Make It Personal: The Names and Stories Behind the Numbers

11/29/17 • 39 min

Do you think beyond the statistics to the individual lives affected by conflict, poverty, and hunger? In this episode of Add Passion and Stir, two powerful and passionate advocates, Abby Maxman, President of Oxfam America, and Tatiana Rosana, executive chef at Outlook Kitchen & Bar at the Envoy Hotel in Boston, discuss national and international humanitarian problems through the lens of personal stories of suffering, courage, and hope. Both women rose to the top of male-dominated professions and believe their work ethic was in part a response to having to work harder than male counterparts to gain the respect they deserve. This fierce determination informs the work they do helping others. Maxman, who has spent her career doing international development and aid work, recounts meeting a woman named Faith in South Sudan who walked an entire month with her four children after being displaced by conflict, all the while making decisions like which child gets to eat today. “It fuels a sense of urgency, passion and inspiration to do the work,” she says. Rosana found that growing up in an immigrant family from impoverished Cuba made her acutely aware of the issues of poverty and hunger. Feeling fortunate and helping others was ingrained in her from very young age, and as a chef she became a long-time supporter of the No Kid Hungry campaign. “I’m doing what I can with what I have to help. It takes nothing more than your time to invest in these children,” she says.

Host Billy Shore asks Maxman how Oxfam is able to tackle the overwhelming problems of conflict and poverty in areas where governments and the UN cannot. “We use our voice... we make sure that all of our polic[ies] and messages are grounded in the stories of Faith and many others,” she says. Staggering statistics alone — 65M refugees, 880M people going hungry every night – are not effective. “We’re talking about human beings,” she emphasizes. Clearly moved by the discussion, Rosana agrees “When we put names to the numbers, how can you not want to speak up, how can you not want to help? They’re not just numbers, they’re human beings that are going to bed hungry,” she pleads.

Listen to these two dynamic women talk about why getting personal helps fuel their drive to help those in need.

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Listen to these two dynamic women talk about why getting personal helps fuel their drive to help those in need.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Previous Episode

Finding Passion: Make Every Day the Best Day

Have you ever wondered how people who motivate others stay motivated themselves? In this episode of Add Passion and Stir, two high-powered changemakers talk about what drives them as they inspire those around them. Dr. Clint Mitchell, Principal at Mount Vernon Woods Elementary School in Fairfax, VA works in a low-income community school. In a career that has unusually high turn-over (statistics say most teachers will quit after three to five years) Mitchell finds he has to hire teachers who are passionate about the work and willing to go the extra mile for underprivileged kids. “It’s my job to keep them positive,” he says. Relating it to passion in the cooks he hires, Zack Mills, chef at Wit & Wisdom in Baltimore, jokes, “It’s a slight craziness. You have to be slightly off to be that passionate.” Host Billy Shore asks his two guests how they themselves avoid burnout. Chef Mills considers himself lucky because he’s always had a passion for cooking and enjoys helping those who work for him achieve success. He uses the Japanese term Kaizen - trying to be better than the day before - to describe his philosophy for work and life. “We’re always learning. If we think we’re not learning anymore, then we’re in the wrong place,” he concludes. Dr. Mitchell echoes that sentiment. “I tell my teachers, ‘every single day we get a fresh start and the kids get a fresh start. So every single day, make that day the best day.’”

Both Mitchell and Mills are long-time supporters of the No Kid Hungry campaign. Mitchell is on the frontlines of the battle against childhood hunger in our schools; 91% of the kids in his district receive free or reduced meals. “When kids are hungry, they shut down. It becomes a behavior issue...but the root cause is hunger,” he points out. Mills recently participated in a No Kid Hungry impact trip in Northern Virginia. He says there is nothing like bearing witness to the kids in need and the work that is being done to help them. “Everybody was so passionate about making sure the children were fed. I wanted to get even more involved after that,” he says.

Get back to basics through this conversation about school hunger with two changemakers who not only share their own passion, but bring it out in others.

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Next Episode

Closing the Empathy Gap

Do you feel more empathy for certain people in need than you do for others? Feeding America CEO Diana Aviv says we need to “close the empathy gap.” She discusses empathy and food with Nick Stefanelli, chef/owner of Masseria Restaurant in DC, and Share Our Strength founders Billy and Debbie Shore on this episode of Add Passion and Stir. Aviv cites recent research that found people who were sympathetic toward people using food banks changed their attitudes when asked about people using public assistance. “The only group they didn’t change their attitude towards was kids,” she says. This indicates that in order to solve the hunger problem, we need to help people extend their empathy for children to the whole family. Stefanelli fights child hunger by supporting No Kid Hungry and teaching about food and cooking in kindergarten classes. “[Hunger] is an issue that we’ve been looking at since ancient Rome, with the grain sheds and giving out bread, and we’re still dealing with it in 2017,” he says.

Aviv notes that Share Our Strength has done a great job tapping into the giving spirit and making it easy for chefs to get involved. Billy and Debbie Shore observe that it would be hard to find a chef who is not supporting a cause. “Chefs and restaurants are looking for ways to get involved and just waiting to be asked,” Debbie says. Stefanelli cites a strong connection to his heritage from the Puglia region of Italy, where food and community are fundamentally intertwined, for why he gives back. “Food brings everybody together. What happens at the table when people come together is a very important thing,” he says.

Feeding America, which runs a nationwide network of foodbanks, is currently focused on using technology to build greater efficiency into the distribution of food to the hungry. Aviv mentions Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods and its focus on efficiency. “There are huge opportunities to take that technology ... and develop ways we can get the food faster to the people who need it,” she says. Quoting statistics that 21% of our fresh water is used to produce food - of which 40% goes to waste – Aviv declares: “We can feed America and we can feed the world.”

Listen to this powerful conversation about the power of empathy in ending hunger in America.

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