James Beard Award-winning food writer Mark Bittman talks about the relationship between food and critical issues like climate change, public health and social justice. “You can’t fix any justice issues, environmental issues, nutritional issues without fixing food. Food is at the center of just about everything,” claims Bittman. “It’s not going to happen from the top down. The push has to come from lots and lots of ordinary people. That push needs to be focused on food, but it also needs to focus on racial justice and gender equality and so on down the line,” he says. Join us for an important conversation with one of America’s foremost food writers about why fixing our broken food system can help solve many other critical problems we face.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Children’s advocate and social justice icon Hubie Jones and Sweet Home Café (at the National Museum of African American History and Culture) executive chef Jerome Grant discuss their perspectives on race in America and commitment to living purpose-driven lives.

“On to the stage came Dr. King and he went into this oratory that absolutely blew me away... By the time I left Jordan Hall, I felt that I was levitating,” Jones recalls about a night in 1956.

Grant shares a similar experience about opening Sweet Home Café. “Walking in that cafeteria the day before opening and seeing these murals on our walls, seeing these awesome quotes, the picture of the Woolworth dine-in boycott… You see the resiliency of us as African Americans and what we contributed to American society. There’s no feeling like that at all,” he says.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Congressman Marc Molinaro (NY-19) describes how he is helping to build an impactful, compassionate government that truly helps people. “There are too few [politicians] who care about the results; they care more about making a point than making a difference,” he laments.

He is vehement about how government does its work. “We need to be purposeful in that what we offer in aid and assistance needs to be about helping people get from where they are to a position of empowerment and independence.”

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti talks about local government solutions to problems like hunger and poverty in President Biden’s hometown. “We're working really, really hard to improve quality of life and to prove the case to people, to families, whether they've been here for generations or whether they're first generation that the American dream is alive.”

Mayor Cognetti is an active participant in the Mayors Alliance to End Childhood Hunger, a nonpartisan coalition working in partnership with Share Our Strength's No Kid Hungry campaign to ensure that every child has the healthy food they need to thrive.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

As school years end for America's children, hunger champions like Representative Jim McGovern (D-MA) and food bank executive director Rhonda Chafin focus on providing summer meals.

“There are some things you can live without. Food is not one of them,” McGovern says. He is working in Congress to extend school meal and SNAP benefits to ensure kids are fed year-round.

At Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee, Chafin oversees the delivery of summer meals to thousands of children living in very rural places. At Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee, Chafin oversees the delivery of summer meals to thousands of children living in very rural places. “It is a variety of stories and unfortunate situations that put the child in the center of everything, and they just don't have the resources they need…They just don't have access to food. So that's the challenges and the scope. The scale of what we serve is about 3,000 square miles of some of the most mountainous rural areas in northeast Tennessee.” 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Chef, entrepreneur, and Food Network host Robert Irvine was appalled at the rate of food insecurity among US military families. “It is incomprehensible… that any member of our military that serves this great country could be worried about being deployed and that their family can't be fed or housed in a safe environment,” he says.

In this episode, he describes how the Robert Irvine Foundation is helping service members and their families. He also talks about the lessons in his newest book about how to make change. “One person, one foundation, one, one group, can't do it - as much as we all wish we could, it’s not possible. But collectively and intertwined, we can change the world.”

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this reprise episode, we join James Beard-award winning Chef Ann Kim and James Beard-award winning chef and author Joanne Lee Molinaro, The Korean Vegan, for conversations about identity, connection, and growing up as the children of immigrants. Both Ann Kim and Joanne Lee Molinaro share a Korean heritage and have found ways, through their various platforms to shine a light on their culture and the voices of others who share the immigrant experience. The central thread in both their stories: showing love through food.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

From the Webb telescope to the COVID vaccine, every day the nearly 3 million civil servants in our federal government make our democracy work through their extraordinary--often unrecognized--work. Max Stier and the Partnership for Public Service are committed to changing that.

Since 2001, the Partnership has trained leaders, addressed talent gaps, like the fact that only 7% of the federal workforce is under the age of 30, supported presidential transitions, increased federal employee engagement, and promoted innovation and collaboration.

In short, they’re taking on the reality that when many Americans “think about the federal government, they think about bickering.” And they’re doing it by celebrating the people who share their strength to make it all happen.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

National poverty, child welfare and queer rights advocate and best-selling author David Ambroz sits down with Billy Shore to talk about the importance of truly caring for all children.

Ambroz’ memoir, “A Place Called Home,” details his experiences with poverty, hunger, and the foster care system which led him to found FosterMore.org. Ambroz says, “Folks are tired, and I profoundly understand that. But there are 8.4 million children in poverty in this country today, and we can't be tired for them.”

Be inspired by his incredible story.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.