Add Passion and Stir

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...

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...

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...

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 s...

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 N...

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 he...

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...

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 workforc...

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....

In this encore episode that originally aired in July, 2020. Kellogg's Ready To Eat Cereal General Manager, Doug VanDeVelde and Brown Sugar Kitchen Executive Chef Tanya Holland share their insights on food insecurity and the difficult early days of the pandemic. Both Kellogg's and Chef Holland were driven to help feed people in need. VanDeVelde says that Kellogg's felt an obligation to help feed th...

Since 1993, child poverty has fallen 60% – according to a landmark 2022 report from Child Trends. And while the magnitude of this decline in child poverty is unequaled in the history of poverty measurement in the U.S., as Jason DeParle who covers poverty for the New York Times reminds us, “even if child poverty falls almost 60% as we found that it did, there's still 8 million poor children in the...

Could kelp be the new corn? In this Add Passion and Stir episode, Briana Warner, CEO of Atlantic Sea Farms, and Debbie Gagnon, President and Co-owner of Red's Eats (Wiscasett, ME), discuss the importance of seaweed to the future of our food system. “There are choices that we can be making about our everyday eating habits that can make the planet actually better,” says Warner, who built the biggest...

Service is in Michael McAfee’s DNA. From an early career in the military to roles in the Federal Government and his current leadership at PolicyLink , McAfee has dedicated his life to realizing a just and fair society – a society designed for all. To achieve this, McAfee centers equity and focuses on seeing others humanity, especially those with differing opinions or backgrounds. The results are f...

In this special episode, Share Our Strength co-founder Billy Shore speaks with the organization’s brand-new CEO, Anne Filipic. She explains how her career led her to this position and the depth of her passion about solving childhood hunger. “What does it mean to end childhood hunger today, tomorrow, and forever? … Getting meals to kids who are hungry now, … supporting families to make sure that th...

Why is it so important to nourish ourselves and each other? On this very special episode, we revisit our conversation with actor and musician Jeff Bridges and his daughter, Mother’s Empowerment Coach Isabelle Bridges. The father-daughter duo talk about the importance of nourishing relationships and fighting child hunger. “As you get older, you realize that the value you have an...

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...

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...

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...

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 baki...

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...

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...

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...

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 wo...

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 cla...

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...