Ending Hunger: Why Food Security Is A Relationship Challenge

(upbeat music) - This is Food Secure Nation with Dr. Phil Knight and Jerry Bresson. Sponsored by No Better Do Better, KBDB, engaging change makers, charting solutions, and driving progress for food security in America. Dr. Phil Knight. - Welcome everyone, thanks for listening. I learned some time ago that the only thing that passes faster and more permanently than time is an opportunity. Once it's gone, it's gone forever. Today's program is one of those rare opportunities. Today we have the opportunity to look behind the curtain. How does the federal government really view the colossal challenge of food insecurity? How does agriculture view those of us working to in hunger? And most importantly, how do we view them? What would compel someone to step into this work at a time which seems so uncertain? From the Farm Build, Federal Nutrition Programs, from families searching for their next meal to the producers who grow our food, from the halls of Congress to the rural countryside, and back to the great urban centers of America. We live in arguably the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, yet between 11 and 15% of our neighbors continue to live under the toxic stress of food insecurity. Today's guest has sat in those meetings. She's heard the policy debates. She's helped shape the national conversation, and now she has chosen to lead the government relations efforts of America's largest hunger relief organization, feeding America. Today isn't simply about learning what feeding America believes is about understanding how America thinks about food security and perhaps how it should. So let's make the most of this opportunity on this edition of Food Secure Nation. (upbeat music) Welcome everyone, thanks for being with us. That's Jerry Brisson, myself, Dr. Phil Knight here with you, and thanks to Jerry, no better do better, who sponsors this show. Yeah, well, and for good reason, right? Because this is where we get to meet very exciting and influential leaders and hear their stories and all the other things that they tell us about. So that's how you know better, so you can do better. Absolutely, and today's show is no exception, Jerry. That's why we have Rebecca Freeman Adcock, the chief government relations officer for feeding America. Rebecca, welcome to Food Secure Nation. Thank you so much, I'm excited to be here to talk with you guys today and talk about this journey that we have on feeding people. Well, it's great to have you and, you know, so let's start with your story about how you became the chief government relations officer for what I'm gonna say is the largest charity in America, and certainly the largest anti-hunger organization in the United States. Because, you know, looking at your background, Rebecca, you spent years in rooms really where national food policy was discussed, and, you know, we're not asking you to reveal confidential conversations or anything, but yes, you know, I think I'm really interested to know how government use food security. And you've been a part of those discussions, and so we've that into how your story begins as the chief government relations officer for feeding America. - Yeah, well, thank you for that setup, because I really think it is extremely revealing of what my experience has been, and that is that food security gets rolled into national security rightly so it gets rolled into economic security rightly so, but maybe not in all the right times and places that it arguably should. You know, it tends to be one of those things, people are rolling along and thinking about all these, you know, bigger, more global thoughts and all of sudden, you realize, and I'm going to pull a little bit from my old boss, Sonny Perdue, and he wisely said, and probably this was my, one of my first really deep, thinking moments of the entire food system, and certainly the service that happens to people who may not have enough food. And he said, "If you've got enough food, you have a time to think of a lot of problems." If you don't have enough food, you have one problem. And I'm like, you know, nothing has been more instructed to me in thinking about both the rooms I've been in, where these conversations have come up everywhere from, you know, the White House National Security Council of USDA, the Association Food and Production World, and now here at feeding America, where, you know, that statement really comes home to roost that we're taking care of the people for whom enough food is problem number one, and it's colossal, and we have to rise to the occasion and leverage all those other conversations about various levels of security to make sure that in fact, we decrease that problem and in a perfect world, make a goal way completely. - You know, so I'm imagining you, a senior in high school, and you're thinking about what colleges you're gonna go to, or, you know, if you're gonna become a plumber, I don't know. And you're going, you know what? I want to be part of the swamp. I mean, I'm sorry, government relates. - No, that is not. It know that never happens. It not even close. - So what happened? What happened? - I don't know. I asked myself that. - Right, girl, you can perfectly on it. - That's great. - I'm still, it's sort of a joke, and if you know me long enough, you'll hear me say, I'm still supposed to think I'm supposed to be a veterinarian. This was always right, and I have heard you say that. - I'm thinking I'm gonna wake up someday, and you know, I'm just gonna be plopping down the middle of a bunch of dogs and cats and horses, but, you know, some way, somehow along the way, I wandered into environmental science, and I wandered into policy, and landed myself a job as a lobbyist working for farmers, which I was not a farm child. My family had been farming, but not me. And, you know, became a lobbyist, and I didn't know what that meaningfully was. I was not a political science person. I was certainly wasn't a political, motivated person. So if you would have asked me, sitting in Hazard, Kentucky, in, you know, 19, whatever, however many, many, many, I'm not gonna say you're the lobbyist. - No, don't give a nose. - That's not something you could go that far, you know. If you would have said, you're gonna move to Washington, DC, and you're gonna be talking about food and farming and feeding people and, you know, and in rooms with, you know, people that'll, that a lot of folks either really love to hate or really love to admire, I wouldn't have said that is absolutely the most ridiculous than you've ever been in your spiral life. - And yeah, it's a joke to shout. - 30 years later, maybe. - Something like that. It must have, there's gotta be something that triggered for you. Yes, you know what, this really means something to me. - Yes, it does, and I think that's the piece in the part that makes sense to me, is that I definitely have known, and I think a lot of people are like this. So, you know, I don't love talking about myself. I'm gonna lift this out a little bit and talk about what I think motivates a lot of people, is that what is the point? Am I doing something that either, I feel extremely strongly about or that I know that is, that is making a difference, that is making something somebody better on a, you know, a different and better trajectory in some point, providing us, whether it's providing a service or some sort of other, you know, general good, to people, the economy, you know, all sorts of options there. But, I mean, I think that's the driving force, and that certainly has been, and I've also just sort of taken the approach that sometimes odd and unexpected opportunities to put in front of you, and I think it's pretty important that you're bold enough to take 'em, and the world will take you in places that you never imagined, and you know, you can always redirect, but you give it a try. - Yeah, that's a, that, I think that's a truth and a thread that runs through a lot of the people that have been on our show, is it's this mix of heart's desire and opportunity, right? And when those things get married out here in the world, you end up doing some pretty meaningful work, and we have been so dependent on feeding America, government relations, to help us understand so many things that are important to understand if your goal is a food secure nation. So we appreciate your handful of life being spent in this way, and we intend to run you through your paces, I should say. - Okay. - Okay, bring it on, let's do it. - She can hang, I promise you, so Rebecca, one thing before we move off of this particular segment, and so thinking about the conversations you've had sitting in government offices, and I would just remind our listeners that you worked with Secretary Perdue, and I worked for Governor Perdue. - There you go. - So that's all that, wow, that's awesome. I didn't think I realized that connection. - Yeah, when he was running for governor in Georgia, I helped organize his campaign in certain populations and then met with him as a secretary and remember the painting that he had behind his desk, which was that red barn that said until everyone is fed. - Yep, do right and feed everyone. - Do right and feed everyone. - That's right. Well, we're still trying to do that. - We are, we are, for sure. - So where do you think in your time in government has government made the greatest progress in regard to food security conversations? And why, what might be their greatest blind spots to this work? - I don't know that we've peaked yet. I sure hope we haven't. I think the 2018 and maybe the iteration right before of the Farm Bill, I think we're trying to take a stab, a stab at balancing, to iterative process as policy always is, the given the take and the navigation negotiation, nobody gets everything they want all the time because there's just never gonna be enough resources for that. But I think the intent and the intention was in there to try to find the right balance between the private side, supply side and everything else, including looking out for those in need on a bad day or a bad season. I don't know that it has all been fully executed and that's always a challenge because you know, Congress, as we know, three, you know, back to the school house rock lessons of the three branches of government, you know, that we grew up with. - Right. - And how has become, come to pass. But then you've got to take them and you've got to execute them, IED executive branch. And that is not a perfect science because you've got to get regulations out and you've got to find resources because you may have been given permission to do something but you have to also be given the money to do something sometimes. And you know, one of the things I did at USDA was be a regulatory officer, which was sort of the traffic cop of everything that went in and out and you got to be able to, you might want to do something and Congress may have told you to do it but you got to be sure you can pay for doing it. And that really, I think, is where the challenges come into place. It's not just, and this is one of those lessons that I think is very important for the hunger and anti-hunger and feeding community to understand that we can have the best ideas in the world that sound amazing on paper but they actually have to be able to be executed on and resourced and handled certainly in government. And even to some extent, you know, in the private sector, I mean, at Feeding America, we do a tremendous amount of work and with the private sector either through direct food purchases to direct food donations, you know, fundraising to get those resources out to feeding banks. And, you know, listening is such an incredibly powerful part of that whole process. It's not just saying, okay, we've got this great idea and this is where we are as food banks and this is what we see and this is what we hear and we're listening and we're trying to channel what we know the needs are from our neighbors and from our communities. And then you go and you present that and, you know, Congress or an administration or an agency, state or federal or the private sector will say, but here's our reality. And, you know, that is, that's always a problem when you're dealing with government. It's always a problem when or a potential barrier, not a problem, it's not really fair. But it's always a place where you, you know, you've got to find the way you pass forward. - That's great, that's great. I want to pick this up a little bit on the second, on the next segment here because unfunded mandates are no ones for you and there's plenty of those in our history and let's unpack that a little bit between the relationship, between agriculture and government. No one's going to solve this problem alone, not the private sector, not organizations like ours. We're going to need all of us coming together. And we're going to talk with our guest, Rebecca Freeman-Adcock, the Chief Government Relations Officer for Feeding America when we come back in just a moment. - You're listening to Food Secure Nation with Dr. Phil Knight and Jerry Brisson. Sponsored by No Better, Do Better. - Welcome back everyone, thanks for being with us. Our guest, as promised, is Rebecca Freeman-Adcock, the Chief Government Relations Officer for Feeding America. And Rebecca, I want to, how long have you been with the Feeding America as of the time of this show? - Three months and one week. So that's, and they said it wouldn't last, right? I mean, you've learned a lot in three months and one week and you're still here, so congratulations and thank you. So Jerry talked about in our first segment with you and you alluded to it as well. This idea that food security work and hunger relief should all be non-partisan. But the fact of the matter is, sometimes the best we can do is bipartisan because we want to keep ideology out of it as much as possible. And we want to portray and talk about the families that need help with food accurately. And what we would say here on Food Secure Nation is that the population that food banks serve of people in America are some of the most resilient people that I personally have ever encountered in my life. And sometimes when we just talk about the need, we don't quite represent them in the best way possible. Has this conversation come up in your experience in government relations talking to government about the people and the families that we serve? - Absolutely, one of the first things that I learned, observed from being here and I'm still sort of enjoying that moment of objective outsider assessment and that's kind of a privileged place because then you start, you come in and then you really start thinking and it all comes together and it comes to you from a different place. And the thing that I've realized about the conversations and the topics and the people that we are serving through food banks is that they live in all different places. They look, talk, walk and have tremendously different experiences and they themselves are all over the political spectrum. You know, they look like the communities that they live in, they talk, they walk, they think like the communities they live in and there's a great amount of diversity in that and trying to sort of package all those stories and all those realities into some, you know, some very simplified version of each other is not accurate and it's not a service to what we're trying to do and so one of the things whether we're talking about the changes to SNAP, whether we're talking about the need for more government resources either through direct purchases or through T-FAP or grants or other sorts of opportunities is nobody, I don't know, single American or at least not one that's gonna be super proud about it who thinks they don't wanna help a neighbor in need, a person in their community who for life circumstances finds themselves in a place where they don't have enough for them and their families to eat. Those people are really the stories that I think we need to talk about and if we're talking about those people and earnestly who they are and their need and if it's okay if people wanna talk about program integrity it's okay if people wanna talk about making sure that resources are going where they should go and that we're minimizing the problems and the system as much as possible. That's an expectation but that doesn't change the story of the people who need it, the story of the people at these programs and that I believe Americans want to take care of want to look out for and want to see get through to a better day. - Yeah, I think that's exactly right and one of the things that we've encouraged is to have government officials and influencers actually come see the people because no matter what policy you're working on you start reading those 3,000 page documents and you're not thinking about who needs help I'm sorry it's too hard and then you get into the details and you talked earlier in the show about how the devil is in fact in the details and there's so many details that you know when you're even when Congress passes a law there's now the details that follow, right? - Yeah and so when your job is to understand and work through all those details it's pretty easy to get buried in all that. And I do think that your point is exactly right. There is nobody that doesn't wanna help their hungry neighbor, not one. - Yeah. - Not one. - No, I don't know those people. - Yeah, and you will not meet them, right? And you will not meet them. And so it's maintaining that relationship in a way that brings dignity to everyone. You don't wanna call people who haven't seen hunger in this way ignorant because by calling them ignorant, you're distancing yourself from them. You're not helping yourself, right? So what do you, what do you do? You say, let's just meet and talk, right? It's, you know, you don't sit down with people and have a beer at the bar so that you can insult them. - Well, it's a little difficult to raise money or resources from someone you just called ignorant. - That's right, so I'm just throwing that out there for public relations, one on one. - Yeah, well, and that's just such a simplified way of, an inaccurate way of looking at it. Because we know that Americans are generous. We know that they care about their communities. We know that they themselves put themselves out there and make contributions to neighbors and neighbors regularly. And we know they do that, and they vote in all sorts of different ways when they get into the ballot box. The thing that strikes me is that most, what we find, or we're finding, I'm seeing a lot of polling data, we lots of polling, which is incredibly helpful at competing American. We poll policy makers, and we talk to neighbors, and we talk to, you know, the public, and the thread is that people want to do right by people. Now, they don't want people to take an advantage of the system, well, that's a no-brainer, right? Of course we don't, but we want to take care of people and we want to prioritize that. We want resources to get to people, to help them get through to a better moment. But we also know that some people, if they are at a certain community, or a certain socioeconomic level, they don't, to your point, necessarily believe that they know someone who uses SNAP, or who uses WIC, or who has, you know, needed resources from emergency assistance like T-FAP. The reality is probably every single human being in the United States has. You just don't know that that was the person that set across from them at, you know, at some sort of event. They don't know that that might have been the person that they now work with. It was a veteran, but who at one point was a, you know, an E3 in the military, and maybe had a family at home, and needed some help, because it just, the paycheck just didn't go far enough. Or a teacher, I mean-- - Or a teacher, I mean, yeah. - And so many, yes. - They don't know, they don't know that, because to your point about dignity, you know, it's not something that people love to talk about in their moment of need, for a whole host of reasons. And they do, everyone, I would posture that the vast majority of Americans do know somebody who has used government assistance on a, at minimum of a day, and sometimes a bad scene. And to remember that those are the sorts of moments and times, and they would have wanted to help those people. And they would have wanted to help them with dignity, and they would have wanted to get on to a better path. And I think that, that to me is the story that, I want to help feed the America tell, that's the story. I want to help the food banks themselves be able to tell, and it's certainly the story that I want to tell to policymakers. That is an excellent segue into the next segment. So let's take a quick break here. Rebecca Friedman-Adcock is with us today. She's the chief government relations officer for feeding America. That's Jerry Berson, I'm Dr. Phil Knight. We're going to come back with you, and not only talk about today's challenges, but also tomorrow's possibilities. Come back and be with us. (upbeat music) Welcome back everyone, glad you're with us. Jerry Berson, Dr. Phil Knight, we're in our studio here. Our guest is Rebecca Friedman-Adcock, who is three months and one week into the job as the chief government relations officer for feeding America. And Rebecca, this time in our history, everything's so calm and normal, and no upsets are evil. Everybody's staying in their jobs, and none of that is true, right? None of that is true. We've CEO for feeding America, our friend and colleague Claire Bavino-Fontino has resigned and left, and now we have Dennis McDonough as the new CEO. And things in state government for here in Michigan, in particular, where we record the show, where we create the show, our governor, Gretchen Whitmer, is turning out at the end of the calendar year, and there's lots of change all across the feeding America network. Why in the world? (laughing) Would you choose to come to this work at this moment in time? - Wow, that is a loaded question. So the answer is to part, part of it is personal. I knew I was ready and wanted that I had a lot more to give, and I was ready to give it in a big way someplace else. I love a challenge, and I especially love a challenge with a purpose, and goodness gracious, if, you know, having the government affairs for feeding America isn't a challenge with a purpose, I'm not sure what else will happen. - Right, yep. - And to her credit, Claire was a really good recruiter. I met Claire for purposes having nothing to do with this job, and we sort of talked each other a long time, and about multiple things, and she sort of followed up eventually and said, "Hey, have you ever thought of?" And I was like, "Well, why no, I have not ever thought of." And then I did think of, and I thought, "My goodness, you know, if they really are serious and want me, it's probably something I need to really think about." And it was a lot of soul searching, because, you know, coming from the other end of food and feeding people, agriculture and production, was, you know, something I knew a heck of a lot about. This end, the feeding people, especially people who are struggling with food and economic security, is a whole nother matter. Well, it's not another matter, but it's definitely has a different nuance. And, you know, I didn't know if I was up for it, and I was like, "Gosh, you know, if they want me to be here, and this matches exactly what I'm looking to do." And, you know, and I met Dennis McDonough, and he's just a fabulous leader himself, and to have those two individuals, you know, saying, "Look at the possibility, look at what the need is, and look what the possibilities are." And the last part is, it's not easy anywhere right now. You know, it's not like I was working in agriculture, and there was a cake walk on the floor and the politics, and things were easy. I mean, agriculture, production agriculture in the United States is struggling tremendously for many of the similar economic headwinds. The world is in a transitional space, you know. You can go down the rabbit hole of a lot of the geopolitical folks, and they'll tell you about all sorts of different cycles that are kind of converging into one, and you know, I don't recommend doing it, if you kind of don't want to get a little weak in the knees, but there's just a lot going on, and it's being felt everywhere, societally, economically, politically. It's not just about one administration, it's not just about, you know, the US, and it's not just about food and feeding, but it is showing up in all of those places. And I think it's a really interesting and amazing opportunity to have the chance to help navigate it for this purpose, for this season, and certainly for the people who are on the receiving end of all the service that food banks provide. - Love that. - Yeah, and you know, this is after being named, I'm just gonna say, one of the top 25 women in produce. Now, I mean, that puts you in a group of one of 25, I'm just saying. (laughing) - I lost my time at the produce sector. So, you know, talk about people also doing cool and amazing things for public health. So that was a wonderful opportunity, though. - It was recent, and truth be told, it was in your LinkedIn profile. - That's where it was. (laughing) - I'm gonna probably put me in there. Maybe one of those four submissions. - Yeah, that's exactly right. You never know, you know, you can find out anything about anyone. But, well, you know, so I think this too, we're at a place where we've got to be able to talk a little bit differently about food insecurity, particularly because the numbers aggregate just don't change that much. You know, between, for 25 years, the population has been 10 to 15% food insecure. Just, you know, every year, every year, report, some, you know, the worst was, you know, obviously the great recession. And, and then, you know, and things actually got quite a bit better during the pandemic because of that's the COVID pandemic, because of all the help people got, right? So actually, that was one of the lowest food insecure points. But between those highest and low points, the percentage of people who reportedly were food insecure only moved a total of 5%, right? Between 10 and 15%. And so, and, and yet we know people want to help. So, so at the same time, we want to say people are resilient and doing their best to get out of it. People don't stay in poverty. They come in and out of poverty. It's one number, lots of dynamics. It's so much to explain. How do you see yourself in that spot of, you know, kind of grappling with, okay, there are some things that make it look like nothing ever changes. And yet the world we live in is incredibly dynamic. Yes. Well, we were just funny, you would have bring this up. We were just having, we've had several actually, internal meetings about how do we refine what data, what information we pull in, what do we measure, and what do we do with it? Like, what's the point? Because you could ask a lot of questions, get a lot of cool information about a lot of things. But if it doesn't lead you to telling a story that helps explain while what feeding America does and who, and who it impacts, you know, then it's just, you know, it's kind of nice data to have for researchers. So, what I, my philosophy for how you approach this is you use the information that both shows reality and also shows potential trend to the extent that you can of what happens if you, if you positively affect the reality. And I'm not a researcher and I'm not a data person. But those are the sorts of questions that I'm going to be challenging the team, you know, what Fano or asking for that help is to show not just what is, but what could possibly be. And, you know, that you, that can, again, you can get kind of carried away and go down a lot of different routes to figure out all the things that affect people's food and economic security. And feeding America is not going to be able to tackle everyone of those, you know, we still, we're, we're uniquely situated organization is that yes, we are a thought leader, yes, we are a policy influencer. But at the end of the day, we actually still have to feed people. We literally have got to make sure that we're finding policies and finding solutions that are, that are getting resources into the hands of the food banks so that way they can take care of people on the ground. So that puts us in a unique position, you know, we're not a think tank, at least exclusively. But we also have the opportunity to tell firsthand the story of what really happens and, and to a neighbor to when they show up and when they're in need. And also have some influence, hopefully, on some of the, the dials that can be turned, some of the opportunities that can be had, whether it's public sector, private sector, that can help maybe make those people not have to come to our door tomorrow or next month or next year. And, again, we're not going to solve all that. We need a lot of partnership from other parts of the, of the economy and government to, to answer those larger questions. But we know they're all, that, that there's a lot of interconnectivity there. And so we think the best place to start is, you know, kind of back, the best place to start is back where I started with that whole idea of if people don't have food, they've got one problem. If they do have food, they have many. And we're really later focused on, on solving the one problem. And maybe that gives opportunity to get around to the many. Absolutely. Freeze them out from underliving under that toxic stress of being food insecure, worried about. What am I going to feed myself? And certainly what am I going to feed my kids? Rebecca Freeman Adcock, she is the chief government relations officer for feeding America. She has been our guest today. And more importantly, she's our friend colleague and a leader influencer in this work. Rebecca, thank you for being our guest on food secure nation. And please promise to come back and be with us. Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. Jared and I are back in just a moment. Food secure nation is sponsored by no better do better. Engaging change makers, charting solutions and driving progress for food security in America. Once again, here are Dr. Jerry, Rebecca Freeman, Adcock, new chief government relations officer who has a wealth of experience at feeding America, who has a wealth of experience, both on the ag side of things now on the family side. Yeah, she's been in the mix, shall we say, in a lot of different ways. And I think you said mix there, but swap, I think you used before. Well, that was just fun because, you know, because saying, did you want to be part of the swamp when you were a senior in high school? I love that. And she was great. I was really happy with how she, she took that. Well, what makes me excited about Rebecca's leadership is that she is, she is experienced, she is steady. And I think she understands both the ag side of this equation as well as the family side. And she's going to be able to blend those together nicely. And, you know, the fact of the matter is, we're not going to solve or create a food secure nation by ourselves. No, it's the relationships, the relationships and the relationships. And then beyond that, it's the relationships. And then you get to really the hard work was it is building relationships. So, but she did talk about turning the dials on the policy. So who's turning those dials? That's who we're building relationships with. And one of the ways we do that is to have people who represent us, people from Congress, business leaders, whomever come and experience the work, come and see the work. Yeah, that's been important for a long time. And in fact, it is something that Vera is going to talk to us about because Vera did some really good research on the significance of what is it? The contact hypothesis. Anyway, better to let Vera talk about it. She's coming up right now. Good to be with you today. Research strongly indicates that people support what they understand and they understand best what they have personally experienced. In fact, one of the strongest findings in advocacy research is that data changes minds less effectively than data combined with human experience and personal relationships. Social psychologist Gordon Allport's contact hypothesis argues that direct interaction with people from different backgrounds can reduce stereotypes, increase empathy, and improve understanding. Decades of subsequent research and meta-analyses have generally supported the conclusion that meaningful contact changes attitudes more effectively than information alone. For food insecurity advocates, this suggests that seeing a food pantry in action, meeting volunteers and observing children, seniors, and working families receiving assistance can help elected officials move beyond abstract assumptions about hunger and poverty. This is particularly important because policymakers often rely on mental models of poverty that may not reflect actual lived experience. Exposure can replace stereotypes with firsthand knowledge. In summary, the evidence strongly suggests that people do not become champions for food security because they hear about hunger. They become champions because they encounter it, understand it, and witness solutions in action. That conclusion is remarkably consistent with both the advocacy literature and the central themes running throughout the Dorothy A. Johnson Center's 2026 report that you highlighted with Tory Martin just a little while ago. Trust must be earned, stories must complement data, relationships matter, and authentic experiences often the catalyst for meaningful action. Nice work. Ciao for now. Well, I'm telling you this, Vera's thoughts are spot on. I mean, not just having someone come and visit, let's just say a food distributions are a warehouse, and you know, there is the obligatory photo up there. But this is really talking about what you mentioned earlier, which is building a relationship so that people really understand the work, and when they understand the work, they understand the need. Well, and one of the things I like to say, and I've said for a long time, is you don't get excited about working on something you don't think can be solved, right? You have to believe, and that starts in food security with believing in the people that are being served, believing that they can get better and will have a better day, and that when you help them, it matters. And so when you get to have a conversation with someone who's getting some emergency assistance, and you hear their story about how they got there and why they needed help, and almost every time you'll hear, they waited too long to get help because they were so embarrassed that that they needed help at all. And you begin to put a picture together of how this moment means so much to people. people. And it really does move people from here to there in a way that's very impactful. So those visits to where the work is being done and meeting the people who are struggling in that way right now are so important. Well, I couldn't agree more, but I'm gonna have to say that for the first time in over 10 years of doing this show, you misquoted yourself. And what you actually say is you'll never solve a problem that you don't believe can be solved. Yeah, right. Well, there you go. I like that. It's no wonder I say it. It's really smart. But I think of the first time you've actually misquoted yourself. But we'll get there. Well, folks, it's time for a little food for thought. I wonder if today's conversation leads us with one simple but profound realization. Perhaps food insecurity has never been a food problem alone. Perhaps it's always been a relationship problem. The relationship between agriculture and hunger, between policy and people, between government and communities, between those who have influence and those who need influence. No farmer can solve hunger alone. No food bank can solve hunger alone. And no member of Congress can solve hunger alone. But together, when we stop defending our individual roles and begin embracing our shared responsibility to create a food secure nation, America becomes capable of something extraordinary. A food secure nation isn't built by one organization, but it can be built by all of us. It's built when an entire nation decides that hunger is not someone else's problem. It's ours and it's ours right now. And together, that's how we'll build a food secure nation. [MUSIC]