You're watching Southwest Florida in focus on today's program.

The coming and going of tariffs has caused an upheaval in international trade.

How the trickle down from this trade war is impacting those providing social services to Southwest Floridians.

Shedding the stigma on the battle with obesity.

We talk with Mike and Molly TV star Billy Gardell about his health journey and how he dropped more than 150 pounds and from the rumba to the streets of Carnival.

A TV travel host shares her secrets to taking in local cultures around the planet, and how following her steps could mean a better vacation.

Hello?

I'm Sandra Victorova the global trade war set off by President Trump is affecting many, but particularly those already struggling with everyday needs.

Social service agencies that help low income Southwest Floridians are seeing more demand than ever.

And those agencies fear possible cutbacks in food and aid.

WGCUs Mike Walcher has a close up look at the struggle to survive in a region of plenty.

Thank you.

Welcome to the front lines and fighting high living costs and possibly dwindling supplies of food.

This interfaith charity's pantry in San Carlos Park serves people like Metta Sausalito.

If we get food for from the food pantry, we can save money for another thing.

For example, electricity bill or water bill, you know.

So she does.

Husband works as a landscape supervisor, and they have two school sons.

She says the household budget is a bust.

Almost nothing left over a week to week.

She likens it to being swallowed by a flood.

I feel like this is the water is going up.

It's going up.

Some of the stories will just break your heart.

Lisa Swanson runs the nonprofit in the south central part of Lee County.

I can't even imagine having to tell my children or my child that there just is no more food for the evening.

I also can't imagine being a senior and having to choose between filling a prescription or buying food and putting food on the table for yourself.

Those are just impossible choices that we see families having to make all the time.

Back at the pantry, client Francine Ryan worries tariffs will drive up prices of electronics and toys, to name just two.

90% of everything is from China.

Could be shoes, could be clothes.

Maybe you need, a cabinet, you know, different things.

Like thing around the house, drapes, whatever you need.

You should get it now.

One thing is certain.

The need at the pantry is growing fast.

450 families are registered here, the most ever.

And each gets one box of food a week.

This place sets new records all the time.

It had 149 vehicles come through the line the first Saturday in April.

Interface says it was about 40 cars a year ago.

Volunteers distribute the food.

Thank you.

You bet.

Every day.

The mission statement, actually, of interfaith is, hope and providing hope and help to those in need.

And that's exactly what we do.

The pantry does have a paid manager.

She says dealing with so much need can be draining for volunteers.

But I don't think I've ever heard about someone being burnt out.

I think because everyone wants to be here, they want to be part of the difference.

I mean, we're all tired at the end of the day.

By the same time, we all come back.

Director Swanson is grateful for volunteers.

It's the human heart that really keeps this operation afloat.

But she worries the major grocery stores which donate truckloads of leftover, are soon to be out of date.

Food to the pantry will run short because of tariffs.

What is that going to look like this summer?

If the stores are stocking even less?

Because number one, they can't get it, or they don't want to pay the prices that they have to pay to stock it.

I don't know what that's going to look like.

And that is really, really scary.

Mark Associado gives back to her faith by teaching two classes a week in English as a second language.

She does it for free, but she also knows she has to do something else before the family budget drowns in rising costs.

I need to get a job because I need to help my husband.

Because as everything is growing up, the prices are crazy.

For GQ news, I'm Mike Walter.

To help us make sense of this tariff war.

We're joined now by Doctor Victor Claar, an associate professor of economics at Florida Gulf Coast University.

Professor Klawe, welcome.

Thank you.

So we've all seen all the uncertainty.

The market's going up.

The market's going down.

But do you think that this tariff war could actually be a victory for the white House.

If these countries come forward and agree to a deal, could this end up being a victory for President Trump?

It's difficult to imagine a scenario in which the white House would be able to declare victory.

And the main reason for that is typically in a trade war, it really becomes a war.

And just like a regular conventional war, escalation is more likely than bringing about a peace.

So we've already seen some early escalation.

China has made it extremely clear that they are fighting back and fighting back hard.

And there don't seem to be any peace talks and peace treaties breaking out any time soon.

And I don't think we can expect that in the foreseeable future, especially if we're interested in trying to make deals with nations that seem disinclined to make deals with us.

So obviously, during President Trump's first term, he imposed tariffs.

We know President Biden also kept those tariffs on and actually expanded them.

So tariffs are not new.

Correct.

So tell us about a little bit of the history on tariffs.

And then second you know do we do we see this.

I mean is this a completely different world in obviously imposing tariffs worldwide.

Yeah.

Economists are universally agreed or almost universally agreed that a tariff is a tax.

And in our case, it's a tax paid by American businesses that employ American workers.

And serve American customers.

So if you've heard President Trump in the last several weeks, refer to the billions of dollars that we've generated, it's important to remember that those are billions of dollars that have been collected from American businesses who are purchasing goods from other countries and importing them, again, to serve customers here at home with good products and prices here at home, and also, who will employ American workers here at home.

Let's talk about Florida industries.

What would you anticipate?

Here in our state would be most impacted.

I'm the most concerned with construction, whether that's commercial construction or residential construction, as everybody knows, in Florida, especially since the pandemic, affordable housing is a huge challenge.

If it becomes more expensive and more difficult to bring in things like timber from Canada and construction and timber that's been milled already, or bring in drywall, gypsum based drywall from Mexico, that's going to drive up construction costs for every construction company, and it's going to make it more difficult for those companies to make payroll and to provide affordable housing, which is something that we claim that we desperately want in our state.

Professor Klawe, I asked about the industry's most impacted in Florida, but what about consumers?

Who do you think will be hurt most by these tariffs?

My greatest concern is for young working families who have relatively low incomes in the Florida economy.

Most families that are relatively low income spend almost all of their income every single month on the goods and services that they need to make ends meet.

If you introduce a tariff on pretty much every good or service that they buy, and a random trip to target, our super target will show you that much of the goods that are in lots of consumers shopping carts when they check out are come from China.

A lot of the fruit and the vegetables that they buy come from places like Mexico, and all of those items are subject to some tariff.

The only difference is what percent that tariff happens to be currently, if you introduce an additional tax on the importation of all of those goods.

Businesses are going to try to pass along some of those taxes in the form of higher prices to American consumers, and especially for things like food items at the grocery.

The margin on an individual item at the grocery store is small.

It might be 1 to 3% in some cases.

There is not a lot of wiggle room for those grocers to try to cover the cost themselves.

Often, they'll be forced into a position where, even if they don't want to, they'll have to raise the price for their customer.

And that's something they really would prefer not to do because they want their business and they want good, healthy, positive brand recognition with their shoppers.

Professor Clarr, thank you so much for your time.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

Coming up, exploring the world through the art of dance, we hit the stage with travel host McKayla mulaudzi and learn why she believes incorporating dance or your favorite hobby is a must on your next travel itinerary.

You may not recognize Billy Gardell anymore.

The star of the hit shows, Bob hearts Abishola and Mike and Molly, is in the midst of a life changing weight loss journey, and we are thrilled Billy has made time to join us before his upcoming performance at Mccurdy's Comedy Theater in Sarasota.

Billy, welcome.

Thank you, and thanks for having me, I appreciate it.

Well, I tell you what, I've been so impressed by your honesty and how open you've been about your weight loss journey.

And so I was wondering if we could start at what made the difference this time.

What have you done?

Yeah.

What have you done differently this time?

Well, I, you know, when I did this, I had some health problems that were happening to me.

I've developed type two diabetes and had some problems.

You know, my heartbeat was way too high.

I think my resting heartbeat at one point was 130.

That's it.

And still it's now it's the eight that gives you kind of perspective.

And then I had some blood pressure things happening.

And so for the type two diabetes, I went on, ozempic.

Before the know it was a weight loss drug.

They didn't realize that yet.

It was just for diabetes.

And there was a year for that.

And then all of a sudden, my doctor was like, we might need your cholesterol pill and we might need to put on a blood pressure pill.

And I just thought, let me look at some other options, because I'd rather not be taking 12 medicines if I don't have to.

I'm not against that.

But I mean, if I can prevent it, then why don't I?

And so I had to kind of explore that.

And, I had a friend go through bariatric surgery and he really had amazing results.

And then so I started looking into that, and then I went to the consultation.

I chickened out twice.

I like, ran out of there like Wily Coyote going through a wall.

But, because I realized that it's only an opportunity, you know, the weight loss drugs, even with the injectables or whether it's the Atkins diet or your low carb, the carnivore diet, bariatric surgery, whatever you do, what matters is what you do on the other side of your weight loss.

It's the consistency.

After the weight loss, it doesn't matter what you do to get there.

If you don't change this, you're going to eat yourself right back into the same old hell.

I mean, I gained and lost the same 30 pounds for 20 years.

So you've made so many amazing changes, and I have to assume that it is really impacting your comedy, your your performance.

I'm thinking back to like, I, I huge fan Mike and Molly and you would make you know, you would make jokes about your weight.

So I assume it's going to change your comedy quite a bit.

It did.

And in a surprising and wonderful way.

I mean, I'm not sure this was the best business decision, but it was the best, like, for me, because what I did was I did two sitcoms back to back.

I did Mike and Molly and Bob hearts Abishola Rachel, both of those experiences.

But from year three to year five of Mike and Molly or I mean a Bob hearts Abishola I stopped doing standup because, Covid and hit and I couldn't tour and because I was at risk because I was heavy.

That was the first wave of it.

I back then I smoked, I had sleep apnea.

I mean, all those things are gone now, but it really woke me up and made me go.

You have to make a change here if you want to be here for your kid.

Plus my body was given out on me.

You can only chicken that for so long.

So I stopped and just took three years and got healthy.

I got the surgery and then developed my habits and just did Bob hearts abishola and came home and I thought I was done with standup.

And I think it's once a standup, always a standup.

It started to haunt me a little bit.

I said, all right, I'm going to get up there and seek.

And what I found was, you know, when I left television, I realized most live performance now is driven by social media.

So in order to get a younger crowd coming up, you have to involve yourself in social media.

So I stopped doing it for three years.

I got to the clubs and realized all the business was on the internet, not from television.

So to build tickets, I had to start over again.

And then I made myself unrecognizable.

So I got them right where I want.

Good luck with that, Billy.

And thank you so much again for for sharing your weight loss journey with us.

You are truly an inspiration.

Thank you again.

And there are limited tickets still available to see Billy Gardell at Mccurdy's Comedy Theater on April 25th and April 26th.

Thanks again, Billy.

Thanks for having me.

Have a great day.

You too.

I So here's a dream job.

Travel the world and explore different cultures and peoples across the planet, and then share those sights and sounds with viewers everywhere.

That is exactly what Mickela Mallozzi does as the Emmy winning host of the travel series Bare Feet, which airs on PBS stations across the country.

She's a travel host like no other, experiencing the world one dance at a time.

This professional dancer has visited 45 countries, introducing her audience to 100 different styles of dance.

So far, Silvia begins to teach me the basics of dance.

One.

Two.

Three.

One.

Two.

Three.

That's your walk at the movimento semicircular position.

You the elevator.

And that's it.

We got it.

Michela Welcome.

We are so thrilled to have you up.

Florida Gulf Coast University here with some of our talented dance and theater students behind us.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Sandra.

It's a pleasure to be here.

And I'm excited to dance with everybody.

So yay, everyone.

So a dancer hosting a travel show.

How did it happen?

Yeah.

So I grew up dancing and making music as a kid.

My nickname as a little kid was to top it, which means all pepper.

I come from a family of immigrants and that was because I could never keep still.

I was always dancing and I grew up.

I went to dance school starting at three.

I started playing musical instruments around the same time.

And I was really lucky that my family cultivated the arts.

I was the only person in my family that ever played instruments or danced any of those things, but I had wonderful opportunities.

Fast forward I studied abroad my summer of between sophomore and junior year in college, and caught the travel bug like we do a lot, a lot of people who have that opportunity to travel abroad.

But then I worked in the music industry, and I had stopped dancing for quite a while, and I had this sort of sense of missing dance, and dance came back into my life.

I started taking classes again.

But when I would travel and I can't speak every language, but I would use dance to connect with the locals by by the universal language of dance.

So when I couldn't speak that local language, I'd be going to festivals or holidays or some sort of celebration in the streets carnival and I'd be dancing with folks I pick up.

I had this weird, skill of picking up dances very quickly.

And so from there, it wasn't just the dance that I was learning, it was these friendships that I made.

Fast forward to 2010.

I was fast asleep and woke myself up having this moment.

I literally saw a projection on the wall in front of me of what bare feet is.

Today.

I saw me dressing in costume and playing instruments and dancing all over the world and I said, I'm going to make a TV show.

Had no production background, no hosting background background, had never been on television.

And I was like, I'm going to do it.

And here we are 15 years later, season seven is coming out very soon, and several Emmys.

Several Emmys.

Thank you.

Yeah.

And it's been such a journey and such a joy to connect with the world.

I don't consider myself a dancer.

I don't labeling myself as a dancer.

A lot of people would say, well, I'm not a dancer, so I can't do that.

No, I want people to be inspired to try to step out of their comfort zone by maybe grabbing someone's hand respectfully and dancing with them, or cooking with them, or things that they love to do.

So I like to say I'm a a dancing traveler versus a traveling dancer.

So, so many of us love to travel, right?

And we always think of like, food and the sights.

So you think we should actually incorporate dance in some way when we travel?

Yes.

A 100% dance or whatever you like to do at home.

Do it while you're traveling.

If you run marathons, go find the communities that that they do marathons when they're running around, in other destinations around the world.

If you love to cook, do that.

If you love birdwatching, if you love distilleries and breweries and want to go do tastings or wineries, if you find a passion that you have and find the other community that that has that same passion, you'll find that connection.

I love to dance.

That's why I was called to I love to dance.

I cannot keep my feet still.

So I find communities and people that have that same passion for their own dances and their culture.

And I pick it up very quickly, and they see that I have this joy and love for it, and they share so much more of themselves with me because of that.

I think that's the magic of bare feet.

So you were going to teach us a dance today?

I am, but Pisgah is a beautiful style of dance.

That was originally done for healing purposes.

So it's a form of the tarantella in La Scala means the pinch.

So.

And all your students should be listening because it's the same, lesson that we're going to be learning.

It has evolved over the years.

And that's the other thing about cultural context of dance.

Back in the day, it was very much of like shamanism and dancing.

To release this energy.

But now people do it in festivals and holidays and it's more joyful, it's more flirtatious, but it's still this way of expressing oneself and letting sort of being free.

And the cool part about Julia is it's sort of this convergence of cultures from Turkey, from North Africa, from Italy.

So you have a lot of Arabic rhythms.

Middle Eastern rhythms, North African rhythms that kind of combine.

And so now it's become a very popular dance that people do at festivals all over Italy.

You want to try it?

Let's do it.

Andiamo!

Let's go.

Yay la pizza.

So like I said, it's the pinch of a spider.

And it's evolved into this very joyful, sort of seductive dance a little bit because you're having a conversation with a partner.

So, Sandra, you and I were dancing together.

You always look into the eyes of the person you're dancing.

It's very intimate, but it's sort of a step up.

Step up.

You're going to see this is going to be like the Italian workout right here to me.

Hop a little faster, step up, step up.

Ha ha.

Let we step forward.

One, two three.

Hop left to three.

Hop right foot hop.

And you keep it nice and low.

Now we intersperse all these steps.

But when you find your dance partner, you do the same style of step.

But it's big energy.

They're giving you energy.

You give them energy.

It's.

They're like, I need to breathe and you catch your breath with them.

One, two, three up, one, two, three back.

Yeah.

The scarf.

If you have one you can use your skirt.

I'm going to do one, two three.

Hop, hop.

123 hop back big circle.

We're going to go into the center of that three step.

123 up.

Hop, hop up.

And if you feel it, you can do.

Whoo whoo whoo whoo!

And the next season of Bare Feet airs May 1st, Saturdays at see at 330 or On the Create Channel two local listings.

And here you.

After the break.

Turning something vacant into something verdant.

How?

A small green space in downtown Fort Myers is now a big part of the city's future.

Well, a pocket of Paradise has come to downtown Fort Myers as city officials unveiled Common Ground Park, a small green space to freshen up First Street.

Although the area only takes up a few feet weeks, WGCU ‘s Julie Perez shows us that even a little bit of Mother Nature can make a big difference.

The historic area of downtown Fort Myers is moving towards a more sustainable future.

And it all starts right here at Common Ground Park.

After the original building was demolished in 2019, the space nestled between the Franklin Shops and Timeless Art Gallery had an uncertain future.

Now, almost six years later.

The space has transformed into what the city's mayor calls a pocket park.

He envisions it as a community landmark.

We took a piece of blighted land that sat vacant was useless, and now we've turned it into a community space that people can enjoy.

I mean, I envision when people say, hey, we're meeting downtown, you meet up at Pocket Park and we'll take it from there.

According to Mayor Anderson, the new pocket park serves as an example of what's to come from the city's $75 million investment in sustainability initiatives.

This is just a small piece of what's going to happen with Parks and Recreation.

You know, we're going to increase our green space by more than a thousand acres.

The Fort Myers Community Redevelopment Agency says local philanthropist Deborah Gillan was the driving force behind the endeavor.

Thanks to Guillen's donation of nearly $500,000, visitors can now enjoy the pocket of greenspace revitalizing the concrete jungle downtown.

The park was highly anticipated by locals like Mark and Sue Cassidy, who say the space could provide many downtown visitors with a moment to rest and recharge.

This is wonderful to see this nice change from the empty lot that was here and to see the public space.

It's really, really nice.

It attracts people, you know, and it's a nice, you know, stop and rest for a little bit and then carry on shopping or dining.

It's a clever idea.

The new green space is equipped with several seating options, temporary vendor spaces, a mural, and a watering station for pets.

But for some common grounds, impact goes beyond its practical services.

Maria Dyer, the owner of azaleas on the corner, a family owned art and garden shop in the downtown area.

She says that the park's name sends a unifying message to those who visit common ground.

It's just where anybody can meet.

So whether you're meeting new friends or old friends, you're bringing family.

You have small children.

It's it's a neutral space that can be enjoyed by everybody.

Common Ground Park is now officially open to visitors, promoting the big ideas of community and sustainable city in a pocket sized space.

For WGU news, I'm Julie Perez.

Coming up next week, the condo crisis impacts southwest Florida.

Look at the measures state lawmakers are proposing to help shore up the market.

And we venture down to the Florida Keys to one of the state's hidden gems.

Fort Jefferson, will restoration efforts be enough to save this historic site from rising seas?

Join us for that story and much more next week.

And don't forget, we'd love for you to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel, where you'll find all of our stories, including extended interviews.

Until next week.

Have a great weekend everyone from.