Special episode of Add Passion and Stir recorded at Chefs Cycle

“I get to lean into my happy”

“It’s amazing to wake up every morning with another sense of purpose outside of yourself.”

“Giving up is not an option. Too many people would be let down. I couldn’t put my head down on the pillow tonight if I’d quit.”

            I don’t know where they or I got the energy, but a few of our most interesting Chef Cycle riders agreed to sit down for a podcast episode just a short while after getting off their bikes on Day 2 of this year’s ride. Listen in on Krista Anderson of New Seasons Market in Portland, Oregon, Hugh Mangum from Mighty Quinn’s New York Barbecue, and Ed Doyle from Real Food consulting. They talk about not only what the riders have done for the cause of ending childhood hunger, but also how their own lives have been completely transformed.  http://addpassionandstir.com/why-not-just-write-a-check/ or on iTunes at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/add-passion-and-stir/id1164624510?mt=2

 

 

Doubt is my constant companion but its better than riding alone

            The post-ride massage room at the Flamingo Hotel looks like a Civil War hospital. Bodies everywhere. Some on tables. Others sprawled on the floor. A few slumped in chairs along the back wall. Soft moans and groans. Grim negotiations about whether a knee, quad or hamstring can be taped and saved for the next day’s ride. The weird part: everyone is having the most fun they’ve ever had.

A delicious dinner is served at 6:00 p,m. in the parking lot. By eight o’clock, tables and chairs are nearly empty. Though still light out, a hush falls over the Flamingo. Even the healthiest, most boisterous riders return to their rooms  The best therapy, and only chance of riding 100 miles again the next day, is a good night’s sleep.

 I go to bed the first night certain I will not ride the next day and I’m okay with that. I’ve done it before, have nothing left to prove, my hamstrings burn, and Tom is harder to keep up with than ever (though kind enough to wait for me at the top of each hill). I keep thinking of friends who donated more than they could afford and so get back on the bike for Day 2. Doubt is my constant companion, but I guess it’s better than riding alone.

By Day 3, Rosemary and Nate have arrived. I figure he and I will bike to the first water stop together.  Worst case, by lunch at the 53-mile mark, he’ll be my ticket to a van ride back to the hotel.  But he wants to complete the 100 miles even though he’s never gone more than 30 before, and there are 5000 feet of climbs. Hadn’t seen that coming. No drama, just chatting and whistling alongside me, comparing notes on strategy for each hill until we cross the finish line nine hours after starting. Two days later I'm still dumbstruck - and tearing up every 5 minutes when he's not looking.

 

As with anything so challenging, there are important lessons.

First, as one rider said, you can accomplish anything when there’s a purpose. Share Our Strength provides it. Chefs Cycle riders have diverse backgrounds and political views. Rather than let that divide them, as often seen in America today, they unite in putting first the kids we serve. They see direct connection between riding and feeding children.

Second, both individually and organizationally, we are all capable of more than we think. Another rider, when asked his strategy, said: “it’s simple: refusing to stop, because where would that get you.” Same with our No Kid Hungry campaign.

Third, nothing great is accomplished alone – everyone had someone helping, coaching, cheering, or sticking by them.  Every rider, no matter how fast or slow, made a point of encouraging others.

Finally, we have enormous opportunity to be the organization that helps chefs and restaurateurs get healthy so that they are better able to take care of others, specifically America’s kids.  Every rider felt they were getting as much from us as they were giving. Chefs Cycle can be more than an event – it can be part of a larger lifestyle brand that builds even greater commitment to our work throughout the culinary community.  We still reach only a fraction of those who could be challenged to share their strength.

Once again the most impressive performance of all was on the part of our staff colleagues, too many too name here. Over long hours, they made the impossible possible by ensuring safe roads, supplying and supporting riders, anticipating every need. Every rider thought our team, not only did a great job, but were also representative of you and everyone at Share Our Strength. Thanks all. 

 

One Of The Best Food Assistance Developments Of All: More Jobs

           

This past weekend almost every newspaper and news website in the country had at least one headline in common: the jobless rate of 3.9% is at a 17-year low after 91 straight months of job growth that began during the Obama Administration.  On top of the historic progress we’ve already made through the No Kid Hungry campaign, this may have as great an impact on childhood hunger now and in the years ahead as anything else we do.  When the number of unemployed is cut by more than half, and millions more are working, there are certainly many more parents able to feed their families on their own.

We tend not to focus as much on macro-economic trends as we do on school breakfast legislation, and new summer meals sites, but we should.  Those we serve are embedded in these statistics. Our work is not in isolation from but intimately connected to these economic forces, more so than most issues.  We’re in search of an economist who will share his or her strength by volunteering to help us better understand the correlations between employment and wage growth with childhood hunger.  For now, I urge all of us to keep at least one eye on the bigger picture.

Here We Go Again: Chefs Cycle One More Time

In just 10 days, Tom and I will be at it again – in Santa Rosa for our fourth 300-mile Chefs Cycle ride.  As we find our place among the pack of riders at all different levels, I suspect the words of English writer Samuel Johnson, spoken in a different context, would resonate with some observers: “it is like a dog’s walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.”  

            You can hear Tom discussing the ride, in our newest podcast episode recorded after last year’s ride, along with chef Travis Flood, chef Jess Cerra ,and Arby’s Foundation president Stuart Brown  http://addpassionandstir.com/pain-in-the-legs-lessons-from-chefs-cycle/  or on iTunes at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/add-passion-and-stir/id1164624510?mt=2 

            If you are feeling inspired, there is plenty of time to train for our Charlottesville ride in September. Check it out at http://www.chefscycle.org/ and please consider joining. For all of the talk of training and hills and pain, etc. it is mostly just incredibly fun.

SNAP Debate As A Harbinger of Whether Our Nation Can Come Back Together

With Food Stamp Bill the GOP Once Again Promotes Work Requirements That Don’t Work. “Just as good health is a prerequisite to useful employment, so is good nutrition. Making unemployment an obstacle to getting a decent meal turns this obvious truism on its head. But the advocates of the SNAP cutbacks plainly don't care. It's proper to remember that these are the same lawmakers who passed a $1.5-trillion tax cut for corporations and the wealthy.”  http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-food-stamps-20180418-story.html   Michael Hiltzik,  Pulitizer Prize winning journalist at the L.A. Times

A battle looms over proposals to cut the SNAP nutritional assistance program by more than $17 billion over ten years.  The proposed cuts are camouflaged in the form of work requirements. It is a necessary battle, but the wrong one. In addition to opposing such cuts, we should be insisting that our growing economy positions us to increase assistance to end hunger and conquer poverty. The modest benefits most SNAP recipients receive are too little to even last the full month.

The work requirement issue is a kind of sleight-of-hand on the part of those looking for politically useful wedge issues that divide rather than unite. The vast majority of food stamp recipients are children, elderly, disabled, or already working. So work requirements are not even relevant, except for a select few. However, they are an example of political misdirection, putting anti-hunger advocates on the defensive instead of championing the even more ambitious efforts needed.   

The debate over SNAP and work requirements is important in and of itself. But instead of focusing on the small fraction of SNAP recipients who may be getting what some consider to be more than they deserve, our focus should instead be on the vast majority of SNAP recipients who are not getting as much as they need to lead healthy and productive lives.   

Most of all, the SNAP debate is harbinger of whether our nation can come back together on behalf of values that have been so battered and stained - like treating people with dignity and respect.  SNAP is about more than feeding hungry Americans. It is about rebuilding community and national unity.

Only You Can Get Me Up Those Hills

You can’t ride Chefs Cycle’s 300 miles and 15,000 feet of hills without training, and you can’t train only on the stationary bike in your living room while binge watching Netflix.  This year’s weather has not cooperated, but at some point I had to get out on the road. With less than 6 weeks left before the ride – that point was last weekend. Unfortunately, we were in Maine where it was not warm enough to melt all of the snow plowed to the side of the road and where the wind was strong enough to blow me back to the New Hampshire border.

I gambled that after a few miles my circulation would bring feeling back to my frozen arms and legs. Maybe by the time you’ve read this it will. At the 35 mile mark I reminded myself that mental training is as important as physical. I headed indoors for some quiet contemplation over a hot chocolate. 

 

Completing three Chefs Cycle rides over the past three years should be a confidence builder - but that’s offset by PTSD’s grip on me since climbing the last hill of last May’s ride.  But two things will keep me going these next few weeks. One is your support. It is not only deeply appreciated but also motivating and inspiring.  The other is all of the kids who will get school breakfast and other nutritional assistance thanks to the more than $3 million we’ll raise between this year’s two rides. (Chefs Cycle has become so popular that we’ve added an east coast ride in September.)

A contribution at any level will be a big help. Go to: http://join.nokidhungry.org/goto/ridebillyride

An Overlooked Law of Politics: Some Things are Just Not Possible, Until They Are

            Count the Omnibus budget and spending bill Congress passed at the end of March  among the many surprises to come out of Washington these days.  Filled with domestic spending increases not thought possible until they emerged as a counterweight to the boost in defense spending the Administration wanted, the Atlantic called it A Domestic Budget to Make Barak Obama Proud. These included increases of $610 million in funding for Head Start, billions more for child care, and a rejection of efforts to eliminate funding for legal services, the National Endowment for the Arts, and other programs

 

 These impressive victories on behalf of the most vulnerable and voiceless are a great example of an often overlooked law of politics: some things are just not possible until they happen.  Failure of imagination is always the greatest risk.

  Anti-hunger and anti-poverty advocates must do more than defend existing programs and advocate incremental fixes. Rather we must make the case for transformational change – ending hunger, eradicating poverty -  even if it comes with a significant price tag. That the road to such change is long and filled with potholes argues for starting down it sooner rather than later.

We learned that at Share Our Strength when creating the No Kid Hungry campaign. Putting a stake in the ground around ending childhood hunger, as ambitious as it seemed at the time, yielded unprecedented financial and organizational support, which in turn enabled historic results.  We’re not across the finish line yet, but participation in school breakfast meals is at an all-time high, and childhood hunger at a record low. 

Successes at the state level point to federal opportunities.  As just one example, look at the role Maryland Meals for Achievement played increasing participation in school breakfast programs.  A national American Meals For Achievement program could provide funds to states to pay for costs and incentives not covered by school meal reimbursements. It could leverage local innovation and public-private partnerships to make school breakfast accessible to every child who needs it, and help No Kid Hungry across the finish line.

Big challenges require big solutions, which in turn require vision, courage, and imagination.. It may not seem practical in our current political climate – but the Omnibus spending bill signed into law reminds us that “politically practical” is overrated. America’s fundamental goodness has not evaporated over the course of a few short years.  Nor has America’s generosity. That they remain untapped is a failure of its leaders, not its people. If the people persist, the leaders will follow.