The restaurant industry was hit incredibly hard by the pandemic. In 2020, Add Passion and Stir connected with chefs to learn how the pandemic was affecting them. We're revisiting these inspiring conversations to showcase the resilience of the restaurant industry and its commitment to service.

When we spoke with Amanda Cohen of NYC’s Dirt Candy in April 2020, the shutdown in New York City was only weeks old. Cohen said she and other chefs were struggling with reopening their restaurants after the crisis has passed. “How are we going to reopen? What am I reopening to? Who still has money to go out in this city? And who wants to go to a crowded restaurant?,” she asks. She has long been an outspoken advocate for fair restaurant industry practices. She is also a leader on eliminating tipping in her restaurant. Dirt Candy offers a starting hourly wage of $25/hour, as well as paid time off, paid sick leave, health insurance, and continuing education. “If we reopen the same way as we closed, we will have literally learned nothing,” she says.

 Click here to hear the original interview with Amanda Cohen. [https://www.shareourstrength.org/podcast/restaurant-survival-after-the-covid-19-pandemic]

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The restaurant industry was hit incredibly hard by the pandemic. In 2020, Add Passion and Stir connected with chefs to learn how the pandemic was affecting them. We're revisiting these inspiring conversations to showcase the resilience of the restaurant industry and its commitment to service.

In April 2020, Add Passion and Stir connected with NYC’s Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns chef and co-owner Dan Barber to discuss how vulnerable the pandemic had made the farm-to-table movement. “There’s a network of farmers that we’re connected to, whether you know it or not. That network has been shattered,” laments Barber. To help, Barber and Stone Barns launched resourcED which sold food in boxes as a way to give the farmers that supply his restaurants a revenue stream. In this updated epsiode, we revisit this conversation with Barber and share updates on how things are going now.

Click here to hear the original interview with Dan Barber.

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The restaurant industry was hit incredibly hard by the pandemic. In 2020, Add Passion and Stir connected with chefs to learn how the pandemic was affecting them. We're revisiting these inspiring conversations to showcase the resilience of the restaurant industry and its commitment to service.

In May 2020, Add Passion and Stir connected with Chef Erik Bruner-Yang (Maketto, ABC Pony, Foreign National) who said that for him the pandemic "...has been a wake-up call... I’ve always been wading in the water of being a public servant and [I’m] finally jumping into it.” In this updated episode, we return to the conversation we had with Bruner-Yang about the effects of the pandemic and establishing the Power of 10 Initiative to help those in need and share updates on how things are going now. As Bruner-Yang shared recently, “No matter how much people want the pandemic to be over, the effects are going to be generational and programs like The Power of 10 which started as an emergency response has turned into a long term effort.”

Click here to hear the original interview with Erik Bruner-Yang.

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Why should Americans care about hunger around the world? World Food Program USA President and CEO Barron Segar and food and lifestyle personality Sandra Lee join the podcast to talk about their commitment to combatting hunger around the world. “Food is a basic vaccination against chaos. When you don’t have food, you have increased unrest and conflict,” observes Lee.

For both Segar and Lee, the mission is a personal one. Segar recalls the impact of his work in Ethiopia on the South Sudanese border. “I saw so many kids and moms and grandmothers... fleeing violence to stay alive. I saw how they walked for days and weeks… I saw how food literally brought a child and a mom back to life,” he says. Lee shares how she was raised on welfare and foot stamps, "It’s important to remember where you come from, and when you come from a place like that, I think you need to give back." This interview is equal parts awareness building and call to action, “Everybody listening to this show has a voice, but not everybody in the world has a voice. So be the voice for those that are not being heard,” urges Segar.

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Is our divided political culture energizing or suppressing democracy? Former Nebraska Governor and US Senator Bob Kerrey and renowned chef, restaurateur and food activist Tom Colicchio join Billy Shore to discuss the politics of hunger, public education and the role of the citizen in democracy. “The real problem in the food system is [it doesn’t] permit the kind of innovation that will produce a different outcome. You’ve got to create a system whereby the innovators who want to deliver healthy food have an opportunity to get in the door and be successful,” explains Kerrey. Colicchio agrees and talks about the insights he gained from his wife’s (Laurie Silverbush) groundbreaking film about hunger in America, A Place at the Table. “People aren’t hungry in this country because of famine, war or drought. We have enough food to feed people. We don’t have enough political will to feed people,” he notes.

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How do we protect those most vulnerable to poverty and racism? Originally aired in April 2020, Sojourners' Founder Jim Wallis explains how the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the inequities in our society. “Poverty and racism are preexisting conditions that help you get the disease,” says Wallis. “How can we redeem this time for not just immediate response… but also how this will change us – how we act, how we lead, what we do now - going forward. History is being changed by this, so how will those changes result in our being different going forward?”

Wallis reflects on the need for leadership, now more than ever. “SNAP [the federal food stamp program] is maybe the most effective way to serve people’s immediate needs and revitalize the economy at the same time... What’s clear that government is the only place big enough to respond at a time like this. We need politicians from both sides of the aisle to prioritize poor people,” he believes.

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Originally recorded in December 2020, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Nicholas Kristof and Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health Director Allison Barlow discuss the struggle for social justice in Native American communities, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. “The Bureau of Indian Education schools only have a 53% high school graduation rate! We are failing them way before they fail us,” suggests Kristof. “One of the greatest prides for parents on a Native reservation is to celebrate their child’s high school graduation. If children there aren’t graduating from high school, it’s because of generations of trauma on top of a really ineffective education system,” Barlow says. “We as a country have had this narrative that when people struggle, it’s because of a lack of personal responsibility and bad choices. When a child born in a certain county has a life expectancy shorter than that of Cambodia, that’s not because that infant is making a bad choice. It’s because we as a society are making bad choices about healthcare, education and jobs,” says Kristof.

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While this conversation first aired in 2018, the issues it explores about food equity and access remain unsolved in America and in many ways were exacerbated by the pandemic. In this episode of Add Passion and Stir , 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 illustrate how our current systems – political, social, economic, geographic – keep poor people from succeeding. They argue for more equity in social programs and a more dignified way of serving the poor. Kathy shares stunning statistics and poignant stories from America's impoverished families with whom she has worked and reminds us 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.” What remains true today is the call-to-action to address and fix America's broken food system that as Tom notes can't be fixed "...unless we talk about money and politics… subsidies… institutional racism…If we move the needle just a tad on food equity, it means we’re moving a lot of other needles along the way.”

Hear recommendations from two thought leaders in food equity on what we can do as individuals and as a nation to improve these dire circumstances for the poor in America.

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Why is it so important to nourish ourselves and each other? On a special Father’s Day episode, actor and musician Jeff Bridges and his daughter, Mother’s Empowerment Coach Isabelle Bridges, talk about the importance of nourishing relationships and fighting child hunger. “As you get older, you realize that the value you have and what’s really precious in life are these family relationships,” Jeff says about the inspiration and process of their children’s book, ‘Daddy Daughter Day.’ “I remember reading the Daddy Daughter Day story to you Dad, and you saying, with sparkly eyes, ‘we should turn this into a book, and I will illustrate it,’” recalls Isabelle. “When we have our children, we want to nourish them, and then we go unnourished ourselves. My mission is to help the moms feel nourished on the inside so they have a wellspring to give them,” she continues about her work helping mothers take care of their own needs. Jeff is the official spokesperson of the No Kid Hungry campaign. “[Child hunger] an issue that’s got a lot of hope to it. We can really end childhood hunger here in our country,” he believes.

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In a special Father’s Day episode, Danny Meyer (Shake Shack, Union Square Hospitality Group) and his daughter Hallie Meyer (NYC’s Caffè Panna) share what they have learned from each other and how it has shaped their lives, particularly during the challenges of 2020. Both Danny and Hallie found their way to food by following their desire to do what they love. Hallie’s path ran parallel to her father's and she describes how she made it her own. “I do credit you for that, Dad: for setting an example that I can do whatever I want with the business… that there’s not one way to do it,” she says. Danny shares how Hallie has equally taught and inspired him. “I’m so proud of the way she does business and the spirit that she brings to the business… Hallie had a courage and an entrepreneurial spirit and an ability to pivot that really inspired me,” says Danny about his daughter’s response to the pandemic. Hallie and Danny talk about building purpose into their business. For Hallie, that has meant creating a business with social justice at its core and creating partnerships with organizations like Drive Change and Emma's Torch that connect youth and refugees with career opportunities in the food industry. For Danny, he remarks on his luck to be in his industry. “What a privilege to be in a business whose outcome is making feeling people feel better. Who couldn’t use more of that?”

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