Sharing Strength with Billy Shore

Billy Shore, founder and executive chair of Share Our Strength, the parent organization for the No Kid Hungry campaign, joins host Barbara Petee to discuss what is possible when organizations work together, lending their unique strengths, to tackle the overwhelming social determinant of childhood hunger. When asked what keeps his team going, Billy commented: “We look for something that the writer, Jonathan Kozol talks about in terms of picking battles that are big enough to matter, but small enough to win. And we're constantly asking ourselves, ‘What would that be?’ And…our first answer to it was that when it comes to kids in this country who are hungry on a regular basis, that is exactly big enough to matter, but small enough to win. And I think, also, just the notion of holding ourselves accountable to getting specific results. When somebody gives us a donation, whether it's $5 or, or $5,000, they're parting with something that they worked hard for that was precious to them, that they have every right to keep and to use on their own behalf, yet they're giving it away. And we have an obligation, I think of it as a sacred trust to take those resources and turn them into measurable, tangible impact. And so being accountable to that, being willing to invest in measuring the impact that we've had and communicating it and being transparent about where we are against our objectives, those are all the things that I, I think, animate and motivate the team at Share Our Strength.”