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S3/Ep 5: America's Hunger Crisis - Real Solutions Beyond the Food Bank
21 Plays9 days ago
Recent SNAP benefit disruptions have exposed how fragile our food security safety net really is.
Food insecurity affects over 44 million Americans, with Texas ranking #1 in the nation. But hunger isn't just about a lack of food—it's about time poverty, housing instability, healthcare gaps, limited education, and blocked economic opportunity. When you're working multiple jobs to survive, you don't have time to cook nutritious meals, attend job training, or advocate for better wages.
Tammy Johnson, Executive Director and Founder of Empowering the Masses, reveals why traditional food banks provide temporary relief but can't break the cycle of poverty.
Learn what food insecurity looks like on the ground, why holistic approaches work, and what you can do right now.
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Transcript
Season 3 Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to season three of the Guardians of Hope podcast. We are a community of parents, educators, health, legal, and tech experts dedicated to positively impacting children's lives.
00:00:10
Speaker
The thoughts and opinions of my guests are not my own. This is a platform for sharing. Welcome everyone.
Food Insecurity Challenges
00:00:16
Speaker
Food insecurity isn't just a statistic. It's a mother choosing between feeding her children and paying rent.
00:00:24
Speaker
It's a senior skipping meals to afford medication. It's a working family relying on a food bank despite having two jobs. And right now, millions of Americans are facing an even more dire reality.
Impact of Government Shutdown on SNAP
00:00:39
Speaker
SNAP benefits have been delayed or not distributed this month due to the government shutdown, leaving families without their primary source of food assistance. But here's what most people don't understand.
00:00:52
Speaker
Food insecurity isn't just about hunger. It's linked to housing instability, health care access, educational barriers and economic opportunity.
00:01:03
Speaker
you can't solve one without addressing the others.
Tammy Johnson's Motivation
00:01:06
Speaker
Today, we're joined by Tammy Johnson, Executive Director and Founder of Empowering the Masses to discuss the national food insecurity crisis, why Texas leads the nation in this devastating metric, and what's happening right now as the SNAP benefit disruption pushes vulnerable families to the breaking point.
00:01:28
Speaker
Welcome, Tammy. Thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you for having me. Why don't you please share with us why you founded Empowering the Masses? Empowering the Masses was born out of my own lived experiences. My sisters and I grew up in poverty um with our mom who was a single parent, um but was experiencing quite a bit of health issues and health challenges. And so she did not have the ability to work um in order to provide for our families. And so ah my sister and I often depended on the school for our lunches, um breakfast, snacks.
00:02:03
Speaker
um And things of that nature. And so when you get to some semblance of um whatever success looks like for you in your life, and somebody is giving you a hand up along the way, i feel like nothing ever happens to you. It happens for you.
00:02:18
Speaker
And so all my lived experiences, I felt like needed to be poured into an organization that can help people that are just like me. Thank you so much, Tammy. I'm really um thrilled that you're here because we have a lot to talk about.
SNAP Disruptions and Food Banks
00:02:32
Speaker
um Why don't we start with the national picture before we go into talking about Texas? Now, over 44 million Americans experience food insecurity and with SNAP benefits being delayed or not distributed this month due to the government shutdown,
00:02:50
Speaker
We're seeing a crisis within a crisis. What are you and other food security organizations across the country witnessing right now as families lose access to this critical safety net?
00:03:03
Speaker
Families are becoming desperate. They're trying to figure out how am am I going to make the ends meet? A lot of families didn't prepare i didn't believe that this would happen. Like SNAP benefits wouldn't actually be paid so that people can make sure they can provide their basic need of sustenance for their families. And so just for us, even just last Saturday, we typically serve about 500 families a week.
00:03:26
Speaker
ah We serve 745. And so we' we're seeing an increased number for our needs and people um panicking because they didn't think to stock their shelves. And, you know, most of the time they don't have enough SNAP benefits to even do that.
Food Deserts in Texas
00:03:41
Speaker
Now, Texas holds the unfortunate distinction ranking of number one in the nation for food insecurity. For listeners across America who may be dealing with the issue ah in their own states, can you help us understand what food insecurity actually looks like on the ground and what specific factors make Texas the most vulnerable state among other states?
00:04:05
Speaker
One of the things that makes Texas is you know vulnerable is because we have a lot of food deserts. I know people report refer to them as food deserts, but I call them food apartheids. and And we are, um because those things are done on purpose. It's strategically done with the way that grocery stores are placed um in communities and people having access to um those grocery stores that provide the ability to either get to food on a regular basis if you're lacking transportation.
00:04:34
Speaker
because most of the times when you're in a food desert, you don't have ah the transportation that you need to get to a grocery store. You can't walk to your local grocery store. It's not in walking distance. You may have to catch two or three buses to get there.
00:04:45
Speaker
And so sometimes people are gonna go without. And so what people end up doing is having to go to their local convenience store that's right there, near them, right there in the area. And they're having to make a choice between, am I gonna pick something that's healthy for my family? Am I gonna pick something that's affordable?
00:05:00
Speaker
And so when I get to that local, a Food Mart corner store. If they have bananas and they have milk, but the milk may be $8 a gallon and bananas may be $3 for one banana, but they have Top Ramen or they have Takis or something like that that I can pay $5 for, that's what I'm going to get for my family.
00:05:20
Speaker
So food insecurity, lack of access to healthy, nutritious foods, but also um the inability to afford it or get to it regularly, even if I have SNAP.
Addressing Poverty's Root Causes
00:05:31
Speaker
Understood.
00:05:32
Speaker
Now, at Empowering the Masses, you've moved beyond the traditional food bank model to address what you call the root causes of poverty. We talked about this, housing, health, education, and employment.
00:05:45
Speaker
Can you explain why this holistic approach matters and um why can't emergency food relief alone solve this um crisis, regardless of what state you're in?
00:05:58
Speaker
Because I experienced that myself when I grew up in poverty and I knew that we were in poverty because my mom just simply didn't have the physical ability to go to work and take care of us. But at the age of 14, I had the opportunity to go to work for an organization called Private Industry Council, which allow ah and students or children, teenagers, you had to be 14 and up, 14 to like 18, to participate in this summer job program.
00:06:22
Speaker
And um i had I went through training and we got to work for the summer. And I realized, I put two and two together, that the ability to work and take care of myself put me in a a position of self-sustainability.
00:06:34
Speaker
I just needed to have the tools and the resources and and the doors open for me in order for me to be self-sustainable. And I never looked back. None of my children, I have six of them, have ever experienced food insecurity because I was introduced to a paradigm of excellence and a way to to take care of my family, um ah out of depending upon governmental assistance. Now, my mom you know was a very smart woman, but she just physically couldn't do it.
00:06:58
Speaker
And so I knew that food insecurity was just the was the root cause of something bigger. And if we just stop it addressing food insecurity, you're just putting a bandaid over a bullet hole. You got to figure out how to stop the bleeding. So you got to figure that upstream method.
00:07:10
Speaker
Why are people experiencing food insecurity and how can I keep them help them get to a place of self-sustainability?
Overcoming Time Poverty
00:07:17
Speaker
And most often it's short-term training because a lot of time of our our people are not just food insecure, living in poverty. They have time poverty.
00:07:26
Speaker
Because just because I'm food insecure doesn't mean I'm not working. I'm just not, the ends are not meeting. You know, I may be working 70 hours a week, you know, two jobs and still not enough. So how do we put people who have time poverty, physical poverty in a place of self-sustainability? And so I thought about short-term trainings that I knew could lead to long-term results.
00:07:46
Speaker
hey And you talk about time poverty. Can you explain a little bit more in detail what that is like? it' So you're saying, and this is something we're seeing, you know, all over the news where people are being criticized for being um or using supplemental services, um but they don't have the time because they are working and they aren't just making ends meet. So can you talk a little bit ah more about that, Tammy? Time poverty. Think about an average single mom who's receiving SNAP benefits. And SNAP benefits are not for people who are not taking care of themselves, they're doing their best.
00:08:19
Speaker
SNAP benefits supposed to be a bridge, you know, and that's what a lot of people are using them for. I may work 70 hours a week. I may work at ah at a at a warehouse delivering packages 40 hours a week, but then I may end up having to come home because there's still not enough money to to make the ends meet and do Uber for four hours a day, you know, three or four days a week. That's 70 hours. I'm working two jobs. It's still not enough.
00:08:40
Speaker
And so I have to depend on the SNAP benefits to kind of bridge that gap so that I can make sure the lights are on, so I can make sure the rent is paid. And so if I'm working 70 hours a week, not not every two weeks, every week, that's 140 hours every two weeks. And i'm still I still don't have enough to provide um for in a holistic way for my family.
00:09:00
Speaker
Do I have a lot of time now to think about my education and going into some type of job training that's going to help me with this? I don't. And so when we were designing our workforce development, we were trying to figure out how can we do something that can be done in 12 weeks 16 weeks or less?
00:09:16
Speaker
where our community can be self-sustainable on the other side of it. Because we know that people are often working multiple jobs, trying to take care of their children. And then think about what that 70 hours, 140 hours every two weeks.
00:09:29
Speaker
and If the aunts can't meet for me to pay pay for groceries, the aunts are not meeting for me to provide daycare either for my children. So like, there's just so many moving pieces that contribute to food insecurity. I got to pay the rent, you know, first.
00:09:43
Speaker
Exactly. You have the rent to pay. You have to pay someone to watch your child while you're working. There are a lot moving parts that you
Success Story: Akira's Journey
00:09:50
Speaker
said. Now, your organization helps in a way that, um you know, other programs don't.
00:09:58
Speaker
you help You have a workforce development program that you provide phlebotomy and community health worker certifications, and there may be others that I i haven't covered. But um tell us about this model and why equipping someone with the job skills alongside the food assistance creates a sustainable change.
00:10:19
Speaker
That's that upstream that I mentioned before. you know, and if you ever heard of the upstream story where there were some fishermen fishing and people were falling into the water and one of the fishermen was like, I'm going to, you know, he was pulling people out. One of them was pulling people out of the water, putting them on a boat with them.
00:10:34
Speaker
And one of the fishermen was like, going to go upstream to figure out like what's happening. And the other fisherman was like, no, stay here. I need you to help me pull the people out of the water. He was like, no, I need to go figure out why they're falling in the water in in the first place.
00:10:46
Speaker
And so in empowering the masses, Our formula education plus advocacy equals empowerment. If we can educate our communities and provide them with a way to educate themselves, teach them how to advocate for themselves, then they walk away empowered.
00:10:59
Speaker
And so that's where that short-term job training comes in. If I can teach you how to be employable and not just teach you the hard skills of the the the trade that we're providing for you,
00:11:09
Speaker
and the certification, but the soft skills is going to keep you employed because we can teach you the hard skills and you can get employed. But if we don't marry that with the soft skills, you're not going to remain employed. And it's going to be this this cycle of poverty, you know, over and over again.
00:11:22
Speaker
And so if you teach if you educate your community in all aspects as much as you can, the possibility them being self-sustainable increases. And I have, a you know, we have a story with Akira.
00:11:33
Speaker
who was one of our students and she was on snap when she started out with us in ah the fall cohort of 2024. And Akira is a young woman, so she had the ability to work, but she just wasn't making enough money because she didn't, you know, have a college degree. She didn't have a certification. So she was working two jobs and she found out about our phlebotomy training program and she heard that it was 12 weeks and she's working two jobs. And she was like, I want to go to this training, but it's two days a week and it's in the evening.
00:12:01
Speaker
If I quit one of my jobs and I could pay my rent, but I can't buy groceries for myself, then I'm going to have to apply for SNAP. Okay, I'm going to do it. And so she did it. She finished the top of our class and she graduated.
00:12:14
Speaker
um And then about four weeks after graduation, she was able to get a job at a local hospital making $27 an hour. She caught up the SNAP people and was like, hey, you know, the Department of Health and Human Services, I don't need SNAP anymore because now I'm gainfully employed.
00:12:27
Speaker
it was That was an example of what SNAP is supposed to be there for. It's not people just waiting sitting around waiting on the check or waiting on benefits to hit a card. It's people really trying to figure out how to to to to do this thing called life in these crazy times.
Engaging Policymakers and Communities
00:12:43
Speaker
Yeah, that's a great story, Tammy. Thank you for sharing that example. um It might inspire other people and other listeners in America, across the the country, um whether they're in states with high food insecurity like Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, or with or with lower rates, that significant there's still a significant need.
00:13:06
Speaker
How can individuals like policymakers, employers, and communities create a real impact in addressing this issue where they live. One of the things I think is get out of the office and go to the people who are doing the work that are at the boots on the ground and really collect real world stories and figure out who your constituents are, if you're a policymaker, and find out who you are there to serve and who you're there making policies for and let them be a part of the conversation so that when you're making policies, everybody who the policy will affect it is at the table, right?
00:13:40
Speaker
And then if you're not a policymaker, that's that education plus advocacy equals empowerment piece. Get involved in your community. And you don't have to be at the policymaker level, but go to your your ah ah city council meetings.
00:13:53
Speaker
Go to ah and your local organizations and find out how you can advocate on behalf of them about the work that they're doing. like if we're better together, we're more alike than we're different. And I don't care what side of the aisle you sit on.
00:14:06
Speaker
at the end of the day, we all have to eat. We all have to live our best lives. And if we're all, if one of us is not good, then none of us are as good as we can be. So don't don't worry about which side of the aisle you're sitting on. Like worry about how are we impacting humankind and get involved with with your constituents.
Community and Volunteer Support
00:14:25
Speaker
And what about employers and individuals just like me? um What can we do? Endrijonas, find out what's happening with your staff, because some of your staff is experiencing food insecurity as well.
00:14:36
Speaker
Some of them get up early in the morning at 6am and go to the local food pantry, take the food box back home and then come to work and sit next to you in a cubicle and you never know. Erika Endrijonas, make sure you get to know your staff and figure out like are if they're not making what a living wage looks like.
00:14:50
Speaker
How can I, and I know me as an employee, know, sometimes our Erika Endrijonas, Ph.D.: Resources are limited, but be put get a pulse on what's happening with the people that that work for you that's helping move your mission forward.
00:15:02
Speaker
You know, and then if you are an individual, not an employer, and you have some free time like me and Empowering the Masses, we need human capital. We need people to help us serve, you know, at the food pantry on a Saturday, even during the week to help a couple of hours with the neighbors who are coming in the market to shop.
00:15:17
Speaker
So you don't have to have a million dollars to to help. Just find out what's really put a pulse, your hand to a pulse of what's happening in your community. Mm-hmm. It's great. Tammy, how is your organization funded and how can people help you? What's, where can they find you?
00:15:35
Speaker
We're on empoweringthemasters.org. We are ah community funded and um yeah, we do our best. um But people can find us at empoweringthemasters.org, you know, um and support us that way. get to know about us, volunteer with us.
00:15:53
Speaker
There's lots of volunteer opportunities, um especially as we go into the holiday season and we don't know what's going to look like. We know our lives going to be, they're long. Like I said, we're normally at 500 families a week. Last week was 745.
00:16:04
Speaker
okay So if this continues, it's going to just, you know, we know it's going to continue to increase. Okay. Tammy, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me about this issue.
00:16:15
Speaker
And, um you know, i hope that we, this continues to spark momentum and in the positive direction. Absolutely. Thank you for having me. Yeah.
00:16:26
Speaker
Thanks.