Add Passion and Stir

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Genius Knows No Boundaries Sep 18, 2018

Show notes

What is causing the failure of leadership in our government and society? Former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell and famed restaurateur Danny Meyer (Union Square Hospitality Group, Shake Shack) join host Billy Shore to discuss a variety of issues ranging from immigration, urban renewal, educational opportunity and the reasons for the current crisis in our political culture. “All of us in life constantly face divided loyalties. Where are your obligations? The problem with many political leaders is they lose sight of the proper hierarchy of obligations and loyalties,” says Mitchell. “[It’s the] confluence among self-interest, the interests of our guests and the interests of the city. Investing in people and places and organizations that can lift the whole,” explains Meyer about his own hierarchy of obligations when he applies his signature approach of opening new restaurants in transitional neighborhoods.

When the conversation turns to immigration, Mitchell discusses the history and the opportunities it presents for the United States. “You have to think about how much our country has benefited from immigration; how immigrants have brought new life, new energy, new views. Genius knows no language, no race, no religion… but it tends to flourish where there is freedom and opportunity,” he says. Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group understands that immigrants are the backbone of the restaurant industry and its commitment to help them succeed. “I think what our industry needs to work on quite a bit is how do we elevate [immigrant workers beyond entry level], how do we give you the tools,” says Meyer, noting that they offer English as a Second Language programs to their employees to help them increase their economic potential.

Listen to three of the most accomplished leaders in their respective fields deliver a master class on the critical issues facing our nation.

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Cultivating Authenticity and Scaling Excellence Sep 12, 2018

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How does authenticity drive success? Philz Coffee CEO Jacob Jaber and Neighborhood Restaurant Group Beverage Director Greg Engert join Debbie and Billy Shore to discuss good coffee, craft beer and how to build businesses that are part of the fabric of their communities. Both guests cite authenticity - in the people they hire, the products they serve, and the experiences they provide for guests - as the basis for the success of their organizations. “The best service is when it’s done from the heart and authentic,” Jaber believes. Engert thinks that just having craft beer on the menu is not enough. “The hard part is echoing the passion of the producer through service and product knowledge,” he says. “The flavors become more vibrant when you wed the intellectual to the more visceral pleasures of drink.”

Both guests built their businesses with community in mind. Jaber’s father started Philz out of his grocery store in San Francisco and now they have 48 stores and growing. “If you want to do it right, you have to not worry about scalability and just focus on excellence,” says Jaber. Engert agrees. “[They] are places for people who live near each other to get together, share food and drink and get to know each other and learn from each other,” says Engert of Neighborhood Restaurant Group’s 19 establishments.

Tune in to this conversation and hear the passion that these two guests bring to their crafts, their customers and their communities.

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Our Toughest Problems Require Our Toughest Talent Sep 04, 2018

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How much do you think about how you contribute to society? Is it important for you to help others and give back? Two social sector advocates whose deep values and empathy guide their own career paths discuss the importance of doing good. Dan Cardinali, CEO of Independent Sector, and Bren Herrera, Cuban private chef and lifestylist, chat about food, culture, personal transformations, and their deep passion for helping others with Billy Shore, founder and CEO of Share Our Strength, on this episode of Add Passion and Stir.

Cardinali, a champion for the social sector (nonprofit and philanthropic institutions), reveals its vastness: 1.5 million institutions that employ 1 in 10 Americans and serve or engage 1 in 4. However, that impact is often overlooked and there is a misperception that the sector is weaker and less effective than the private sector. “Nonprofit and philanthropic institutions are critically important to America because they often are working on those issues that neither government nor market strategies are able to address,” says Cardinali. “In many regards, they are much more effective than either government or business can be, yet they are often looked at as being subpar to those two institutions.”

This perceived second-class standing of social sector organizations also affects the individuals who choose to work there who are, according to Cardinali, “extraordinarily heroic folks willing to suppress their own desires for wealth and praise in service of bettering the community.” Based on her own transformational path from law to life coaching, Herrera agrees. “Our purpose in life is not to make money… it’s to do the best that we can to make our global community a better place,” she believes. However, she also poses the question of how to attract bright young people into the sector. Shore feels it is critical for young people to know the social sector is a viable option. Speaking about Share Our Strength, he says, “Having the best people in the country feel like, ‘this is a place I want to be,’ becomes very important to our ability to succeed.” Cardinali reinforces this point. “Many social sector institutions take on the most difficult and intractable problems in the world – and you want the… best talent addressing the most difficult challenges.”

All three participants agree that food can play an important role in improving our society. Herrera shares stories of how food can heal and connect people from her chef experience and world travels. Cardinali describes how Independent Sector is using dinners to bring people with disparate views together to bridge differences and find common ground. Shore comments that food sits in the intersection of so many social issues.

How do you improve your community? How have you seen food bring people together? Share with us in the comments, on Facebook or on Twitter.

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Come Together: Uniting People Through Food And Opportunity Aug 29, 2018

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How do we unite different cultures in the midst of a polarizing political climate? In this episode of Add Passion and Stir, George Washington University professor of leadership Louis Caldera and Rose Previte, owner of Compass Rose and Maydān in Washington DC, talk about culture, leadership and the potential for diversity to drive positive change in the US. Both guests believe 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, the son of Mexican immigrants who became Secretary of the Army. He emphasizes how our country benefits when the brightest people in the world want to come here to be educated. “The growing diversity of this country will become more politically active and they’re going to say, ‘I don’t fear people who come from places like where I come from because I’m a contributing American,’” he predicts. Previte’s restaurants are a celebration of diversity inspired by her upbringing with a Lebanese mother and Sicilian father and her own extensive travels. “The street food [at Compass Rose] is the great equalizer, it’s where everyone whether rich or poor…come together over food,” she says.

Both guests come from families where food and hospitality were focal points. Previte remembers how her diverse family educated others about they were through food. Caldera, who grew up poor in Southern California at a time when the Latino community was still small, believes shared meals are important for building strong families and communities. However, shared meals can be difficult with the work schedules in low-income families, so he advocates for supports like minimum wage, family assistance and opportunities for education.

Listen to this conversation between two leaders who understand diversity as a strength that builds positive social change.

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Eating our Way Out of the National Debt Aug 21, 2018

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Do you know the #1 cause of death in America? It is not what you think - our diet has surpassed smoking as a cause of death. Michel Nischan, chef and Founder, President and CEO of Wholesome Wave, and Lindsey Seegers, Program Manager of Nutrition Education at Manna Food Center in Montgomery County, MD know that food-related disease is both deadly and preventable. They join Share Our Strength founders Debbie and Billy Shore to explain some promising ways they are addressing the root causes of diet-related diseases. “We spend about $1.4 trillion a year on diet-related disease,” says Nischan. Yet the economic disparities of a disease like Type 2 Diabetes are stark. “I learned that the majority of the people that struggle with that condition lived at income levels so low they couldn’t even afford the basic ingredients to help them prevent the disease in the first place.” Seegers works with thousands of families in Montgomery County on nutritious eating. “Healthy eating is not just for the rich,” she stresses. “What parents want so much is to feed their children well – they want the best for their kids. The challenge is to be able to afford adequate and enough wholesome staple foods.”

Both guests believe that systemic changes are needed to impact health outcomes, and they are making real progress. Seegers’ work at Manna Food Center focuses on nutrition education – not just food distribution – to help families learn how to identify and afford healthy foods on a budget. They are also launching a retrofitted school bus that serves as a mobile kitchen and pop-up pantry. Wholesome Wave began a 2-for-1 program for buying fruits and vegetables with SNAP food stamps with private funding which grew into a federally-funded program in the Farm Bill called the Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive (FINI) Grant Program with $100M over 5 years. Nischan did not predict the success of the model. “However complicated the root causes are, something as simplistic as providing affordability thru incentives can be so powerful – it’s mindboggling.” FINI has also had larger economic impacts because farmers whose produce is purchased through the program are responding to this increased demand by making infrastructural improvements and expanding their enterprises.

These food justice leaders also discuss the recent threats to the SNAP food stamp program and the effect that cuts would have on families and the economy. “Food is where people are going to cut when things get really tight,” reports Seegers, which means that preventing diet-related disease will be even more difficult. “It’s just wrongheaded,” says Nischan. He cites the return on investment of giving people access to healthy food vs. paying for expensive health care treatments like dialysis. “$100 thousand dollars saves $4 million dollars.”

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Rock Star P!nk Goes the Distance for America’s Hungry Kids Aug 14, 2018

Show notes

On September 27, 2018, more than 100 riders, many of them nationally recognized chefs, will gather in Charlottesville, Virginia to ride 300 miles in three days with the goal of raising $1.8 Million to end childhood hunger in America. We thought this would be a good time to re"cycle"our 2017 interview with international pop superstar P!nk, who participated in our 2017 Chef Cycle ride in Santa Rosa, California.

More than 200 chefs from across the country were joined by Grammy Award-winning international rock star P!nk in a fundraising bike ride that raised $2 million for the No Kid Hungry campaign from Share Our Strength. In an exclusive interview for Add Passion and Stir, the podcast from Share Our Strength hosted by brother and sister co-founders Billy and Debbie Shore, singer-songwriter P!nk, says, “What’s awesome about Share Our Strength and No Kid Hungry is that [they] really make it doable to help… [They] make it really fun. [They] make where people’s dollars go make sense. It’s really easy to understand, and it’s universal – it’s kids!”

This special edition of Add Passion and Stir was taped at Chefs Cycle, a 300-mile fundraising bike ride in Santa Rosa, CA. Alecia Moore Hart – better known as P!nk – sat down with fellow riders husband Carey Hart, chef Mary Sue Milliken (Border Grill), chef Kevin Nashan (Sidney Street Café, St. Louis) and Share Our Strength founders Billy and Debbie Shore to discuss the importance of getting involved on issues that matter. Despite a grueling few days in the saddle, all the riders were inspired by the event and their collective power to make a difference for hungry kids. They are grateful for organizations that help them do this. “Everybody wants to help,” says P!nk, “but the problem is sometimes that nobody knows what to do.”

James Beard award winners Milliken and Nashan have been involved with No Kid Hungry for many years, and the mission and camaraderie keeps them engaged. “When I was poor and just starting out and I had no way of really helping, I was introduced to Share Our Strength,” says Milliken. “I realized: I can do what I do! I can cook! It was so powerful. I thought, this is what I want to dedicate my time to.” Carey Hart, a retired motocross racer, now shares his time and talent with Good Ride Rally, a motorcycle rally that benefits veterans.

Each guest also speaks about their memories of taking civic action with their parents when they were young and how this instilled important values of giving back and taking care of those less fortunate.

They stress the importance of involving kids in helping other kids. “Every parent wants their kid to be a global citizen. Every parent wants their kid to be aware of what’s going on in the world. Every kid wants to help another kid – it’s innate, it’s who they are,” says P!nk.

Share Our Strength founder Debbie Shore shares the next big idea for Chefs Cycle: a cross-country relay bike ride involving thousands of chefs and raising tens of millions of dollars for fighting child hunger. Add Passion and Stir host and Share Our Strength founder and CEO Billy Shore – who also rode all 300 miles through the hills of Santa Rosa – gives insight into how he advises his staff. “Our biggest challenge is failure of imagination. Incremental steps are not enough – to really solve the problems we need to solve, we need to think big and take big risks.”

What do YOU think? How can we think big about solving child hunger in America? Can we rally thousands of chefs to bike across the country and ride on Washington, DC? How can we better engage kids in helping other kids who are struggling with hunger? We would love to hear your thoughts. Listen to the episode, provide comments in iTunes, comment on our Facebook page, tweet at us on Twitter, or go to our website(nokidhungry.org). We can’t wait to be inspired by you!

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How Social Change Happens Aug 08, 2018

Show notes

Why are some social change movements successful while others are not? On this week’s episode, author and Georgetown University’s Global Social Enterprise Initiative Executive Director Leslie Crutchfield and WinniE’s Bakery chef/owner Elise Smith talk about effective leadership and “how to do well by doing good” with hosts Debbie and Billy Shore. In her latest book, “How Change Happens: Why Some Movements Succeed While Others Don’t,” Crutchfield defines common denominators driving recent successful social movements. “Successful movements turn grassroots gold. They invest in and nurture local leaders… It’s the combination of grassroots and organizations that put all the pieces together so that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” she explains. She cites Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign as one of those successes. Smith describes her passion for being involved as a grassroots volunteer for No Kid Hungry. “Childhood hunger is something that should not be happening in our country. Whenever I get overwhelmed thinking about how big a problem it is, it [gives me] a sense of ease to know there is something I can do,” she says.

Crutchfield has been writing about the social entrepreneurship movement from its beginnings. “[Social enterprise is] grounded in a value that business is in service to society. It’s not just for profit, it’s for people and the planet, too. We sit at the intersection of ‘how do you make a profit and create social and environmental impact,’” she says. In addition to baking delicious treats for fundraising events, Smith recently went to Capitol Hill with (previous Add Passion and Stir guest) chef Jason Alley to lobby legislators to support SNAP and summer meals programs. “That passion for food and people is where we connected,” she says.

Listen to these two dynamic guests connect the larger social movements driving real change with the more personal motivations that drive grassroots activism.

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Overcoming Partisanship in Washington, DC Aug 01, 2018

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How do we foster big, creative ideas to solve our most urgent problems? President, CEO and co-founder of First Book Kyle Zimmer and award-winning DC restaurateur Ashok Bajaj join Billy and Debbie Shore to discuss their philosophies on giving back and outlooks on our social and political culture. Zimmer worries that today’s partisan divide is fostering an environment where social problems are outpacing solutions. “In the non-profit world, we all have that white-knuckle death grip on our steering wheels and we’re not given the bandwidth to really think of creative, great big solutions,” she says. As a person dedicated to hospitality in today’s hyper-partisan Washington DC, Bajaj wants his restaurants to be seen as non-partisan sanctuaries and is dismayed by recent news of restaurants refusing service based on politics. “Sharing food, sitting in a social setting, brings us together. How do you know [a person coming into a restaurant] is not trying to change her mind and something good comes out of those two-hour conversations?,” says Bajaj.

Bajaj sees the increased need from underserved communities in the sheer number of requests for help that he receives every day. “There’s no set formula, we do as much as we can,” he says. Zimmer - who has been supporting underserved communities through First Book for more than 25 years by getting 175M books to kids in 30 countries - sees the ripple effect these programs create. “The kids get self-confidence. They get employable skills. It’s good for our democracy. When a community solves these fundamental issues, the community is more stable,” she notes.

Listen to these guests discuss overcoming partisanship and why their passion for giving back is part of their secret to success.Overcoming Partisanship in Washington, DC

Listen to these guests discuss overcoming partisanship and why their passion for giving back is part of their secret to success.

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Luck and Moral Obligation Jul 25, 2018

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Is being fortunate an obligation to help others? Host Billy Shore travels to Portland, Maine to chat with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Russo and pastry chef and restaurant owner Ilma Lopez (Piccolo, Chaval) about the good fortune that has propelled their careers and how they use their talents to create social impact. “Successful people don’t like to talk about how important luck is… Luck does have a large part to do with success,” says Russo. Lopez agrees that being in the right place at the right time helped her career advance, and her habit is to give back when something fortunate happens to her. “The more blessings we have in our lives, the more we have to give. Every time something good happens to us we have to give something out,” she believes.

The guests discuss whether social responsibility is more important than ever given our current political climate. Russo and Lopez agree it comes down to using our strengths. “Storytelling is about empathy… and that is an act of moral imagination. I use my time to make myself heard on moral issues,” says Russo. “We talk at the restaurant ‘Is it really meaningful what we’re doing or should we really be doing something else? What if we close the restaurant and go down to the border and try and feed these kids?,’” asks Lopez. However, she concludes that helping neighbors and local charities can ultimately be just as valuable.

Share in this thoughtful conversation among people who see social responsibility as a basic human instinct as well as a moral obligation.

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The Social Entrepreneur: Business That Builds Community Jul 18, 2018

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How can business and entrepreneurial principles be used to solve social problems? In this episode, Pace University Lubin School of Business Dean Neil Braun sits down with SALIDO founder and CEO Shu Chowdhury to talk about business, technology and social entrepreneurship. “[There is] emotional satisfaction in helping people at the most interesting stage of life,” says Braun, a long-time Share Our Strength board member. Serial entrepreneur Chowdhury wants community building to be part of the DNA of his company. One of SALIDO’s values is community service. “If someone can’t care about someone they don’t know because it’s the right thing to do, it often happens that they can’t connect with what you’re actually trying to do,” he explains.

After a distinguished career as an entertainment executive that included stints as Chairman and CEO of Viacom Entertainment and President of the NBC Television Network, Braun uses his vast experience in business to help a diverse student body including many from underserved communities. “They’ve overcome more adversity just to get to college than I have in my entire life and I am so inspired by them. They have found the inner strength to deserve a chance,” he says. No Kid Hungry supporter Chowdhury credits his parents for instilling a philanthropic and entrepreneurial spirit in him. They emigrated from Calcutta, built successful businesses and started a family foundation. His latest venture is improving restaurant technology systems to be more functional for restaurant workers at all levels. “When you make someone’s life easier and you help them do a better job… that can have a pretty awesome net impact on not just society but the individual,” he says.

Listen to this important conversation that mixes insights from the business world with the desire to create social impact.

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