♪ - From NJ PBS studios, this is NJ Spotlight News with Brianna Vanozzi.

- Hello, and thanks for joining us tonight.

I'm Brianna Vanozzi.

Coming up as this week marks 25 years since the September 11th attacks, a new documentary honors the heroes of that day.

We talk with Director Michael Greyer and former U.S.

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta.

Plus, biting food insecurity meet one remarkable young New Jersey teen tackling hunger in her community starting right in her own backyard.

First though, we look at the key things your family needs to know as the kids head back to school.

From foodborne illnesses to the latest on those measles cases.

That's next.

Major funding for NJ Spotlight News is provided in part by NJM Insurance Group, serving the insurance needs of residents and businesses for more than 100 years.

Well, September 11th remains one of the defining moments in our nation's history, but for millions of Americans, particularly younger generations, 9/11 is something they know only from textbooks, pictures and documentaries.

A new film is taking a different look at that day, not minimizing the devastation, but asking what happened next.

The heroism and resiliency of 9/11 from tragedy to triumph focuses on the extraordinary acts of courage, compassion and service that emerged from one of the darkest days our country has ever witnessed.

It features inspiring stories from first responders, survivors and others whose lives were changed forever that day, including national leaders like former CIA director and US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta.

The film's director, Michael Geyer and Secretary Panetta join us now.

Secretary Panetta, Michael Geyer, thank you both and welcome to you.

Michael, there are, as you note, so many documentaries about 9/11, and yet you spent four years, which is a massive undertaking, making another one.

What did you believe was missing from the story?

>> Well, I think it's important that we all remember the tragedy and the attack.

Well, Chris Meek is the executive producer, and he contacted me in late 2021 asking if I'd be interested in producing this film for him.

He felt like the 20th commemoration came and went.

There wasn't much attention brought to 9/11, and he did not want that to happen for the 25th.

And so he said, "What do you think about producing a film for the 25th?"

And after thinking about it, I came back to him, and as you just said, I said, "There's a lot of films about 9/11, so let's focus on the positive things that came from 9/11 despite the tragedy."

Nobody has done that.

There are so many stories of heroism and resiliency, and let's make an inspirational film.

And he loved the idea.

And so, yeah, early 2022, I started on the project, and this film is very inspirational.

And it surprises a lot of people.

They expect it to be depressing, but it's very inspirational, uplifting, and people hear stories they've never heard before.

- Yeah, I mean, it's obviously important for so many reasons that we recount the events of that day, but to focus on the events that happened in the hours and weeks and obviously years after, was there a story that you came across as you were searching for some of those untold anecdotes that, Michael, fundamentally changed your perspective of 9/11?

Well, you know, I was on the West Coast when 9/11 took place.

And so, yeah, I think learning so much about 9/11 during doing my research, meeting so many amazing people that were there on 9/11, whether it be first responders, whether it be civilians, and hearing what they experienced and just learning about the heroism, learning about these first responders that ran toward danger as everyone's running away.

I think of Scott Strauss, you know, he's one of the rescuers who went down to rescue Will Jimeno, a Port Authority police officer and his sergeant, Sergeant McLaughlin.

They were 30 feet down below the towers and they were there for over 10 hours before they were even discovered being down there.

And they, these three rescuers made the decision to go down this tiny little hole, crawl down in amongst the smoke, the fire, the heat, the steel beams that were, you know, incredibly hot and risk their lives.

God didn't think he was going to come back up.

He wasn't going to survive.

He literally on his way down, taking off his gun belt and everything else to get down this little cubby hole.

He was apologizing to his boys in tears saying, take care of your mom, you know, make me proud.

And I just did not expect to survive, but he wanted to go down and do everything he could to rescue Wilhelm and them.

And they did, they all, they all four made it out.

And then another team went in and rescued Sergeant McLaughlin.

Uh, so the heroism, you know, and the bravery of these people that chose to act, not even thinking they would possibly survive, they were thinking they would possibly die.

That's, that was very heroic.

And so meeting those types of people.

Yeah.

Very inspirational and amazing.

And then all the other stories I found that are heroic and inspirational and, and how they impacted people's lives to where they made a change in their life that brought them, you know, in a whole new direction of giving back and helping others because they saw so many helping others on 9/11.

Yeah.

I mean, for me, one that stuck out was the young girl, Caitlin, who lost her father, and then devoted her life's work now to working with youth who have experienced trauma in different forms, and how that changed the trajectory of her life.

Secretary Panetta, you worked in the highest levels of government.

You were absorbing the enormity of that morning.

25 years later, when you watch or hear these personal stories of courage, what takes you back to that day?

- Well, in many ways, it was, from a national security point of view, it was a wake-up call.

We were just not aware of the threat of terrorism in the world.

And that attack was truly a wake-up call for our country.

I was in Washington that day.

I was briefing members on another issue, on an oceans issue.

And I can remember a member of that commission leaning over to me and saying that a plane had hit one of the trade towers.

And we both thought it was an accident, a terrible accident.

And then soon after, within a few minutes, said another plane had gone into the other tower.

And we knew at that point that this was a terrorist attack.

And the news was confirming that.

And I remember saying to the members of Congress, I think you better get out of here.

We were on Capitol Hill, because this could very well be another target for the terrorists.

And as I left and I was driving down from Capitol Hill, the second plane hit the Pentagon.

The second attack hit the Pentagon.

And I could see the fire coming up.

And it just for me, it told me that the United States obviously was under attack.

I can remember having to drive home because I couldn't fly home.

I was living in California.

And as I drove across the country, I saw this country kind of coming together and unifying.

There were signs up, God bless America.

There were signs up the USA.

And I could sense across this country, a building patriotism that was so important for the United States to bring us together to recognize the threat we faced and to come together to try to make sure that it never happened again.

- Yeah, as you recount, President Obama said that was just a moment in time.

And I think that's a moment in time that we should all remember.

And I think that's a moment in time And I think that's a moment in time that we should all remember.

And I think that's a moment in time that we should all remember.

President Obama said that was your number one priority to find Osama bin Laden.

But I want to ask you both in the time that we have left, it's estimated that there are about 100 million Americans alive today who are not old enough to remember September 11th.

Do you believe that may be one of our most important roles, not just to preserve the story of what happened, but what Americans did for one another after and since then, and what it means for a generation that never experienced it?

Secretary, I'll just start with you quickly.

Yeah, I think without question that the most important thing is that we never forget what happened on 9/11 and not just never forget the tragedy of 9/11, but never forget the hope that it created, the unity it created, the fact, and Mike really points this out in the film, the way it changed our lives for the future.

And that's something that really is important to present generations, is to understand what happened on 9/11.

Don't forget it, but more importantly, recognize the hope that it represents, that ultimately the United States can unify and come together in order to make us a better country.

Michael, does this film fulfill that responsibility, not just to teach generations what happened, but what happened after?

- Absolutely, and I've heard over and over again from people who have seen the film that the film needs to be in schools across the country.

And I've actually had high schools contact me saying, "Can we show your film?"

Middle schools contact me, and we're saying, "Yes, absolutely."

And the message of the film is a lot of what you just talked about, but strangers were there for strangers.

It didn't matter your race, your politics.

Nothing mattered except that you need help and I'm here to help you.

And the story is just filled with those inspirational messages and stories of that taking place.

And Chris Meek, as I said earlier, is the executive producer.

Well, his life also changed.

He, you know, worked on Wall Street when he saw what the firefighters and first responders did in helping so many others.

He made the decision then I want to do the same thing and help others.

And so he created a non-profit, all volunteer non-profit.

He's never gotten a paycheck from any of these non-profits.

But he currently runs Soldier Strong that he co-founded.

And it's an amazing organization that helps veterans.

He also founded the 9/11 Legacy Foundation and their mission is to educate the next generation.

And Secretary Panetta and Andy Carr, Chief of Staff of President Bush and others are on the organizing committee for that foundation to help ensure that the next generation is educated with this curriculum that the foundation is putting out and offering at no cost to businesses, to schools, to churches, to parents who are teaching the kids at home.

And so yeah, the next generation teaching them, very important for the film does that and the curriculum does that.

The heroism and resiliency of 9/11 from tragedy to triumph, it's available to screen now.

It tells the story of courage and resilience while still paying homage, of course, to the lives lost.

Michael, Secretary Panetta, thank you both for joining us on this most important week.

Thank you for having us.

Thank you.

Back to school season is here, bringing a new round of health questions for families.

Measles cases are at a 35-year high nationally, while shifting federal guidance has major medical groups issuing their own recommendations on flu and COVID shots.

And after a summer cyclospora outbreak linked to lettuce sickened more than 11,000 people, how safe is it to eat right now?

Do you wanna gag I spoke with Dr.

Stephanie Silvera.

She's an epidemiologist and chair of the department of public health at Montclair State University about what you need to know this fall.

- Stephanie, great to have you back on the show.

I know there are still people who are afraid to eat lettuce.

They've skipped out on salad all summer.

Is it actually safe now?

- So the little bit of good news that I do have for you today is that Cyclospora season usually runs from May 1st to August 31st.

So for all intents and purposes, we are relatively safe to go back to eating lettuce.

I know a lot of people have been avoiding it.

I would still maybe for a few weeks, avoid the bagged lettuce, get the loose lettuce, peel off the outer layers, make sure it's washed well, but we should hopefully be through the worst of it with Cyclospora.

- Okay, so then I would imagine that applies to blueberries and jalapenos also, which were on the danger list for a while.

- So yes and no, because the jalapenos were linked to Salmonella and the frozen berries were linked to E. coli.

So those are slightly different conditions.

So those are still active recalls to be aware of, but they do seem to be again, winding down.

- The challenge for a lot of us with cyclospora was that it was difficult to wash off, right?

Are there best practices when it comes to washing your produce and calling in the other, you know, the other concerns that there are E. coli and the like.

Is there something we should be doing across the board or different practices for different types of produce?

- Right, so for cyclospora, there's unfortunately just not a lot that you can do to make sure that it's well cleaned.

For that, it really is about cooking the vegetables, which doesn't necessarily work with things like lettuce.

Typically with vegetables, what you're gonna wanna do is wash them in a mild soap.

They do have some over the counter vegetable cleansers that sometimes work.

You can sometimes use a vinegar solution that will help.

The best is when you find out about a recall, try to avoid that one item for a period of time.

Okay, so we're also seeing that there's some listeria contamination and this came from a food distributor here in New Jersey, Ferrarini, if I'm saying it correctly, Ferrarini USA in Hoboken, also Florida-based company, Prime Lime Distributors.

What do you know about that Listeria concern?

So Listeria typically impacts a few different types of food products.

Pork is one, so in this case there's been about 1,500 pounds of those ready-to-eat pork products.

The good news is, so far there has been no illness directly connected to the pork recall.

However, there is also an active recall that is impacting New York, New Jersey, Maryland around soft cheeses.

And that recall did impact about 15 people with about 14 hospitalizations.

So that's another thing to be aware of.

What are the signs and symptoms of listeria within the body?

What should folks be concerned about or looking out for?

So unfortunately, it's like a lot of illnesses where the early and mild symptoms aren't something you necessarily recognize as listeria.

So you're thinking fever, muscle aches, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.

However, more severe illness, if you start to notice these symptoms, things like stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance, and in very severe cases, convulsions, you certainly need to make sure that you see a physician.

I will also note that if you are somebody who is currently pregnant, you want to be particularly concerned about listeria because it can result in miscarriage, stillbirth, or some severe illnesses for the newborn.

>> Okay, let's switch gears.

I want to talk about measles.

Where are we right now as a nation in terms of the number of measles cases for the year?

So there have been just under 3,000 measles cases in the United States so far this year.

About 387 were diagnosed within the past week.

I think what's a little bit more concerning for our area is that there have recently been two deaths in Pennsylvania and those are the first two deaths in that state in about 35 years of reporting.

What's interesting about that and I want you to help us make sense of it because I'm struggling here is that the Lancaster, Pennsylvania coroner identified that there were measles, there was a measles infection present in two of these infants and yet we see that the CDC count is still listed at zero for measles related deaths.

How do you square that?

You know I think that there's always a delay in reporting so you have to get the information out of the local, into the state, and into the federal systems and sometimes there's a little bit of a lag or a delay.

There's also underfunding in public health in general which those are the individuals who are responsible with maintaining those surveillance systems.

It's really striking when you think about the fact that just in 2000, the year 2000, measles was eradicated here in our country.

What have we seen year over year when it comes to vaccination rates dropping and is there correlation there with measles rates increasing?

There absolutely is.

Vaccination rates, for example, in Ocean County were about 94% in the 2017-2018 season.

Herd immunity is considered to be about 95%.

In the last 24-25 where we have data, the measles rates, vaccination rates, went down to 83% in Ocean County, for example.

And so right now 19 out of 21 counties in New Jersey has seen vaccination rates fall by, you know, 11, 12, 13%.

What's your advice to parents who are concerned perhaps that the vaccine isn't safe and not sure what to do for their children?

So the MMR vaccine is widely considered to be generally safe for children.

And 96% of measles cases reported are among people who are unvaccinated.

So very, very few vaccinated children will get measles.

The risk of measles is incredibly high for severe illness.

Between one in three out of every 1,000 people who are diagnosed with measles will die.

About one in five unvaccinated people will require hospital care.

And it's particularly a risk for during pregnancy, both for the pregnant woman as well as the developing fetus.

So the vaccination... - All right, we've got to... Sorry to interrupt.

We've got to leave it there, but thank you so much for helping just make sense of all of this.

I know it's complicated stuff.

Stephanie Silvera, epidemiologist, thank you.

Thank you very much.

September is Hunger Action Month, and according to the National Organization Feeding America, more than a million people in New Jersey don't always have enough to eat, a number that's nearly doubled since the pandemic.

One Westfield teenager saw that problem up close.

A nearby food pantry was struggling to get fresh produce while her family's home garden grew more than they could use.

So Caroline Somm started Westfield Seeds of Change.

The extras from her garden went to the pantry in Woodbridge and neighbors also pitched in.

Hundreds of pounds of produce and a Feeding America ambassadorship later, Caroline recently spoke with our Joanna Gagas to share her story.

Caroline, so great to have you with us.

Can you tell us what is Westfield Seeds of Change and why did you start it?

Yes, so Westfield Seeds of Change is a local initiative I founded at 13 years old when learning of the difficulties that some local food pantries face with accessing fresh produce.

Growing up I always thought of that.

What are some of those difficulties that these food pantries face?

Yeah, a lot of the times fresh produce, as you know, it's perishable.

So it's difficult for food pantries to keep a continuous source of fresh produce coming in and get suppliers who are willing to donate fresh produce.

OK, so you have this idea, you understand that there's this need.

What makes you say, I'm going to start a nonprofit to try to address it?

Yeah.

So growing up, I always had a backyard garden and it was great every morning that my sister and I could go out and get something from our backyard that would end up on our dinner table that night.

And it was always something I really valued, having fresh produce at the ready like that.

And from this, I also knew that our garden produced so much more fruits and vegetables than we could ever use on our own.

And I knew that this was something that our neighbors also faced too with having so much excess fresh produce.

And I thought, why not take that excess fresh produce and give it to those in need and help these pantries that sometimes face difficulties with sourcing fresh produce.

- Okay, so what did that look like when you first started at 13?

Is this knocking on neighbors' doors and trying to literally collect in a basket what produce they had?

- Yeah, so I started with a lot of help from my mom and sister.

We did a lot through social media and Facebook pages, asking if people would be willing to donate and drop fresh produce off at our collection site.

We were overwhelmed with the amazing response that we got from our neighbors and community members.

- I'm curious how you first learned that there was this growing problem in your community, but really more broadly in New Jersey.

- Yeah, so one of my relatives does some work with the St.

James food pantry, and she would tell us some of the items they were in need of, and the one that stuck out to me the most was fresh produce, because we had the connection through the backyard garden, and there definitely are others trying to help this issue too at local food pantries, but I really wanted to prove and help those that it doesn't matter how old you are to be able to make a difference.

How would you say this organization has grown in the three years since you started it?

Yeah, I've witnessed a ton of growth throughout this organization.

Starting our first summer when I was 13, you know, maybe we had 50 pounds of produce donated.

However, this year at the end of summer 2026, we have donated over 860 pounds of fresh produce, and this summer alone over 240 pounds.

Do you know who this food is going to?

Not directly, but I have known of people who the pantry tells us who they do benefit.

And just knowing that someone out there is in need and that these handfuls of tomatoes or a few cucumbers is making a difference in their lives is really something profound and really fulfilling.

So I understand that you were researching SNAP as part of a research project with your school.

What did you learn through that research and how did that connect you to Feeding America?

Yeah, so I did an independent project this past year on SNAP and the program and trying to solve some of the misconceptions with it.

And through that I talked to a bunch of local food pantries and food banks and tried to get their perspective on it.

And SNAP is really just a supplement that many people you would never know need it, using their lives to help with some of the rising costs of living and other issues like that.

And through this I asked Feeding America for an interview to which they directed me to their pilot program, the Feeding America Youth Ambassadors.

Through this program, I'm able to be connected with over 30 teens across the country who are also running their own individual projects to help fight food insecurity across the nation.

You know, a lot of young people learn about these things in school, right?

Not many turn that knowledge into action the way that you have.

I'm curious, first, what have you learned about yourself and about what's possible through this process?

Yeah, through this project I've really learned how fulfilling and amazing it is to give back to your community, especially since my community has given me so much over my time in living in Westfield.

And also, this project has really shown me, and I hope shown others, that age does not define how big of a difference you can make.

And I hope that others who see this project know that if there's an issue going on in their community, they can solve it no matter their age or any other factor.

I love that.

Have you thought about your future and how this might change your goals or influence your goals and what you want to do when you leave high school and college I imagine?

Yeah, so through this I know that going into a career where I can really help people and know that the work I do is making a difference is something I really value and I'm taking into consideration when I look at the colleges I'm looking at or future career opportunities.

- Caroline Psalm, founder of Westfield Seeds of Change.

You are doing great work.

I wanna thank you on behalf of everyone who I know, all the lives that you're impacting.

Thank you.

- Thank you so much.

- That is gonna do it for us tonight.

I'm Brianna Vannosi for the entire team at NJ Spotlight News.

Thanks for being with us.

We'll see you right back here tomorrow.

- RWJBarnabas Health.

Learn more at RWJBH.org.

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