My Keynote in Denver to Hunger Free Colorado Summit on day of first presidential debate

Denver, October 3, 2012
Hunger Free Colorado Summit




Thank you Kathy Underhill for that introduction and congrats on the continued progress of Hunger Free Colorado. Your leadership is the reason so many of us are here today. Not just your leadership but the great results you are getting in leading the No Kid Hungry campaign and the effort to end childhood hunger. I know that you are just back from maternity leave and I am grateful that in addition to everything else you have contributed you have chosen to contribute another activist in the next generation of anti-hunger advocates. Also we have numerous distinguished guests but I want to especially thank Kevin Concannon from the USDA who is one of America’s most dedicated public servants and champions for kids.

We have this conversation this morning at an extraordinary time. The presidential election is a month away and as usual, politics triumphs over issues. The first debate is only hours away. Congress has adjourned without passing any of the appropriations bills that are its first and primary responsibility. The world is an increasingly dangerous and complicated place. Syria, Sudan, Libya, and gasoline prices, structural unemployment, challenges with the Euro.

And here at home, 46 million of our fellow citizens remain mired in poverty including more than 22 % of all of our children. There are 16.4 million poor children in rich America, 7.4 million living in extreme poverty. Children under five are the poorest age group in America and one in four infants, toddlers and preschoolers are poor during the years of greatest brain development.” The report’s sobering statistics include: more than 1 in 4 children in the U.S. are on SNAP; 39.1 percent of black children were born poor in 2010. Only 3% of eligible infants and toddlers secure spots in Head Start due to funding constraints.



Though frustrating, we can understand when political leaders struggle with problems so complex and in some cases beyond their control that they seem unsolvable. Syria. Sudan. Libya. Gas prices. Structural unemployment.

But what about failing to solve those problems that are solvable? What about failing to solve those problems where we know the answer, there is bipartisan support for it, and the resources needed have been set aside? Failing to solve those kinds of problems, with no excuse other than politics, transcends incompetence. It breaks faith with a generation of children that are the most vulnerable and the least responsible for the situation in which they will find themselves.

There is no better example than the tragedy of childhood hunger in America today. What I want to talk about today is why it is a solvable problem.

46 million Americans are on food stamps for the first time in history and almost half of them are children. 22.5 percent of our kids in this country live in poverty. More than one in five.

Not everyone is as passionate as those of us in this room about the issue of childhood hunger, or at least they may not think they are at first. But then again, if you are passionate about education, about health care, about nutrition and obesity, about American economic competitiveness and American economic security, you may find that childhood hunger is more important to you than you realized. Because such hunger – unprecedented and unnecessary in America in 2012 – is compromising our national goals in each of these areas. Teachers tell us so. So do physicians. So do business leaders, economists and even our generals and admirals.

Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have shown sufficient inclination to take this issue head-on. Even more remarkably, there has been very little pressure on them to do so. Why? Because the historic economic inequality that characterizes and divides America in 2012 has been both consequence and cause of increased political inequality. The voiceless are even more so.

But the most recent Census Bureau data showing poverty that is entrenched year after year leads to at least one inescapable conclusion: Ignoring poverty will not make it go away. With few exceptions, political leaders have refused to even talk about poverty, let alone offer any big or bold anti-poverty initiatives. And for nearly a decade poverty has continued to grow worse. Imagine the 1968 campaign without a mention of Vietnam or civil rights. Or the 1976 post-Watergate election without a discussion of campaign finance reform. Or 1980’s race’s between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan not focusing on the energy crisis of the Iran hostage situation. It’s hard to think of a presidential election in which the great crises of that particular time was met with silence and played no part of the campaign.

But critical anti-hunger programs like SNAP and school meals work. As poverty has worsened, food insecurity has not, demonstrating the effectiveness of the safety net.

So our response must be twofold. One is to insist on better political leadership and better public policy. The other is to assume the responsibilities incumbent of citizens living in a republic. There is much we can and must do. Not “we” as in the collective “we”. We as in you and me in this room.

Because while solving poverty is complex, feeding a child is not. Our American children are not hungry because we lack food or because we lack food and nutrition programs. They are hungry because they lack access to such programs even though such programs work and the funds have been set aside to support them. Is it possible to think of a more lame excuse?

What do I mean by “lack access”. I mean that of 21 million kids who get a free school lunch by virtue of their family’s low income, only 9 million get breakfast although all 21 million are eligible, and only 3 million get meals in the summer time when the schools are closed. Here in Colorado the ratios are similar. During the 2010-2011 school year, of the 356,000 kids who got school lunch in this state, just over 100,000 ate breakfast.

The consequences are predictable and devastating. At Old Mill Middle School in Maryland, Principal Sean McElhaney told us of the morning he conducted standardized tests and a student wrote “I don’t care” across his. He prepared to give that student the usual lecture until the student said “Principal Mac, I haven’t eaten, I’m hungry and that’s why I wrote that.”

As devastating are the consequences, there are solutions. In Los Angeles County Mayor Villaraigosa recently announced that their experiment with breakfast in the classroom in one school will extend to 700 L.A. county public schools over the next three years. In the last week, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan wrote a letter urging all school officials to explore the benefits of such alternatives to breakfast in the cafeteria.

But why is there this disconnect in the first place given the enormous need and the resources that exist to solve the problem? The disconnect is because children are not only vulnerable, but voiceless. Kids don’t vote, make PAC contributions, belong to organizations or have lobbyists. All they have is you, and me.

And that’s why we need to do this work more powerfully. Powerfully enough to be able to reverse this effects of our negligence on a generation of children.

Imagine a time and a place in which everything you know to be true – because your instinct tells you so and because you’ve learned it - is set aside in favor of its opposite. Instead of putting oil in your car, you use water until the engine grinds to a halt. Instead of farmers watering their crops they let the harsh sun destroy them. Instead of building with the best steel and stone you instead use sand and water and knowingly face inevitable collapse. Instead of saving money to invest in long-term value creation and a better future, you opt instead for the immediate gratification that comes from spending everything you have?

This is how a generation of children are being raised today, in complete contrast to what we know is essential for their well being and success, in contradiction to not only maternal and paternal instinct but science and research as cutting edge as anything to be found at the intersection of neuroscience, molecular biology, technology and child development. The result is not only harmful to those specific kids, but to every single American taxpayer who bears the burden of far greater remedial expense, to our economy, our criminal justice system, and ultimately to our national security.

There is a very brief window for ensuring that kids get the nutrition and stimulation they need for their brains to grow properly. For decades we’ve given lip service to the belief that investing in early intervention now is more cost effective than paying for the consequences of not doing so later. But our ears don’t hear the words our lips have spoken. The length of time required to solve social problems does not align with a political cycle that requires re-election every 2,4 or 6 years.

It’s always difficult, whether in business or public affairs, to marshal the will to make investments that don’t pay off until the long term. But when applied to our children it not only means lost opportunity but devastating and often irreversible damage. As Share Our Strength’s national spokesperson Jeff Bridges often says about the fact that 16 million American children struggle with hunger “If another country had done this to our kids we’d go to war against them.”

I hope that as citizen leaders you will succeed where our political leaders have failed. On the airplane that brought me here I looked down at the farms and factories, at the small towns and schools where children were taught that Presidents and Congress, Governors and Mayors act on their behalf no matter which class they belong to. From that vantage point America looks fertile and full of possibility. But our leaders no longer see the whole, as one can from this vantage point. They have instead narrowed their vision to see only what is small and advantageous in the short-term. As a result they perpetuate the smallness, the narrowness, and the division. By such actions they are choosing to follow rather than to lead. The only remedy is for others to lead, for citizens and community organizations and businesses to act not on behalf of a class, but on behalf of a country. As graduates today you not only have that opportunity, but that responsibility. And you can do so by sharing your strength, creating community wealth, and bearing witness.

More than 50 million Americans living in poverty desperately need our help. But just as much as they need us, we need them if America is to maintain a position of strength and competitiveness in the world. A country with one sixth of its population trapped in poverty, on food assistance, unemployed and dispirited will be hard pressed to lead and inspire in ways that live up to America’s legacy. American can’t be strong if her kids are weak.

No one spoke more eloquently about the need to share our strengths than the poet Gwendolyn Brooks who wrote:

We are others harvest

We are each other’s business

We are each other’s magnitude

And bond.

Those words are just as true today. We are each others’ harvest. Thank you for the work you are doing to end childhood hunger and to make America a nation in which there is No Kid Hungry.

The Story You Won't Hear at the Democratic Convention in Charlotte

As delegates began to arrive in Charlotte, North Carolina for the Democratic convention, the front page of the Charlotte observer did something that neither the Democrats or Republicans are likely to do in this election campaign: it focused on poverty with a compelling story called “The Nation’s Poor: A Story You Won’t Hear This Week in Charlotte” @ http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/09/02/3496773/the-story-you-wont-hear-this-week.html


Poverty in North Carolina is at 17.5%, several points higher than the national average. The article laments: “When President Barack Obama is renominated this week, you can expect much to be said about what he will do for the middle class, much more to be said about the obligations of the upper class. You can expect silence about the needs of the underclass. …With the singular exception of the unfortunate former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, it is difficult, if not impossible, to name a politician who has made poverty a cornerstone issue since Lyndon Johnson spoke out for the Americans who “live on the outskirts of hope. But those days are gone. The poor have disappeared from our political consciousness – and conscience.”

This is just one of the reasons we are seeking to give voice to the voiceless by launching a new weekly radio show to about urgent social issues that do not receive meaningful coverage by the mass media. Join us by watching this brief video on our Indiegogo site @ http://www.indiegogo.com/shareyourstrength

Behind the Scenes at RNC In Tampa

       "Man he is cooler than the other side of the pillow” one man swooned to me after meeting the Academy Award winning actor Jeff Bridges at a No Kid Hungry event at the Republican convention in Tampa. Jeff and I and a team from Share Our Strength were there to continue the effort to build bipartisan support for our effort to end childhood hunger.


      At an event a few blocks from the floor of the convention, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell introduced Bridges by saying “I’m proud that I was the first Republican Governor to adopt the No Kid Hungry and that others have followed, and I urge every Governor in this country to get behind the No Kid Hungry campaign.” (Earlier in the day we introduced a special film festival screening of the Food Network’s “Hunger Hits Home” documentary that features both Jeff and Gov. McDonnell.)

     Upon their arrival on Monday the delegates were greeted by a Tampa Bay Times editorial, triggered by our teachers survey of hunger in the classroom, that said: “Leaders of Share Our Strength are wisely building partnerships with local anti-hunger organizations, government agencies, corporations and heads of education and business and political groups. Such partnerships can focus on increasing participation in federal nutrition programs and obtain easier access to federal funds to feed our children. By all indications, this model is succeeding…. A valuable lesson of this collaboration is that earnest people who see themselves as stakeholders can find ways to solve difficult problems for the greater good — perhaps even eliminating childhood hunger.” @ http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/columns/there-should-be-no-hungry-schoolchildren/1247635

     Political conventions are a bit like foreign countries with their own language, traffic patterns, cultural icons, and visa requirements. My first Republican convention fit that bill, especially as a lifelong Democrat. But there were many friendly faces in the crowd, and as both Gov. McDonnell and the editorial above made clear, a sense that ending childhood hunger may be one of the few issues on which both parties can agree.

     But it was also clear that efforts like these to reach a larger audience, broaden our base, and to intersect with the national conversation are critical to our success and critical to our efforts to be a voice for the voiceless. That’s the principal reason we are creating a pilot for a new public radio show talk show and crowdfunding it through Indiegogo @ www.indiegogo.com/shareyourstrength  For social entrepreneurs, nonprofits, and engaged philanthropists it will be a place to share your strength. Check it out.

Who will speak out on behalf of the voiceless?

Imagine the 1968 campaign without a mention of Vietnam or civil rights. Or the 1976 post-Watergate election without a discussion of campaign finance reform. Or 1980’s race’s between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan not focusing on the energy crisis of the Iran hostage situation. It’s hard to think of a presidential election in which the great crises of that particular time was met with silence and played no part of the campaign.


That’s what came to mind in listening to Bill Moyers most recent commentary in which he begins “It’s just astonishing how long this campaign has gone on with no discussion of what’s happening to poor people.” Moyers remains one of the few journalists committed to speaking truth to power about the failure to seriously address poverty in the United States. His commentary can be seen @ http://billmoyers.com/2012/08/24/invisible-americans-get-the-silent-treatment/#.UDjUDVtQc84.twitter

With 46 million Americans on food stamps for the first time in the history of the country, just a symptom of the crushing poverty that is afflicting so many, not to mention record levels of 22% child poverty, neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have shown the slightest inclination to take this issue head-on. Even more remarkably, there has been very little pressure on them to do so.

Why? Because the historic economic inequality that characterizes and divides America in 2012 has been both consequence and cause of increased political inequality. The voiceless are even more so. Extraordinarily wealthy donors have greater influence on the agenda of the campaign. And journalism, under extraordinary financial pressure in a rapidly evolving industry, is more sensitive to ratings and the desires of advertisers than ever before.

What can be done about all this? Not clear. But as Moyers points out, everyone who can speak out should speak out. And if enough of us do maybe politicians will begin to lead instead of follow. Maybe our fellow citizens will see themselves as part of a whole, rather than just a precious, narrow interest. Maybe the body politic will give voice to the children who can’t give to SuperPacs or hire lobbyists, to need as well as to privilege, to the least heard among us who just happen to be our future.

That’s one of the reasons we are launching a new public radio show to shine a spotlight on issues and solutions too often ignored by the mainstream media. Join us today @ http://www.indiegogo.com/shareyourstrength

Failing to Protect Those Who Need it Most

I wish our political leaders would spend a weekend at Goose Rocks Beach, not for the sun and surf, but for the moral education.


The Maine coastline shows how nature has evolved to protect those least able to protect themselves. The lowly moon snail builds a “sand collar” made of mucus and sand, almost identical to the color of the ocean floor, to cover and camouflage its eggs. When a Piping Plover senses a predator threatening her chicks, she walks away dragging one wing on the ground, feigning it is broken, to divert interest and tempt the predator to follow her instead. A mother and father duck bob watchfully in front of and behind their dozen ducklings learning to swim.

Generational protectiveness is nature’s oldest and most fundamental law. Somehow our political and economic society has evolved to violate it. We aggressively protect the strong, but fail to acknowledge the vulnerable that need protection the most.

Last week the Children’s Defense Fund released their State of America’s Children report. It explains “there are 16.4 million poor children in rich America, 7.4 million living in extreme poverty. Children under five are the poorest age group in America and one in four infants, toddlers and preschoolers are poor during the years of greatest brain development.” The report’s sobering statistics include: more than 1 in 4 children in the U.S. are on SNAP; 39.1 percent of black children were born poor in 2010. Only 3% of eligible infants and toddlers secure spots in Head Start due to funding constraints.



What’s more shocking than the statistics (the full report is @ http://www.childrensdefense.org/child-research-data-publications/data/soac-2012-handbook.pdf) is how little attention the report received. Scanning the web for reaction or response, what I found instead were examples of how protective society can be, just not of vulnerable kids:



 Financial regulators in Washington responded immediately when errors at Knight Capital undermined confidence in the stock market.



 Apple spent $647 million in advertising to protect its investment in the iPhone.



 The Obama campaign has spent more cash more quickly - $400 million so far – than any incumbent in recent history to protect his lead, and SuperPacs for both parties will spend hundreds of millions of dollars more.

There is of course a rational for each of these actions. But what’s the rationale for only acting on behalf of the strong but not the weak?
In the forward to the Children’s Defense Fund report Marian Wright Edelman wrote:

“Millions of children are living hopeless, poverty and violence stricken lives in the war zones of our cities; in the educational deserts of our rural areas; in the moral deserts of our corrosive culture that saturates them with violent, materialistic, and individualistic messages; and in the leadership deserts of our political and economic life where greed and self interest trump the common good over and over. … child hunger and child suffering have become normalized in the richest nation on earth. It’s time to reset our moral compass and redefine how we measure success.” ….
Her prescription for change pointed to the kind of work we do at Share Our Strength: “A transforming nonviolent movement is needed to create a just America. It must start in our homes, communities, parent and civic associations, and faith congregations across the nation. It will not come from Washington or state capitols or with politicians. Every single person can and must make a difference if our voiceless, voteless children are to be prepared to lead America forward. Now is the time to close our action and courage gaps, reclaim our nation’s ideals of freedom and justice, and ensure every child the chance to survive and thrive.”
At Goose Rocks Beach one can bear witness to nature’s extraordinary efforts to protect those who need protection the most. In doing so you realize it is not just tragic that we allow 20% of America’s children to struggle with poverty and hunger, it’s unnatural. Moral leadership might be enhanced if our nation’s leaders spent a day at the beach.

Using Entrepreneurship to Address Extreme Poverty

Our quiet little corner of Maine seems an unlikely place to be learning about one of the most inspiring and revolutionary ideas to tackle extreme poverty around the world, but that was the opportunity it afforded recently when Bob and Dottie King spoke at the small Methodist Church in Cape Porpoise, built in 1857 by and for local fisherman, and known as “the church on the Cape”. Bob and Dottie, who have been married 54 years and spend their summers at Goose Rocks Beach, recently donated $150 million to Stanford, one of the largest gifts in Stanford University history, to establish the Stanford Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies, nicknamed SEED. You can read more about it @ http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/bmag/sbsm1201/seed.html


The goal of the Institute, whose work will begin in Ghana and Kenya, is to provide management, entrepreneurial and educational support to advance that kind of economic growth that can alleviate poverty. As a Silicon Valley investor who had been involved in the growth of start-ups ranging from Intel to Oracle, Bob had for more than 50 years been hosting international students in their home, at the urging of Dottie. They developed a passion for the developing world, but especially for people, seeing each and every one as good, talented, and worthy, though perhaps not as lucky as they themselves had been. And as a businessman, Bob has a passion for results, strategy, and return on investment. “To be a good steward, you’ve got to have results.”

What I found most inspirational and hopeful was not the amount of the gift, or the scale of Bob and Dottie’s expansive vision of reaching 200 million people, but something even more rare and precious: the humility they bring to it. Both are people of deep faith. Bob made a point of saying that they didn’t need to be thanked for their gift because it was the NGO’s that “do what we can’t do, so we should be the ones thanking them.” And while Bob and Dottie host CEO’s, prime ministers, university presidents, and other world leaders when in Palo Alto, they were happy to give up an evening to speak to a small group of about 70 of us in Maine because they really believe that every person counts.

Given the entrepreneurial spirit and philosophy that has always been core to Share Our Strength, and our focus on partnerships with business to create new kinds of “community wealth” I’m sure there will be much we can learn from the new Institute’s work, and perhaps some learnings of our own that we can share as well. In any case, keep your eye on it and on Bob and Dottie. There aren’t many like ‘em in Goose Rocks, or anywhere for that matter.

Woody Guthrie and the power of bearing witness

You may have seen some of the references in the press over the weekend to the 100th birthday on July 14 of folk singer and songwriter Woody Guthrie. I thought you might find interesting this brief video essay from Bill Moyers @ http://billmoyers.com/2012/07/12/woody-guthrie-what-he-still-teaches-us/  that calls out a lesser known stanza from Guthrie’s best known song, This Land is Your Land:


“In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,

By the relief office, I seen my people;

As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking

Is this land made for you and me?”

Guthrie, born in Oklahoma, had lived in the Dust Bowl of the Great Depression and for the rest of his life wrote and sang bearing witness to poverty, inequality, and those who were the most vulnerable and voiceless. His words gave unforgettable voice to these issues. And while those words were sharply political at times, by tying them to music he was able to reach a larger audience than many political statements are able to reach. It’s a testament to their power, and to how much work we have yet to do, that his words still resonate today.