Add Passion and Stir

Charles Watson, CEO of Tropical Smoothie Café, talks about how the restaurant industry is uniquely positioned to make a difference on child hunger. “The American consumer is demanding and one of the things that they're demanding - which is good - is purpose,” says Watson. “[They’ll] give you their money… but [they] also want to see that you're giving back and that you're doing something positive.”

He proposed a "CEO Pledge...

Jamila Robinson, the new Editor-in-Chief of Bon Appétit, discusses her vision for the magazine and more broadly how food can be a powerful force for good in the world.

“I'm very curious about how other people experience food and how food drives culture for other people, and that curiosity allows for other people to feel seen, and so it also changes the way that we approach stories,” she says.

She wants the magazine to cove...

Well before the school year ends for American children , advocates like USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services Stacy Dean and Hawaii-based consumer advocate and substance abuse counselor Zahava “Zee” Zaidoff are planning how to feed kids over the summer. “The experience of hunger, in and of itself, is a terrible thing. But hunger amongst children is so much more devastating... They don't nee...

Food and culture writer Alicia Kennedy and chef advocacy trainer and Table81 founder Katherine Miller discuss food justice and how we can make important improvements in our food system. “We operate with this idea that we should be able to have any [food] we want whenever we want it, at whatever price that we wanna pay for it,” says Miller. “It's an artificially constructed system that keeps our food affordable in certain p...

Daron Babcock, CEO of Bonton Farms located in a low-income neighborhood in South Dallas. Bonton Farms is one of the largest urban farms in the United States and its programs are addressing a variety of barriers residents face including housing, education, nutrition, and economic self-sufficiency.

“[Systemic inequity] is built on the faulty idea that there's this American dream that everybody can access and if you don't, th...

Jimmy Chen, founder/CEO of Propel and Ofek Lavian, founder/CEO of Forage, explain how they are harnessing the power of technology to ensure more people can easily access government food benefits. “We believe that well-fed people have many problems, but hungry people have only one,” saysk Lavian.

Both companies make it easier for people to access and maximize benefits online and through apps. “We build technology because we...

Bestselling author Thomas Kostigen talks about climate change and specifically how we can all decrease our carbon footprints by making different food choices. “If we were to embrace more types of food rather than what is just basically pushed upon us by the food system, then we might have a chance to change things in a bigger way,” he says. ““It isn't that easy to understand how much [each] food stores carbon.” Kostigen re...

The pain and suffering children in poverty endure, is a choice.  NOT their choice, not their parents’ choice, but a policy choice made by politicians in Washington DC. 

In this very special episode of Add Passion and Stir, we will examine the plight of the millions of American children who live in poverty and struggle with hunger.  We provide a 360o view of the issues from many perspectives.  Including t...

In this very special episode of Add Passion and Stir, we are going to talk about challenges and solutions in the fight for equity in America. We found three incredibly compelling stories that address the solvable problem of inequity in all its forms in the United States. We will hear from Bonton Farms CEO Daron Babcock, Investigative Journalist Aldore Collier, and Dr. Michael McAfee, President and CEO of Pol...

In this special encore presentation, we re-visit our conversation with CNN political commentator S.E. Cupp, who shares her perspectives on the current events in the Middle East, her own mental health challenges, and ending child hunger.

“Stand up for your friends, because they're hurting right now, and they need every voice they need, every hug they need, every text or email or call you can make,” she says about the war bet...

Jack Shonkoff, director of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, talks with us about the science around trauma and toxic stress in child development.

“I never talk about toxic stress or excessive stress activation without also talking about adaptation and resilience and the fact that you can build resilience against that,” he says. “There's huge variability and sensitivity to these kinds of traumas… the...

CNN political commentator S.E. Cupp shares her perspectives on the current events in the Middle East, her own mental health challenges, and ending child hunger.

“Stand up for your friends, because they're hurting right now, and they need every voice they need, every hug they need, every text or email or call you can make,” she says about the war between Israel and Hamas.

“Problems like hunger and poverty are not going to b...

Dan Pallotta talks with us about the conversation he ignited with his 2013 TED Talk about the way nonprofit organizations are funded. “We want the nonprofit sector to solve huge problems. We want the nonprofit sector to be able to dream gigantic dreams,” he says.

However, there are still many problems with how nonprofits are evaluated and how people and other entities choose to fund them. “I would say that that conversatio...

Aldore Collier, former editor at Ebony and Jet magazines, speaks with Billy and Debbie Shore about his recent expose article about the racist roots of health problems in Metcalfe Park, Milwaukee, WI. “Residents talk about being stifled by an “invisible net” that blocks advancement and makes it nearly impossible to maintain good health,” Collier wrote.

He describes the inaction by local and state governments. “It's not uniqu...

Daron Babcock, CEO of Bonton Farms located in a low-income neighborhood in South Dallas. Bonton Farms is one of the largest urban farms in the United States and its programs are addressing a variety of barriers residents face including housing, education, nutrition, and economic self-sufficiency.

“[Systemic inequity] is built on the faulty idea that there's this American dream that everybody can access and if you don't, th...

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...

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 re...

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 g...