Add Passion and Stir

Why is it so important to support black-owned businesses, particularly right now? FieldTrip chef and owner JJ Johnson talks to Billy Shore about being a black business owner and what drives him to succeed. “Don’t say you care about black lives if you can’t walk into a black-owned business and look on the shelves and give it the same amount of money that you give a white-owned business,” says Johns...

What will happen to our neighborhoods if independent restaurants do not survive the pandemic? Chicago’s award-winning chef and  Mexico: One Plate at a Time  host Rick Bayless joins Debbie and Billy Shore to talk about the struggle to survive for independent restaurants. “If we don’t get some assistance, I’m afraid we’re going to see our neighborhoods just devastated. They are going to lo...

How are kids getting enough nutrition with all the constraints on schools during this pandemic? What about the restaurant industry? In this poignant episode taped early after COVID-19 struck the US, with an updated introduction from host Billy Shore, celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern and Executive Director of Student Nutrition Services for the San Francisco Unified School District Jennifer Lebarre dis...

What responsibilities do corporations have in the communities where they work? Host Billy Shore welcomes two guests from Sodexo, Inc.: Chief Diversity and Sustainability Officer for the Americas Gerri Mason Hall, and Director of Culinary Delivery Desmond Fannin to discuss diversity, equity and inclusion within their company and society at large as well as the impact COVID-19 has had on their work....

Why should Americans care about hunger around the world? World Food Program USA President and CEO Barron Segar and food and lifestyle personality Sandra Lee join Debbie and Billy Shore to talk about the importance of combatting hunger around the world. “Food is a basic vaccination against chaos. When you don’t have food, you have increased unrest and conflict. Maybe we don’t have a vaccination aga...

How do we meet the increased need COVID-19 is causing in our country? San Antonio Food Bank President and CEO Eric Cooper and Hotel Emma chef and culinary director John Brand talk to Debbie and Billy Shore about the effects the COVID-19 pandemic has had on their city. Billy Shore asks Cooper about the now iconic image of a massive line of cars outside the San Antonio Food Bank in April. “I saw the...

What truly gives you meaning and purpose? Eleven Madison Park (NYC) Chef and Owner Daniel Humm joins Billy Shore to discuss how the pandemic has given him new purpose . “If we want to continue the way we’ve done things, I believe 5 years from now, 10 years or maybe already next year, it will be irrelevant and empty,” he says. Humm has transformed Eleven Madison Park into a pandemic food provider o...

How do we fix our broken food system? Food Tank co-founder and president Danielle Nierenberg joins Billy Shore to discuss the connections between food, nutrition, the environment and democracy. “People are thinking about food and agriculture as something more political… this citizen eater who votes not only with her fork, but votes for the kind of food system that she wants,” explains Nierenberg....

How do we create allies instead of adversaries? In a powerful episode taped right before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, National Immigration Forum Executive Director Ali Noorani, Amparo Fondita executive chef Christian Irabien, and No Kid Hungry Manager of Federal Advocacy Meredith Jorss joined host Billy Shore for an in-depth discussion about immigration and how to counter its polarizing effect on Am...

How can big consumer brands help make the world a better place? Brown Sugar Kitchen Executive Chef Tanya Holland and Kellogg Ready to Eat Cereal General Manager Doug VanDeVelde share their insights on food insecurity, giving back to the community and the effects of COVID-19. “When the COVID pandemic first started, there was a certain sense of obligation in our company to help secure the food suppl...

Why haven’t we been able to create the groundswell to end hunger? Bread for the World President and CEO Reverend Eugene Cho joins Billy Shore to discuss the connections between racism, poverty and hunger and how faith can inform social justice work. “Let’s not deny racism and… our complicity in some of these policies and structures,” advises Cho. “People are sensing that there is a significant mom...

How will restaurants survive the economic collapse caused by the COVID-19 pandemic? Award-winning Washington DC chef Kwame Onwuachi (formerly of Kith/Kin) talks to Billy Shore about the how the current crisis is exposing the vulnerability of the restaurant industry and the fundamental changes that must occur for independent restaurants to survive. “I would hope we don’t just go back to the same no...

How do we improve access to school meal programs during the COVID-19 pandemic? Congressman Will Hurd (TX 23) talks to Billy Shore about the root causes of childhood hunger, working in Congress and making better use of technology to deliver federal assistance to those who need it. Hurd is well known for his bipartisan work in Washington. “The only way big things have ever been done in Washington DC...

We must also reject the illusory safety of silence. We must speak out, even though it may seem implicit in who we are. We must say out loud that every form and manifestation of racism is unacceptable. And for those who don't think that that's the business of an anti hunger organization, we must also say out loud, it's the business of all human beings. Share Our Strength Co-Founder and Chairman Bil...

As COVID-19 continues to impact jobs, families and financial futures worldwide, celebrity chef, author and television personality Cat Cora joins Billy Shore to discuss how this pandemic is exposing our humanity and what the lasting impacts might be. “This is a human recalibration. We’re recalibrating the world. We are more authentic than we’ve ever been... We’re all on a level playing field, and I...

How will COVID-19 reshape the fight against hunger? Urban Institute senior fellow Elaine Waxman joins Billy Shore to share her data-driven insights on food insecurity in America during the pandemic. “SNAP is our number one line of defense for food insecurity,” she explains. “One of the persistent gaps has been that even though SNAP has been a great first line of defense for food insecurity, those...

How do you feed 1.5M of people every day? NYC Department of Sanitation commissioner and recently appointed food czar Kathryn Garcia talks to Billy Shore about leading the city’s massive and complicated hunger relief efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic. “It’s really been the sheer scale and magnitude of how many people are in need. Not any one piece of it is necessarily difficult in and of itself,...

Can the current pandemic strengthen our resolve to eradicate hunger? Feeding America CEO Claire Babineaux-Fontenot talks to Billy Shore about what she is witnessing on the frontlines of the escalating hunger crisis caused by COVID-19 and the opportunities it presents. “There are lots of opportunities in this pandemic to come out of it better than we were going into it,” she says, referring to the...

What innovations will emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic? On this episode, host Billy Shore reconnects with noted DC chef Erik Bruner-Yang (Maketto, Brothers and Sisters, ABC PONY, Spoken English) on helping the community. “This has been a wake-up call for me. I’ve always been wading in the water of being a public servant and [I’m] finally jumping into it,” says Bruner-Yang. He recently launched a...

Where do we find optimism during the current crisis? Celebrity baker Duff Goldman (Ace of Cakes, Charm City Cakes) dials in to talk to Billy Shore about his winding path to success, the effects of the coronavirus on his business and employees, and his advice for overcoming the current crisis. “The absolute 100% biggest impact is everybody needs to register to vote and vote in November,” he admonis...

How do poverty and racism put people at risk for COVID-19, and how do we protect those most vulnerable? On the latest episode of Add Passion & Stir, Sojourners Founder and President Jim Wallis and Billy Shore discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic is exposing the inequities in our society. “Poverty and racism are preexisting conditions that help you get the disease,” says Wallis. “We need to consid...

Can small farmers survive the COVID-19 pandemic? NYC’s Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns chef and co-owner Dan Barber joins Billy Shore to discuss how the farm-to-table movement is especially vulnerable right now. “There’s a network of farmers that we’re connected to, whether you know it or not. That network has been shattered,” laments Barber. Left without a way to generate revenue, he fears...

How will the COVID-19 crisis transform the restaurant industry? Dirt Candy chef and owner Amanda Cohen and host Billy Shore discuss how restaurants will survive the pandemic. Cohen says she and other chefs are struggling with reopening their restaurants after the crisis has passed. “How are we going to reopen? What am I reopening to? Who is going out? Who still has money to go out in this city? An...

How are food pantries responding to the COVID crisis? West Side Campaign Against Hunger (WSCAH) Executive Director Greg Silverman joins Billy Shore for a conversation about the impact COVID-19 is having on his work feeding New Yorkers on the street instead of in their food pantry. “Sometimes the best innovations happen when you have to make these things on the fly,” he notes. “COVID has, in a sens...

How do we keep feeding food insecure kids and families during a pandemic? Stacey McDaniel, Anti-Hunger Initiatives Specialist and National Spokesperson for the YMCA of the USA, joins Billy Shore to explain the adaptations and collaborations the Y has undertaken to bring meals to more kids and families than ever before. “Nothing is more fundamental than making sure children have access to healthy m...