In this very special episode, we re-visit our conversation with award-winning Chez Panisse chef and cookbook author Alice Waters who discusses the value of real, regenerative food for our children and our society as a whole. “Once you love nature, you can't make the wrong decision about anything. You don't want to do things that are really destroying the planet. You want to take care of her. Until we feel that way, we will never be able to make the right decisions,” she says.

Waters founded Edible Schoolyard, an experiential learning program at a Berkeley middle school that deepens students’ relationship with food, gardening and cooking skills, and capacity for critical examination of the food system, more than 25 years ago. “The kitchen classroom became a place to teach world history. It's a way to reach a person through all their senses and those are pathways into our minds,” states Waters. “We decided to put our money behind our values to educate the next generation to change the world. I so believe that education is the deep place where we can make systemic change.”

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For renowned Indian Master Chef Sanjeev Kapoor it’s simple: whatever he has today is thanks to the power of sharing. A household name in India with his own channel FoodFood, Chef Sanjeev is a Padma Shri Awardee, recipient of the Indian Government’s ‘Best Chef of India’ award, and many more accolades.

But for him, it’s all about giving back to society; most notably, his work with Akshaya Patra, the world’s largest NGO-run mid-day meal program that serves lunch to more than 1.7 million children in India.

In this Add Passion and Stir episode, we connect with Chef Kapoor to learn more about Akshaya Patra, how he found his way to food, and why he thinks the strength of Indian cuisine is in its complexity.

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Gina Reardon owns a professional catering business in Kansas City. ImpulseSV streams video games on Twitch and YouTube to well over a million followers. Both have used their unique talents to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to feed hungry kids. Impulse devotes streams to encourage his supporters to donate to No Kid Hungry. “I have three young ones of my own, and just the idea that there are children just like them out in the world that aren't able to get any food and go to bed starving, it just really breaks my heart,” he shares. “It's my love language, and speaking that language on behalf of this organization has rewarded me in ways that I can't even begin to enumerate,” says Reardon, who uses bake sales, dinners, and other culinary events to support No Kid Hungry.

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When is a cupcake more than a cupcake? When it’s helping to end food insecurity. For Michael C. Platt and Sahana Vij, two young bakers who’ve turned their love of baking into platforms to raise awareness and funds to help end hunger, baking has been a way to connect with their community. Add Passion and Stir host, Billy Shore sat down with these two Gen Z leaders to talk about how they found baking, how they’re sharing their strength to end childhood hunger through their entrepreneurial efforts and cookbooks, and how why they both believe that the key to making a difference is leaning into what you’re passionate about.

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Brother Luck, celebrity chef and author featured on “Chopped,” “Top Chef,” and Beat Bobby Flay, discusses how he uses his experience with mental health in the restaurant industry to help others. “I've realized over the years, as I've gone through the healing process, that I have to speak up and be vulnerable and live through my pain because somebody else is living that story right now.” He voices concern for his colleagues in the restaurant industry. “Mental health is something we've ignored for so many years, especially in the restaurant industry. We've been built on bravado and pride and ego… we didn't know how to label it. We didn't know how to discuss it. We would never discuss it.”

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Mavis-Jay Sanders, chef and activist, discusses what motivates her to use her culinary career to fight food injustice in Black and low-income communities. “When Eric Garner got murdered and there were protests in the streets, I was working in a fine dining restaurant… I couldn't straddle that fence anymore; I couldn't be in a place where these issues didn't matter.” She decided to take her skills to more accessible restaurants and nonprofit organizations. “I do love a little razzle dazzle, but I also wanna make sure that the people who are eating [my food] feel cared for. I wanna make sure that every single person that I come in contact with has the ability to eat.”

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Ending childhood hunger in America takes more than a change in policy, it requires individuals and organizations in communities across the country working together and sharing their strength. In this final episode of Add Passion and Stir’s series exploring why food is the most important school supply, we hear from individuals committed to ending hunger in their community. From Chef Lorena Garcia and her nonprofit Big Chef, Little Chef that works in schools to help kids and families build better relationships with food to participants in No Kid Hungry’s Youth Ambassador, join us to hear inspiring stories from those working to end childhood hunger and learn how you can get involved.

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Hunger is a reality, but it is also a solvable problem. While millions of kids face hunger everyday, we can make sure every kid gets the food they need to grow up healthy, happy, and strong. The second episode in Add Passion and Stir’s series on why food is the most important school supply connects with changemakers from federal, state, and local government and community organizations that are working to solve childhood hunger in America. Their solution: making sure kids get feed while they are at school. The episode features: 

• Dawn Amano-Ige, First Lady of Hawaii
• Dr. Sara Bleich, Director of Nutrition Security and Health Equity, USDA
• Dr. Miguel A. Cardona, Secretary of Education
• John Giles, Mayor, Mesa, Arizona
• Jennie Gordon, First Lady of Wyoming
• Levar Stoney, Mayor, Richmond, Virginia
• Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture

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Across America, kids are headed back to school, but nearly 12 million kids in America face hunger. Children need three meals a day to grow up happy, healthy, and strong but for many hunger is a daily reality. In this first episode of a three-part series exploring why food is the most important school supply, you’ll hear directly from those affected by hunger and those witnessing hunger in the classroom. You’ll also begin to understand the opportunity we have to SOLVE the problem of childhood hunger. 

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In this episode of Add Passion and Stir, we are revisiting our Child Tax Credit series. We look at how organizations are using technology to make sure eligible families are receiving the credit. With more than 36 million additional children — a majority of whom are Black and Latino — now eligible and the credit being distributed as a monthly payment instead of an annual lump sum many changes were required to ensure success of the program.

We spoke with Amanda Renteria, CEO of Code for America, who launched the GetCTC.org portal to make it easier for families to claim their credit and Jimmy Chen, CEO of Propel, the organization behind the Providers app, which allows participants to manage a variety of government benefits, including the CTC, in one place about how they are helping to the credit reach all eligible families.

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