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Vanquishing Childhood Hunger in the U.S.

April 12, 2018 / 21:15

This episode features Katherine Klein interviewing Billy Shore, the executive chairman of No Kid Hungry, discussing hunger, food insecurity, and poverty in the United States.

Shore explains the difference between hunger and food insecurity, emphasizing that hunger affects millions of children in the U.S., with one in six kids struggling with these issues. He highlights that hunger is solvable and is not caused by a lack of food but rather by inadequate connections to food programs.

The conversation covers the shift in focus of Share Our Strength, the parent organization of No Kid Hungry, which moved from being a grant maker to taking accountability for ending childhood hunger. Shore discusses the importance of having a measurable goal and the impact of their No Kid Hungry campaign.

Shore shares the progress made in increasing participation in school breakfast programs, noting that they have added about 3.2 million kids to the program. He emphasizes the need for nonprofits to build capacity and engage in public policy to create lasting change.

The episode concludes with Shore discussing the role of corporations in addressing hunger and food insecurity, highlighting partnerships that benefit both businesses and communities.

TL;DR

Billy Shore discusses childhood hunger and food insecurity in the U.S., emphasizing the solvable nature of these issues and the role of nonprofits and corporations.

Episode

21:15
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hello I'm Katherine Klein I'm the vice
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dean for social impact here at the
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Wharton School and I'm really delighted
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today to be interviewing Billy sure
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Billy sure is the executive chairman of
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no Kid Hungry and its parent
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organization share our strength Billy
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and his sister Debbie co-founded the
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organization thirty four years ago and
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in that time they have raised over six
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hundred million dollars to fight hunger
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and food insecurity and poverty in the
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United States so Billy thanks so much
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for joining me today thanks thanks for
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having me great to have you with us
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so my guess is that some of the people
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who are gonna be reading and listening
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to this interview don't spend a little a
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lot of time thinking about hunger
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poverty food insecurity in the United
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States they may vaguely have some sense
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of the nature of these problems but help
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us understand what is the problem of
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hunger in the United States what is the
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problem with food insecurity what's
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hunger what's food insecurity well
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hunger in the United States I'll start
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with hunger because hunger and food
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insecurity are actually pretty different
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but hunger in the United States affects
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various populations but the most
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vulnerable and the least responsible for
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the situation that they're in are
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children and we've got millions of kids
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in the country about one in six who
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suffer or struggle with hunger in some
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way or with food insecurity I guess the
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most important thing to understand about
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hunger in the u.s. is that it's a
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solvable problem you know and I would
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have to give you a single-factor
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statistic for you to know that kids here
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aren't hungry for the reasons the kids
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around the rest of the world are hungry
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it's not war or famine or drought kids
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are hungry here because not because we
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don't have food not because we don't
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have food programs like the food stamp
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program or school breakfast school lunch
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but because we haven't done a good job
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of connecting them so hunger is solvable
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food insecure and hunger is kind of a
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physiological issue are you getting
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three meals a day are you getting the
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proper nutrition are you getting what
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your body the calories and then the
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protein that your body needs to grow
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food insecurity is a measure that comes
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from surveying people and asking a whole
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series of questions that are more
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socio-economic in nature do you make
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enough money to feel like you can buy
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your family the best
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do you ever have anxiety that you're not
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going to be able to feed your children
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as well as you'd like to so there are a
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lot of families and children and food
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insecure who live in food insecurity but
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who may not actually be experienced
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hunger they're both important but in a
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triage sense you want to make sure that
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kids at a minimum are not hungry that
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they're not missing meals and having all
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the the negative effects that come with
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that right right and I suppose the
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question may be obvious we answer may be
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obvious but why focus on kids why not
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focus on families communities well for a
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couple reasons so when sheriff's trains
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started as you mentioned 34 years ago we
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were focusing on hunger and Ethiopia we
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were focusing on hunger all across the
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United States seniors families and one
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of the things that we thought about was
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how do we actually not just alleviate
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the problem or ameliorate it behind we
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actually solve it or is there some piece
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of what we're doing that we could solve
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there's a writer named Jonathan Kozol
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who says that you should pick battles
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that are big enough to matter but small
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enough to win and I love that construct
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because there's so many things that all
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of us care about and you know when you
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think about what's big enough to matter
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if it's small enough to win maybe we
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can't solve Syria or the Middle East or
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climate change or organizations can but
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when it comes to kids who are in this
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country who are hungry that is big
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enough to matter but small enough to win
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and it's solvable and as I as I
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mentioned a moment ago kids are the most
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vulnerable the consequences of being
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hungry when you're a child
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developmentally can last you the rest of
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your life and they're the least
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responsible for the situation they're in
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they're just they're kind of born into
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it so we thought that that was the a
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winnable issue and we've actually made
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tremendous progress against it if you
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ask me this question five or six or
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seven years from now I'm pretty sure
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we'll say that we've still got poverty
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we still got food insecurity and we
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still got hunger but we don't have
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hungry kids in the United States great
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so I want to explore that more with you
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but but first you've written and talked
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about how you made a significant shift
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and share our strength about ten years
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ago so talk with us about what made you
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make an organizational pivot what was
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that pivot how did
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no it was time to make one you know
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what's right there yeah well shower
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strength was a grant maker to probably
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three hundred to four hundred other
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nonprofits around the country well you
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all were raising money and passing it
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then yeah and I'd say first for the
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first twenty years of our existence what
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most people knew about us if they knew
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anything was that we had this very
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entrepreneurial way of generating
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revenues we didn't have any government
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money or foundation money or high donor
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program or direct mail we basically made
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money we organized chefs and restaurant
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tours to do events for us corporate
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marketing partnerships cause related
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marketing we did even today we have
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contracts with dozens of corporate
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partners that fund our organization it
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puts us in the position of not competing
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with brother and sister organizations
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and not having any strings attached to
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the dollar so we can spend them as
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strategically as we wish so we were
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raising that money bringing new money
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into the into the field granting it out
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it was satisfying to almost everybody
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except for a handful of us at the center
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of the organization who were asking
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ourselves you know in effect is the
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glass half empty or half full are we
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moving the needle are we solving a
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problem or we're just putting a bandaid
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on it and so we realized that we really
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needed to put kind of a stake in the
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ground we need it in this Jonathan Kozol
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sense of what's big enough to matter but
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small enough to win could we pick an
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area and hold ourselves accountable to
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actually solving it and again in that
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case it felt like childhood hunger would
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be the the place to do that it required
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a big culture shift on the part of the
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organization all of a sudden we weren't
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just the good guys giving out money to
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others we were accountable to achieving
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a very specific outcome some people felt
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that pressure and it's it's a very
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different feeling so it's interesting
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because one way I could interpret what
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you're saying is you made a decision to
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focus your efforts but it sounds like
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it's and I think many organizations do
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that though or you know we're too broad
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where our messaging is too unfocused we
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need to focus sounds like you're saying
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this was a change that was yes about
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focusing but it was more than that yeah
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I I think that's a really interesting
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distinction you're making because it was
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about focusing and accountability and
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the accountability piece was so
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important
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for us in one sense it's kind of absurd
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that one little nonprofit organization
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would say we're accountable for ending
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childhood hunger we're just one of many
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organizations the government plays a
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much bigger role than we do but one of
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the things that we observed in the space
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that we were working in is there was a
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real dynamic of almost everybody
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pointing the finger at somebody else
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so advocates in Washington would get
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legislation passed and then the
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governor's wouldn't implement it the way
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they should or the local organizations
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wouldn't everybody else was saying I did
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my job but somebody else's fault and so
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we thought in it just kind of the
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classic the buck stops here since
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somebody's got to raise their hand and
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say we'll be responsible for getting
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this done until it's done so as I say in
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one sense a little bit audacious but in
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the other sense it gave our stakeholders
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a real palpable sense of we can judge
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where these guys are against their goal
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in a world where you don't know if
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you're getting a better return on
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investment by giving money to Habitat
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for Humanity or Teach for America or
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City Year or Share Our Strength here's
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at least an organization that's saying
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we welcome you we invite you to judge us
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here's here's our role and here's how
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far we are from it and some years we
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came closer and some year so we didn't
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come as close as we said we would and
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and this has energized your your donors
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your partner's I gather I think so I
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think in a very big way it had a really
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catalytic impact on them again just kind
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of the confidence that we would succeed
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and the notion that this is not
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something we're going to be asking them
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to support forever there is an endpoint
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there's a I think the the consulting
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firm Bridgespan calls it an arrival
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point you know there is an arrival point
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that you'll achieve and you'll know that
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you can then go on and climb the next
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higher Hill right so with the no Kid
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Hungry campaign really capturing that
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with those those three words no Kid
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Hungry you shifted the focus and said
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we're gonna end childhood hunger how
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what is what share our strengths what is
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the no Kid Hungry campaign do to end
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hunger so we defined ending hunger as
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making sure kids had three meals a day
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usually at least
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whether parents are poor or food
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insecure or what-have-you they're
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probably able to afford at least one
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meal for their kids they may not be able
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to afford three but low-income kids in
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this country get a free or
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reduced-priced school lunch that's a
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program that was set up in 1946 when
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generals and admirals returned from
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World War two and they said to Congress
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our recruits by the end of the year
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we're not strong enough and there they
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weren't fit enough so we need to start
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feeding kids in school better then they
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added the school breakfast program in
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1964 so we've got today 22 million kids
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in the country who qualify for free or
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reduced-price lunch
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all 22 million are eligible for
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breakfast as well but when we looked at
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this eight years ago only nine million
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of the 22 million we're getting it so
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less than 50% but the crazy thing
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Catherine is that it's bought and paid
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for for all 22 millions so try to think
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about another issue that we work on in
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this country where there's a pot of
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money literally billions of dollars
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sitting in Washington that can only be
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used for this and yet in less than half
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of them are being used so that was the
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opportunity to start enrolling kids and
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we've done that with breakfast and we've
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done it with summer meals and other
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programs that you're not a government
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agency so you're not a government agency
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saying hey school district put in this
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program or hey you know whatever the
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place is to deliver those kids breakfast
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so what do you actually do so what we're
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doing is we're going into school
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districts and we're saying there's this
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program available if you want to
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participate in it there may be some
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things you need in terms of startup cost
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that we will pay you might need
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insulated carts on wheels you might need
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to redo your cafeteria you might need to
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hire more cafeteria workers but we will
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pay for that if you do what you need to
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do to enroll in the federal government
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school breakfast program the meals are
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100% federally reimbursed so you can go
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to any governor in the country and say
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governor did you realize that you've
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left 150 million dollars or whatever the
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number is in Washington and no matter
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how conservatory how liberal they are
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they all say what do I have to do to get
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it it's so interesting that's so
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interesting so you made this shift in
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around 2010 you said you're making good
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progress on the met
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you count so tell us about that progress
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well we've added about 3.2 million kids
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to the school breakfast program of the
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22 million kids who get lunch not all 22
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million of them should get breakfast
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because some will have breakfast at home
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with mom and dad or grandparents or
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whatever and that's great but the right
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number is probably about 15 or 16
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million and today we're at about 12 and
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1/2 closer to 213 so adding 3 million
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kids to school breakfast program over
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just five or six years has been a really
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an enormous task and we did it in one
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very simple way so I described this
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program started you know 50 years ago
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it's always run the same way forever
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with almost no changes and somebody said
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what if we moved breakfast from the
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cafeteria where kids have to get there
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early and many of them can't because the
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bus driver scheduled their mom and dad
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scheduled or what have you and then
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there's the stigma attached to being the
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kids who get to school early what if we
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move breakfast from the cafeteria to the
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first 10 minutes of first period every
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way so when you propose that two things
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happen one is everybody you possibly
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think oh I can think of objects to that
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idea yeah in the classroom etcetera
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etcetera but the other thing happens is
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participation rates go to almost 95
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percent and after sometimes as short as
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a week the teachers embrace it and they
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say oh now I see why this is a good
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thing of the 3.2 million kids that we've
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added which is across thousands of
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schools nobody's ever gone back to the
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old way nobody's ever said I wish we
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were doing in the cafeteria again it's
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just it just works too well but it's
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changed I mean changes you know is
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uncomfortable for people right so having
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made this this this shift and pursue
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this change in strategy for 10 years
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what's the advice that you would give to
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other organizations whether it's a
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for-profit or a nonprofit that may be
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thinking you know we're not doing as
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well as we could we're not having the
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impact whether it's social impact
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whether it's financial performance we're
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not where we should be we need to focus
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hold ourselves accountable know I'd say
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there's three or four things that apply
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doubt I think many efforts not just our
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work in hunger and food security one is
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what I put under the umbrella of kind of
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go big or go home to have a big goal
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you know put a stake in the ground stand
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behind it have a goal that's you know
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big enough to inspire people the second
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is to be willing to build your own
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capacity and to make the assertion that
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building your capacity will lead to
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impact in the nonprofit world as you
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know everybody wants to know what your
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overhead costs are and how much you
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paying salaries and they want you to put
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as much money out into the community as
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you possibly can and that's great and
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for the most noble of reasons but if you
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don't have professional staff if you
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don't train them well if you don't
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retain them then you're really wasting
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donors money so building your own
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capacity is key this accountability
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issue which we both mentioned I think is
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also you know a very important one and
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then finally I'd say what we came too
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late later than we should have was this
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notion that public policy has to play a
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very important role then not there are
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very few problems that nonprofits can
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solve on their own there are things they
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can do in terms of innovating and taking
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risks but when it comes to scaling up a
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good idea that they've created or that
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they've advanced you're gonna need
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public support and do you think that
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there are other sectors other problems
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where there is you know as you put a
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money left on the table where the public
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where the public policy exists but isn't
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being implemented you know as
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effectively as it could and should be
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well I think yeah I think there are a
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lot of places where the advocates work
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so hard to get a policy to become law
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that once it does they're on to the next
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thing and that nobody really looks back
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so I had this interesting conversation
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with Marian Wright Edelman from the
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Children's Defense Fund who is this
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iconic leader you know in this space and
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we were talking about you know what
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battles we should be fighting and we're
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going around the table and she said well
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I think we should pay attention to what
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she our strength is doing because we won
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these we fought and won these battles 40
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years ago so and before we go fight the
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next ones let's make sure that what we
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won actually happens and comes to pass
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there's a little bit of this in the
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healthcare and the child health space in
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particular there states that don't fully
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utilize the child health insurance
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program but there's lots of you know in
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terms of just performance and
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executional issues separate from money
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there's a lot of improvement that
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be made across the board and terminate
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different pollinators yeah right it
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makes sense and I think of all the
00:15:34
benefits that they do exist but they're
00:15:36
difficult for people to access
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interesting so one of the big part of
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your model has been this partnering with
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corporations so I'd love to hear more
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about you know what corporations give
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you what these businesses are giving you
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what they get from it and then I'd like
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to kind of talk more expansively about
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the role of business in fighting hunger
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and food insecurity well we've thought
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from the beginning that there's a really
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big role for the business community and
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that there's a role for nonprofits to
00:16:04
think about not just redistributing
00:16:06
wealth but actually creating wealth you
00:16:09
don't think of nonprofits being in the
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business of creating wealth of
00:16:13
generating revenues but there's no
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reason they shouldn't I have a friend
00:16:17
who always says that nonprofits should
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be a tax status not your management
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philosophy right you you want to make
00:16:24
money and use it for the the things that
00:16:26
you do and so when we had this notion
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early on and we part of it we understood
00:16:32
part of it we stumbled into frankly but
00:16:34
we as we started to organize chefs and
00:16:37
restaurant tourists to get involved in
00:16:38
the hunger issue since they made their
00:16:40
livelihoods from food we thought they
00:16:41
would feel connected to the issue of
00:16:43
hunger as we started to do that
00:16:45
companies that market it into the chef
00:16:47
and restaurant industry that had
00:16:48
something to sell them we're coming to
00:16:50
us saying you're you're a more efficient
00:16:53
marketer than we are you've got 500 of
00:16:56
the chef's that we want to be carrying
00:16:57
our product how about instead of us
00:16:59
going up 500 of them one at a time we
00:17:02
strike up a partnership with share our
00:17:04
strength so Citibank is a good example
00:17:06
they want chefs and restaurant ORS to
00:17:09
use a Visa card instead of an American
00:17:11
Express card and they want to go into
00:17:13
the restaurant and have a conversation a
00:17:16
little bit different than here's the
00:17:18
point spread on our cars and the fees
00:17:21
they want to go in and say hey you and I
00:17:24
are we're both partners with share our
00:17:25
strengths why don't we do this like why
00:17:27
don't we have a partnership together
00:17:29
williams-sonoma Fiji water lily espresso
00:17:34
lots of companies have realized that
00:17:36
there are some benefits of doing that
00:17:38
and then I think there's also the
00:17:41
important issue of just because they're
00:17:43
human
00:17:43
things like you and me they want to be
00:17:45
doing something meaningful they want to
00:17:47
be having an impact and some of them get
00:17:49
involved for kind of marketing reasons
00:17:50
but then stay involved because they find
00:17:52
it really fulfilling to be able to offer
00:17:54
their employees this opportunity to to
00:17:56
have a big difference and so we often
00:17:59
hear about engagement and social impact
00:18:01
engagement by corporations for all those
00:18:02
reasons right you know through
00:18:04
philanthropy for marketing for
00:18:07
engagement for reputation and even a
00:18:10
real belief and the social issues is
00:18:13
there you know as you think about the
00:18:15
next 10 years you've been quite
00:18:17
visionary about this is there you know
00:18:19
as this conversation changes about the
00:18:20
role of business and this notion that
00:18:22
businesses should pay more attention to
00:18:25
social issues business can and should
00:18:27
have a social impact and it should be
00:18:28
part of the social well the the the
00:18:31
mission of the organization and the
00:18:33
business model so not necessarily
00:18:34
philanthropy or marketing but this is
00:18:36
actually core to our business you have
00:18:37
thoughts on that and in this space yeah
00:18:40
I think well I think it's related to
00:18:42
what's going on in social media and the
00:18:44
pressures that creates on business so
00:18:45
you and I are having this conversation
00:18:46
on the day that dicks the sporting goods
00:18:49
store announced that they're no longer
00:18:50
going to stock the ar-15 right so
00:18:54
there's been this you know terrible
00:18:55
incident in in parkland Florida and gun
00:18:59
safety is now risen to the top and we've
00:19:02
seen just in the last 10 days dozens of
00:19:04
companies start to change their
00:19:06
relationship with the National Rifle
00:19:08
Association because they believe it's
00:19:10
important for their business it's
00:19:12
probably something that they've you know
00:19:14
wanted to do
00:19:16
perhaps anyhow but maybe didn't have the
00:19:18
courage or didn't realize it aligned
00:19:20
with business reasons so yeah I think I
00:19:22
think business leaders are going to play
00:19:23
a larger and larger role and certainly
00:19:25
in our case if we've got the CEO of a of
00:19:29
a company that can write a letter to the
00:19:32
governor the CEO of Deloitte did a press
00:19:35
conference with us in which he said this
00:19:38
was at the time a man named Joe
00:19:40
Echevarria s' and he said you know we
00:19:44
hire 30,000 young people a year so we've
00:19:47
got to make sure that we've got a pool
00:19:48
of young people who are healthy and fit
00:19:50
and fed and do well in school and that's
00:19:53
the reason we're so supportive of the
00:19:54
school breakfast work so you have
00:19:57
that all of a sudden the lens shifts
00:19:58
from kind of this anti-poverty advert me
00:20:01
to this very respected business leaders
00:20:03
saying this is good for the economy so
00:20:05
yeah I think business will play more of
00:20:06
a role right right it's interesting
00:20:08
interesting challenges for CEOs they
00:20:10
start to have this larger and a public
00:20:12
role so great well it's and if if
00:20:16
somebody wants to learn more about food
00:20:19
insecurity hunger or volunteer make a
00:20:21
difference you know resources for people
00:20:24
to pursue yeah we've got a lot of them
00:20:26
so our our best link to our website is
00:20:29
no Kid Hungry org but we've also got
00:20:32
there a Center for best practices that
00:20:34
talks about all of the ways that
00:20:36
communities around the country are
00:20:37
working on these issues of hunger and
00:20:39
food insecurity and poverty we've got a
00:20:42
list of all the events that people can
00:20:44
volunteer at or donate to but yet no Kid
00:20:47
Hungry or gets the place to go perfect
00:20:49
great well Billy sure thanks so much for
00:20:51
talking with me great to greta's hear
00:20:53
all about your continuing good work at
00:20:55
Share Our Strength thanks for more
00:21:00
insight from knowledge at Wharton please
00:21:02
visit knowledge Wharton UPenn edu
00:21:08
[Music]
00:21:13
you

Episode Highlights

  • The Shift in Strategy
    Billy discusses the significant organizational pivot Share Our Strength made a decade ago.
    “We needed to put a stake in the ground.”
    @ 04m 24s
    April 12, 2018
  • Ending Childhood Hunger
    Billy shares insights on the No Kid Hungry campaign and its focus on children.
    “We’re gonna end childhood hunger.”
    @ 08m 36s
    April 12, 2018
  • Innovative Breakfast Solutions
    Billy explains how moving breakfast to classrooms increased participation rates significantly.
    “Participation rates go to almost 95 percent.”
    @ 12m 15s
    April 12, 2018
  • The Role of Business in Social Issues
    Businesses are increasingly recognizing their responsibility to address social issues, integrating them into their core mission.
    “Business can and should have a social impact.”
    @ 18m 25s
    April 12, 2018
  • Corporate Responsibility and Gun Safety
    Following tragic events, companies are reevaluating their relationships with organizations like the NRA for business reasons.
    “There's been this terrible incident... gun safety is now risen to the top.”
    @ 18m 55s
    April 12, 2018
  • Youth and Community Health
    Business leaders emphasize the importance of healthy youth for economic stability and community well-being.
    “You have to make sure that we’ve got a pool of young people who are healthy.”
    @ 19m 47s
    April 12, 2018

Episode Quotes

  • Hunger is a solvable problem.
    Vanquishing Childhood Hunger in the U.S.
  • Pick battles that are big enough to matter but small enough to win.
    Vanquishing Childhood Hunger in the U.S.
  • Kids are the most vulnerable and least responsible for their situation.
    Vanquishing Childhood Hunger in the U.S.
  • We can judge where these guys are against their goal.
    Vanquishing Childhood Hunger in the U.S.
  • Business can and should have a social impact.
    Vanquishing Childhood Hunger in the U.S.
  • This is good for the economy.
    Vanquishing Childhood Hunger in the U.S.

Key Moments

  • Hunger in the U.S.00:50
  • Focus on Kids02:41
  • Organizational Pivot04:16
  • Breakfast Program Success11:08
  • Accountability13:55
  • Social Impact18:25
  • Gun Safety18:55
  • Youth Health19:47

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown

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