Finding A Purpose Bigger Than Yourself with Joel Berg
This episode of Success Fundamentals features Joel Berg, CEO at Hunger Free America. An advocacy to end hunger at home set Joel on a nationwide tour of their different sites. It was an opportunity to lobby for change to show the reality of the problem.
He describes what hunger in America looks like today, a stark contrast to the fact that obesity rates are also highest in America. He talks about the need for a social movement to create lasting change especially since hunger in America is an unnecessary problem.
He mentions the responsibility of people in power to join the fight and how disruptive philanthropy helps causes like his. Joel also clarifies that he is not against wealth accumulation. He only wishes that everyone who makes it to the top will bring along the people that got them there in the first place.
HIGHLIGHTS
01:50 Social justice activism set the tone for Joel's advocacy
09:14 Nationwide work in lobbying: Hunger is an unnecessary problem in the US
14:52 Hunger in America: Obesity and malnutrition are two sides of the same coin
20:51 Pro hunger forces have much to gain with ongoing hunger
26:16 A social movement to make healthier food available and convenient
30:48 Conversations with people who are hard to convince
36:03 Be the next billionaire but bring the people that brought you there
40:50 Disruptive philanthropy supports the fight to end hunger in America
46:00 Advice: Don't start your own nonprofit group, support existing ones instead
51:45 Connect with Joel and Hunger Free America
QUOTES
07:56 "The idea that people can't eat is just so appalling to me. And as I said, it ties together the racial justice issues I care about because the largest number of people in America who are hungry are white, but there's no question that people of color, because of systemic structural racism are more likely to be hungry."
09:43 "I thought I was capable of running a national nonprofit group, but the bias a non-profit to get this government so great, no national group would hire me to run it."
13:37 "What really upsets me, really outrages me are things that are totally unnecessary, that are totally within our control. Hunger in America's totally unnecessary. It's totally in our control."
21:11 "The forces that are lobbying against paying their workers enough to feed their family, they're pro hunger. The forces that are for cutting rather than expanding federal nutrition assistance programs, they're pro hunger. And the politicians that vote that way, let's be very, very clear, they're pro hunger."
26:59 "How do we get our political system to do that? We do it by building the political movement to do it and make sure that the people most impacted are in leadership roles of it."
You can connect with Joel through the links below.
- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-berg-53a7194/
- Website - https://www.hungerfreeamerica.org/
- Email - jberg@hungerfreeamerica.org
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