Charles Watson, CEO of Tropical Smoothie Café, talks about how the restaurant industry is uniquely positioned to make a difference on child hunger. “The American consumer is demanding and one of the things that they're demanding - which is good - is purpose,” says Watson. “[They’ll] give you their money… but [they] also want to see that you're giving back and that you're doing something positive.”

He proposed a "CEO Pledge to End Hunger" which aims to raise funds to support summer food programs, potentially preventing millions of children from going hungry. “We need sunshine, we need happiness, we need taking care of one another,” he concludes. 

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Jamila Robinson, the new Editor-in-Chief of Bon Appétit, discusses her vision for the magazine and more broadly how food can be a powerful force for good in the world.

“I'm very curious about how other people experience food and how food drives culture for other people, and that curiosity allows for other people to feel seen, and so it also changes the way that we approach stories,” she says.

She wants the magazine to cover food culture for everyone along with sustainable food practices. “I do think it's important that we think about where our food comes from, who's producing it, and the impact that it might have on our environment.”

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Well before the school year ends for American children , advocates like USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services Stacy Dean and Hawaii-based consumer advocate and substance abuse counselor Zahava “Zee” Zaidoff are planning how to feed kids over the summer. “The experience of hunger, in and of itself, is a terrible thing. But hunger amongst children is so much more devastating... They don't need food just to maintain, but also to grow and thrive,” says Dean. Many layers of government, organizations, and individuals are ensuring that kids get access to meals during the summer months. “This is not just about the kids that we're trying to feed. This is about - fortunately and unfortunately - systemic change that has to happen around the entire system,” Zaidoff emphasizes.

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Food and culture writer Alicia Kennedy and chef advocacy trainer and Table81 founder Katherine Miller discuss food justice and how we can make important improvements in our food system. “We operate with this idea that we should be able to have any [food] we want whenever we want it, at whatever price that we wanna pay for it,” says Miller. “It's an artificially constructed system that keeps our food affordable in certain places and makes it unaffordable and unattainable in other places.” Kennedy writes about food justice, food sovereignty, and food apartheid. “Food justice is not merely the ability to access fresh food. It is the space, time, energy, and ability to cook it and serve it in a way that provides a nourishing, complete and aesthetically pleasing dish according to one's cultural standards,” she states.

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Daron Babcock, CEO of Bonton Farms located in a low-income neighborhood in South Dallas. Bonton Farms is one of the largest urban farms in the United States and its programs are addressing a variety of barriers residents face including housing, education, nutrition, and economic self-sufficiency.

“[Systemic inequity] is built on the faulty idea that there's this American dream that everybody can access and if you don't, then there's something wrong with you,” says Babcock. “My new neighbors just happened to be born into a place that had very little to offer them, and their human potential got squashed in the process… The bad news is yes, we designed that and we have to own up to it. But the good news is, we can redesign our future - it doesn't have to stay that way.”

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Jimmy Chen, founder/CEO of Propel and Ofek Lavian, founder/CEO of Forage, explain how they are harnessing the power of technology to ensure more people can easily access government food benefits. “We believe that well-fed people have many problems, but hungry people have only one,” saysk Lavian.

Both companies make it easier for people to access and maximize benefits online and through apps. “We build technology because we see it as the tool that is underappreciated and underutilized in this sector to create the outcomes of… safety net programs meeting their promise for Americans,” says Chen.  

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Bestselling author Thomas Kostigen talks about climate change and specifically how we can all decrease our carbon footprints by making different food choices. “If we were to embrace more types of food rather than what is just basically pushed upon us by the food system, then we might have a chance to change things in a bigger way,” he says. ““It isn't that easy to understand how much [each] food stores carbon.” Kostigen recently partnered with actor and philanthropist Robert Downey Jr. on Cool Food: Erasing Your Carbon Footprint One Bite at a Time, which serves as a guide to help us all make better food choices. 

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The pain and suffering children in poverty endure, is a choice.  NOT their choice, not their parents’ choice, but a policy choice made by politicians in Washington DC. 

In this very special episode of Add Passion and Stir, we will examine the plight of the millions of American children who live in poverty and struggle with hunger.  We provide a 360o view of the issues from many perspectives.  Including those of 

• Author and Child Advocate David Ambroz;
• Congressman Jim McGovern;
• Second Harvest Food Bank executive director Rhonda Chaffin;
• New York Times’ senior writer Jason DePerle; 
• Research scientist Dr. Renee Ryberg;
• Harvard Professor Dr. Jack Shonkoff;
• Pediatrician Dr. Kimberly Montez; and
• American Academy of Pediatrics CEO Mark DelMonte  

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In this very special episode of Add Passion and Stir, we are going to talk about challenges and solutions in the fight for equity in America. We found three incredibly compelling stories that address the solvable problem of inequity in all its forms in the United States. We will hear from Bonton Farms CEO Daron Babcock, Investigative Journalist Aldore Collier, and Dr. Michael McAfee, President and CEO of Policy Link; three visionaries who saw past obstacles that others found too daunting and are now sharing their strength to create z more equitable America for all of its citizens

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In this special encore presentation, we re-visit our conversation with CNN political commentator S.E. Cupp, who shares her perspectives on the current events in the Middle East, her own mental health challenges, and ending child hunger.

“Stand up for your friends, because they're hurting right now, and they need every voice they need, every hug they need, every text or email or call you can make,” she says about the war between Israel and Hamas.

“Problems like hunger and poverty are not going to be solved at an international or even a federal level, they're going be solved at a community level.” These issues are interconnected.

Listen in to learn how to help kids here and abroad.

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