Food First

Hear a fresh new perspective from Food Bank of South Central Michigan's new CEO, Peter Vogel. Peter is focusing on expanding and strengthening relationships with partnerships throughout the network.

Phil and Gerry also discuss Feeding America's newest release of the Map the Meal Gap study - https://map.feedingamerica.org/. Although the overall food insecurity rate improved from 16% to 14%, 1 in 6 children are still facing food insecurity in MI.

Lastly, as many of you know, Gleaners Community Food Bank received 'Food Bank of the Year' award from Feeding America - this is like a Nobel Peace Prize in our world! Way to go, Gerry and team!

Some problems are too important to ignore or pretend they don't exist and hunger at ALL ages is one of them. It takes courage to define reality and Dr. Keith Whitfield, provost at Wayne State University, is doing just that by changing the conversation about food insecurity across college campuses.

Dr. Whitfield is using his one handful of life to provide the students on his campus the tools to succeed in life. Once you know it - there's nothing else to do with it besides DO IT!

"We cannot solve the problems with the same thinking we used to create them." - Albert Einstein

Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? Phil and Gerry address hunger and poverty as food insecurity has a cause and effect relationship with poverty. Did you know that 21% of ALL U.S. children are living at the poverty level? You have some people living in 3rd world living conditions in a first world country.

One of the main objectives of Food for Thought is helping people think better and differently. Our work is not band-aid work and you can't fix the symptoms - we must fix the system!

Leading an enterprise, organization, movement, team or group doesn't necessarily mean the leader has to have all of the best right answers to every challenge, problem, and circumstance. A leader must possess the ability to have the right answers.

Hear Phil and Gerry delve into the WHAT questions. Most importantly - WHAT is food insecurity? Everyone suffers from hunger, but it can be fixed; food insecurity is when someone is hungry and they cannot fix the problem. Tune in to hear he breakdown on all of the WHAT questions.

We have much to do in this line of work in creating a food secure state and we want to make sure that we're doing WHAT we should be doing.

Vision is simply an idea of a better tomorrow. Over the last 10 years, we've learned a lot and gotten more efficient at what and how we do this work. Phil and Gerry discuss the framework surrounding the Blueprint to Solve Hunger.

Phil and Gerry take a look back at the shows that helped make them the recipients of the 2018 MAB - Michigan Association of Broadcasters Broadcast Excellence Awards.

Did you know that 356,930 kids in Michigan face hunger? That's enough to fill the Spartan Stadium nearly five times. It's cheaper to SOLVE hunger than to have it continue.

As always folks, Food First!

People are a community's most valuable asset - this kind of changes the view of our neighborhood. From our donors to our drivers, to our volunteers to our warehouse workers, from our board members to the farmers that support our work, from the client who needs our help for a little while, or to the individual who needs us for a while longer. They are ALL worthy of investment!

Hear Phil and Gerry discuss how we must have a paradigm shift in our thinking people are 'needy' to people are worth investing in. We also journey back to an interview at the 2018 Mackinac Policy Conference with Rob Fowler, CEO of Small Business Association of Michigan talking about minimum wage and how one size does NOT fit all.

Tested leaders LEAD and don't shrink in the midst of crisis, who are steady influencers for good and work to create positive change.

Phil and Gerry take a look back at the shows that helped make them the recipients of the 2018 MAB - Michigan Association of Broadcasters Broadcast Excellence Awards.

During the 2018 Mackinac Policy Conference, Phil and Gerry had the pleasure of interviewing Congressman Dan Kildee and United States Senator Debbie Stabenow. Congressman Kildee and US Senator Stabenow are prime examples of standing in the gap for those who cannot stand for themselves.

Hear great conversations from two powerful leaders about the financial cliff, poverty lines, and self-sufficiency. As always, FOOD FIRST!

"Anyone can count the number of seeds in an apple, but who among us can count the number of apples in a seed?"

Food for Thought engages leaders from as many sectors as we can because all leaders will benefit from helping solve this problem. Because of all of the influential guests and our wonderful listeners who continue to move us onward and upward have made Food for Thought an award-winning show! Recently, Food for Thought received the 'Best Regularly Scheduled Weekend Personality Team' at the 2018 MAB - Michigan Association of Broadcasters Excellence Awards!

Hear Phil and Gerry unpack the 3 areas of focus on the future of food security.

When something works well, it's the easiest thing to take for granted. The partial government shutdown was a $1.1 trillion appropriation, yet they were arguing (and, still are) about $5.7 billion.

Hear from Geoff Plague, Director of Tax and Public Policy of Feeding America. Geoff puts the shutdown into perspective on how it effects people's lives, the economy and the treacherous ripple effect it has played on the nation.

Did you know that 2.2 billion people have rolled off the SNAP program since Trump has become POTUS? Or, the fact that the shutdown occurred for 35 days, which is 1/10 of the year - not many people have the ability to absorb 10% of their annual income. We must create a momentum in legislation to prevent a shutdown from happening again as well as create a safety net that works.

'We cannot solve the problems with the same thinking we used to create them.' - Albert Einstein

Phil, Gerry and Kirk Mayes discuss the impact of food waste and the transformation Forgotten Harvest is making. Kirk Mayes is a leader, influencer and CEO and President of Forgotten Harvest.

Forgotten Harvest is a unique member of our 7 food bank network - they are a food rescue. Some 30 years ago, Forgotten Harvest was founded to tackle and address the waste of nutritious food and at the same time, use those assets to combat food insecurity in our communities.

Food waste costs more than ALL of the investments combined made by our state and federal governments into higher education. To help put into perspective even more - we are wasting 1,400 calories per day per person - that is unacceptable!

As always friends, FOOD FIRST!