Add Passion and Stir

Why would anyone cut 7,000 employees to save 0.06% of the budget from one of the most important agencies in the federal government?   That’s the question Congressman Tom Swasey asked at town hall with former Social Security Commissioner Martin O'Malley. Over the past few days, O'Malley has warned that the 89-year streak of Social Security sending monthly benefits could come to an end.

That is why we are reprising ...

On the very special episode of Add Passion and Stir, we revisit or conversation with chef, food writer, food critic, and author Ruth Reichl. Ruth discusses the transformative power of food and culture. “One of the great things to me about food is that you have the ability to touch these moments of grace throughout the day simply by biting into a perfect peach and going, ‘oh my God, I'm glad I'm alive,’" she marvels.

Her new...

In this very special episode of Add Passion and Stir, we reprise an episode from May 2024 with two powerful leaders of the Mayors Alliance to End Childhood Hunger. The Mayors Alliance is a bipartisan alliance of almost 400 mayors from across the country.

In this time of turmoil, local leadership is all the more important to protecting and helping those in need. Mayors Sharon Weston Broome of Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Matti...

In a new conversation, Jimmy Chen, founder/CEO of Propel and Ofek Lavian, founder/CEO of Forage, return to discuss current trends in using technology to ensure more people can access government food benefits.

“As of January 27, 2025, at least, our plan is to continue to invest in the things that we have confidence that are not going to change over the 20-, 30-, 40-year time horizon, while we stay nimble and adapt to what m...

In an episode originally aired in 2018, restaurateur, entrepreneur and author Rose Previte and former Secretary of the Army Louis Caldera talk about leadership, public service, and how diversity is our greatest strength. “As long as we’re true to our principles of equality, and people can develop their talents through education and contribute something, then that’s what we need to do,” says Caldera.

Previte’s three DC-area...

Alex Amouyel, President and CEO of Newman’s Own Foundation explains the foundation’s unique approach to creating impact. The foundation’s mission is to nourish and transform the lives of children who face adversity through innovative philanthropy.

“Our foundation owns the food company and the licensing business, so a hundred percent of the profits and royalties from the sale of Newman's Own products go to the foundation in...

Caree Cotwright, Director of Nutrition Security and Health Equity at the Food and Nutrition Service at the US Department of Agriculture, explains the concept of nutrition security on a new episode of Add Passion & Stir.

“Nutrition security is everyone in our country having consistent and equitable access to healthy, safe, and affordable food, but also food that is optimal for their health and wellbeing,” she says. “If ...

Partnership for a Healthier America President and CEO Noreen Springstead discusses how to make America healthy again through high quality food and empowered communities. “Is the food system broken, or is it designed in the way that it's supposed to be operating today, which is around profit?,” she posits.

“There is data that suggests if the food supply is healthier, it's available, it's affordable, it's accessible, we can ...

Poverty researcher Kathryn Edin talks about the insights from her new Book, The Injustice of Place: Uncovering the Legacy of Poverty in America. “I'm realizing that you can't really understand anything about a place without knowing its history,” she says.

A new public data set revealed the crushing poverty in rural areas without the supportive infrastructure of urban places. “Rural is not monolithic. Rural is really multid...

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...

ASPCA’s Matt Bershadker and VOW for Girls’ Clay Dunn made an impact at Share Our Strength, and now they are making impacts for animals and girls worldwide. “If you're going to create big change, you need to take big swings. My time at Share Our Strength taught me to take big swings, and it taught me to feel the work deeply,” says Bershadker. He started at ASPCA in 2001 and has been President and CEO since 2013.

Dunn chose ...

Originally recorded in December 2020, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Nicholas Kristof and Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health Co-Director Allison Barlow discuss the struggle for social justice in Native American communities.

“The Bureau of Indian Education schools only have a 53% high school graduation rate! We are failing them way before they fail us,” suggests Kristof. “One of the greatest pr...

Albertsons Companies Foundation President and Executive Director Christy Duncan Anderson talks with Billy Shore and Lillian Singh about what the grocery chain’s foundation is doing to fight hunger in neighborhoods across the country.

“We asked our neighbors and our customers what change they would like to see in their neighborhoods. The data came back and it was really astounding: people cared about a whole bunch of differ...

Social Security Administration Commissioner Martin O’Malley talks with Billy and Debbie Shore about how Social Security is lifting kids out of poverty, and what more it could be doing. “Social Security is the difference between almost a million kids living above the poverty line or below it,” he says. During this conversation, O’Malley and Share Our Strength commit to a renewed partnership to help reach eligible children w...

On this very special encore episode of Add Passion and Stir, interior designer and philanthropist Charlotte Moss and Darren Walker, the former president of the Ford Foundation and the newly announced president of the National Gallery of Art, discuss the importance of ending child hunger. Moss selected No Kid Hungry to be the beneficiary of her book, Home: A Celebration . Home is an ode to Edith Wharton’s The Book of the Ho...

The sisters-in-law behind fashion brand Veronica Beard, Veronica Swanson Beard and Veronica Miele Beard, talk about entrepreneurship and giving back. “Women are the same everywhere: we all want to look good, we all want to feel good, and we all want to do good,” says Miele Beard. The sisters give back to one nonprofit a quarter through deep engagement. “Our legacy is going to be bigger than the fashion that we designed and...

As a former elementary school teacher and school principal, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona knows about how hard it can be for hungry kids to learn. In the last episode of our Food Is the Most Important Food Supply series, he shares how he and his department are advocating for school meals. 

"The days of our schools just focusing on reading, writing, and arithmetic are long gone,” he reports. ”It's critical...

Back-to-school time can be difficult for the over 13 million kids in the U.S. that are living with hunger. However, people all over the country are working together and sharing their strength to feed kids in their communities. Hear some moving examples in another episode from our 2022 series exploring why food is the most important school supply.

Chef Lorena Garcia describes how her nonprofit Big Chef, Little Chef works in...

There are over 13 million kids heading back to school this month in the U.S. that are living with hunger. Please be inspired by two episodes from our 2022 series on Food is the Most Important School Supply. Hear directly from kids affected by hunger and teachers and school administrators witnessing hunger in the classroom, as well as changemakers from federal, state, and local government that are making sure kids get fed a...