Share Our Strength's 'No Kid Hungry' Campaign

Ryan Gorman hosts an iHeartRadio nationwide special featuring Elliott Gaskins, Acting Chief Resource Development and Growth Officer at Share Our Strength. Elliott Gaskins discusses the No Kid Hungry campaign, a national initiative to end hunger in America, and ways to help support this effort during the holiday season.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to iHeartRadio Communities, a publicaffairs special focusing on the biggest issues impacting
you. This week, here's RyanGorman. Thanks so much for joining us
here on iHeartRadio Communities. I'm RyanGorman, and we have a very special
and important show for you. Aroundthis time of the year, there's always
an extra focus on the need acrossthe country, including the issue of food

(00:24):
insecurity. One organization working to meetthat need year round making sure children here
in the US don't go hungry isShare Our Strength. Right now to talk
more about the vital mission they're onalong with their No Kid Hungry campaign.
I'm joined by Elliott Gaskins, actingChief Resource Development and Growth Officer at Share

(00:45):
Our Strength, the organization behind theNo Kid Hungry campaign. You can learn
more about Share Our Strength at Shareourstrengthdot Org. Elliott, thank you so
much for taking a few minutes tocome on the show, and let's start
with the general overview of the workyour organization does and how this all got
started. Sure and Ran, thankyou so much for giving me the opportunity

(01:07):
to speak with you and your listenerstoday. So very much appreciate how you
are highlighting people in organizations and thecommunity making a positive difference. I s
there were many more individuals like youhaving these conversations, So thank you so
much for the opportunity. Was deeply, deeply grateful. So share our Strength
responded nearly forty years ago under thevery simple premise that no matter who you

(01:30):
are, no matter what station inlife, that you have a strength to
share. And we found that tobe a very powerful thing as we engage
the whole host of partners in ourwork over the last almost forty years.
In that time, it was foundedby a brother it's just a pandem,
Billy and Debbie Shore, who inthe early eighties were moved very much by

(01:53):
the famine and what they were seeingin Africa in terms of hunger and poverty
there, and decided they want tocreate an organization to address those issues here
in the United States. And soout of that spirit and out of that
inspiration, basically on their credit cardand the basement based under than creative division

(02:14):
to let shaff can today an organizationcommitted to ensuring that children have the mails
they need to be successful, whetherthat is breakfast launch, summer after school,
three hundred and fifty five days ayear, seven days a week.
We want to make sure the kidsare the food they need to be successful.
And the growth of this organization overthe past forty years, just looking

(02:37):
at the numbers, it's been incredible. It has been absolutely incredible. Weave
going from an organization to that hasbeen serving a handful of hundreds and maybe
thousands of kids for an organization thatare now serving millions, you know,
ensuring that millions of more kids tohave access to your healthy mails they need

(02:59):
to be successful. And so it'sbeen extraordinary progress in terms of the children
that we are helping and families thatwe are helping, but also progress in
terms of the policy change that wedo through our advocacy efforts, and so
that is also a huge part ofwhat we do. You know, we
know that lasting change in this countrycan happen through the legislation, and so

(03:20):
we are very committed to advancing policychains with lawmakers across the aisle to make
sure that the kids have the foodthat they need. In addition to that,
we are also very committed to ensuringthat families have access to all those
social benefits programs like SNAPS and whichSNAPS is one of the most effective ways

(03:44):
to feed children and families in thiscountry, Yet there are many families school
for many reasons are not accessing that, whether that is through barriers, whether
that is not enough information and awarenessabout programs, or whether that is through
stigma. A huge part of whatwe do is making sure that families are
connected to these programs so they canhave what they need. We're going to

(04:05):
focus a lot on your work attemptingto end hunger and more specifically the No
Kid Hungry campaign. But on thatnote, when you were just talking about
your work and helping families, canyou tell us about some of the different
programs that you have family economic mobility, food skills, education, and then

(04:27):
also something that we've had to seefar too often in recent years, disaster
relief efforts. Yeah, appreciate thequestion, and those are all areas that
we focus on, and so oneof our core efforts is to try to
institute programs is that have the opportunityto be long lasting and sustainable. And

(04:48):
so only the Life of a NoKid Hungry campaign was launched in twenty ten,
which was our simular all efforts toaddress child hungary in the country.
We realized that one of the waysthat we can do that was to ensure
that more kids had breakfast. Weknow though that there was a large percentage
of kids who are eligible for free, reduced and reduced price runs that were

(05:11):
also not getting breakfast. And thereare many reasons that you might imagine that
that happened. Some they just can'tget to school early enough because of the
parents' work schedule, for some reasonsto be stigma where there are that kids
going up earlier, everyone sees you, and Sigma sigma is a really powerful

(05:32):
thing in terms of a barrier forpinos and families. And so one of
the programs we helped implement across thecountry that has allowed millions of more kids
to have breakfast is something called Breakfastafter the Bell, where breakfast is integrated
into the school day for kids andso they don't have to show up early.

(05:53):
It is integrated in the first period, and it's breakfast that is available
to all students. As you mightimagine a kid that doesn't have to practice,
it's not ready to want, it'snot ready to engage, not ready
to be socially active in your school. So one of the levers that we
person this is just a great examplethat once these programs are implemented that they

(06:17):
can exist in perpetuity in terms ofmaking sure that kids have access to the
mails they need. And I wouldjust say, you know, we're talking
about hunger, and we're fulfilling theneed of addressing hunger in this country.
But when you feed a kid,it's so much more than that. When
you feed a kid and unlocks prinkfulbut unlocks of possibility, and the unlocks

(06:41):
the ability to change the trajectory ofa life. When you feel healthy,
when you feel ready to engage inschool and athletics, are any satt sort
of of the world, you know, I would say from my own personal
perspective and experience, I grew upin a situation where we didn't have all
the time access to all the thingsthat we needed, and sometimes we needed

(07:03):
help with specific programs. And forme, it was access to those programs
that allowed me to be a greatstudent, so allow me to be a
great athlete, which instead thanks theentire trajectory of my life. And now
I have three kicks today or incollege for thriving all because of the foundational

(07:27):
pieces that were set And so that'sthe power of the programs that we're trying
to implement. We want to seekids and we want to end the hunger
crisis in this country, but wealso want to make a generational impact in
the life with children. Let's talkabout your disaster relief efforts for a moment.
We're joined by Elliot Gaskin's acting ChiefResource Development and Growth Officer at Share

(07:49):
Our Strength, the organization behind theNo Kid Hungry campaign. You can learn
more about Share Our Strength at ShareOur Strength dot org and of course you
can findind that all about No KidHungry at No Kid Hungry dot org.
When disaster strikes issues involving food,access to food that can become a real

(08:11):
problem in communities all across the country. No matter the disaster, whether it's
a hurricane, a flood, awildfire, how do you step in and
help support those communities in the aftermathof these disasters. Yeah, you know,
our hope X our strength is nomatter the condition, no matter of

(08:33):
the circumstance of which children are nothaving a reliable access to who we want
to help mitigate. That is thesame for disaster relief, and it goes
from whether it is something like HurricaneKatrina where we showed up in a powerful
way or other disasters that happen throughoutour country, and so our goal is

(08:54):
to go into communities and make surethe local food bank, the local community
agency, the resources, the cold, the funds and the flexibility to feed
kids in an environment that is unusual. It's very similar in the way that
we showed up over the course ofthe pandemic. As you know, school

(09:18):
was out for a substantial amount oftime for the number of kids, and
so we had to be creative andflexible and how we were going to support
communities across the country, and sothat entail providing Fonds France and technical assistance
to communities to figure out how theyconserve you know, how they can set
out bus routes in their community sothat can be dropped all at the homes.

(09:43):
How we can set up flights andhelp through our community. Were parents
to come pick up food for theirchildren, and so all of these things
require resources, require support, andthat sort of is sort of the baseline
and how we show our wa therewas a not natural disaster, whether it's
something like the COVID nineteen pandemic,one of the things that we hang our

(10:07):
hats on is our ability to becreative, our adapt and be flexible.
The search is no matter what thecircumstance is. Those adjustments that you made
due to the pandemic, how manyof them were permanently incorporated in the way
you operate, the lessons learned fromall of that, how much of that

(10:31):
has been applied to everything you domoving forward. That's a really good question,
and I would say one of thethings that we're seeing that realized in
an extraordinary way. And so priorto the COVID nineteen pandemic, there were
a lot of restrictions around non congregatedbeating. And what that simply means,

(10:58):
you know, in simple terms,is that did prior to the pandemic in
most cases to fill up the fixedsite to get the food that they needed.
And as you might imagine for rouralcommunities, for families that don't have
transportation, that is a challenge.And so during the course of the pandemic,

(11:20):
a lot of those restrictions, dueto a lot of our advocacy and
our partners, were losing and sowe had a lot more flexibility to reach
kids and families where they were andto create opportunities again where we can have
delivery often or we can have folkscoming to sites that were maybe even more
convenient. One of the ways thathas some realized post pandemic. It was

(11:43):
one of the things that very properin last year on the Bus Association build
there was a provision that allowed atwenty nine billion dollar investment in summer mill
for kids across the country. Andso this is the work that we're going
to be working to implement with ourfartners across the country over the next five

(12:07):
years. The two key provisions andsort of that in that bill allows for
non congregates feeding in communities during thesummer. Now, if you just take
for a rural community where there's nopublic transportation options, where the families maybe

(12:33):
twenty or more miles from a grocerystore, giving them the ability, for
example, for local organizations to fillup in their communities, in their neighborhoods
delivering food, it's going to bea game changer for many kids. And
so that is one of the examplesof ways that was something that was implemented

(12:54):
during the pandemic. We'll be ableto move forward in communities going through a
that more families have access to whatthey need, and that's key real quick
before we get into the next part. That's key because during the summer,
that was when you had a lotof kids who were on these programs during

(13:15):
the school year potentially go hungry.They didn't have an option. Exactly,
you're one hundred percent right ry.And you know, summer is a time
where many folks in this country arethinking about vacations, are dealing with family
a going a very cool trends,but for many children and families in this
country, and it is a timewhere I don't have I can't rely on

(13:39):
school mills, I have to scrambleto figure out how to feed my family.
And so what this new appropriation willdo is allow all those greatest flexibilities.
In addition to the non congregate flexibility, what this in initative will also
do is allow for something called SummerEEDT, which I don't know if you

(14:01):
remember our maybe if you're listeners,you remember during the pandemic there was something
called Pandemic EBT which allowed for additionalfinances for families to support is in very
difficult times. And so then whatSummer EVT will do is place an additional
forty dollars a month in the cocketsof families so that they can help supplement

(14:26):
the support that they can give theirchildren during those very difficult summer months,
and so these are like this willbe a game changer for family talk about
the ability to engage and enjoy thatsort of the full experiences that you can
in summer when you have the foodthat you need, you're able to do

(14:48):
that in a really powerful way.And the way that it will beniste you
up to be ready for school whenit starts in to fall is an incredible
thing. You know. Our hopeover the next five years we'll be able
to reach more than twenty five millionkids with this additional access to summermills,
and so it is something that we'revery excited about. But it's just an

(15:11):
example of how some of those thingsthat we realize during the pandemic can be
applied to new things and new opportunities. I'm Ryan Gorman, joined by Elliot
Gaskin's acting Chief Resource Development and GrowthOfficer at Share Our Strength, the organization
behind the No Kid Hungry campaign.You can learn more about that campaign at

(15:33):
no Kid Hungry dot org. That'sno Kid Hungry dot org. Let's talk
about the state of the problem herewith child hunger in this country, because
I think some of the statistics thatyou're providing on your website are going to
be eye opening for a lot ofpeople listening right now. Yeah, I

(15:56):
you know this is it cannot bea more urgent time for children and families.
You know, in many ways,it's extraordinary that over the course of
the pandemic, actually food insecurity andfew probably decreased. We were making prior
to the pandemic, through our workand our efforts and through the help of

(16:18):
our partners, and even during thepandemic, we were making tremendous progress.
One of the reasons that we weremaking all this progress is that some of
the things that I already mentioned,there were things like the pandemic EBP,
there was something like there were thingscalled like the Child Tax Credits. They
were putting more money. There wereincreased snaps, benefits for families, all

(16:44):
programs that helped reduce the level ofneeds at a time when we needed it
the most. The challenge now isthat many of those programs has expired,
and so the USDA, for youseeingly released a report that said now in
this country, one in five kidscould be facing food and security thirteen.

(17:11):
That's with the thirteen million kids.Wow, that's forty four percent jobs just
a year ago. And so theneeds and the crisis is urgent. Uh.
In many ways, we call hungerhitting crisis because if you don't you
know, live in a community whereyou see hunger on a daily basis,

(17:33):
market styles is not going to schoolwith a kid that is in hungry.
You may not think that it exists, but the challenge and the problem is
pervasive, and it's not just inrural communities. It's not just an herbal
community. Urban community is spread acrossthe country in some prety profound ways.

(17:55):
And in addition to all of that, as you'm story, you know,
running very well, food and securitydisproportionately impact you know, certain communities.
Right, some of those stats thatby districts for Black Latin Latino houseboats,
those numbers are dramatically more in thosecommunities. And so this is a very

(18:21):
challenging time. It's families why I'llwork in the work of many of our
partners are so agent. The amountof meals that your organization has provided since
March of twenty twenty two point eightbillion billion with a B. I mean
that is a lot of meals acrossthis country. That is a lot of

(18:45):
mouths to feed, and I thinkfor many people listening, it's going to
be surprising that we're in such adifficult position right now. It was I
think more understandable when the pandemic hitand there was all that upheaval in chaos,
but I think for a lot ofAmericans to just it feels a little

(19:07):
bit different now. Things are certainlymore expensive and people's budgets are being stretched,
and a lot of people are usingcredit cards for all kinds of different
things, including essentials these days.But those numbers that you're showing and how
the food and security issue has gottenworse, that really does tie into and

(19:29):
correct me if I'm wrong here,But those programs ending and that may be
a part of this issue that manypeople aren't aware of. Yeah, that
is for sure. Those programs thatwere implemented or extraordinary again increased snacks,
Endemic EBT, the how tax credits, those were dollars that were immediately going

(19:52):
into the hands of families and theywere able to provide the meals and it
was so needed as as as weall remember the costs of the place and
then and going to the grocery Mooreand seeing the astronomical costs that families were
facing, and so it was itwas so important at that time. What

(20:14):
I would also say is that duringthat time as well, hunger was in
the public consciousness and ways that ithadn't been in a while. Yes,
I mean we were all home duringthe pandemic, and we were seeing on
television the lines at the food banks. We were seeing stories of family struggling.

(20:37):
And what I think when it reallycrystalized for a lot of people is
they saw how smooth from family somefamily weren't being in a food and lives
and so one mistake death an additionaluh money that you had to pay on
groceries. How close folks were tothat line. And so that is kind

(21:02):
of where we lived because the stateof our country. But what is there
was a significant amount of private andadjustment and philanthropics support. And so I
should give a lot of credit becausein addition to those programs like going over
the course of the pandemic, wewere able to give over one hundred and

(21:22):
twenty million dollars the brain in communitiesand a huge part of that was because
of the philanthropic support that we gotfrom a lot of our great corporate,
individual and foundation partners across the country, and so that was a huge part
of why we saw sort of thatdecrease. But you know, we live

(21:48):
in a challenging society with a lotof things that want and so once we
were removed from the pandemic to somedegree, thin got focused on a lot
of other things. And so thatis why our work is so important,
because it is about the community mail, but it's about the advocacy. But

(22:08):
a huge part of our work isdriving awareness that Americans understand how both found
this issue is. And so weuse the word relentless a lot of our
organizations because we have to be relentlessin our messaging so that people understand not
only the depth of this problem,but what I want to always get at

(22:30):
and focus to understand is what thismeans when you do not see a child
from a stand point of their involvementin society, in the standpoint of their
academic achievement, and from that justability to be happy and thriving young people
a and long lasting effects. Andso the least part of our work is

(22:52):
about explaining that there are more peoplein this country. For sure, I
think you made so such a keypoint just a moment ago again. I'm
Ryan Gorman, joined by Elliott Gaskin'sacting Chief Resource Development and Growth Officer at
Share Our Strength, the organization behindthe No Kid Hungry campaign, which you
can learn more about and help supportat no Kid Hungry dot org. I

(23:15):
talked to so many different organizations helpingfeed Americans at the height of the pandemic
and then afterwards, and many ofthem were telling me at the time,
you know, these are new peoplewho are coming to us. These are
people never thought they would need helpwith food insecurity. But things happen in
life, and for many Americans,unfortunately, it's one incident that could throw

(23:41):
them into that place where they doneed some kind of help. And I
think it's important to point that outbecause you know this all too well.
And this is also why if thereare those listening who are in a position
right now to help others, youknow, you just never know when it

(24:03):
could be you in that position.And I'm sure there were so many people
who needed that support over the pastcouple of years. We're thankful that organizations
like yours are around doing the workthat you're doing exactly, and that's the
thing. You know, there areso many people who are barely getting by,
and these are individuals who are workinghard, who may have multiple jobs

(24:29):
and are just not making enough.We feel a deep responsibility to help all
of those families in this country orin those circumstances, to give them a
better opportunity to give their children abetter opportunity to experience the fullness and richness
of what society has to offer.So, what are some of the different

(24:55):
ways that everyone listening can support thework you're doing at our strength and specifically
the No Kid Hungry campaign? Forsure, I mean obviously always, you
know, at the top of thelist is financial support, whether it is
supporting community mills, whether it's ouradvocacy efforts, whether it is our education

(25:19):
and driving awareness that requires investments,and that is the only way that this
work gets accomplished. And so welove for any individuals who are so inspired
and moved by this issue to supportus in terms of financial donation, and
you can go to No Kid Hungrydot org to be able to do that.

(25:41):
And we pull out very specifically thatI'm given Tuesday, the national Day
have given that I'm sure many ofyour listeners know about November twenty eighth,
those who are interested in making thedonation for our No Kid Hungry campaign can
double their impact. And so wehave a great partner a city who on

(26:02):
that day are matching all donations fivehundred thousand dollars. That's great and that
will be an extraordinary way for folkswho want to double their impact to give
on giving to the November twenty andit's easy to make an impact. One
dollar can help provide challenge and howfemails and so that would be one example

(26:26):
of something that folks can do.Yes a piece. As I mentioned,
advocacy is always a huge part ofour efforts in our in our work,
and so I spokes are engaging writingletters, to going to local representatives,
to their local and national policy makers. When there are things like snaps and

(26:48):
other policy programs that can make adifference, those letters, those communications to
your representatives will make a huge difference. And the final thing that I would
say is spread the message. Thereare so many people and at for whatever

(27:08):
reason, are not aware of thedepth of this problem. We talk a
lot at sare restaurants about building movements. If we are truly to end silvis
hunger in this country. We needmore people engaged, We need more people
contributing, We need more people sharingour message, We need more people getting
involved in advocacy. The more peoplethat are involved and engage, the better

(27:32):
chances that we're going to have tomake progress. And if you want to
end hunger truly wants and then finalthing I want to touch on, you
have some really great resources on thewebsite No kid hungry dot org, including
for families who are food insecure,you have a way for them to find
free meals. Yeah, there's afree meal finder, so you can go

(27:57):
on our website and put your zipcode in and find all of the mail
site sort of in your community,so real time data, real time updates
to find out where to get resourcesand how to get connected to mails in
your community. In addition to that, you know there's under educational materials,

(28:22):
statistics resources, things that you canshare. You can go to any of
our social media platforms on tax,our Instagram, at nokien hungry are through
our website at not kid hungry dotorg to find out more about how you
can win, to engage, howyou can be informed and how hopefully you
can join us and challenging people toaction. There really is a lot of

(28:45):
great information. Again, the websiteis no Kid Hungry dot org. That's
no Kid Hungry dot org. ElliotGaskins, acting Chief Resource Development and Growth
Officer at Share Our Strength, theorganization behind the No Kid Hungry campaign.
Elliott, I want to thank youso much for taking some time to come

(29:06):
on this show and share all ofthat really important information with us and for
the work you're doing at your organizationhelping to deal with this incredible problem of
child hunger in this country. Wereally appreciate it, and again Ran,
appreciate the platform, appreciate the workyou do lifting up organizations and individuals doing
incredible work, and thanks for theopportunity anytime. Thanks again, Elliott.

(29:30):
That's going to do it for thisedition of iHeartRadio Communities. As we wrap
things up, I want to offera big thanks to our guests and of
course to all of you for listening. I'm your host, Ryan Gorman.
We'll talk to you again real soon.