The Government Fix – "The Government Fix for Food"

Podcast: The Government Fix (Code for America)
Episode Date: March 10, 2026

Episode Overview

In this episode of The Government Fix, Amanda Renteria, CEO of Code for America, explores how grassroots initiatives and federal policy innovations are addressing food insecurity in America, particularly for children.
She is joined first by Isaac and Amanda Tupes of Toup’s Family Meal—a New Orleans nonprofit born out of the pandemic—and then by Billy Shore, founder of Share Our Strength and the No Kid Hungry campaign.
The conversations blend on-the-ground action, community organizing, and policy-level change—showing both the challenge and solvability of hunger, especially for children, in the US.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

I. Feeding Communities in Crisis: The Story of Tupes Family Meal

(With Isaac & Amanda Tupes)
[Starts ~03:20]

• Origin During Pandemic:

  • Isaac describes how they began by providing “family meal” for laid off restaurant staff.
  • Demand snowballed; within days, they were serving 500 meals daily.
  • Local chefs and purveyors donated food as supply chains collapsed and fridges emptied.
  • Notable Quote (Isaac Tupes, 03:20):

    “We just started emptying the freezers... Other chefs and purveyors were like, hey, we got all this food, you guys are feeding the people, you just have it.”

• Community Response & Expansion:

  • Social media, word-of-mouth, and local connections rapidly expanded reach.
  • A mother’s plea—"Would you feed my children?"—opened their eyes to broader, more urgent needs.
  • Community support ranged from saints football players to grandmothers Venmo-ing $2.
  • Memorable Story (Amanda Tupes, 06:25):

    “A mom rolled up with three little children in the back of her car and told Isaac, ‘You don’t have to feed me, but would you feed my children?’ … It was an eye opener for us.”

• Partnerships & Scaling Up:

  • Crowdsourced funding kept operations alive.
  • World Central Kitchen partnership allowed them to serve 100,000 meals over the first 18 months, demonstrating the power of collaboration between nonprofits.

• Learning from Families – Addressing Real Needs:

  • In 2024, Toup’s Family Meal learned transportation insecurity was as acute as food insecurity.
  • Directly surveyed mothers and grandmothers to tailor services—delivering ready-to-heat meals to homes rather than requiring pickup.
  • Notable Quote (Amanda Tupes, 13:35):

    “I needed to know. I said, do you need groceries? Do you want hot food? … What I heard was, 'I’m at work during the day in the summer and my kids are home alone. I don’t want them using the stove.'”

• Demand Far Exceeds Capacity:

  • Sign-ups filled in 30 minutes; they turned away 1,000+ families within an hour.
  • Notable Quote (Amanda Tupes, 15:21):

    “We turned away a thousand families within an hour, and then we had to turn it off. And that tells me everything I need to know.”

• Stigma & Dignity:

  • Challenged stereotypes about families in need; refuse to over-police or stigmatize help-seekers.
  • Memorable Retort (Isaac Tupes, 00:00 & 17:19):

    “When is it okay for the child to go without a meal? And that normally shuts everybody up. … Does the kids still deserve to go hungry? No, of course not.”

• Vision for Change:

  • Call for systemic fixes: higher minimum wage, affordable groceries, lower rent, and free/transit for working families.
  • Emphasize “meeting people where they are”— literally by delivering to porches and pursuing direct, respectful aid.

II. The Policy Picture: Summer EBT & the Fight Against Child Hunger

(With Billy Shore, Share Our Strength)
[Begins ~25:51]

• History & Early Days:

  • Share Our Strength started in 1984, inspired by the Ethiopian famine and a search for a sustainable, domestic solution to hunger.
  • Built chef- and restaurateur-based networks (originally got just one reply out of 2,000 letters—Alice Waters).

• Evolving Focus—From Emergency Food to Policy:

  • Initially focused on funding food banks, but learned that hunger is a symptom of deeper issues—food banks were a band-aid.
  • Over time, shifted toward systemic solutions: leveraging policy, public benefits (school meals, SNAP), and policy advocacy.
  • Key Lesson (Billy Shore, 30:22):

    “One of the key lessons is that policy is an indispensable aspect … We realized that we had to find a more systemic way.”

• Summer EBT: The First New Federal Food Program in 50 Years:

  • The pandemic made policymakers realize the dysfunction in summer feeding; “congregate” meal requirements meant millions of eligible kids went unfed.
  • Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) during COVID—pandemic EBT—showed a new model: direct funding for groceries.
  • Outcomes: soared to 18 million kids served (from 3 million); highlights the power of systemic change.
  • Statistic (Billy Shore, 33:23):

    “We’ve gone from 3 million kids getting summer meals two summers ago to 18 million ... this year.”

• Policy & Partisanship—Obstacles Remain:

  • Bipartisan support is possible but precarious: Texas legislature added funds for summer EBT, governor line-item vetoed it—underscoring political barriers despite support.

• Nonprofit–Government Partnership:

  • Laws passed in DC or Congress don’t work unless trusted organizations partner to implement and ensure benefits reach families.
  • Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Quote via Billy Shore (34:55):

    “The laws we pass don’t mean a thing unless organizations like yours help state and local governments make sure that everybody who’s supposed to benefit from them gets the benefits.”

III. Lessons & Personal Reflections

• Dignity & Proximity:

  • Both guests emphasize the importance of serving with dignity, minimizing bureaucracy, and seeing people as neighbors, not “cases.”
  • Reflections on personal experiences—classroom stigma, seventh-graders asking about embarrassment at lunch lines.
  • Notable Moment (Billy Shore, 43:56):

    “One of the little boys… asked, ‘At Share Our Strength, have you found a way to serve children and families without embarrassing them?’… it changed the way we do our work.”

• Root Causes:

  • Hunger is about more than just food; it’s about poverty, economic opportunity, wages, housing, and transportation.
  • Both direct action and policy advocacy are required for real change.

• A Solvable Problem:

  • Hunger in America is fundamentally solvable—there’s enough food, enough infrastructure, and (with work) public/political will.
  • Billy Shore’s Core Belief (37:54):

    “When it comes to hunger in particular, and especially childhood hunger in the United States, that’s a solvable problem… We could actually win, take it off the table, and go fight the next battle.”

Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• On Why They Don’t Means-Test or Judge:

  • Isaac: “When is it okay for the child to go without a meal? … I don’t care if the parents are good or bad. I hope they’re good … Does the kid still deserve to go hungry? No, of course not.”
    (00:00 & 17:19)

• On the Five Days to Crisis:

  • Amanda Tupes: “Five days before the cupboards were bare. That should tell you how food insecure New Orleans is… a national failure.”
    (05:35 – 09:00)

• On Dignity and Verification:

  • Amanda Tupes: “How do you know they’re really in need? Because they told me they were. What do you want me to do, check their bank statements?”
    (16:52)

• On Policy and Partnership:

  • Billy Shore quoting Nancy Pelosi: “The laws we pass don’t mean a thing unless organizations like yours help state and local governments make sure everybody who’s supposed to benefit… gets the benefits.”
    (34:55)

• On Hunger Being Solvable:

  • Billy Shore: “When it comes to hunger in particular… that’s a solvable problem.”
    (37:54)

• If They Had a Magic Wand:

  • Isaac Tupes: “Higher minimum wage.” (23:35)
  • Amanda Tupes: “Full transparency to the people.” (23:38)
  • Billy Shore: “Proximity… If we responded to a child trapped in poverty the way the fire department responds to a child trapped in a burning building.” (47:34 – 49:31)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 03:20: Feeding the Community – Toup’s initial pandemic response
• 07:55: Expanding beyond restaurant workers – “The floodgates opened”
• 11:01: Five days to empty cupboards, system failure
• 13:29: Surveying mothers – designing delivery, not just pickup
• 15:21: Overwhelming demand, 1,000 families turned away
• 17:19: Stigma, dignity, and why they refuse added bureaucracy
• 21:55: Their vision for a “fixed” New Orleans and real solutions
• 25:51: Billy Shore – Origins of Share Our Strength & No Kid Hungry
• 30:22: Policy as the indispensable lever; from band-aids to systemic change
• 33:23: Summer EBT, the first new federal program in decades, and its impact
• 34:55: The crucial role of nonprofit-government partnership
• 37:54: Hunger as a solvable problem in America
• 43:56: Importance of serving with dignity—stories from the classroom
• 47:34: The “proximity” solution—government modeled after the fire department

Takeaways

• Addressing hunger requires both imaginative policy and practical, empathetic action on the ground.
• Trusted community members are best positioned to know and meet needs—but need stable support and resources.
• Direct engagement, respectful listening, and lowering barriers ("meeting people where they are") unlock access and dignity.
• Change is possible when government, nonprofits, and communities work in tandem—with persistence, creativity, and heart.

For more, visit Code for America or the Toup’s Family Meal and No Kid Hungry initiatives referenced throughout this episode.