Food Secure Nation

In this episode of Food Secure Nation, we sit down with Brian McGrain of Michigan Community Action to explore what it takes to move from disconnected efforts to coordinated solutions. Families don’t experience our systems—they experience whether life works. Real impact happens when organizations align their strengths, navigate the gaps, and work together to meet real-life needs.

In this episode of Food Secure Nation, Phil Knight and Gerry Brisson welcome Jason Jakubowski, president and CEO of Connecticut Foodshare, for a conversation about leadership, trust, and the power of doing hard things well. Jason shares the story behind merging two legacy food banks into one unified statewide organization—an effort that strengthened efficiency, amplified impact, and created a single voice for fighting food insecurity across Connecticut. More than a story about structure, this episode highlights what happens when courage, competence, and mission come together to better serve families and communities.

Leadership isn’t just about getting it right—it’s about how you show up when it matters most. In this episode of Food Secure Nation, Dan Flowers—CEO of the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank and one of the most respected voices in the Feeding America network—joins Phil Knight and Gerry Brisson for a candid, deeply human conversation about what it really takes to lead. With nearly three decades in the work, Dan unpacks the tension between conviction and collaboration, the power of relationships, and the courage required to navigate an increasingly divided world. If you care about leadership that lasts—and work that brings people together—this is a conversation you don’t want to miss.

Behind every meal served is a system most people never see. In this episode, Liz Lowe shares her journey from growing up in a food-insecure household to helping organizations across the country build sustainable funding strategies. Alongside Phil and Gerry Brisson, she explores how funding, relationships, and lived experience come together to shape what’s possible in the fight for food security.

This episode goes beyond inspiration and gets to the real challenge at the heart of food security: not a lack of caring, not a lack of ideas, but a lack of connection. Dr. Phil Knight and Gerry Brisson reflect on decades of experience to unpack why so much good work struggles to scale, and why better frameworks, shared learning, and the Six Dimensions of Food Security may be the key to moving from isolated effort to real national progress. If you want to understand what connects the voices, vision, and momentum behind Food Secure Nation, this is the episode that brings it all together.

About This Episode Food security gets real when you stop talking about programs and start looking at systems. In this episode, Joree Novotny and Mandy Pullaro break down the six dimensions of food security from a statewide lens—where every decision carries tradeoffs between resources, dignity, and results. What happens when agency becomes the difference-maker? When emergency response turns into everyday reality? And what shifts when we treat people not as problems to solve, but as partners in the solution?

Everyone sees the front lines of hunger relief—but who’s aligning the system behind it? In this episode, Joree Novotny and Mandy Pullaro share how state associations in the Feeding America network quietly connect policy, partnerships, and people to move entire networks forward. If food insecurity is a systems problem, this conversation reveals where real alignment—and real progress—actually begins.

As she steps down as CEO of Feeding America, Claire Babineaux-Fontenot shares the leadership philosophy that helped reshape the national hunger conversation. At the heart of it: agency. What happens when people experiencing hunger are no longer on the margins—but at the center of decision-making? This episode explores the courage, tension, and impact of that shift.

Stacy Dean is a nationally recognized leader in food policy and nutrition programs, currently serving as Director of the Global Food Institute at George Washington University. Over the course of her career, she has shaped and implemented some of the nation’s most critical food assistance programs, including SNAP, WIC, and school meals. Creating "Access' is the heart of who Stacy is and how she leads.

When Stacy Dean joined Food Secure Nation, the conversation centered on a single but complex word: access. Drawing on a career that spans shaping national nutrition policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, administering SNAP, WIC, school meals, and food bank funding at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and now leading the Global Food Institute at George Washington University, Stacy has influenced food access from nearly every vantage point. Her journey reflects a consistent through-line: leadership is influence, and influence shapes whether access expands or contracts for families across the country and around the globe.

Gerry and Phil sit down with Virginia Witherspoon, the Executive leading Channel One Food Bank in MN. She chairs the National Advisory Committee for Feeding America. Lawery, CEO and Chairperson - 3 Chairs, Unique Perspectives from Virginia Witherspoon.

Our guest, Tory Martin, is a leader at the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy, where she helps study and interpret national trends shaping the nonprofit and philanthropic world. Her work looks beyond headlines to examine how trust, technology, and data are reshaping how nonprofits operate and how the public experiences their work.

Melissa Cherney speaks with both candor and inspiration. "We’re not here just to move food. We’re here to fix the system that determines who eats in America. When we design policy, we must remember: behind every application is a human being with dignity, resilience, and a future. Hunger does not define a person. It reflects a moment in time."

Food Secure Nation welcomes Dr. Sheril Krishenbaum, a renown writer and scientist who cares deeply about this stubborn challenge of food security. A positive solution oriented scholar who brings her unique insight to both policy and practices of addressing hunger and creating food security.

The Six Dimensions of Food Security, first developed by the United Nations offers a framework whereby professionals, those interested in a healthy community and others who simply believe hunger should not exist in the US a launching pad to discuss ideas, chart solutions and implement those ideas so we move towards the next threshold of food security in and across America. Join the conversation.

Policies, programs and being people centric helps create a stable food supply chain. Scott Piggott, a farmer discusses with Gerry and Phil the realities of how programs designed to support agriculture need to be stable so our access to food is as well.

Know Better Do Better, LLC is designed to help us think better and do more in the challenge of creating a food secure nation.

Policy, programs and people can create a stable food supply chain that works together to support both farmers and families cohesively.

Food Secure Nation KBDB's Influence by Dr. Phil Knight Gerry Brisson

Why Food Insecurity Still Exists - Food Secure Nation by Dr. Phil Knight Gerry Brisson