes don't always wear capes, but in the case of today's guest, they do have plant-based food trucks. Today's episode takes us to the heart of Eastern North Carolina, where you're going to meet Lucas McLawhorn educator, cancer survivor, and founder of Well Fed Ed.
His soulful story is coming up right after these words from PLANTSTRONG
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Lucas McLawhorn grew up in rural North Carolina and after two decades of teaching both in North Carolina and abroad in Switzerland, a life-changing battle with cancer changed the trajectory of his life. He's still an educator, no doubt about that, but today he educates people in his community through simple, vibrant, and delicious food.
with his food truck, Well-Fed Ed. I was super inspired to talk to Lucas after I watched a 27-minute documentary film all about him, and I'll be sure to make that available to you in today's show notes with a link. But his heart and his soul shine through as you're gonna hear about in today's conversation. Education is at the heart of...
everything that Lucas does, even in his menu items like the principal, the music teacher, the custodian, and of course, the beloved bus driver. In his own creative way, Lucas pays homage to the teachers and all those who look after our children, nourishing them like they nourish us. So let's meet this special PlantStrong brother.
Lucas McLawhorn. Lucas McLawhorn. Did I get that Hey, welcome to PLANTSTRONG podcast. It's an absolute pleasure to have you. And we got a lot to unpack today, especially how a little old food truck can make the world a healthier place. so that's what we're going to dive into today. I absolutely adore
hearing people's journeys to the PLANTSTRONG Promise Land. And you've got a pretty amazing journey that I wanna dive into. Where am I talking to you today?
Lucas (03:30)
I am in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Rip (03:35)
And are you, this, is that your home that you're in right now?
Lucas (03:38)
Yes, this is my home and you'll notice ⁓ some of the pictures in the background. My daughter last night turned all of our pictures upside down for April Fool's Day. I woke up this morning, I was like, what's going on? So yeah, yeah, I'm in my home in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Rip (03:48)
guys
So is this the house that, so this isn't where you grew up in, there was an old schoolhouse, correct?
Lucas (04:07)
Wow, did you research? ⁓ It is not. So I grew up in an old schoolhouse in Pitt County, which is outside of Greenville, North Carolina. And that was a three room schoolhouse and our bedrooms were essentially the coat rooms. And my grandfather went to school there. So was pretty awesome.
Rip (04:30)
That's really, really cool. You know, I want to do something before we dive into your specific journey to discovering plant-based nutrition. want to just throw out a term and then I want you to tell me what it means to you. Because just, just to let people know here, ⁓ there's a documentary that came out. It's called a well-fed education. about 27 minutes long. It's all about you.
and what you've done with this Well-Fed Ed, Ed meaning education, but Well-Fed Ed food truck. And it's a fantastic 27 minute documentary. We'll be talking about it and we'll be sure to put it in today's show notes so that people can click on it and watch it. Did that come out like a month ago, Lucas? Is that right?
Lucas (05:24)
So we had the premiere in August. We did community screenings around town, you know, for at certain colleges and other schools and businesses, but it didn't come out on YouTube until a month ago, correct?
Rip (05:41)
Okay,
okay. And so what I discovered in watching this documentary is that you really have a way of waxing poetic. And so that's why I want to throw out a term and then have you just kind of wax poetic about this term and then we'll come back and we'll revisit your journey. Does that sound good?
Lucas (06:02)
That's beautiful. I like waxing.
Rip (06:04)
Yeah,
great, great. So the first thing I want to throw out to you is the term teacher.
Lucas (06:12)
Teacher, ⁓ student, it goes both ways. It's a two way street and I'm just grateful to have had an occupation as a teacher and it's just a kudos and a thank you to all the teachers that have poured their love into me and it's going back out and that's what we do with love, right? We just keep it flowing and. ⁓
Yeah, that's what a true teacher does is light, lights that fire ignites a passion in their student. And I truly miss being in the classroom and having time with students, you know, a semester or two semesters or two years. Now I try to get it all in in about five minutes and I interact at the food truck window. teachers are what make the world go round.
Rip (07:03)
And what was it that you taught when you were a teacher?
Lucas (07:07)
So I taught Spanish. My family, weren't per se rich. I tell my son all the time, you can be rich in many ways. know, so I tried to get a scholarship and I found a North Carolina teaching fellows scholarship. And so I went to college for free, but I had to go back and teach public schools for four years. ⁓ yeah, so I'm just. ⁓
What was the question again? I'm sorry, I spaced out.
Rip (07:38)
What kind of a teacher were you? You said you were a Spanish teacher then, right?
Lucas (07:43)
Yeah, I was Spanish. We had so much fun. Here in North Carolina, I was a Spanish teacher and a basketball coach. And then we went overseas for six years and I taught at a bilingual day school, I taught all the subjects in English. So that was a challenge, but it was beautiful to see that side of stuff.
Rip (08:06)
Yeah, yeah. And just so people know, you went overseas to Switzerland. Is that because your mother over there or is it your grandmother that's over in Switzerland?
Lucas (08:17)
So my mother is Swiss and she came over to the United States in 1972. She was only 19 and she met my father and ⁓ she's been here for longer than over there. But all of her family is still over there. My grandmother who recently passed, she was like the family matriarch, just held everybody together. Just such a loving person. And still got uncles, aunts, cousins over there.
So it's a beautiful spot.
Rip (08:50)
Yeah, yeah, no, it sounds dreamy. All right, here's the next thing I'm going to throw out at you. Father.
Lucas (09:01)
A newfound appreciation to my dad and to all dads out there once you become a father. You're like, wow, this is difficult. It's what I call a beautiful struggle. It's why we are here to pass on our knowledge, our love, our legacies, and just our flames to the younger generation. It's kind of like fruit, right? We drop right from the tree and start back.
start a new tree right underneath it. ⁓ And I'm just grateful to all the dads out there and parents in general. ⁓ My dad taught me so much about hard work and not halfway doing anything and just so many life lessons learned back on the family farm and I'm so grateful.
Rip (09:52)
Yeah, and so what kind of a family farm was it?
Lucas (09:56)
So we had everything. had, we had hogs, we had beef cows, ⁓ but the majority of our stuff was produce. dad, one summer we would go, you know, every two or three years over to Switzerland to visit our family and we'd come back and my dad would always have something new that he did on the farm. One summer we came back and he had 2000 blueberry bushes planted.
So we became a pick your own blueberry farm, ⁓ which I love blueberries, they're so good. We have peaches, we have corn, tomatoes, ⁓ all the greens you can think of. It's a paradise. When the birds start chirping in the springtime and there's blooms, beautiful peach blooms are popping out, it's amazing.
Rip (10:51)
How big was the farm?
Lucas (10:54)
⁓ So about 75 acres. Fairly big. was just us, our family, you know, running it. And it's just my parents still running it today. They have a couple of workers that come during the heavy part of the season when the blueberries are just coming off and buckets. ⁓ it's basically just them running the whole thing.
Rip (11:18)
Okay, the next the next term I'm gonna throw out at you is husband
Lucas (11:27)
Wow, my wife is a saint and...
The world works in opposites, you know? That's how it works. There's plus and there's minus, there's night and there's day, there's husband and there's wife, and it just makes a complete circle. I have, I thank our creator that he sent me, my wife, to make me a true husband because I was just a mess until the real thing hit, she's the real thing.
And I'm grateful. ⁓
Rip (12:09)
How long have you guys known each other?
Lucas (12:12)
So we were in a band together ⁓ for seven years, just best friends. Nothing more than that. And I suggest out there to everybody looking for a mate, get off the screen, look for people in real life and find somebody that you know that is your friend that knows everything good, everything bad about you because we definitely knew, she doesn't have much bad about her, but she knew all my dirt and she still loved me for it.
And we just, so one day something switched and I was scared of it because I knew this was the real thing and I kind of shied away from it. And I had been praying for so long and God was like, hey, she's right here in front of you. I was like, God, this is serious. And yeah, so Mary, your best friend. It's a beautiful thing.
Rip (13:05)
You talk about how obviously it was your idea to have the food truck, but how it was basically your wife's genius. What do you mean by that when you talked about your wife's genius ⁓ in relation to the food truck in the documentary?
Lucas (13:26)
That's a great question. ⁓
She's very into academia ⁓ and she has a extensive vocabulary. When I'm stumbling over myself searching for the right word, she just pops up with it. And she did that with the name for the company. ⁓ That was the most genius thing because I always knew I love food and I love people and I wanted to bring them together. But before my shift to plant-based,
You know, I was thinking maybe a hamburger truck or just something to bring people together. Cause it's all about family and friends and just company. What other way to bring people together and food. But she came up with a name. I literally had a notebook full of ideas. She said, well, you're a teacher. Why don't you do something with education? How about, and then she just popped up with it one day in Switzerland one afternoon. was like, how about well fed Ed?
And everybody I talked to is like, that name is just perfect. That was just the beginning of her stroke of genius, you know? But she comes up with examples all the time.
Rip (14:41)
All right, you mentioned that you guys met as musicians. So when you hear the word musician, what does that make you think of?
Lucas (14:51)
It's just a drum beat and truth spilling out, whether it's through a saxophone or a horn or a piano. just brings your raw emotions to sound, whether it's speaking, coming with a, my friends and I, used to, we used to just beatbox and make up words to it. It's just truth.
It's a beautiful thing to behold. And that's another thing that my wife is a genius with is music. She plays the accordion. She plays the piano, the clarinet, and she's teaching our kids, you know, all their theatrical audition songs and just helping them along with it. She's just she's strong. And music is is true. ⁓ I think of true and I just think of. Uplifting and.
just it can break shackles and take you to another spot.
Rip (15:55)
Well, I don't know how intentional this was, but I found that the background music throughout the whole documentary was really
perfectly placed to accompany everything that we were watching on the screen. I don't know if you had a hand in that or not, but great music.
Lucas (16:22)
That was Jess Bradley. is another godsend. Just did a phenomenal job with the documentary.
Rip (16:31)
Yeah, nice. ⁓ All right. Entrepreneur.
Lucas (16:39)
It makes me think of my grandfather. He was an entrepreneur like no other. He was one of the first guys who had a mobile meal. He would take his mobile meal on a truck around to the local farmers and grind up their own grains for their animals. He also had a tractor store and later he had a carpet store and he was a true entrepreneur. ⁓
You can't be scared. You got to be willing to take a risk. And this was a huge risk in the heart of barbecue country, you know, coming with salads. Everybody's looking at me like, you're crazy. And I'm like, yeah, I am crazy. And I got a team of crazies behind me and I'm doing it. So taking a risk and just mission-based entrepreneurship is awesome.
Rip (17:20)
Yeah.
Lucas (17:37)
When you're there to help people, you'll go through the hardest days knowing that it's worth it. You'll climb the highest mountain just knowing that at the end of the day, no matter what happens to me, this is all worth it. If all businesses thought like that, we would be in this predicament we're in as a human race.
Rip (18:01)
Yeah. How long have you had the food truck? When did it first get off the ground?
Lucas (18:10)
So we left Switzerland in July of 2022. Another stroke of genius from my wife. She said, I'm not letting you buy a food truck as soon as we get back. You have to test the waters first. And so I did catering for about three months. And I was like, OK, I got a little base teachers. Go ahead.
Rip (18:30)
What do you mean you catering for three months? What did that look like?
Lucas (18:35)
So I have a commissary that I rent and it was me packing up meals in the back of my mother-in-law's car, because we didn't have a car. We just came back from Switzerland and we were driving my mother-in-law's car and my parents gave me one of their cars too, which we're still driving. But basically packing up meals from the back of the commissary and delivering to the local schools to the teachers who I knew and they would order and...
just started building up a clientele and that was three months worth and I was like, okay, I'm ready, let's do it. And so Thanksgiving day, 2022, I bought the food truck.
Rip (19:16)
So in the documentary, I feel like I've seen two trucks. I saw one that looks like you're pulling behind a vehicle and then another one that's an actual truck that you're driving. Is that correct or not?
Lucas (19:32)
That is correct as of ⁓ January of this year. So we've expanded and we took another leap of faith and we got a trailer that does smoothies. the trailer is the one we just got. I don't know if that's in the documentary. There are two trucks in the documentary. It's the original truck with the old wrap and then we got a new wrap on it that's more colorful and more us.
⁓ So, but we do have the new trailer as well. It just is a recent acquisition.
Rip (20:09)
Now, just to kind of continue to go down this path a little bit with the food truck, is it breakfast, lunch, dinner? Is it just lunch? What meals do you serve out of the food truck?
Lucas (20:22)
So we can do it all, but primarily lunch and dinner. We have some nice gluten-free pancakes that we serve for breakfast. We do avocado toast for breakfast. Yeah, so we can cover it all, but primarily we do lunch and dinner.
Rip (20:43)
Uh-huh, uh-huh, nice. All right, well, we're gonna come back to the food truck, because obviously it's center stage in this story along with you. What about when you hear the word chef?
Lucas (20:58)
Chef, ⁓ that's almost up there with father, like the amount of reverence that I give to a chef because I had no idea. I'm not really a chef. I am a teacher. And I was never classically trained, know, trained in one of these culinary art schools. And I have a utmost respect.
just oozing out of me for all chefs out there because it is the most, one of the most demanding jobs there can be. And you just have to be creative, make decisions on the fly. ⁓ I have become a chef ⁓ through the, you know, for four years I've been doing this now, it seems like. ⁓ I battled, there was actually a competition called Own Your Own Restaurant here in Southeastern North Carolina and the winner
won a restaurant and I was in it and I made it from 500 entries. I made it to the final 24 and I swear I served my dish and I told people I was like, I'm in awe of you chefs because you do amazing things. I'm here to help people and I'm here to put food on their plate that will actually nourish people and that's all I'm doing and it's all plant-based. And I was in barbecue capital and I served my meals out of chocolate bean mole.
And the crowd loved it. And mango salsa and adobo sauce. And I was like, man, I'm a shoe in for the next round. And we didn't make it, but that's when I met Jess. So it all happens for a reason. ⁓ And yeah, so chefs.
Rip (22:42)
Yeah, right, right.
Lucas (22:44)
Give them all of those.
Rip (22:46)
Yeah. ⁓ Jess, help me out. Who's Jess?
Lucas (22:50)
Jess is just an amazing human being. He is ⁓ one of those guys that doesn't stop. And he's been plant-based actually for six years now as well. ⁓ And he reached out to me after I announced on social media that we did not win or move advanced in the on your own competition. And I remember saying in the post, said, when one, I was dejected because everybody likes winning.
And it came out on my, I wear my emotions on my sleeve. And I said, when one door closes, you know, another one opens, you just got to have faith. He reached out to me with an email and he said, Hey, I'd love to chat with you. think I might be that next door opening. so we got the talking and we hit it off and Jess actually started filming on the truck and it seems like he was on the truck for a year, just filming and
He's the ⁓ owner of kind of cool productions. They do inspiring stories ⁓ from people around North Carolina to try to light a fire under other people. And he just never stops. His schedule is always full and he's just always looking to help people and get stories out there. And I'm blessed that he came across us.
Rip (24:13)
Kinda cool, innit?
Lucas (24:14)
⁓ It is. It's very cool.
Rip (24:17)
Yeah, all right cool so the last the last Thing I have for you is cancer survivor
Lucas (24:30)
So it makes me think of the statistics. And today, one out of every two males has cancer. And that half that doesn't have cancer is on their way to developing cancer.
One out of every three females has cancer or had cancer and another two-thirds is on their way to developing. It makes me mad. I am a cancer survivor, I try to not focus on the frustration and focus on the joyful part of the solution. Because since allopathic medicine has been invented about 150 years ago, the invent
the industrial revolution, allopathic medicine, disease is skyrocketed. And if you follow what they label alternative medicine, which is in fact traditional naturopathic medicine, there's no such thing as disease. And there doesn't have to be cancer survivors. I'm grateful to the team of doctors that
help me battle cancer. But like I say in the documentary, didn't have to come to that. It doesn't have to come to this, that point for so many, for half the population of the US almost. It's ridiculous. And I understand you have to make money to sustain a business, but we as a human race have got to put our knees on the floor and our head up to the heavens and just
find another way because we're eating the wrong stuff that's contributing to these diseases like cancer. We're shooting the wrong stuff in us with needles, which is contributing to these diseases. And we've been given everything we need on this great green earth that we just are taking not being great stewards of. And ⁓ it's time for us to change that. So.
Rip (26:44)
Tell me a little bit more about your particular ⁓ cancer journey. When were you, ⁓ when'd you start feeling bad? When were you diagnosed? How did you deal with it?
Lucas (26:55)
So I was, ⁓ it was 2015, my back started hurting and I'd sweat through six, seven shirts a night. And I went to numerous doctors in the area and nobody found anything. And then I was about to, I just wanted somebody to operate on me because I wanted a cure. And that's the problem with disease is that we just look at the symptoms.
And I was about this, most of, most of the doctors here in town, they said, no, don't do anything. You don't have anything wrong with your spine. Like don't do anything. And to their credit, I appreciate that. ⁓ they were great doctors for that, but I went up to another, ⁓ two hours north of here to another facility and asked them and they're like, no, let's operate. And so I was the day before I was going in for an operation, one of my friends.
He actually married my wife and I, very mystical, spiritual guy. He just called me out of the blue. like, don't do it. Just like he sees everything, you know? He had no idea what I was going through. He's like, don't do the operation. And I was like, that's all you have to say. I trust you for my life. And I didn't do it. And I'm glad they were going to fuse some of my vertebrates together.
because I thought that's what was hurting me. But lo and behold, was semenoma, which is what Lance Armstrong from Your Neck of the Woods had. And it was in my testicles, but my lymph, my lymph nodes were pulling it out. And the lymph node that's on my spine, right about L5, which is usually about, I don't know, this size was about golf ball size. And it was just pushing on my spine and...
Nobody here saw it and they found it in Switzerland. That was another blessing being placed over there. And yeah, that's where it began in 2015. The pain started, but they didn't find it until 2016 was spent in the doctor's offices here. We moved in the summer of 2016 and they found it in Switzerland a half a year later in 2017.
Rip (29:14)
Jeez. And so it was over there that you got the treatment and got it taken care of.
Lucas (29:20)
Correct, correct.
Rip (29:22)
And how did they treat it? What did you have done?
Lucas (29:27)
They did a cocktail of chemo and it was, they called it the horse, the horse tranquilizer cocktail. was three different medicines that just like I was strapped up to a chair and they just poured it in me for four or five hours every week for three months. yeah, it was, if you see the documentary, you see how much weight I put on. It was tough, but it was a,
I'm thankful to those doctors and I didn't know at the time that there's ways to prevent it. I thought that was the option, but I do remember my cousins in Switzerland bringing me passion fruits and oranges and all these fruits and I was like, wow, this is so good. Just having those and that's the real answer right there.
Rip (30:19)
Were you ever, when you were going through the treatments, were you ever so miserable that you were like, just want to be dead. I'm just, I'm in so much pain and agony. No.
Lucas (30:31)
No, I got a fire that burns in me. There's a spirit and I know and any and I would say to anybody going through something similar, see yourself coming through it. It's like an extended flu. And if you can visualize something, then it'll manifest. You just got to put that picture out there and believe in it and see it happening. And I saw myself being helped.
healthy again and count my blessings. Here I am just ran three and a half miles this morning with my wife and ⁓ she told me, Lucas, just take a deep breath for your interview and try to be concise.
Rip (31:17)
Yeah, she is genius, isn't she? Now, all right. So when were you officially like cured of your of your cancer?
Lucas (31:31)
So I started the treatment in March of 2017. They finished the chemo after every week.
three months, they finished at the end of end of May, I believe. And I went back and, and that we were going to move back home. That was the first year we were in Switzerland, but I was like, ⁓ got good doctors there. Let's stay. So we ended up staying for six years and I went back the next fall. It was in the fall and they said, yeah, there's, there's no more cancer. ⁓ we're still going to do checkups every three months for the first couple of years. then.
every year after that and it's been gone since they've been with the chemo.
Rip (32:25)
And so how fantastic does it feel to not have that nagging back pain?
Lucas (32:29)
It, it, I never thought I was going to play basketball again. And the first thing I did when the back pain was gone, like I couldn't even jump. started jumping. Like I remember that fall and I was like, wait, it doesn't hurt anymore. I'm like, yeah, let's basketball again. So I joined the local club there in Rapperswil, Switzerland. And, and I, here I was 43 running circles around these 20 year olds. Cause I changed my diet too. there was plant based and just schooling them. There was some, there was some talent, but uh,
Mm-hmm. It's just amazing the energy you have when you eat this way.
Rip (33:03)
Well, so I saw somewhere where you basically said that Europe, they kind of look at the C word a little bit differently. Explain that to me.
Lucas (33:15)
So this over there, it's actually.
Prevalent as well. There's a lot of meat. There's a lot of cheese in Switzerland, specifically in France. If you think about all the butter they use, but they exercise so much more. People are moving. It's built into their day. know, everybody doesn't drive to the closest parking space in front of Walmart. They're walking, they're biking there, you know, it's built into their
natural movement is built in. So at least the exercise combats some of that malnourishment. ⁓ There, if you have to eat meat, at least it's not pumped with the hormones, antibiotics that we get here. ⁓ But yeah, it's growing there too, in Switzerland at least. And if you look at the lowest rates are
in Africa and India. That's what do they eat there?
Rip (34:26)
mostly plants.
Lucas (34:28)
There's no heart disease in Africa.
Rip (34:30)
Yeah, especially Central Africa. So you mentioned that with ⁓ the cancer, you mentioned that there's ways to prevent it through food. When did you start that particular journey as far as switching from being a meditarian omnivore to getting your education that, you know what?
⁓ This plant-based thing has some merit to it.
Lucas (35:04)
That was, here we go again. Another stroke of genius from my wife. We had a French teacher at our bilingual day school, SIS, in Faficon, and he lended her the China study. And she brought it home to me and I like to read, but you know, I stick to shorter novels and here's the China study. It was thick. And I was like, okay. So I started reading it I was like,
Rip (35:08)
Huh?
Lucas (35:32)
He had me from like the first paragraph when he basically said he was set to inherit T. Colin Campbell. He said he's set to inherit, you know, a $7 million a year cattle farm in Montana. And here he is writing something more powerful than money. It's called the truth. He's writing about the truth. so it just bounced off the pages and I flew through it and just full of statistics, but
That is the turning point when I read that book that Ingrid brought home. it's just led me on a constant quest for more. And it led me to Anthony William, Dr. Robert Morse, your father, Dr. McDougall, guys that are trying to get the word out in this. ⁓
epicenter of capitalism that we live in.
Rip (36:33)
It sounds like you first got your hands on the China study when you were over in Switzerland, is that correct? It was over in Switzerland then that you made the transition. Did you do it like...
Lucas (36:41)
That is correct.
Rip (36:53)
Like full force, like you, the wife, the kids, everybody jump in and do it together.
Lucas (36:59)
So it was basically just me at first. And the last meal I bought was it was Thanksgiving when she brought me that book and I started reading it. So the last meat I bought was turkey and it cost me 150 bucks because they obviously don't celebrate Thanksgiving there. ⁓ they didn't have the pilgrims who came and so friendly with the natives that they had a huge party.
So anyway, I found a turkey, but it was 150 bucks, but that was the last meat I bought and that was 2017. then I just read that and never looked back. So it was full force tinkering with new recipes and trying to figure out ways to, and honestly, after the first two weeks, I didn't miss it. It was like, bye.
Rip (37:52)
Is there anything to this day that you miss about, I don't know, cheese or butter or filet mignon, anything that you're like, ⁓ man, that does smell good or that would be a nice to have bite of that,
Lucas (38:08)
I can breathe so well now that I using my nose because there's no mucus in there building up trying to protect myself from the cheese and the it's amazing. No, I don't miss any of it. Every now and then somebody's cooking in the backyard. I when that used to be good.
Rip (38:29)
Yeah. Yeah. Tell me this, Lucas. So you're in Switzerland. You're living in literally, as you say in the documentary, paradise. Everything's just copacetic. Life is easy. It's pleasant. It's beautiful. It's like heaven on earth. And then you got this desire to come back to North Carolina, to your home. What was the driving force and why did you decide to do it after six years in Switzerland?
Lucas (38:59)
So I knew if we stayed any longer, we would be there forever. And the driving forces.
The people of this land, of the USA, I love them. They're resourceful. They're kind. They're easy to talk to. They're funny. There's just some great people here in the USA, but we've been lied to and we're like, people all over the world have been, but this is my home. And there was just a force pulling me back. ⁓
do everything I can in my power to share the truth that I learned in Switzerland. honestly, there's some very kind people in Switzerland too, but there's almost like blinders up where I was in the German speaking part and everybody's, and then we had the blinders here as well. Everybody's chasing, you know, efficiency, trying to be super efficient. And I miss that soul.
that is still present here in the U.S. There's almost a Wild West feeling like anything is possible. And that's why I knew if I wanted to start a company.
It would have to be in the U S where the people needed it more. There's, there's a, it's a little bit looser regulations. ⁓ there's just more possible. There's a feeling of hope still because of the hardships that we've gone because of, you know, the story of slavery, just where, where we come from as Americans, there's a feeling of hope still. And you don't always feel that even in Switzerland, it is paradise, you know, but there's.
There's pros and cons to every place. it was, was hope.
Rip (40:51)
So was that a hard sell to your wife and your young kids say, we're gonna go back and chase daddy's dream of doing this food truck? It sounds like the odds are kind of on paper and in theory probably stacked against you succeeding.
Lucas (41:11)
Yeah, that's the story of my life. It is. It is. I like breaking out of boxes when people try to label you and just let them know, hey, we're so much more than a label. ⁓ Every day you have to redefine and just prove yourself. basically my wife, said, you had three to five years to get this business going. We're on your...
Well, actually, she said two to five years. We're on year three right now and she's behind me, but she's still like looking over her shoulder, you know. ⁓ sorry. I turned my head. I'm looking over her shoulder and we're actually going back ⁓ to visit this summer. And I'm like, okay, I know she's going to rekindle some relationships.
What's wrong with well-fed Ed International? There's no ceiling to this. I'm just, ⁓ I told her since day one, I was like, don't think small. You know, this could be international. Why not have something that's good for people? You know, we gave the world McDonald's, we gave the world Bojangles and Taco Bell. Why not have something that's good for people, that's international?
Rip (42:33)
Well, you know what? So I think that's a great transition to, let's talk about some of the items on your incredible menu, right?
Lucas (42:42)
And
Rip (42:44)
So I can prompt you here, or you can tell me what you want to talk about. But let's talk about some of the items on your menu, why their names are what they're named, and some of the tasty, tasty meals that you have. So let's start. Let's start with the principle. What is the principle? Why is it called the principle?
Lucas (43:12)
So all of our meals are named after different folks that you would encounter at the schoolhouse. And that's our theme, education, right? So our bean burger, we call it our robust bean burger. It's made in-house. And it's a secret recipe, but it's none of this frozen stuff, know, that's soy product. It's, you know, fake meat. It's almost worse than real meat for you.
So we do organic black beans, cumin, some coriander, ⁓ brown sugar, a little apple cider vinegar, some other stuff too. But we make patties, then we ⁓ put those in avocado oil. That's the only oil that we use. And that's just for the pan to keep it from sticking. ⁓ then we put a slab of freshly cut pineapple on top of that.
We make our own guacamole. We put a big old dollop of guac on top of the pineapple. And then we put some adobo sauce, which is a secret recipe from fellow cello player of ours back in the band days. Joe Kwan, I don't know if you've heard of him and the Avett brothers, but he gave me that recipe. Our adobo ⁓ sauce is kind of hot. It's not really hot sauce, but it has a little tingle to it.
And then that comes on our potato roll. And that's the principle when it comes with fresh fruit or plantain chips or salad.
Rip (44:51)
So let's talk about the music teacher. Because that's a chocolate bean mole that like you got me right there. It's with rice. It's with a tostada ⁓ kind of tortilla. And you got a corn and mango salsa, dollop of guacamole. And you say that this flavorful menu will leave you making music. ⁓
Lucas (45:17)
It does. The music teacher, you're supposed to make music, You summed it up. You said everything. There's similar elements to the principal, except for it's on tostada tortilla and the basmati rice, you know, is under there. But it also has the adobo sauce on top. So again, the guac and the adobo goes back and forth. ⁓ But you summed it up. It's delicious. It's not too chocolatey.
Rip (45:21)
Yeah.
Lucas (45:47)
It's also got a savory side to it. the mango, like my ⁓ former employee said, that mango salsa slaps hard on it. It does. It's all fresh. It's made daily and it's good for you.
Rip (46:02)
I'm just gonna go over some of the names and then I'm gonna land on one that I want you to talk about a little bit more. But you got the overachiever, which is a short stack of pancakes. You got the school nurse, that's this chicken salad wrap. You have the coach, the math whiz, the school resource officer, bus driver. You got everybody and you even got the lunch lady. Is that from Saturday Night Live and Chris Farley?
Lucas (46:30)
It's a shout out to Adam Sandler, yeah. And Chris Farley, yeah.
Rip (46:34)
my gosh. Yeah. What is the lunch lady?
Lucas (46:37)
You can't sleep on that one. Actually, each meal brings its own deliciousness. And it was just so fun. know, when I was sick in Switzerland, this is when I was like, I didn't know it then, but this is when I was experimenting, testing up recipes, adding stuff, taking stuff away. And the lunch lady was one of those. It was, it had eggs in it originally. And I cut those, the eggs out.
And it's basically a stir fry and it's a pineapple stir fry over basmati rice. And I put some color in there, know, whatever green I have, maybe some sugar snaps, maybe zucchini. I put carrots in there, but the pineapple was definitely the hero of it. roast some cashews, chop those up, put them on top, cilantro, lime juice, agave syrup. ⁓
little coconut too. We put some fresh coconut on there and ⁓ it's delicious.
Rip (47:42)
You also with almost every dish that I've seen, you typically have a side of fruit and you also have fruit kebabs that are available with what? Either you can put a lime juice on it and then what's the spice that you like to put on those kebabs?
Lucas (47:58)
Tahini, tahini, yeah. And it's non-GMO tahini, and it's just kind of salty, sour, lime, you know, brings out the sweetness of the fruit, makes it pop more.
Rip (48:10)
Yeah, yeah. One of my favorite things is to, and a friend of mine taught me this little trick, is with watermelon, you cut it up and then you put either lemon or lime juice, fresh on top of it, and it just brings out the flavor tenfold. And so I saw you doing that and I'm like, oh, he's got it going on.
Lucas (48:29)
Yeah, Hispanics know all about that. they, you know, they have their street food and they're just going to town with the lime and that wakes it up. That wakes up your water too. If you put a little spritz of lime juice or lemon in there, it activates all those minerals and all the good stuff in there.
Rip (48:50)
Yeah. And what I love is you even have a shout out to the custodian. leave, you leave nobody that's part of the, you know, the school system that's out of this and God love the custodians. They work so hard and that looks like a chickpea sloppy Joe.
Lucas (49:06)
Yeah, that was that was easy because you know sloppy so you gotta have extra cleanup. So it's obviously going to be the custodian, you know. Yeah, you're right. If you know the custodian, if you're a teacher and you're in tight with them, you gotta pay. got even more so than the principal. You gotta know the custodian.
Rip (49:26)
Now tell me a little bit about your food truck and who are you serving right now? Are you serving the school system? What's your core audience?
Lucas (49:44)
That's a great question. My core audience is females that know how to eat because men want to be tough. And every once in while you'll get somebody that comes up and tries it like, man, this is good. know, and, but usually I'd say our core audience is, which thankfully most teachers are female, but I'd say
25, maybe 30 to 55 is our core, females. And that goes in line with who we serve most of all is school teachers. ⁓ We go to all the schools here in New Hanover County. And that's our core, that's our base right now. And we're looking to expand it because this stuff's for everybody.
Rip (50:34)
And what did you do to get permission to basically take the food truck to all these different schools?
Lucas (50:42)
⁓ I've, I've been blessed with people that believe in the mission, ⁓ local principals that I knew some of them before I went to Switzerland. Cause I taught with them for, you know, 10 years or so. And I came back and they were all trying to recruit me to teach again. And I was like, I can't, I got to focus and give my full energy to this mission right now. I want to, sorry, I can't right now. ⁓ but I'm back in the schools.
you know, teaching many lessons to the kids. I'm going in, in end of April to a second grade class. But basically just word of mouth and knowing lots of principles and those guys being advocates for the mission and just it's a tight knit community here, Wilmington is, and I'm ⁓ thankful for it.
Rip (51:34)
How many different schools are we talking about that you take the school truck and visit?
Lucas (51:39)
So the food truck, go to 44, all 44 New Hanover County schools, and we go to the two local colleges, UNCW and Cape Fear Community College. We don't serve the students yet at the K through 12 schools. We're just serving the staff. But that's my hope is to eventually get to the students and reteach them what they've been brainwashed to believe with our.
you know, food pyramid and other propaganda that's pumped into our heads. Just teach them the truth, which is these are good and they're for you.
Rip (52:20)
So tell me, it's been, you said about two years. Is this the kind of thing right now where are you able to be, are you profitable or how you feeling about the future?
Lucas (52:34)
Not profitable yet.
Rip (52:37)
Okay. All right. Well, not many startups are so that's fine. Yeah.
Lucas (52:41)
There's
a lot of skeptics. Thankfully, because I was in Switzerland and we had a super high salary, and my wife is generous, we've been pumping stuff in and taking leaps of faith. And I've been praying and just hoping that it catches on. And doors are opening and more and more people are realizing that, hey, this is legit. And people are recognizing the name and getting honks when we drive.
Rip (52:48)
Yeah.
Lucas (53:11)
down the street, know, people coming behind and that's what it takes. You can't build Rome in one day, right?
Rip (53:19)
Yeah. Yeah. You know, there's a guy, there's a guy here in Austin and he came from Seattle. He had a business called, he was called the soup peddler and he would make soup and he'd deliver it on the back of his bicycle to people that subscribe to this soup service. And obviously this was an Austin and he probably started this 25, 30 years ago, but he got to the point to where now he's got, you know, seven different retail locations.
They're all still called the soup peddler where people can go and get the soup and smoothies and things of things of that nature. So you're to your point, you never know. Right. The evolution and where this food truck will be in three to five to six years. Right. And it's amazing that opportunities present themselves, doors open, especially when you're passionate. You believe in something and you're putting everything you got into it.
So in the documentary you say that this food truck is so, so hard. What is the hardest thing about a food truck?
Lucas (54:30)
So the other day, one of my employees called me and he was like, I got some bad news. I'm like, okay, what happened? He said, well, was trying to park aesthetically and I pulled the generator and it fell out of the truck and it's still running. so I had to leave my family. I had built-in family time to go troubleshoot this and...
Then he called me like five minutes later, he like, actually there's more bad news. The menu board blew off while I was, blew off the side of the truck while I was driving.
So here I am looking for it. So the hardest thing about the food truck is probably the food truck itself.
Rip (55:16)
They've
arrived.
Lucas (55:20)
I just balancing the time with my family because I miss that the most. got so much time with my kids when I was sick and I would see my wife leave when we were in Switzerland, leave to go to work. And I was home because I was recovering, but I was with, you know, a two year old and a five year old and I would get mad at her when she'd leave. I'd be like, she's going to work. It's like vacation here. I could handle 40 kids and I'm not even lying. 40 kids in my classroom.
teaching Spanish and they'd be pin drop quiet if I'd leave, you know, to make coffees or something and teachers would be like, how do you do that? I just told them no talking while I'm gone. Like they know I'm serious and we have fun when it's time to have fun. I could not handle my own two kids. ⁓ But I got precious time with them while they were in a younger, formidable, you know, age. But now it's like I'm
Rip (55:58)
Yeah.
Lucas (56:18)
always on the truck and I've really missed that family time. one of the hardest things is just balancing that and making time for family.
Rip (56:28)
I got kind of two back to back. I think one's a comment and then one's a question. So in the documentary, you talk about how when you were younger, your father would drop you off at some of these food stands and you learn very quickly it wasn't so much about the money, it was about the conversations that you have. And what is it about you? It seems to me that whether you've been
a teacher, a musician, a caterer now running the food truck. You love being in service to the people. Why do think that is?
Lucas (57:17)
Because I love people. Because I.
I've been given so much love and I want to return it. and there's, don't hear about it on the news, but there's some good people out there. And I feel like if you nurture and you feed that goodness, that's what's going to grow. And, ⁓ it's just, I feel like I have to pay it back because so many people have poured their love into me and there's nothing, there's nothing better than to.
to see young eyes or any eyes looking on you and telling them the truth and helping them to hopefully find their passions. yeah, that's what we're all here for, right? If we all looked out for each other, it would be a beautiful, beautiful place.
Rip (58:14)
It's beautiful. I love that. What can we, the PLANTSTRONG community, the audience that's listening, that's hearing your story, what can we do to help you and your mission and the food truck and those that you are trying to share this education about eating healthy? What can we do to help?
Lucas (58:40)
You're already doing it. You're already doing it by having having us own. And we're grateful just to be a part and. ⁓ but you have a huge platform and. And we just. We're grateful to have that.
Rip (58:56)
Yeah, but I would imagine like tell me if I go to your website, is there something that we can do to contribute to meals that feed then people, kids that have never had an opportunity to eat this way?
Lucas (59:11)
Yep, we do have something like that. It's called field trips. Sticking with the educational theme where we had the community at large. We've done a few of these. We haven't done those in in 2025 yet, but we find a partner to collaborate with in the community. We went to an inner city school and we asked the community at large to donate meals at cost. And then we went to the school and we passed out.
Rip (59:18)
Nice.
Lucas (59:41)
Uh, 140 free plant-based meals, uh, it was actually the principle to these kids. Kids were like looking, you know, inner city kids, like, I've never seen a pineapple on a burger before. And then they developed it. And, uh, so yes, we have the field trips, which you could donate to. We're in the process of opening a discussion about a 501 C3, trying to know, a nonprofit with the for-profit under welfare.
But the most help would be just spreading the word, telling people that live in North Carolina, hey, if you ever come to the beach, come track down the Well-Fed Ed food truck. And it's not all about Well-Fed Ed. It's also about, just empower yourself by knowing you're going to feel so much better by eating plants.
That's at the end of the day, why we're trying to do this.
Rip (1:00:43)
Well, it'd be great if we could all.
you know, toss in 25, 30 bucks for a really cool salad cap and ⁓ or whatever, 50 bucks. You know, like make sure that you're making a lot of money to help you achieve your goal here with your food trucks and your dream. It's something else. I love it.
Lucas (1:01:09)
Yeah, well, I don't know if you're ever in the area for ⁓ a retreat, say like Black Mountain and you need some food, you could always.
Rip (1:01:19)
Well, we are, we're gonna be there in November. November, we're there for a retreat, the PLANTSTRONG retreat. So I will be reaching out to you. Well, Lucas, it's been wonderful meeting you, getting a taste of how you do so wonderfully wax poetic. ⁓ You're a very special human being and I love the way you're chasing after your dreams with your wife by your side and your kids in tow.
⁓ It's a great thing.
Lucas (1:01:51)
Blessings, blessings all around, And I'm just fortunate and grateful to you guys at PLANTSTRONG and what you guys do and Kerry and just the legacy that you're continuing in your family. And thank you for that.
Rip (1:02:07)
Yeah, well, you're welcome and thank you. So hey, on the way out, I want you to give me a PLANTSTRONG fist bump, but before we do, where can we find you on Instagram? What's your ⁓ website? What are all your kind of bells and whistles so people can follow you and support you?
Lucas (1:02:29)
Okay. So on Instagram, we're at wellfeded2022. So that's the year that we started inception. well, yeah, at wellfeded2022. That's our Instagram. And then you can check out what we do online at our website as well. There's actually a hyphen in between well and fed. So it's well hyphen fed.
ed.com. Will hyphen fed ed.com.
Rip (1:03:07)
There it is.
All right. All right. So give me a give me a little bit of a virtual PLANTSTRONG fist bump on the way out.
Lucas (1:03:18)
BOOM!
Rip (1:03:19)
Go get them Lucas, go get them.
Lucas (1:03:22)
Thank you,
Rip (1:03:24)
Thank you. ⁓
diet can do. And yes, helped Lucas regain his health and vitality after his cancer battle. it also was what inspired him to do more to help others in his community. And it really doesn't get much better than that. And that is why I always encourage each and every one of you to always, always keep a PLANTSTRONG. Thanks so much for listening.
The PLANTSTRONG podcast team includes Carrie Barrett, Laurie Kortowich, and Ami Mackey. If you like what you hear, do us a favor and share the show with your friends and loved ones. You can always leave a five-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And while you're there, make sure to hit that follow button so that you never miss an episode. As always, this and every episode is dedicated to my parents.
Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr. and Anne Crile Esselstyn. Thanks so much for listening.
