Podcast appearances and mentions of debbie shore

Why would anyone cut 7,000 employees to save 0.06% of the budget from one of the most important agencies in the federal government? That's the question Congressman Tom Swasey asked at town hall with former Social Security Commissioner Martin O'Malley. Over the past few days, O'Malley has warned that the 89-year streak of Social Security sending monthly benefits could come to an end.That is why we are reprising this important episode of Add Passion and Stir featuring O'Malley who talks with Billy and Debbie Shore about how Social Security is lifting kids out of poverty, and what more it could be doing. “Social Security is the difference between almost a million kids living above the poverty line or below it,” he says. During this conversation, O'Malley and Share Our Strength commit to a renewed partnership to help reach eligible children who are not currently enrolled in Social Security benefits. O'Malley also debunks some common myths about the program. “The other big myth is that Social security is going bankrupt. Totally false. Social Security cannot go bankrupt because Social Security is a pay as you go program, which means that so long as Americans work, Social Security pays benefits.” Listen and be inspired.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Social Security Administration Commissioner Martin O'Malley talks with Billy and Debbie Shore about how Social Security is lifting kids out of poverty, and what more it could be doing. “Social Security is the difference between almost a million kids living above the poverty line or below it,” he says. During this conversation, O'Malley and Share Our Strength commit to a renewed partnership to help reach eligible children who are not currently enrolled in Social Security benefits. O'Malley also debunks some common myths about the program. “The other big myth is that Social security is going bankrupt. Totally false. Social Security cannot go bankrupt because Social Security is a pay as you go program, which means that so long as Americans work, Social Security pays benefits.” Listen and be inspired.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Aldore Collier, former editor at Ebony and Jet magazines, speaks with Billy and Debbie Shore about his recent expose article about the racist roots of health problems in Metcalfe Park, Milwaukee, WI. “Residents talk about being stifled by an “invisible net” that blocks advancement and makes it nearly impossible to maintain good health,” Collier wrote.He describes the inaction by local and state governments. “It's not unique to Milwaukee, but I think the difference is they did not try to come up with solutions to replace what was lost.” However, Metcalfe Park residents are activating and Collier's article helped bring attention to this critical situation.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Debbie Shore is co-founder of Share Our Strength, which has fed close to 2 billion meals to hungry children since their campaign, No Kid Hungry, began. (That's billion with a B, folks!) Today's episode is full of stories and insights from that remarkable journey that will give you many nuggets of inspiration and ingenious thinking to take into your own path to make the world a little better place.  00:00 Preview 00:46 Intro & Welcome 04:16Share Our Strength Sharing Strength is the most thought about of the organisation's 5 core values. The feeling of wanting to be connected to something bigger than yourself and finding value in what people bring to the table is embodied in the name of the organization. Enough people will respond to the call if the right vehicle or platform is presented. In the case of Share Our Strength, the vehicle is ending hunger. 04:42 The Great Questioning During the pandemic, more people questioned what impact the work they were would have on the world and on their own well being. More people focused on discovering what they were uniquely built to contribute. The path taken by Share Our Strength has changed and grown over the years but the vision to find ways for people to share their strengths to end hunger has sustained. The core belief of the organisation was that everybody has a strength to share. The original idea of working with chefs & the restaurant industry paid off as restaurants became the lifeblood of the organization. A New York Times article about a famine in Ethiopia in 1984 sparked the idea for the organization.  The organization started with personal funds & loans and contributions from friends and family members. One of the first big donors, Chef Alice Waters from Chez Panisse in Berkeley California, is being honored this week. Chef Waters responded to a cold letter with a generous check and by sending letters to fellow chefs who also responded. That started the chain of events with restaurants across the country. The fundraising platforms allow contributors to engage in their passions by giving people the opportunity to contribute by doing what they do for a living. People want to be engaged in things they care about and be a part of something bigger than themselves. Volunteering to do something you care about can lead to discovering your calling and may lead to greater opportunities. Peoples' energy is found in their passion. 12:41 Food Is Life Food is central and fundamental to all our cores. While we thank our stakeholders for their efforts,  they usually thank us for allowing them to be a part of the solution and feel connected. According to Christoph Gorder of Charity Water, ‘This is a problem we know how to solve'.  There are many problems in this world that we don't know how to solve, so we have to step up to solve the ones when the solution is known.  World hunger is not necessarily a complex problem but there are barriers of access. 1 in 8 kids in America struggle with hunger even though several meal programs exist. The focus of Share Our Strength was to identify the barriers that exist in schools. Barriers include: The stigma associated with having to access school meals Timing around getting into school to access meals Lack of information Efforts to reduce barriers include: Changing the way meals are distributed at schools Working toward eliminating any special lunch lines Eliminating any special or coloured tickets for provided meals Start serving breakfast in the classroom 3 million kids have now been added to school breakfast. Breakfast in the classroom tends to stay once introduced because of improvements in areas such as: Attendance Readiness to learn Schoolwork  Test results Behaviour Less need for fidget spinners 18:50  Hunger is Invisible Starvation in places like Ethiopia is easier to identify than an issue like hunger in America. The awareness barrier is huge in a country that is considered one of the richest countries in the world...

Did you know that 1 in 6 children in the US suffer from hunger? Pause and think about that for a second. 1 in 6. That's an alarming number! I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Debbie Shore from NO KID HUNGRY, whose mission is to end childhood hunger in the US. Debbie is the co-founder of Share Our Strength, the organization behind NO KID HUNGRY, and is a real-life superhero. She takes her mission very seriously. Her impact is changing the world!A special thanks to our sponsor Greg Kingsbury at Vellum Mortgage!#LoveYourStoryPodcast #PeoplePassionPower #JasonMartinGroupwww.nokidhungry.orgHow to contact Jason:(202) 641-0299jason@jasonmartingroup.comHow to contact John:(202) 427-9689john@jasonmartingroup.com

Share of Strength founder, Debbie Shore, on ending poverty and hunger in America. Serving up more than a billion meals to help fuel future generations, with a little help from some much-loved celebrities. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is a lie still a lie if enough people believe it? ‘Good Morning America’ co-anchor and former White House Communications Director George Stephanopoulos joins hosts Billy and Debbie Shore to discuss politics, the media, and the drastic differences between the Trump and Biden Administrations. “Every day, I was going to work to stand up for truth and for fact-based journalism, and to make sure people – whether they wanted to hear it or not – had the facts they need to start every day in an incredibly tumultuous time,” says Stephanopoulos. “Now, when President Biden is facing a controversy, how do we appropriately hold him and the White House accountable without appearing to lose our sense of proportion, or automatically equating it with things we’ve seen in the past?,” he explains. Stephanopoulos and the Shores discuss how politics and public opinion have shifted over the past 20 years and also in the face of a global pandemic. “A crisis like this hits everyone. It’s not people who haven’t been working, it’s not people who have been irresponsible, it’s not people who are somehow ‘other.’ You see how quickly people can fall from a solid, middle class life into something very close to poverty,” Stephanopoulos reports. “The prospect that [the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit] could become permanent changes is something I had not imagined.” Join us to learn how politics impacts how the news is reported with one of the country’s most respected media figures.

Can we shift our historic stigma about people living in poverty? Princeton poverty researcher and author Kathryn Edin joins hosts Billy and Debbie Shore to discuss how changes to certain tax credits in the $1.9 trillion COVID relief American Rescue Plan will give more Americans support to move out of poverty. “We have turned 400 years of history about how we treat the poor and think about the poor... on its head,” says Edin. “The message [these new credits] is sending to people who are struggling is, ‘we trust you and we want to support you.’ This is literally the opposite of the message we’ve been sending for over 400 years.” Edin describes the welfare reforms in the 1990s that were based on the fear that recipients would become dependent on the system. “The pandemic has revealed this sea of need that was sitting underneath the radar for the last 25-30 years since we reformed the welfare system, steadily growing worse,” she reports. “We’ve created a very expensive problem: generations of children who aren’t getting the basics that they need to thrive and that affects the whole economy,” Edin believes. “Providing this kind of stability is really going to enable people to get out of the tunnel and lead to the kind of long-term thinking that can aid in mobility from poverty,” she concludes. Join us to learn about how these historic tax credits can create hope for so many Americans and how we can all work to make these new supports permanent.

Get the featured cocktail recipe: Mandarin Mezcal Margarita As the co-founder of Share Our Strength, Debbie Shore has led the development of their incredibly successful fund-raising culinary events: Taste of the Nation, No Kid Hungry dinners, Dine Out for No Kid Hungry and Chefs Cycle. And as if that’s not enough, she is the co-creator of Add Passion and Stir, a weekly podcast featuring thought leaders who are diligently working to change the world for the good. Now that deserves a toast! #CocktailingAloneTogether while you make a donation to No Kid Hungry? Then head over to our library of libations to toast your act of kindness. Don't forget to subscribe, download and review to share your thoughts about the show! ****************************************************** The Designated Drinker Show is produced by Missing Link—a podcast media company that is dedicated to connecting people to intelligent, engaging and informative content. Also in the Missing Link line-up of podcasts, is Rodger That—a podcast dedicated to guiding you through the haze of dementia led by skilled caregivers, Bobbi and Mike Carducci. Now, if you are looking for a whole new way to enjoy the theatre, check out Between Acts—an immersive audio theatre podcast experience. Each episode takes you on a spellbinding journey through the works of newfound playwrights—from dramas to comedies and everything in between.

It is absolutely unconscionable that there are those in this country that goes to bed hungry at night. We are the land of plenty and yet some don't have enough to eat. That's pre-pandemic. Now, it is that much dire. On industry night, I gathered Debbie Shore of No Kid Hungry, Chef Erik Bruner Yang the creator of power of 10 and Mike Curtain of DC Central Kitchen and together we talk about the 2020 challenges of feeding the hungry. @deb.shore @nokidhungry @erikbruneryang @powerof10initiative @mikecurtinjr @dccentralkitchen @ramwdc

What will happen to our neighborhoods if independent restaurants do not survive the pandemic? Chicago’s award-winning chef and Mexico: One Plate at a Time host Rick Bayless joins Debbie and Billy Shore to talk about the struggle to survive for independent restaurants. “If we don’t get some assistance, I’m afraid we’re going to see our neighborhoods just devastated. They are going to lose their character. Restaurants are a major part of our culture,” explains Bayless about the urgent need for restaurant stabilization legislation. “Independent restaurants have never had any representation in Washington and yet we are the second largest employer in the United States. 11 million people that work in restaurants in the United States.” Bayless was is well-known for his support of underserved communities in Chicago. “My eyes have been opened… around Black Lives Matter and the inequities in our own community. We have been talking to a lot of chefs around Chicago about how we can promote enterprises that support the restaurant industry that are black-owned.” He was also one of the first chefs to support Share Our Strength 35 years ago. “I’ve always lived by the motto that I want to make this place better than when we arrived here, and [Share Our Strength and the No Kid Hungry Campaign] gave us all the tools that we needed to do that,” Bayless says. Join us for this energizing conversation about the current and future states of the restaurant industry with a chef who continues to do the important work in his community.

Hosted by David and Nycci Nellis. On today's show: • The Foodie and the Beast COVID Cocktail Hour with Juan Coronado of the Colada Shop, a RAMMY nominee for cocktail program of the year, during which we're all gonna make a knockout cocktail right along with him (see the list of ingredients @nycci nellis on Twitter or Instagram); • Shawn Townsend, Washington, D.C.'s director of the mayor's office of nightlife and culture, the central point of contact between the city's government, the nightlife industry, and District residents, joins us to discuss the city's reopening plans; • Debbie Shore, cofounder and CEO of Share Our Strength and No Kid Hungry joins us to discuss the already enormous challenges of addressing hunger, especially childhood hunger, during the pandemic, when food resources are stretched even further and shortages put low-income families at even greater risk; • Camilla Marcus, chef and owner of New York's west~bourne and a prominent member of the leadership team of the Independent Restaurant Coalition, is with us to discuss efforts to preserve the hospitality industry in the face of the COVID pandemic; • The Neighborhood Restaurant Group's spirits manager and mixologist extraordinarire, Nick Ferrell, talks about selling pre-batched cocktails to go, something you couldn't do before COVID.

Hosted by David and Nycci Nellis. On today’s show: • The Foodie and the Beast COVID Cocktail Hour with Juan Coronado of the Colada Shop, a RAMMY nominee for cocktail program of the year, during which we’re all gonna make a knockout cocktail right along with him (see the list of ingredients @nycci nellis on Twitter or Instagram); • Shawn Townsend, Washington, D.C.’s director of the mayor’s office of nightlife and culture, the central point of contact between the city’s government, the nightlife industry, and District residents, joins us to discuss the city’s reopening plans; • Debbie Shore, cofounder and CEO of Share Our Strength and No Kid Hungry joins us to discuss the already enormous challenges of addressing hunger, especially childhood hunger, during the pandemic, when food resources are stretched even further and shortages put low-income families at even greater risk; • Camilla Marcus, chef and owner of New York’s west~bourne and a prominent member of the leadership team of the Independent Restaurant Coalition, is with us to discuss efforts to preserve the hospitality industry in the face of the COVID pandemic; • The Neighborhood Restaurant Group’s spirits manager and mixologist extraordinarire, Nick Ferrell, talks about selling pre-batched cocktails to go, something you couldn’t do before COVID.

The brother and sister team who have been doing this work for 35 years talk about how the pandemic has shined a light on childhood hunger and what we can do about it.

What inspires us to do good for others? Chef Marcus Samuelsson of Harlem’s Red Rooster and FEED founder Lauren Bush Lauren discuss privilege, perspective and helping others with Billy and Debbie Shore on this moving episode. “The luxury of being adopted and the luxury of being African is that… you get windows into different worlds. [Ethiopia] is more than this quick sound bite or how people want to label us with false narratives,” says Samuelsson. Lauren recalls her work in international hunger that inspired her to found FEED. “It’s literally like a ‘birth lottery’ – just because of where you are born, your next meal is not a guarantee,” she says. Despite their different backgrounds, both guests credit their early life experiences in leading them to a life of service. “Growing up around people who had influence and had dedicated their lives to service, I grew up feeling empowered that I too could - in my own way - make a difference,” says Lauren. “This moment we’re in, it’s so divisive, but in many ways a blessing if you know how to turn your energy. As an immigrant, you get challenged every day, and I say, ‘thank you for inspiring me!,’” says Samuelsson. Listen in as two passionate leaders describe how their work is fighting hunger and giving people hope around the world.

How often do you reflect on the quality of your connections? Debbie Shore shares the power of building a network of connections that can exponentially grow your influence. She talks about building trust that is based on reciprocity – helping others while they help you. Debbie’s experience exemplifies meeting others where they are and understanding that respectful connections with few can ultimately become positive networks with many.Debbie Shore is the Co-Founder of Share Our Strength, a national nonprofit that is ending childhood hunger in America through the No Kid Hungry campaign. Together with her brother Billy Shore, Debbie founded Share Our Strength in 1984 with a $2,000 cash advance on a credit card. Since then, Share Our Strength has raised and invested more than $600 million in the fight against hunger, As a member of the executive team, Debbie oversees the organization’s long-term planning and strategy. Debbie has led the development and launch of several key platforms such as Share Our Strength’s culinary events, which include Taste of the Nation®, No Kid Hungry dinners, Dine Out for No Kid Hungry and Chefs Cycle. Now in its 29th year, Taste of the Nation® has raised more than $95 million through hundreds of events in every major market in the country and built a national network of volunteers. She is also the co-creator of Add Passion and Stir: Big Chefs, Big Ideas, the weekly Share Our Strength podcast hosted by Billy Shore, launched in 2016.Born in Pittsburgh, PA, Debbie earned a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Philosophy from Ohio University. She has experience as a political organizer and fundraiser for former U.S.Senator Gary Hart’s (D-Colorado) presidential campaign. Debbie has lived, studied and traveled extensively in Mexico, and has one daughter, Sofia.

America is the richest nation on the face of the earth; in fact, the richest nation in the history of the earth! Yet, every night, millions of kids go to bed hungry. Debbie Shore, co-founder of Share Our Strength, leads an organization that has raised millions to feed millions across the past several decades. She hasn’t done it alone. Among those helping her are some of the nation’s top chefs, who give of their time, talents and resources to help fight child hunger in America. Debbie Shore joins us tonight on Industry Night with Foodie and the Beast, along with Top Chef alum and award-winning chef, Bryan Voltaggio of Volt and Family Meal.

How can we move poor communities from hopelessness to hopefulness? In this fascinating episode ofAdd Passion and Stir, Pierre Ferrari, President and CEO of Heifer International, and Matt Bell, chef andowner of South on Main restaurant in Little Rock, share insights about creating value in poor communitieswith hosts Debbie and Billy Shore. Ferrari speaks about the success Heifer International has had in pooragricultural communities throughout the world by driving social psychological change before anythingelse. “We work with communities that could almost be described as clinically depressed...the despair is sodeep…they feel condemned to this situation,” he says. Heifer uses value-based training to demonstrate topeople their own ability and capacity to make change. “Without that psychological shift, nothing we do, noanimal, no training will actually catch,” he notes. Bell has first-hand knowledge of the success of thismodel in Arkansas. He sources his chickens from Grassroots Farm Cooperative, a cooperative of 10formerly struggling small farms in Little Rock that was formed with the help of Heifer International to meetthe demand of the growing market. “My understanding of Heifer at the time was you buy a cow andsomeone somewhere gets a cow. I didn’t understand this small business component. I didn’t understandit could happen in Arkansas,” says Bell.Heifer International provides resources, capital, and knowledge to help enable small farmers to generatesustainable income, which gets cycled back into their communities creating opportunities for buildingschools, creating agricultural cooperatives, forming community savings and funding small businesses.Ferrari describes a program with female farmers in Nepal which is creating a goat meat value-chain byworking with banks to fund this system. There are now 150,000 women organized into small self-helpgroups, which organize into larger co-ops and then an even larger union. “They are now feeling thedignity of being economically self-reliant,” he concludes. Heifer International measures success by givingpeople a ‘living income,’ which is a carefully calculated value that is “very complicated…but basically letsfarmers live a life of dignity,” says Ferrari. Bell recalls his childhood when parents in his communitycreated an informal system to ensure one little boy growing up in poverty always had food. “A group ofmoms would take turns packing and extra lunch for Daniel, and they would say, ‘Make sure you give thisto Daniel before you get to class, so there’s no stigma,’” he remembers. Growing up on a cattle ranchalso gave him a unique perspective on the food chain. “An understanding of that gives us more empathyinto how we tackle hunger issues worldwide and locally.” Bell’s values led him to become a passionatesupporter of the No Kid Hungry campaign.Get inspired by this sincere discussion about ending hunger and poverty.

Does the health of future generations depend on empowering women? 1,000 Days Founder and Executive Director Lucy Martinez Sullivan and noted sommelier and Society Fair (Alexandria, VA) General Manager Nadine Brown talk to Debbie and Billy Shore about the long-term consequences of poor nutrition during pregnancy and early childhood. Sullivan shares that this is the period when a child’s brain development is crucial. “If we care about kids… we actually have to care about their mothers. If we don’t get kids off to the right start, we’re going to pay for that later down the road in higher health care costs and lower economic productivity,” she explains. Unfortunately, Brown sees today’s political climate working against women and families that struggle with food security. “[There’s a belief that] you’ve done something to put yourself in this place - there’s a little bit of blame,” she says. Both guests are daughters of immigrant mothers who helped set them on the right path and also mothers themselves. They agree that motherhood inspires them to advocate for childhood nutrition and food security. “When I started this work, it was sort of an intellectual passion. Then when I got pregnant and went through that journey myself, it became an emotional passion,” says Sullivan. Brown also believes becoming a mother deepened her sense of community. “Feeding people is such a personal thing, giving people nourishment, feeding people is love,” she says. “I think everybody feels that tremendous sense of responsibility when they have a child. They feel responsibility for everybody in a way they didn’t before,” concludes Debbie Shore. Get inspired by this deeply personal conversation among fierce advocates for children.

On September 27, 2018, more than 100 riders, many of them nationally recognized chefs, will gather in Charlottesville, Virginia to ride 300 miles in three days with the goal of raising $1.8 Million to end childhood hunger in America. We thought this would be a good time to re"cycle"our 2017 interview with international pop superstar P!nk, who participated in our 2017 Chef Cycle ride in Santa Rosa, California. More than 200 chefs from across the country were joined by Grammy Award-winning international rock star P!nk in a fundraising bike ride that raised $2 million for the No Kid Hungry campaign from Share Our Strength. In an exclusive interview for Add Passion and Stir, the podcast from Share Our Strength hosted by brother and sister co-founders Billy and Debbie Shore, singer-songwriter P!nk, says, “What’s awesome about Share Our Strength and No Kid Hungry is that [they] really make it doable to help… [They] make it really fun. [They] make where people’s dollars go make sense. It’s really easy to understand, and it’s universal – it’s kids!”This special edition of Add Passion and Stir was taped at Chefs Cycle, a 300-mile fundraising bike ride in Santa Rosa, CA. Alecia Moore Hart – better known as P!nk – sat down with fellow riders husband Carey Hart, chef Mary Sue Milliken (Border Grill), chef Kevin Nashan (Sidney Street Café, St. Louis) and Share Our Strength founders Billy and Debbie Shore to discuss the importance of getting involved on issues that matter. Despite a grueling few days in the saddle, all the riders were inspired by the event and their collective power to make a difference for hungry kids. They are grateful for organizations that help them do this. “Everybody wants to help,” says P!nk, “but the problem is sometimes that nobody knows what to do.”James Beard award winners Milliken and Nashan have been involved with No Kid Hungry for many years, and the mission and camaraderie keeps them engaged. “When I was poor and just starting out and I had no way of really helping, I was introduced to Share Our Strength,” says Milliken. “I realized: I can do what I do! I can cook! It was so powerful. I thought, this is what I want to dedicate my time to.” Carey Hart, a retired motocross racer, now shares his time and talent with Good Ride Rally, a motorcycle rally that benefits veterans.Each guest also speaks about their memories of taking civic action with their parents when they were young and how this instilled important values of giving back and taking care of those less fortunate. They stress the importance of involving kids in helping other kids. “Every parent wants their kid to be a global citizen. Every parent wants their kid to be aware of what’s going on in the world. Every kid wants to help another kid – it’s innate, it’s who they are,” says P!nk.Share Our Strength founder Debbie Shore shares the next big idea for Chefs Cycle: a cross-country relay bike ride involving thousands of chefs and raising tens of millions of dollars for fighting child hunger. Add Passion and Stir host and Share Our Strength founder and CEO Billy Shore – who also rode all 300 miles through the hills of Santa Rosa – gives insight into how he advises his staff. “Our biggest challenge is failure of imagination. Incremental steps are not enough – to really solve the problems we need to solve, we need to think big and take big risks.”What do YOU think? How can we think big about solving child hunger in America? Can we rally thousands of chefs to bike across the country and ride on Washington, DC? How can we better engage kids in helping other kids who are struggling with hunger? We would love to hear your thoughts. Listen to the episode, provide comments in iTunes, comment on our Facebook page, tweet at us on Twitter, or go to our website(nokidhungry.org). We can’t wait to be inspired by you!

How do we foster big, creative ideas to solve our most urgent problems? President, CEO and co-founder of First Book Kyle Zimmer and award-winning DC restaurateur Ashok Bajaj join Billy and Debbie Shore to discuss their philosophies on giving back and outlooks on our social and political culture. Zimmer worries that today’s partisan divide is fostering an environment where social problems are outpacing solutions. “In the non-profit world, we all have that white-knuckle death grip on our steering wheels and we’re not given the bandwidth to really think of creative, great big solutions,” she says. As a person dedicated to hospitality in today’s hyper-partisan Washington DC, Bajaj wants his restaurants to be seen as non-partisan sanctuaries and is dismayed by recent news of restaurants refusing service based on politics. “Sharing food, sitting in a social setting, brings us together. How do you know [a person coming into a restaurant] is not trying to change her mind and something good comes out of those two-hour conversations?,” says Bajaj. Bajaj sees the increased need from underserved communities in the sheer number of requests for help that he receives every day. “There’s no set formula, we do as much as we can,” he says. Zimmer - who has been supporting underserved communities through First Book for more than 25 years by getting 175M books to kids in 30 countries - sees the ripple effect these programs create. “The kids get self-confidence. They get employable skills. It’s good for our democracy. When a community solves these fundamental issues, the community is more stable,” she notes. Listen to these guests discuss overcoming partisanship and why their passion for giving back is part of their secret to success.Overcoming Partisanship in Washington, DC How do we foster big, creative ideas to solve our most urgent problems? President, CEO and co-founder of First Book Kyle Zimmer and award-winning DC restaurateur Ashok Bajaj join Billy and Debbie Shore to discuss their philosophies on giving back and outlooks on our social and political culture. Zimmer worries that today’s partisan divide is fostering an environment where social problems are outpacing solutions. “In the non-profit world, we all have that white-knuckle death grip on our steering wheels and we’re not given the bandwidth to really think of creative, great big solutions,” she says. As a person dedicated to hospitality in today’s hyper-partisan Washington DC, Bajaj wants his restaurants to be seen as non-partisan sanctuaries and is dismayed by recent news of restaurants refusing service based on politics. “Sharing food, sitting in a social setting, brings us together. How do you know [a person coming into a restaurant] is not trying to change her mind and something good comes out of those two-hour conversations?,” says Bajaj. Bajaj sees the increased need from underserved communities in the sheer number of requests for help that he receives every day. “There’s no set formula, we do as much as we can,” he says. Zimmer - who has been supporting underserved communities through First Book for more than 25 years by getting 175M books to kids in 30 countries - sees the ripple effect these programs create. “The kids get self-confidence. They get employable skills. It’s good for our democracy. When a community solves these fundamental issues, the community is more stable,” she notes. Listen to these guests discuss overcoming partisanship and why their passion for giving back is part of their secret to success.

Where do the most effective social change agents focus their efforts? Soupergirl founder Sara Polon and Community Wealth Partners CEO Amy Celep join hosts Billy and Debbie Shore to discuss their motivations and strategies for changing the world. Celep works at the systems level helping other organizations accelerate the pace of social change. She cites KaBOOM!, the national nonprofit dedicated to children’s play, as an example. “We helped [them] say, ‘what we need to do is not just build playgrounds and the infrastructure for play, we need to shift the cultural norm in this country,’” she explains. Polon started Soupergirl to shift the cultural norm through individual decisions. By using only plant-based ingredients sourced largely from sustainable local farms, she is giving consumers better choices that could help fix our broken food system. “Our mantra is changing the world one bowl of soup at a time,” she says. Both guests are story-tellers who changed careers in order to drive change. Formerly a stand-up comedian, Polon knew she wanted to shift to fixing the food system after reading Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma. “We’re trying to be so careful about what we put in the soup. Knowing where the food comes from, who grew it, what’s the story of it… we work every day to make sure we stay true to those values,” she says. Celep was formerly a television news producer. “I wanted to tell stories, but the stories you tell on local news were not the stories I wanted to tell. I wanted to tell stories about people changing the world,” she says. Listen to these two dynamic, purpose-driven women share their stories about why and how they are changing the world. R

What’s at the heart of healthcare disparities in America? In this episode of Add Passion and Stir, Grantmakers In Health (GIH) President and CEO Faith Mitchell and Washington Post Food and Dining Editor Joe Yonan talk about equity, the long-term effects of stress, and healthy cooking. “The interest in what we now call equity really started in the mid-80’s,” says Mitchell about the differences in health outcomes among ethnic and racial populations. “It’s many-pronged effort at this point. You have people in healthcare settings who are trying to equalize outcomes,” she shares. Yonan emphasizes diversity in his own work in the newsroom and recently released America The Great Cookbook, proceeds from which support No Kid Hungry. “The thing I think I’m proudest of about the book is the sheer diversity of the group of people in the book. It’s all walks of life, all colors, ages,” he says. “The same diversity I went for in the cookbook, I want to show up in the food coverage of the Washington Post.” Well-known for his writing on the intersection of food and health and the value of cooking at home, Yonan believes, “People eat healthier food if they make it for themselves.” Mitchell, whose grandfather was a West-Indian chef and caterer, notes the importance of home cooking and family meals in her own life. “These days cooking at home feels very revolutionary,” she says. In both her personal and professional lives, Mitchell believes in the importance how you treat other people on a daily basis. “So much comes down to whether…you’re bringing love to that interaction or whether you’re bringing anger or hostility or stress,” she says. Inspired, Debbie Shore closes the conversation, “I’m going to show some love today!” Share in this wide-ranging discussion about the effects of diversity, equity and healthy eating.

How do social change-makers work together to make greater impact? In this episode of Add Passion & Stir, host Debbie Shore talks with KaBOOM! CEO James Siegal and DC Chef Mike Friedman (Red Hen, All-Purpose) about focusing on teamwork and community to help those in need. Siegal speaks of the marginalization of many neighborhood institutions and how successful nonprofits must bring these entities together. “You can’t do it alone… It takes everyone rowing in the same direction to make change happen,” he says. Friedman sees parallels to running successful restaurants. “I fell into cooking because I love the team mentality. Restaurants are a team sport… I was enamored with the idea of being a part of something that was bigger than me,” he recalls. KaBOOM! leverages corporate funding to strengthen communities, building more than 3000 safe playspaces across the country for kids living in disadvantaged communities. Each playground build day brings together community partners and hundreds of local volunteers for a moving community experience. “If you want to get to a place where kids are better off, you need strong communities and strong communities are cohesive, safe, and they have a sense of pride,” says Siegal. For Friedman, giving back is part of the role of being a chef, an active member of his neighborhood, and a successful business owner. “My passions lie with children’s needs,” he says, and demonstrates this by supporting organizations like Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign and March of Dimes. Listen to this conversation about how teamwork can build strong communities and create lasting impact.

What is the distinction between helping individuals and helping entire communities? In this episode of Add Passion and Stir, Debbie Shore talks to Michellene Davis, Esq., Executive Vice President and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer for RWJBarnabas Health, and celebrity chef Rahman "Rock" Harper about hunger, healthcare, and the vicious cycle of poverty. Both guests see the importance of thinking outside traditional provision of service. Davis works to make structural changes to healthcare delivery in America. “It is not just about the patients and the families that we treat in our hospitals, it’s also about the communities that we serve and vulnerable populations within those communities,” she says. Chef Harper served on the Board of DC Central Kitchen, which provides culinary job training programs along with meals to the community. Harper notes that the 80% job placement and greatly reduced rate of recidivism in their trainees begins to break the cycle of poverty. “It’s fulfilling work, because … when you see the breakthrough, the liberation, that’s when you feel great…to know you can affect another human being’s life and in turn they can affect yours. We can change the world if we apply that viewpoint,” says Harper. Davis is helping to transform the way RWJBarnabas – a major health care system located in New Jersey - thinks about health outside of just healthcare. “[Healthcare] such a small component of a person’s experience. What about the places where people work, live, play, age? Are we ensuring that folks are living in environments that are sustainable and healthy?,” she asks. She highlights some of the programs and commitments her organization is making to ensure healthy communities. For example, they had an urban greenhouse initiative coupled with a community wellness center that was not immediately successful. After analyzing the situation, they realized the initiative was in a community that relies on the SNAP program but did not accept SNAP vouchers. “That’s like placing it in the heart of their home but saying ‘don’t touch this,’” she says. As a result, not only did they became the first hospital-affiliated greenhouse in the country to accept the vouchers but they worked with policy-makers to set up a system where urban greenhouses and farmers markets would automatically enroll people in WIC and SNAP. “This is a platform issue for us because it affects the health outcomes of these children for generations to come.” Chef Harper is impressed with RWJBarnabas’ approach. “When an organization can ask themselves these tough questions or be 100% objective, that’s extremely valuable,” he says. Hear about the powerful personal stories of these two change-makers, as well as their ideas about working at the intersection of helping individuals and strengthening communities to help them succeed.

To start the new year, we are revisiting one our most important episodes of Add Passion and Stir when we spoke with sociologist, poverty expert and author Kathy Edin ($2 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America) and Washington, DC area social entrepreneur Tom McDougall of 4P Foods have a powerful and timely discussion with Share Our Strength founders Billy and Debbie Shore about poverty in America. Kathy and Tom illustrate how our current systems - political, social, economic, geographic - keep poor people from succeeding. They argue for more equity in our social programs and a more dignified way of serving the poor. Kathy shares stunning statistics and touching anecdotes of the impoverished families with whom she has worked. When she asked one young girl what it was like to be hungry, her response was, "It feels like you want to be dead, because it’s peaceful when you’re dead." Tom believes, "We can't talk about fixing the food system unless we talk about money and politics... subsidies... institutional racism... the history of farming. … If we move the needle just a tad on food equity, it means we're moving a lot of other needles along the way." In Kathy’s work, she found that, "When it comes down to it, what people seem to want more than anything else is dignity. ... but a lot of our social policies deny people that.” Hear their recommendations on what we can do as individuals and as a nation to improve these dire circumstances for the poor in America.

Do you feel more empathy for certain people in need than you do for others? Feeding America CEO Diana Aviv says we need to “close the empathy gap.” She discusses empathy and food with Nick Stefanelli, chef/owner of Masseria Restaurant in DC, and Share Our Strength founders Billy and Debbie Shore on this episode of Add Passion and Stir. Aviv cites recent research that found people who were sympathetic toward people using food banks changed their attitudes when asked about people using public assistance. “The only group they didn’t change their attitude towards was kids,” she says. This indicates that in order to solve the hunger problem, we need to help people extend their empathy for children to the whole family. Stefanelli fights child hunger by supporting No Kid Hungry and teaching about food and cooking in kindergarten classes. “[Hunger] is an issue that we’ve been looking at since ancient Rome, with the grain sheds and giving out bread, and we’re still dealing with it in 2017,” he says.Aviv notes that Share Our Strength has done a great job tapping into the giving spirit and making it easy for chefs to get involved. Billy and Debbie Shore observe that it would be hard to find a chef who is not supporting a cause. “Chefs and restaurants are looking for ways to get involved and just waiting to be asked,” Debbie says. Stefanelli cites a strong connection to his heritage from the Puglia region of Italy, where food and community are fundamentally intertwined, for why he gives back. “Food brings everybody together. What happens at the table when people come together is a very important thing,” he says.Feeding America, which runs a nationwide network of foodbanks, is currently focused on using technology to build greater efficiency into the distribution of food to the hungry. Aviv mentions Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods and its focus on efficiency. “There are huge opportunities to take that technology … and develop ways we can get the food faster to the people who need it,” she says. Quoting statistics that 21% of our fresh water is used to produce food - of which 40% goes to waste – Aviv declares: “We can feed America and we can feed the world.” Listen to this powerful conversation about the power of empathy in ending hunger in America.

Hosted by David and Nycci Nellis. This week, Foodie and the Beast are joined by: Debbie Shore, cofounder of the remarkable nonprofit, Share our Strength, which has raised more than a half-billion (yes BILLION!) dollars to combat childhood hunger in the USA. Hear all about their No Kid Hungry program and the newest program, Friendsgiving, that lets you and your friends, family and colleagues join in to feed hungry kids! Nick Phelps and Jason Lundberg, founders of "From the Farmer", a fresh produce, home delivery service that brings good food and great cooking tips with to your doorstep. Star mixologist and president of the DC Craft Bartenders Guild, Andrea Tateosian, is in to tell us about the upcoming, Prohibition Repeal Day Ball, coming up December 9th. The Six O'clock Scramble's new CEO, Jessica Braider, is in with tips for getting dinner - and breakfast - on the table during the work week quickly, easily and without blowing your mind! Boundary Stone is a great restaurant, craft cocktail bar and beer spot in Bloomingdale. Colleen Gillespie and Reed Doherty are in with great cocktails to concoct with fresh ingredients they grow right up there on their roof! Nice!

Hosted by David and Nycci Nellis. This week, Foodie and the Beast are joined by: Debbie Shore, cofounder of the remarkable nonprofit, Share our Strength, which has raised more than a half-billion (yes BILLION!) dollars to combat childhood hunger in the USA. Hear all about their No Kid Hungry program and the newest program, Friendsgiving, that lets you and your friends, family and colleagues join in to feed hungry kids! Nick Phelps and Jason Lundberg, founders of "From the Farmer", a fresh produce, home delivery service that brings good food and great cooking tips with to your doorstep. Star mixologist and president of the DC Craft Bartenders Guild, Andrea Tateosian, is in to tell us about the upcoming, Prohibition Repeal Day Ball, coming up December 9th. The Six O'clock Scramble's new CEO, Jessica Braider, is in with tips for getting dinner - and breakfast - on the table during the work week quickly, easily and without blowing your mind! Boundary Stone is a great restaurant, craft cocktail bar and beer spot in Bloomingdale. Colleen Gillespie and Reed Doherty are in with great cocktails to concoct with fresh ingredients they grow right up there on their roof! Nice!

Did you know that low-income kids get 80% of their calories from school meals? How can schools push the food system to provide better food? On this episode of Add Passion and Stir, hosts and Share Our Strength cofounders Billy and Debbie Shore chat with Washington, DC chef and restaurateur Mike Isabella and social impact innovator and strategist Josh Wachs about child hunger and improving school food programs. Both have seen how demand can drive food systems to be healthier and more sustainable. Wachs advises the Urban School Food Alliance, a coalition of 10 large urban school districts from around the country that serve about three million kids over three quarters of a billion meals each year. “They are a collection of districts that came together and said, ‘we can collectively through our joint purchasing power radically change the school food market,’” says Wachs. “Because more low-income kids are getting school breakfasts and lunches through programs like Share Our Strength, parents of low income kids are starting to increase pressure on districts over what’s in the food,” he notes. Chef Isabella sees a similar pattern at his twelve restaurants where customer knowledge and expectations are forcing chefs to become better. “Nowadays, everyone knows what they’re eating,” he says. “They read labels. Everyone thinks they’re a foodie, which is a good thing.” This dovetails with his work with school districts where he supports programs that teach kids about healthy food. Listen and learn how consumer education, demand and buying power can transform our food systems.

Bill Shore is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Share Our Strength, a national nonprofit that is ending childhood hunger in America through the No Kid Hungry campaign. Bill founded Share Our Strength in 1984 with his sister Debbie Shore and a $2,000 cash advance on a credit card. Since then, Share Our Strength has raised and invested more than $600 million in the fight against hunger, and has won the support of national leaders in business, government, health and education, sports and entertainment. Our track record includes connecting 3 million more kids with school breakfast, adding 40,000 new summer meals sites to feed kids when school is out and continuing to be a strategic grant maker helping kids and their families in all 50 states. Bill is also the chairman of Community Wealth Partners, a Share Our Strength organization that helps change agents solve social problems at the magnitude they exist. From 2014 to 2015, Bill served as a Congressional appointee to the National Commission on Hunger, a group tasked with finding innovative ways to end hunger in America.From 1978 to 1987, Bill served on the senatorial and presidential campaign staffs of former U.S. Senator Gary Hart (D-Colorado). From 1988 to 1991, he served as Chief of Staff for former U.S. Senator Robert Kerrey (D-Nebraska). Bill is the author of four books focused on social change, including “Revolution of the Heart” (Riverhead Press, 1995), “The Cathedral Within” (Random House, 1999), “The Light of Conscience” (Random House, 2004) and most recently, “The Imaginations of Unreasonable Men” (PublicAffairs, 2010). A native of Pittsburgh, Pa., Bill earned a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Pennsylvania and his law degree from George Washington University in Washington, DC. He has been an adjunct professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business and an advisor for the Reynolds Foundation Fellowship program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. From 2001 to 2011, he served as a director of The Timberland Company. Bill was named one of America’s Best Leaders in 2005 by US News & World Report. In 2011, the Jefferson Awards Foundation presented Bill with the S. Roger Horchow Award for Greatest Public Service.

What would happen if an entire industry banded together to solve a problem? According to the two leaders on this episode of Add Passion and Stir, the industry would completely solve that problem. John Miller, CEO of Denny’s and Amanda Hite, Co-founder and CEO of Be The Change Revolutions think that the restaurant industry can end child hunger in America. Hite describes the industry as “massive, powerful and influential.” “We’re the industry that feeds people for a living,” says Miller. “Shouldn’t we be involved in being the solution to ending child hunger in America. If not us, then who?” Podcast hosts Share Our Strength founders Billy and Debbie Shore agree. “We can’t wait for the tipping point; we have to force it,” Debbie believes. Both guests are heavily involved with Dine Out for No Kid Hungry, a restaurant-led campaign that raises funds for No Kid Hungry’s work on getting more kids access to school breakfasts, school lunches and summer meals. Denny’s has been a participant for many years, raising over $4M for hungry kids. “The infrastructure of Dine Out makes it easy,” says Miller. “You see the need, you see the kids, you see the difference you’re making.” Hite, who created a social media company because she was impressed by the internet’s ability to bring communities together and ignite for change, sees the power of all the participating restaurants’ networks and fan bases coming together. “You’ll see 200M social media impressions on Dine Out,” she reports. “The Dine Out map broke!” When Billy Shore asks Miller and Hite about the role of partisan politics in fighting child hunger, they are adamant that politics should play no role. Miller believes we can make the case with “stubborn facts” to get people with different political believes working side by side. “These are our children, the next generation of children. They are struggling. They need their voices heard. And they don’t have a chance unless [we] feed them…,” he says. “Those are the facts, so we just have to come together and solve it.” Listen to see how the restaurant industry and others can make kids’ voices heard.

Do you have to be a certain age to solve a problem in your community? Does it take a specific level of experience to see someone in need and offer to help? In this powerful episode of Add Passion and Stir, hear from two young people from the next generation of leaders. Millennial chef Bobby Pradachith (Thip Khao) and recent college graduate and anti-hunger advocate Alana Davidson (University of New Hampshire) join Share Our Strength founders Billy and Debbie Shore to share how they are already making big impacts in their communities. When Alana discovered that a quarter of her college classmates struggled with hunger, she sprang into action by contacting the governor and the dean of students. “I couldn’t sit on the number,” she says. “I had to do something about it.” Her efforts resulted in Swipe It Forward, a stigma-free meal donation program for any student experiencing food insecurity. Chef Bobby leads his unique Lao restaurant – the only one in DC - with bold and authentic menu options that both intrigue American diners and minimize food waste. “We don’t hold back,” he promises. Despite their accomplishments, both millennial superstars remain driven to increase their impact going forward. Chef Bobby is inspired by his family’s culture and work ethic, and plans to increase his involvement with helping those less fortunate both here and in Laos. The secret to his continued success will be persistence. “If you have goals, you have to work hard at them,” he says. Alana is looking forward to graduate school at Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, and a future working on federal food policy. “Nutrition is never one of the national priorities,” she laments. “Food is used as a tool to keep people in poverty… How can we have a conversation around nutrition that isn’t polarized or too political because we all have to eat.” Host Billy Shore agrees. He describes the military concept of a ‘show of force,’ but posits, “What if our show of force was: We’re going to have the strongest generation in history because we’re going to feed them and educate them… We’re going to invest in kids and health and nutrition and access to food for everyone. Now that’s a pretty different way than most people think of a show of force, but I think there’s an opportunity there to wake people up. These issues really do affect our nation’s strength.” Listen and be inspired by these two young visionaries who are changing the world.

More than 200 chefs from across the country were joined by Grammy Award-winning international rock star P!nk in a fundraising bike ride that raised $2 million for the No Kid Hungry campaign from Share Our Strength. In an exclusive interview for Add Passion and Stir, the podcast from Share Our Strength hosted by brother and sister co-founders Billy and Debbie Shore, singer-songwriter P!nk, says, “What’s awesome about Share Our Strength and No Kid Hungry is that [they] really make it doable to help… [They] make it really fun. [They] make where people’s dollars go make sense. It’s really easy to understand, and it’s universal – it’s kids!” This special edition of Add Passion and Stir was taped at Chefs Cycle, a 300-mile fundraising bike ride in Santa Rosa, CA. Alecia Moore Hart – better known as P!nk – sat down with fellow riders husband Carey Hart, chef Mary Sue Milliken (Border Grill), chef Kevin Nashan (Sidney Street Café, St. Louis) and Share Our Strength founders Billy and Debbie Shore to discuss the importance of getting involved on issues that matter. Despite a grueling few days in the saddle, all the riders were inspired by the event and their collective power to make a difference for hungry kids. They are grateful for organizations that help them do this. “Everybody wants to help,” says P!nk, “but the problem is sometimes that nobody knows what to do.” James Beard award winners Milliken and Nashan have been involved with No Kid Hungry for many years, and the mission and camaraderie keeps them engaged. “When I was poor and just starting out and I had no way of really helping, I was introduced to Share Our Strength,” says Milliken. “I realized: I can do what I do! I can cook! It was so powerful. I thought, this is what I want to dedicate my time to.” Carey Hart, a retired motocross racer, now shares his time and talent with Good Ride Rally, a motorcycle rally that benefits veterans. Each guest also speaks about their memories of taking civic action with their parents when they were young and how this instilled important values of giving back and taking care of those less fortunate. They stress the importance of involving kids in helping other kids. “Every parent wants their kid to be a global citizen. Every parent wants their kid to be aware of what’s going on in the world. Every kid wants to help another kid – it’s innate, it’s who they are,” says P!nk. Share Our Strength founder Debbie Shore shares the next big idea for Chefs Cycle: a cross-country relay bike ride involving thousands of chefs and raising tens of millions of dollars for fighting child hunger. Add Passion and Stir host and Share Our Strength founder and CEO Billy Shore – who also rode all 300 miles through the hills of Santa Rosa – gives insight into how he advises his staff. “Our biggest challenge is failure of imagination. Incremental steps are not enough – to really solve the problems we need to solve, we need to think big and take big risks.” What do YOU think? How can we think big about solving child hunger in America? Can we rally thousands of chefs to bike across the country and ride on Washington, DC? How can we better engage kids in helping other kids who are struggling with hunger? We would love to hear your thoughts. Listen to the episode, provide comments in iTunes, comment on our Facebook page, tweet at us on Twitter, or go to our website (nokidhungry.org). We can’t wait to be inspired by you!

Our country is leaving behind the families who have made the biggest sacrifices for our safety and freedom. How are military and veteran families among our most vulnerable and struggling with poverty and hunger? How can we justify raising defense spending without protecting and strengthening services like SNAP (food stamps) that help them? In this timely and poignant episode of Add Passion and Stir, an expert on military hunger and a chef who is also an Army veteran have a serious conversation with Share Our Strength founders Billy and Debbie Shore. All are concerned about President Trump’s proposed budget cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps). Josh Protas is the Vice President of Public Policy at MAZON, a national advocacy organization based on Jewish values that is working to end hunger in the United States and Israel, where he coordinates and implements the advocacy agenda. Alex Samayoa is executive chef at Espita Mezcaleria in Washington, DC, and served in the U.S. Army and Army Reserves. While the U.S. Department of Defense does not track hunger among military families or veterans, organizations like food banks report that a growing number of current military and veteran families are seeking food assistance. Josh and Alex discuss the injustice of how those who make great personal sacrifices in service to our country are struggling to provide their families regular meals on their military pay or veteran benefits. “These are really hidden issues,” says Josh, partly due to the pride among military families and veterans. “There is an ethic in the military about not leaving anybody behind, but the truth is we are leaving them behind.” Host Billy Shore adds, “Aren’t these the folks we owe the most to, and we’re giving them the least!?” Chef Alex shares personal anecdotes about people with whom he served in the Army who cannot afford basic necessities. When asked how we treat our returned vets, Alex responds “Everybody says they care, but nobody’s really there. … I have friends who can’t get earpieces from the V.A. [Veterans Administration], and they can only hear out of one ear.” How can you help correct this injustice to our service men and women? First, the Military Hunger Prevention Act introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives would remove barriers to SNAP eligibility for currently serving military families. You can read more at mazon.org/take-action, and contact your Congressional representatives to tell them to protect military families. Second, you can get involved with local organizations that serve military families and veterans and help show them that we value their service and refuse to leave them behind. Listen to the episode for inspiration and ideas on how to help those who risk their lives to protect us.

Could we end the debate about health care by focusing on healthy food? What will it take for our country to address the root of our health problems? In this episode of Add Passion and Stir, two experts who improve health from very different perspectives chat with Share Our Strength founders Billy and Debbie Shore about the role of healthy lifestyle choices on our nation’s health. Randy Oostra is President and CEO of Promedica, a mission-driven, not-for-profit, nationally distinguished health care system serving northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan. Promedica has initiatives outside health care settings that aim to keep people from needing health care services. Rocco DiSpirito is a James Beard award winning chef, health advocate, coach and author of 12 cookbooks that illustrate how healthy and delicious are not mutually exclusive. Rocco has personally coached, advised and fed thousands of clients who want to lose weight and be healthy. Both experts believe that prevention is more effective that treatment, and both have seen many examples of this in their own work. Randy talks about a grocery store Promedica worked to build in a food desert which offers everything from job training to financial counseling to healthy cooking classes and is changing lives in that community. Rocco speaks of the “mass awakening” among consumers and chefs regarding healthier food and lifestyles, and how food providers have had to be responsive to these needs. “Most people want to make a good choice,” he says. “It’s up to us to provide them with an endless amount of good choices.” Randy feels that our nation’s health care model is fundamentally wrong and that we need to take a decades-long view when we consider how to fix it. “We have been tweaking a model that doesn’t work. …If we could go back and change [how Medicare and Medicaid were structured in the 1960s], we would shift the balance toward primary care and mental health services… The fact that we don’t provide a base level of coverage to every American doesn’t make any sense.” He believes we need to start now to change the system into what we want it to be in 20 years. However, this will continue to be tremendously difficult due to the many diverse stakeholders in the economic engine of our health care system. How do your own choices impact your health? Listen to how these leaders have seen people change their lives and their futures by making healthier choices.

We have everything we need to feed every mouth in America, but we do not. Why is policy in the way of a healthy, equitable food system? Add Passion and Stir guests Eric Kessler of Arabella Advisors and Victor Albisu of Del Campo restaurant in DC sit down with Share Our Strength founders Billy and Debbie Shore to explain what we can do to change this unacceptable inequality in our vast American food system. “Food access is one of the simplest things to fix in this country, and yet it’s become one of the most intractable political issues,” says Eric. Policymakers are lagging behind what Americans want and need. So what can each of us do? We can vote both with ballots AND with our wallets. The choices you make, the foods you buy, the restaurants you patronize all make our food system better or worse and lead to overall systems change. Listen to hear about how to vote with your wallet. Listen and Learn: · Why the U.S. food system is a social justice issue · How to address food waste · How to effect systems change Resources and Mentions: · No Kid Hungry: (nokidhungry.org): Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign is ending child hunger in America by ensuring all children get the healthy food they need, every day. · Arabella Advisors (arabellaadvisors.com): Arabella is a team of passionate problem solvers dedicated to helping clients make a difference on the issues that matter most to them. · James Beard Foundation Chefs Boot Camp (jamesbeard.org/education/bootcamp): The Chefs Boot Camp for Policy and Change provides an opportunity for civically and politically minded chefs to become more effective leaders for food-system change. · Del Campo (delcampodc.com): The lifestyle and food culture celebrated on an estancia, a large South American vineyard estate, is the inspiration for Victor Albisu’s flagship restaurant in the Chinatown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The airy, 174-seat agrarian space is home to a meat-driven, wine-centric menu that is a product of Albisu’s Latin American roots and travels throughout Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Uruguay.

In this episode of Add Passion and Stir, James Beard Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award winning chef Nora Pouillon and Martha’s Table President and CEO Patty Stonesifer have an inspiring conversation with Share Our Strength founders Billy and Debbie Shore about being the change you want to see in the world. Both women identified problems that needed solving – Nora saw America’s unhealthful food supply and Patty saw low income families not having adequate opportunity – and tackled these problems with their own skills, experience and conviction. Nora took her European perspective and desire to feed her family and restaurant guests healthful food and opened America’s first certified organic restaurant. Patty leveraged her expertise as a technology executive (Microsoft and Amazon) and foundation builder (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) to better serve families and communities in Washington, DC with education and food. These pioneering women use both their heads and their hearts to make change in their communities. Hear their uplifting, energizing stories and get motivated to become a better social activist. Listen and Learn: • The health benefits of organic food • How corporate skills can be an advantage in social activism • How to persevere through adversity to achieve transformative change Resources and Mentions: • No Kid Hungry (nokidhungry.org): Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign is ending child hunger in America by ensuring all children get the healthy food they need, every day. • Martha’s Table • James Beard Foundation

In this episode of Add Passion and Stir, sociologist, poverty expert and author Kathy Edin ($2 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America) and Washington, DC area social entrepreneur Tom McDougall of 4P Foods have a powerful and timely discussion with Share Our Strength founders Billy and Debbie Shore about poverty in America. Kathy and Tom illustrate how our current systems - political, social, economic, geographic - keep poor people from succeeding. They argue for more equity in our social programs and a more dignified way of serving the poor. Kathy shares stunning statistics and touching anecdotes of the impoverished families with whom she has worked. When she asked one young girl what it was like to be hungry, her response was, "It feels like you want to be dead, because it’s peaceful when you’re dead." Tom believes, "We can't talk about fixing the food system unless we talk about money and politics... subsidies... institutional racism... the history of farming. … If we move the needle just a tad on food equity, it means we're moving a lot of other needles along the way." In Kathy’s work, she found that, "When it comes down to it, what people seem to want more than anything else is dignity. ... but a lot of our social policies deny people that.” Hear their recommendations on what we can do as individuals and as a nation to improve these dire circumstances for the poor in America.

Top Chef star and DC restaurateur Spike Mendelsohn and George Jones, CEO of Bread for the City, discuss strengthening public services in an effort to create jobs & feed families. In their respective roles as the head of one of the most successful safety nets for the poor people of DC and as the chairman of the DC Food Policy Council, George and Spike see how resourceful families struggle to feed, clothe, and shelter a family with three children for less than $18 per day.

The Blether is all about What we do for others. And what colour is your heart? Comfort/Twiddle Mitts - http://www.sashcharity.org/call-for-crafty-knitters-to-make-comfort-blankets-for-elderly-patients/ http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/twiddle-muff Hopefully this episode has better volume. Let me know if it isn't. Review of Painted Toppers for Kids by Woolly Wormhead - thank you for letting me review this. http://www.woollywormhead.com/painted-woolly-toppers-for-kids/ I did mean to mention Katya Frankels Autumn Essentials.  This year's collection concentrates on using a natural palette to showcase the scintillating variegated yarns and has 3 patterns, socks, shawl and fingerless mitts. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/grey-matters I will discuss it next episode. Me Me Me Half Yard Kids by Debbie Shore and Adorable Teddy Bears to knit by Rachel Borello from the library Poldark - Winston Graham Even Dogs in the Wild by Ian Rankin Contact me caithnesscraftcollective@gmail.com Ravelry as LouiseHunt join the CaithnessCraftCollective Group Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram as CaithnessCraft  Get the feed from www.caithnesscraftcollective.podbean.com