The MySGV Food Passport Origin Story
For over four years we ran the podcast with zero money coming in. We kept going because we believed in our vision to unite and bring a sense of pride to the San Gabriel Valley.
Our goal was simple: keep telling the stories of our people and keep building community.
We saw the Red Dining Book and the Pasadena Coffee Passport circulating on social media feeds, and a new idea clicked.
We had interviewed more than 35 restaurant owners. Why not ask them to create special deals for our listeners and the SGV?
When orders started rolling in, we knew we had something. In the first week we had a day with more than 30 online sales.
People were buying multiples—sometimes as many as 12—and our average order was two passports. It was a huge relief.
Our team built something completely new to all of us, you all loved it, and we’ll only get better.
Now we can keep capturing and sharing more stories of the amazing people of the SGV for years to come.
A message from our host, Russell
Growing up in the San Gabriel Valley, I didn’t just live among different cultures—I experienced them. I tasted them at friends’ dinner tables, heard them in playground jokes and afterschool stories, and saw them in the way we celebrated birthdays, weddings, and holidays.
It wasn’t just diversity as a concept. It was in our games, our families, our friendships. It was life.
That kind of experience stays with you. It gets in your body.
When I joined the Army at 17, I left the SGV behind and started to see the world. I lived across the country and overseas. But no matter where I went, nothing ever felt quite like home. Nowhere else held that quiet magic I grew up with here—that effortless way people of different backgrounds shared space, food, laughter, and struggle.
While stationed in Germany, I grew close with a Mexican American soldier from Southern California—tough, principled, and grounded. One day, some guys were talking trash to me because I was Asian. Without hesitation, he said, “Just because I’m Mexican doesn’t mean I’m your brother. And just because he’s Asian doesn’t mean he’s my enemy.” I’ve never forgotten that.
That moment hit deep. It reminded me of where I came from—of the way we looked out for each other back in the SGV, how we found family across culture lines. That wasn’t new to me. That was home.
When I returned to live in the SGV again, I felt something rising in me—a mix of gratitude, pride, and urgency. I saw how fast things were changing. I saw stories getting lost. I saw how easy it was for the richness of our lives here to go unnoticed or unspoken.
I wanted to create a space where regular people could tell their stories. People who’ve lived, worked, struggled, and grown up right here in the SGV. I wanted to reflect back the beauty of our community—not as nostalgia, but as truth. There is something rare and worthy here. And I believe we deserve to feel proud of it.
So I started the MySGV Podcast—not to promote anything, but to preserve something.
The podcast isn’t about fame or followers. It’s about voice. It’s about memory. It’s about that line in a poem from one of our guests—Mike Sonksen—who said: “The Chang’s live next door to the Diaz’s in the San Gabriel Valley.” That line hits differently when you’ve lived here. It’s not just poetic. It’s real.
I’m not here to speak for the SGV. I’m here to listen.
To help capture what’s already been happening across decades and generations.
I just happened to be the one holding the mic.
“Love softens the ego.”~ Russell