[0:01]Hi, good afternoon everybody and welcome to today's webinar. Fighting Hunger by Connecting State partners and centering lived expertise, made possible by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
[0:18]My name's Elissa Beers from the Center for Health Care Strategies and I'm honored to host today's webinar. On behalf of CHCS, our core partners, uh and co-creators that you'll hear from today. We want to express our heartfelt gratitude to you all for choosing to spend the next 90 minutes with us. To kick us off, I'm so pleased to dive right in and turn the webinar directly over to Barbie Isdo. Consultant and National spokesperson and community empowerment manager at Hungerfree America for opening remarks. Barbie, thank you so much, the floor is all yours. Thank you so much, Elissa.
[1:10]I've been asked many times what does food insecurity feel like. What does it look like?
[1:21]And I would say things like food insecurity has many different meanings. To some, it means statistics like 38.3 million people lived in food insecure households in 2020. But to those 38.3 million households, it means struggle, shame, stigma, and being made to feel that they are undeserving.
[2:07]So today, I think I'll answer that question in a more personal way. You see to me, to people like me who have been food insecure or are currently living through it. To us, it looks like countless mothers crying to their best friends about the injustices of the system. It looks like feeling like you want to give up because through all of life's ups and downs, there's still always this feeling of injustice that will never seem to go away. There were so many moments questioning myself as a mother because I couldn't provide the basic needs for my kids.
[3:05]And no, that doesn't mean that we couldn't afford the luxury of eating a steak.
[3:17]It meant that there were many days where I fed my brain pictures because I couldn't fill my belly and the bellies of my two children at the same time. The whole time yearning for some sort of economic justice so that we can enrich our lives.
[3:51]Feel validated, important.
[4:02]And ultimately, so that we can know we are enough and that we can handle anything thrown at us, despite how hopeless it may feel at times.
[4:19]So we're here today to help continue to raise awareness on what needs to happen so that people from communities like mine can thrive.
[4:47]Whether that means the streets of North Philly or rural low access communities in America for us to actually have a chance to live freely.
[5:07]That means being equal, and not having to choose between dignity and asking or receiving the help that you need.
[5:24]It means less tax breaks for the rich and less breaking the spirit and backs of low-income communities. It means flourishing small businesses owned by people who look like me. It means federal assistance doing the right thing before a recession or more people getting hurt.
[6:01]It means the elimination of barriers keeping my people from financial freedom, wealth and stability, and centering people with lived experience in the fight to fix harmful policies.
[6:24]Economic justice to me, grants us the opportunity to eradicate hunger and end the stigmas that separate humanity from government assistance.
[6:46]It means opportunity to help invigorate us by having things like access to financial literacy and economic opportunities for growth for everyone. Without judgment, blame or imposter syndrome.
[7:15]It looks like the deterioration of poverty and generational cycles of suffering forced onto us by people who have power that has been taken from us.
[7:37]It looks like livable wages instead of I challenge you to survive and I dare you to sacrifice.
[7:52]Economic justice is the sacrificing of systems to ensure the good of the people.
[8:08]In order to achieve the fairness that we seek, we must work together to break down the walls that keep us apart.
[8:23]The walls that promote silos and the oppression that happens to my average American.
[8:44]The ones that provided a life lesson and a plate of food to those kids whose parent couldn't afford it.
[9:00]Community leaders and advocates are born from these lessons.
[9:16]And when we share our experiences and expertise, we do so in hopes of bridging gaps, building relationships, centering lived experience and community engagement to uplift dignity while tackling the intersectionality of issues that millions of people face.
[9:50]We do this because our pain turns into our stories.
[9:59]Our stories may come from burdens but our expertise transforms our burden into our responsibility to fight for a change.
[10:14]Thank you for being here with us and sharing your time with us today to be a part of that change.
[10:31]We invite you to be open and truly take in what we're sharing with you and hopefully, we will make you all feel safe enough to share with us in the chat as well.
[10:53]Welcome, once again, and I will now pass it on to Elissa.
[11:06]Barbie, thank you. Thank you so incredibly much.
[11:18]Thank you for starting this event, um, with your powerful words and and just your your passion, um, and your expertise for grounding us all in why this is so important. And why we are all gathered here in this virtual space. I think if we were in person, you would feel the love and the inspiration in the room. I'm grateful, I'm humbled and honored to be here in partnership with you, um, and with our collective team of presenters today, as well as all of the attendees joining across the country. I encourage everybody on the line to carry Barbie's powerful introductory remarks with you throughout the webinar and beyond, um, as I know I will.
[12:30]So Chavez, if we can go to the next slide, please.
[12:37]So this slide shares a little bit about the Center for Healthcare Strategies, um, and I'd say at our core, we're a nonprofit organization that works with partners across Medicaid and related programs to ensure more effective and equitable care that leads to better outcomes for more people.
[13:09]And just in reflecting on Barbie's comments just now about bridging gaps and building relationships, um, in order to tackle the intersectionality of issues faced by so many, um, I want to emphasize how grateful my team and I at CHCS are for the relationships and partnerships developed through the project that you'll hear about today.
[13:51]Um, as co-design and and co-creation with our community partners and our advisors for this project have been just critical to the success of the project and, um, also to the formation of the policy recommendations that we'll discuss today.
[14:19]Um, next slide.
[14:26]So, with that, I'm honored to introduce our partners and today's speakers over these next two slides. So Barbie Isdo, whom you just heard is a consultant, advocate and national spokesperson. Alice Aluoch is founder and executive director of Mfarji Africa. And Yolanda Gordon is manager, expansion and advocacy at RESULTS, and Tamika L. Moore is consultant with lived expertise.
[15:15]My colleague Nessa Finnise, program associate at CHCS, um, will also be presenting today. And just a huge shout out as well to our other CHCS team members, um, that are also on the line, Kathy Moses, Diana Crumley and Kathy Brock, as they've been all so instrumental in facets of all facets of this project as well.
[15:52]Next slide, please.
[16:03]Uh, next slide presentation, we're, um, we'll move into a panel discussion that will be moderated by Jameka Mills, who's co-founder of Equitable Spaces, and including fellow Equitable Spaces co-founder Diane Sullivan. Um, who's just been an instrumental partner and advisor from day one on this project.
[16:38]We're also really pleased to be joined by Breanca Merritt, who is Chief Equity, Chief Health Equity Officer and at the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, and Dan Haun, who's Director of Self-Sufficiency Programs at the Oregon Department of Human Services. Next slide, please.
[17:10]So here is, um, an agenda for today's session.
[17:20]Our goals are to first highlight opportunities to address food insecurity by connecting state partners and centering lived expertise drawing from a recent, a recent national exploration undertaken. Um, also to present insights from community members with lived expertise as well as state officials about opportunities to coordinate across programs like Medicaid and Snap to address food insecurity. Um, and also to explore ways to incorporate the experiences of community members into program and policy decision making. Next slide.
[18:24]So with that, I am just so pleased to turn the floor over to Alice Aluoch and Tamika Moore to begin the community insights presentation. Um, so Alice, I'll turn the floor over to you. Thank you.
