Add Passion And Stir

Child Tax Credit Series Bonus ContentCongresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-Connecticut) has long been a champion in fighting child poverty. As part of our series on the Child Tax Credit, we spoke with DeLauro about the difference the Credit is making in the lives of families.Now Chair of the House Appropriations Committee, DeLauro has been a proponent of the Child Tax Credit since 2003. “[The Child Tax Credit] is the most transformative piece of social legislation that we have seen in decades in this country.” She is currently very focused on Congressional negotiations around making the new expansion permanent. “When you don't capture these moments, you lose them for the next 20 or 30 years.”In this full interview with DeLauro, we hear her staunch commitment to helping children and families. “We have a moral obligation and moral responsibility to do that, and it's a place where government can make a difference,” she concludes.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art

In this second episode of Add Passion and Stir’s 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 required to ensure success of the program.We spoke with Amanda Renteria, CEO of Code for America, who launched the GetCTC.org portal to make it easier for families to claim their credit and Jimmy Chen, CEO of Propel, the organization behind the Providers app, which allows participants to manage a variety of government benefits, including the CTC, in one place about how they are helping to the credit reach all eligible families.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Child Tax Credit Series Bonus ContentCongressman Jim McGovern (D-Massachusetts) has made it his mission to end childhood hunger. As part of Add Passion and Stir's series covering the expansions to the Child Tax Credit, we spoke with McGovern about his advocacy for legislation that addresses the root causes of hunger and poverty in America. Elected in 1996, the year the Child Tax Credit was created, McGovern has seen all variations of the credit from inside Congress. For him, the expansion of the Child Tax Credit to provide benefits to an additional 39 million households is a critical component of a cross-governmental strategy to end poverty.McGovern says, “This [bill] is about our values. These are people’s lives…The reason why this investment is so significant is because we have underinvested in people for decades.” In this full interview with McGovern, we hear how he is working with leaders in and out of government to finally make the conversation about hunger something that we address head on. “Hunger is a

Passed in 1997, The Child Tax Credit, known as the CTC, provides an end of year tax credit to families with children under 16. In March 2021, as part of the $1.9 trillion coronavirus aid package, the American Rescue Plan, the credit was made available to children 17 and under for the first time, the amount of the credit was increased from $2,000 to $3,000 for children 6-17 and from $2,000 to $3,600 for children under six, and it was changed to a monthly payment instead of annual lump sum. Experts estimate these changes could lift as many as five million kids out of poverty.In this first episode of a series on the Child Tax Credit, Add Passion and Stir welcomes Congressman Jim McGovern (D-MA), Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO), and other thought leaders for a conversation about the origin and evolution of this legislation. What was the original concept? How has it worked and not worked? How did the CTC’s expansion come to pass? And how are broader policy changes, such as an histo

The restaurant industry was hit incredibly hard by the pandemic. In 2020, Add Passion and Stir connected with chefs to learn how the pandemic was affecting them. We're revisiting these inspiring conversations to showcase the resilience of the restaurant industry and its commitment to service.We spoke with Chicago’s award-winning chef and Mexico: One Plate at a Time host Rick Bayless in September of 2020. At that time he was concerned about independent restaurants and advocating for federal funds to stabilize them. “If we don’t get some assistance, I’m afraid we’re going to see our neighborhoods just devastated. They are going to lose their character. Restaurants are a major part of our culture,” he explained. Bayless got involved with the Independent Restaurant Coalition, which lobbied Congress for funds to support the restaurant industry. In early 2021, the Biden Administration’s American Rescue Plan Act established the Restaurant Revitalization Fund which provides funding to help restaurants and other eligi

Television writer, producer and former teen idol Shaun Cassidy talks about telling his story and his My First Crush wines. Cassidy is touring again for the first time in decades, writing and producing NBC’s “New Amsterdam,” and selling wine to support No Kid Hungry. “’Find your story’ is the theme of my show… when we're born, there's often a story that society or family or our own crazy expectations have written for us, but it's not always the story we're meant to experience… we have to find our own story and the satisfaction in doing that is profound,” says Cassidy about his music tour. “The more personal, the more open you are, the more vulnerable you are to the audience, the more relatable you are.” He also continues to be excited about helping to end child hunger through his wine making. “Yes, it's a charitable endeavor, but it's also an extraordinary wine and I'm really proud of that… and the fact that it means kids are going to be less hungry than they were the day before t

Award-winning Chez Panisse chef and cookbook author Alice Waters 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 never be able to make the right decisions,” she says. Waters founded Edible Schoolyard, an experiential learning program at a Berkeley middle school that deepens students’ relationship with food, gardening and cooking skills, and capacity for critical examination of the food system, more than 25 years ago. “The kitchen classroom became a place to teach world history. It's a way to reach a person through all their senses and those are pathways into our minds,” states Waters. “We decided to put our money behind our values to educate the next generation to change the world. I so believe that education is the deep place where we can make systemic change.”See Pr

Award-winning Washington DC chef Kwame Onwuachi (formerly of Kith/Kin) and Salamander Hotels & Resorts Founder & CEO and BET co-founder Sheila Johnson discuss The Family Reunion (LINK) , black culture, and diversity in the hospitality industry. The Family Reunion was an immersive experience presented by Onwuachi in partnership with Food&Wine and Salamander Hotels & Resorts on August 19-22, 2021 where dozens of chefs, culinary and hospitality professionals and a few hundred attendees celebrated diversity in the hospitality community. “I've been a part of so many food festivals… and I was wondering why there wasn't anything that really just celebrated black contributions to the food industry. We need to have an event that celebrates black and brown contributions to the food industry on a black owned property with a historical context,” says Onwuachi. Johnson is pushing the hospitality industry on diversity and equity. “We're going to grow it, and we will continually shine light on the issues unt

The restaurant industry was hit incredibly hard by the pandemic. In 2020, Add Passion and Stir connected with chefs to learn how the pandemic was affecting them. We're revisiting these inspiring conversations to showcase the resilience of the restaurant industry and its commitment to service.When we spoke with Amanda Cohen of NYC’s Dirt Candy in April 2020, the shutdown in New York City was only weeks old. Cohen said she and other chefs were struggling with reopening their restaurants after the crisis has passed. “How are we going to reopen? What am I reopening to? Who still has money to go out in this city? And who wants to go to a crowded restaurant?,” she asks. She has long been an outspoken advocate for fair restaurant industry practices. She is also a leader on eliminating tipping in her restaurant. Dirt Candy offers a starting hourly wage of $25/hour, as well as paid time off, paid sick leave, health insurance, and continuing education. “If we reopen the same way as we closed, we will have literally lea

The restaurant industry was hit incredibly hard by the pandemic. In 2020, Add Passion and Stir connected with chefs to learn how the pandemic was affecting them. We're revisiting these inspiring conversations to showcase the resilience of the restaurant industry and its commitment to service. In April 2020, Add Passion and Stir connected with NYC’s Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns chef and co-owner Dan Barber to discuss how vulnerable the pandemic had made the farm-to-table movement. “There’s a network of farmers that we’re connected to, whether you know it or not. That network has been shattered,” laments Barber. To help, Barber and Stone Barns launched resourcED which sold food in boxes as a way to give the farmers that supply his restaurants a revenue stream. In this updated epsiode, we revisit this conversation with Barber and share updates on how things are going now. Click here to hear the original interview with Dan Barber.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy N

The restaurant industry was hit incredibly hard by the pandemic. In 2020, Add Passion and Stir connected with chefs to learn how the pandemic was affecting them. We're revisiting these inspiring conversations to showcase the resilience of the restaurant industry and its commitment to service.In May 2020, Add Passion and Stir connected with Chef Erik Bruner-Yang (Maketto, ABC Pony, Foreign National) who said that for him the pandemic "...has been a wake-up call... I’ve always been wading in the water of being a public servant and [I’m] finally jumping into it.” In this updated episode, we return to the conversation we had with Bruner-Yang about the effects of the pandemic and establishing the Power of 10 Initiative to help those in need and share updates on how things are going now. As Bruner-Yang shared recently, “No matter how much people want the pandemic to be over, the effects are going to be generational and programs like The Power of 10 which started as an emergency response has turned into a long term

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 the podcast to talk about their commitment to combatting hunger around the world. “Food is a basic vaccination against chaos. When you don’t have food, you have increased unrest and conflict,” observes Lee. For both Segar and Lee, the mission is a personal one. Segar recalls the impact of his work in Ethiopia on the South Sudanese border. “I saw so many kids and moms and grandmothers... fleeing violence to stay alive. I saw how they walked for days and weeks… I saw how food literally brought a child and a mom back to life,” he says. Lee shares how she was raised on welfare and foot stamps, "It’s important to remember where you come from, and when you come from a place like that, I think you need to give back." This interview is equal parts awareness building and call to action, “Everybody listening to this show has a voice, but not everybody in the w

Is our divided political culture energizing or suppressing democracy? Former Nebraska Governor and US Senator Bob Kerrey and renowned chef, restaurateur and food activist Tom Colicchio join Billy Shore to discuss the politics of hunger, public education and the role of the citizen in democracy. “The real problem in the food system is [it doesn’t] permit the kind of innovation that will produce a different outcome. You’ve got to create a system whereby the innovators who want to deliver healthy food have an opportunity to get in the door and be successful,” explains Kerrey. Colicchio agrees and talks about the insights he gained from his wife’s (Laurie Silverbush) groundbreaking film about hunger in America, A Place at the Table. “People aren’t hungry in this country because of famine, war or drought. We have enough food to feed people. We don’t have enough political will to feed people,” he notes.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-

How do we protect those most vulnerable to poverty and racism? Originally aired in April 2020, Sojourners' Founder Jim Wallis explains how the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the inequities in our society. “Poverty and racism are preexisting conditions that help you get the disease,” says Wallis. “How can we redeem this time for not just immediate response… but also how this will change us – how we act, how we lead, what we do now - going forward. History is being changed by this, so how will those changes result in our being different going forward?”Wallis reflects on the need for leadership, now more than ever. “SNAP [the federal food stamp program] is maybe the most effective way to serve people’s immediate needs and revitalize the economy at the same time... What’s clear that government is the only place big enough to respond at a time like this. We need politicians from both sides of the aisle to prioritize poor people,” he believes. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy N

Originally recorded in December 2020, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Nicholas Kristof and Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health Director Allison Barlow discuss the struggle for social justice in Native American communities, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. “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 prides for parents on a Native reservation is to celebrate their child’s high school graduation. If children there aren’t graduating from high school, it’s because of generations of trauma on top of a really ineffective education system,” Barlow says. “We as a country have had this narrative that when people struggle, it’s because of a lack of personal responsibility and bad choices. When a child born in a certain county has a life expectancy shorter than that of Cambodia, that’s not because that infant is making a bad choice. It’s because we as a socie

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 systems – political, social, economic, geographic – keep poor people from succeeding. They argue for more equity in social programs and a more dignified way of serving the poor. Kathy shares stunning statistics and poignant stories from America's impoverished families with whom she has worked and reminds us that, "When it comes down to it, what people seem to want more than anything else is dignity. … but a lot of our social policies deny people that.” What remains true today is the call-to-action to address and fix America's broken food system that as Tom notes can't be fixed "...unless we talk about money and politi

Why is it so important to nourish ourselves and each other? On a special Father’s Day episode, actor and musician Jeff Bridges and his daughter, Mother’s Empowerment Coach Isabelle Bridges, talk about the importance of nourishing relationships and fighting child hunger. “As you get older, you realize that the value you have and what’s really precious in life are these family relationships,” Jeff says about the inspiration and process of their children’s book, ‘Daddy Daughter Day.’ “I remember reading the Daddy Daughter Day story to you Dad, and you saying, with sparkly eyes, ‘we should turn this into a book, and I will illustrate it,’” recalls Isabelle. “When we have our children, we want to nourish them, and then we go unnourished ourselves. My mission is to help the moms feel nourished on the inside so they have a wellspring to give them,” she continues about her work helping mothers take care of their own needs. Jeff is the official spokesperson of the No Kid Hungry campaign. “[Child hunger] an issue that’

In a special Father’s Day episode, Danny Meyer (Shake Shack, Union Square Hospitality Group) and his daughter Hallie Meyer (NYC’s Caffè Panna) share what they have learned from each other and how it has shaped their lives, particularly during the challenges of 2020. Both Danny and Hallie found their way to food by following their desire to do what they love. Hallie’s path ran parallel to her father's and she describes how she made it her own. “I do credit you for that, Dad: for setting an example that I can do whatever I want with the business… that there’s not one way to do it,” she says. Danny shares how Hallie has equally taught and inspired him. “I’m so proud of the way she does business and the spirit that she brings to the business… Hallie had a courage and an entrepreneurial spirit and an ability to pivot that really inspired me,” says Danny about his daughter’s response to the pandemic. Hallie and Danny talk about building purpose into their business. For Hallie, that has mean

Can the current pandemic strengthen our resolve to eradicate hunger? Feeding America CEO Claire Babineaux-Fontenot describes 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 increased public awareness of hunger in America. “Do you really want four-mile-long lines [outside food banks] or would you prefer, as I do, to provide people with the dignity where they can go into a grocery store just like the rest of us?” she asks. She also encourages all of us to be informed voters. “I think we have a responsibility to be well informed about what the people who represent us that we elect, where they stand on issues like hunger,” she concludes. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Who is responsible for solving our major social problems? Former Massachusetts Governor and Bain Capital Senior Advisor Deval Patrick discusses the roles of government and business in solving our society’s most intractable problems. “[Government] policy is not that interesting or important in the abstract, it matters where it actually touches people.” After his term as governor, he founded and built an impact investment fund that helped push the industry. “No one sector is going to be able to solve those issues alone, and business has to be part of solutions because it’s so fricking big. What if we could prove that [business has] a false choice; if you could get superior returns and measurable, demonstrable positive human or environmental impact at the same time.”See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.