Summary

Globally, hundreds of millions of people experience hunger, and the majority of those are found in armed conflict zones like Sudan, Yemen, and Gaza. A problem this size can make us feel powerless, but there are many reasons to engage and feel hope. In this episode, we talk with Rebecca Middleton, Chief Advocacy and Engagement Officer of World Food Program USA. She tells us about the UN World Food Programme, which delivers aid to places no one else can reach. She explains how U.S. food assistance serves as powerful diplomacy and discusses practical ways to combat hunger through advocacy and support. We also learn about her career going from a Congressional staffer, to lobbying, and on to a vocation in hunger advocacy that was providentially guided. We also address how to help fight hunger while managing empathy fatigue in our suffering-saturated world.

About Our Guest

Rebecca Middleton is the Chief Advocacy and Engagement Officer for World Food Program USA, where she and her team work to educate Members of Congress and their staff on the importance of U.S. government support for the U.N. World Food Program. She brings more than 25 years of experience in policy, advocacy, and strategy to the role.

Rebecca began her career in Washington, DC, in 1997 as a Senior Legislative Assistant for Congressman Frank Wolf. Five years later she joined the public affairs firm Cassidy & Associates and quickly became Vice President, managing federal lobbying strategy and tactics for a variety of clients including Fortune 500 companies and organizations in the technology, health care, and defense industries.

Rebecca combined her advocacy and management expertise with her longstanding passion for eradicating hunger in 2013 when she joined the Alliance to End Hunger as its COO; she became its Executive Director in 2016. Rebecca joined World Food Program USA in July of 2020.

Rebecca holds a BA in political science and English from Mary Washington College. She serves on several boards including as treasurer of the Alliance to End Hunger.

Useful Links

About Rebecca Middleton: https://www.wfpusa.org/people/rebecca-middleton/

World Food Program USA: https://www.wfpusa.org

UN World Food Programme: https://www.wfp.org

Alliance to End Hunger: http://www.alliancetoendhunger.org

Write to Congress about Global Food Aid: https://wfpusa.quorum.us/campaign/2505_RES_ERT_Advocacy_Web/

2024 Global Report on Food Crises: https://www.wfp.org/publications/global-report-food-crises-grfc

Pleasant Pictures Music

Join the Pleasant Pictures Music Club to get unlimited access to high-quality, royalty-free music for all of your projects. Use the discount code HOWTOHELP15 for 15% off your first year.

It seems like it's apocryphal, but it actually is true.

My parents will validate this.

So you're watching the news one night and seeing the stories out of Ethiopia

and seeing the work that the United Nations World Food Program was doing.

I was in third or fourth grade and it literally brought my piggy bank

down and asked my parents to send it to help the kids in Africa.

And little did I know that that would continue into what I

feel like it's my vocation now.

Aaron - Narration: Yeah.

What was their reaction, by the way?

Did they sort of pat you on that and say, that's sweet?

Or did they take the money and send it in?

What'd they do with it?

I don't remember.

I have to ask them the next time I see them.

I'd like to think that they sent it in.

I'm fairly confident the funds went out of the piggy bank, so they went somewhere.

So I'm sure, hopefully they got where they were intended.

Yeah.

Aaron - Narration: Hi, I'm Aaron Miller and this is How to Help, a

podcast about having a life and career with meaning, integrity, and impact.

This is season three, episode :ix, A World Without Hunger.

If you've been enjoying How to Help, then I hope you'll take a moment

to share a favorite episode with others or leave us a positive review.

Those are the two things that most help a podcast to grow.

It only takes a few minutes of your time, but it makes a huge difference for us,

so thank you for supporting the show.

I think my favorite character in just about any book I've ever read

is a character in Victor Hugo's book, Les Miserables, which I frequently

recommend to anyone who loves a musical.

I will say it is a long book, but you can take your time.

For me, reading it as a college student while on a random bit of

grass in Paris is one of my all time favorite, if cliche, memories.

The bishop at the beginning, Bishop Myriel, is the very reason that Jean

Valjean's story could even be told.

Now I, I know this is just fiction, but without the generosity of

Bishop Myriel Valjean wouldn't have become a new man, and the rest of

the story wouldn't have happened.

Instead.

I don't know, would he have gone back to prison?

It seems likely.

Perhaps he would've eventually starved.

I guess only Victor Hugo would ever know.

The Bishop's generosity at the start of the story is so pivotal that it

explains why he appears again at the end of the book when Valjean passes away.

The musical has the spirit of the bishop there singing in a beautiful duet.

But in the book, Hugo describes the moment this way: at death's door,

Valjean is asked if he wants a priest.

He replies, "I have had one," pointing to a person no one

else in the room could see.

The night that's told early in the story when Bishop Myriel rescues

this hungry man is an iconic act.

Think about it.

Feeding the hungry is an injunction for believers of every world religion.

Among the ways that people help people, it's hard to think of any need more

urgent than saving someone from hunger.

In all the history of humanity, we today are living in the rare

and recent span of time in which we have the means to end hunger.

So why does it still exist, and can we truly end it?

The big drivers of hunger globally are conflict,

climate, shocks, and cost.

There's more than enough supply in the world, but it's how does

it get to people who need it in a timely manner and ideally.

In a nutrition sensitive way.

Aaron - Narration: My guest in this episode is Rebecca Middleton.

She's the Chief Advocacy and Engagement Officer of World Food Program, USA.

Her job simply is to persuade the American public and American lawmakers that we can

and should end hunger around the world.

You've noticed that this season of How to Help has been focusing on

how we can help in conflict, and so that's where we're going to begin

the conversation with Rebecca.

Aaron - Interview: Let's talk about why hunger still persists.

And so if you had the top reasons that you were explaining to somebody

who just didn't understand this, what would you explain to them?

I can't emphasize enough the role that

manmade conflict has on hunger.

If you, if you look at the biggest driver by far, and you could

just name the places, right?

Sudan, Gaza, Afghanistan, Yemen, Haiti.

I mean, all of the top hot spots for hunger around the world

are due to man-made conflict.

Hunger can also be an exacerbating factor in a fragile state that makes it ripe

for conflict, but, but more of what we see is that conflict breaks out and

then it drives individuals to hunger due to internal and external migration.

So that, that's the biggest one by far.

If we could get conflict under control, we could come pretty

darn close to ending hunger.

Aaron - Narration: The scale of hunger caused by conflict is hard to visualize.

The most recent Global Report on Food Crises estimated that

last year, 140 million people experienced hunger due to conflict.

That's equivalent to over 40% of the entire population of the United States.

Like I said, it's too many people to really imagine.

And if that's the amount of hunger caused by conflict, is it

even really possible to end it?

Aaron - Interview: The, the idea that we have to end conflict to end

hunger feels totally overwhelming, because conflict is for as long as,

as people have existed on the earth, there's been conflict between them.

If, if that's the barrier, how do we ever get to the place

of truly eliminating hunger?

I think one of the big challenges with hunger in

a conflict zone is access, right?

And so I think, making sure that no matter what is going on, having

safe, unfettered humanitarian access is, is really, really vital.

I, I think making sure that we can get food to those who need it is

paramount, no matter the circumstance.

I remember the first time I went to see the World Food Program's work in the

field, this is probably eight years ago now, it was in Northern Uganda at a camp

called Palorinya, and there are a number of refugee camps in Northern Uganda and

they mostly have refugees from Sudan.

And at the time, these were mostly women and children who had fled conflict and

some of the most horrifying stories that you could imagine, but the, the benefit

that they received in the form of food, in the form of basic shelter, in the form of

healthcare was so vital and so heartening.

And the support from the community, the government, the, the un, the US and other

donor support for that really just showed the humanity that exists around the world.

So I don't think we're going to ever ultimately end conflict.

I think that's, that's a, an ideal that we can aspire to, but realize

that we probably will not attain.

But I think thinking of systems and solutions to be able to get assistance to

those in need in times of conflict is, is really where we need to focus our efforts.

Aaron - Narration: Systems and solutions are in many ways the harder

part than just acquiring the food.

Indeed, moving enough food for many thousands of people into

conflict zones takes extraordinary logistics and coordination.

This is where the World Food Program stands out.

Their unique ability to deliver aid into the world's most challenging

environments is not just impressive.

It's actually essential.

The World Food Program does an amazing job with

the supply chain and logistics.

They can get places where nobody else can, both on their own and in partnership with

some local organizations on the ground.

But a lot of people don't know that the World Food Program is

this sort of logistics backbone for the entire humanitarian system.

They have airplanes, helicopters, trucks, boats that carry people, goods,

and, and supplies all over the world.

I've had the privilege of going on an UNHAS flight a couple of times--the

United Nations Humanitarian Air Service--and it's, it's incredible

where these pilots go and, and the experiences that they have.

And so I think, again, realizing we can't stop conflict, but also making

sure that we have access to be able to get food where it's most needed.

Aaron - Narration: Rebecca's role as Chief Advocacy and Engagement Officer

is with World Food Program, USA.

This organization's mission is to engage US citizens and policymakers

in the fight against hunger.

The United States actually has a long tradition of fighting

hunger around the world.

In 1812, the American government sent five ships with flour to

earthquake survivors in Venezuela.

In 1845, we provided ships to deliver food from Catholic Charities

to the potato famine in Ireland.

The US led massive relief efforts after both of the World Wars.

This long tradition was embodied officially when the UN World Food Program

was created in 1961, and delivered on its first mission just months later,

following an earthquake in Iran.

The United States has a long history of supporting global

food needs around the world, really going back well over a hundred years.

It's, I, I joke that, you know, U.S. support for, for global hunger

is almost like mom and apple pie.

And I think it really started after World War II and then took, took more structure

in the early sixties with the formation of USAID and the World Food Program.

Those two things started in, in the early sixties with, with leadership

from President Kennedy at the time.

But really have continued to position the U.S. As a leader in addressing

global hunger issues through Republican and Democratic administrations really

consistently over the intervening decades.

It's one of the reasons I'm really drawn to the issue is

that it's a unifying issue.

There are, there are interests, whether they're moral, tied to agriculture,

industry, tied to an understanding of US food assistance as a form of soft

power, as a stabilizing force, that really bring members of Congress together

who may not agree on anything else.

And just to let you know some of what it looks like when this food

assistance goes into the field, a lot of the food assistance that

is provided by taxpayer funding is in the form of in-kind assistance.

So these are products that are grown in the United States by U.S. Farmers

that are then purchased, shipped, and packaged and distributed in countries

that don't have functioning markets.

So think about Sudan right now, for instance.

There is a huge gap.

People cannot go to a market or a store and buy what they need to

feed themselves and their families.

And so this is a way to address that type of a need.

And there are amazing images of packages of food that have the American flag and

say gift of the American people on them.

And, and very often it'll say where the product is grown, whether it's, you

know, corn, soy blend, or wheat, or rice.

There is no better diplomacy for the United States than that food rolling

in on trucks and, and focusing the flag to feed them and their families.

Aaron - Narration: Despite its importance, the issue of foreign aid, especially food

aid, is often misunderstood by citizens.

Many Americans mistakenly believe that a huge chunk of the federal budget

goes to international assistance.

The highest it's ever been was actually in 1963 when our food

aid programs first started.

And at that time, it was only 4.3% of the federal budget.

For the last couple decades, it's hovered around 1%.

For such a relatively small investment, the return in terms

of global goodwill, stability, and even economic growth is enormous.

Unfortunately, persistent myths and misinformation, amplified by

some of the media, can distort the public's understanding and make it

harder to maintain political support for these life-saving programs.

I think it's such an important issue that

sometimes, sometimes gets distorted.

You know, in polls.

Some people think that we spend up to 25% of our, our expenses as a

country on international assistance.

It's actually less than 1%, and food is just a fraction of that as well.

And so for such a small investment, relatively speaking, the benefit

that we get as far as goodwill around the world is really amazing.

Aaron - Narration: Getting people to donate is one thing, but

getting the Federal Government to act is something else entirely.

How did Rebecca find her way into this role to convince America that it

should help eliminate global hunger?

She double majored in English and Political Science at Mary

Washington University in Virginia, but didn't really know what she

wanted to do with those degrees.

An interest in policy and lawmaking led her to a job as an intern on Capitol Hill

in D.C. With her local member of Congress.

Although she started as a lowly staff assistant, it was her foot

in the door to learn firsthand how law and policy are made.

Aaron - Interview: Can we reflect a bit on, on policy?

There are two ways that people see policy.

One is they see sort of the elegance, this is the way it ought to be.

I think those are mostly academics, right?

But also just sort of casual observers of why don't things work this way?

And then there're the people who work in trying to actually establish policy

and it's so complicated and often quite messy and imperfect in so many ways.

Yeah.

Well I, I, you know, it's always funny because you take, you know, a government

class and you see those beautiful flow charts on how a bill becomes a law or

the Schoolhouse Rock, "I'm just a bill, a lonely old bill, sitting here on

Capitol Hill." That's not how it works.

It is a very messy process.

I think what drew me to it was the ability to have impact at scale

to make people safer, make lives better, you know, open up paths for

opportunity for, for individuals.

I think what makes it messy is also what makes it work, and

that's the human aspect of it.

You know, folks are coming at it with different philosophies, viewpoints,

theories of change, but I think once people align and say, we've got

this same goal that we're trying to accomplish, and let's have a conversation

and build relationships and put some things aside and move toward a goal.

I think relationships are absolutely the most important part of policymaking

if you ask me, because that's where

you can find ways to the solution that, that may not be what you set out

to accomplish in the first place, but really is the best way to get there.

Aaron - Narration: Rebecca worked her way up from being a staff assistant

to being a legislative assistant.

In the House of Representatives, a legislative assistant actually

has a pretty big portfolio.

She had giant areas like defense, agriculture, healthcare, and technology,

and they all came under her purview.

She then spent some years after that, as a private lobbyist

helping organizations forward their policy goals through Congress.

It was during this time that Rebecca felt pulled to shift her career

to something closer to her heart.

She thought back on her formative years when global hunger was a cause that

inspired her way back in forth grade.

And over the years as an adult, she had been active in

supporting local food banks.

But the fight against hunger called to her.

I just happened upon a job listing.

For an organization I had never heard of called the Alliance to

End Hunger, and they were looking for chief operating officer.

I read the job description.

I said, I, I meet about half of these criteria.

You know, most women will not apply for a job unless they feel like they

meet 90% or more of the criteria, whereas typically most men will apply

if they feel like they meet 50% or more.

And I said, well, let, let's just go for this.

Aaron - Narration: It just so happened that the executive director of the

Alliance to End Hunger was a former congressman named Tony Hall, and

Hall was a close friend of her former congressional boss, Frank Wolf.

So I was getting ready to, to put my application in,

and I called the chief of staff before Frank Wolf, who's a friend of mine.

I said, "Dan, can I come in? I've got something to chat with you

about." It didn't say what it was.

It could have been a client issue.

It could have been my parents who are constituents, you know, weren't

getting their Federal retirement check or something like that.

I walk in the office and before I can even open my mouth, Dan said, "Hey,

Tony Hall's looking for somebody.

Are you interested?" I, I said, "Dan, that's what I'm

here to talk to you about."

And it was, it was one of those moments in life.

And you know, I, I am, I'm a spiritual person.

I'm a Catholic.

I, you know, I believe very much in God, but I think usually as, sort as God's role

in our lives, we, we look backwards and we see where it's happened in the past.

This, this experience of transitioning to work for the Alliance was one of

those where in real time it was almost like there were bright flashing, neon

signs saying, go in this direction.

I, I, Dan, Dan passed my resume along.

I also formally applied for the job, had an interview, and I met with

Tony Hall on a rainy Friday at a Starbucks and he offered me the job.

And you know, I'm not gonna lie, it was a significant pay cut over

what I was making as a lobbyist.

But he said, "You know, think about this. Talk to your husband about it, pray

about it, and let me know on Monday."

And that Sunday at church, it was, it was during Lent.

It was Transfiguration Sunday and the homily was all about

"Is God calling you to use your time, talent skills for more of a vocation

in your life?" And I was sitting there going, I'd already decided I was gonna

take this job, but just to put, you know, a little more emphasis on it tha thanks.

Thanks for that, Father.

And it was the best move I could have made it.

It was transformational for me.

I think it had a really positive impact on the organization.

And it's, I guess it's been almost 12 years now, which is hard to believe.

This space is not easy work.

It is challenging work.

I'm certainly not bored, but it truly feels more like a vocation than a job.

Aaron - Narration: I love that story because it shows how those

providential moments really come sometimes out of nowhere, and they just

have so much power when they arrive.

After some time with the Alliance to End Hunger, Rebecca had the

opportunity to join World Food Program USA, where she manages a large

portfolio centered on persuasion.

A big part of her job is lobbying Congress to support international food relief.

How do you fit hunger into the many priorities of people in Congress?

There are 535 members of Congress.

They're 100 members of Senate, 435 members of the House of Representatives, and each

one has issues that they're interested in.

Some are really interested in national security, some are really

interested in agriculture, some are really interested in healthcare.

And so what the team here does and also our partners in the NGO community as

a whole, we look at each individual office and say, where is their focus?

Where are they interested?

And we enter through that lens.

So if somebody, if it's a member from Kansas, we go in talking

about the tie to U.S. Agriculture.

If it's somebody who's on the armed services or foreign relations or foreign

affairs committee, we go in talking about how this makes the United States

safer, stronger, and more prosperous.

If it's somebody who's interested in children's issues, we talk about

school feeding or the tie to childhood nutrition and the benefit that that

brings throughout the, their lives.

And when you meet them where they already are focused, that's a, a way to, to

get that shared value and alignment.

But having that starting point in a conversation where somebody's

focused makes it much more successful than having a standard playbook

that you run for every office.

That would be the worst thing you could do.

Aaron - Interview: How do you respond to the objection that we

shouldn't be helping internationally until we help our own people.

I love to approach it as an "and".

I think that we need to be doing both.

We work closely, my family does with our local food pantry in spite of living in a

very rich county in Arlington, Virginia.

There, there's tremendous need there because housing costs takes such a

high percentage of people's income that sometimes food goes by the wayside.

But then we also have a responsibility globally.

And it is in our interest.

There's a reason why members of Congress and individuals interested in national

security and global stability are interested in global hunger issues.

There's, there's definitely a tie there.

And it's much more affordable to provide foreign assistance in the form of food

than it is to provide military support.

Aaron - Interview: How do average everyday people help in a way that

is meaningful when it comes to food insecurity around the world?

I think because the issue of hunger has been

around as long as time, that sometimes it can feel overwhelming.

And no one individual is going to end hunger, but one individual can help

address hunger and help meet the needs of a person, a family, a community, and,

and there are lots of ways to do that.

At the hyperlocal level, of course, supporting local food bank and

making a donation, volunteering, but also at a sort of systems level

using your voice for advocacy.

And I, I'd say that using that term fairly broadly.

So I think one piece of it is educating yourself.

On issues around hunger.

What does hunger look like in your community?

What does hunger look like around the country?

And what does hunger look like around the world?

And then educating those around you saying, "Hey, you know, did you know that

there's a famine in Sudan right now?"

And I go back and I think about the experience that I had as a child.

And I think whether you were in Provo or you were in Washington DC or if you

were in Manhattan, Kansas, if you stop 10 people on the street and ask them

if they knew if there was a famine in Ethiopia, at least eight or nine of

them would say yes because everybody was getting access to the same news channels.

In those same cities, if you stop 10 people on the street right now

and ask them if they knew there was a famine in Sudan, I'd be surprised

if more than two or three knew that.

And so I think we all have a responsibility, those of us that are

paying attention to these issues, just to let our friends and family

know what's going on in the world.

And then also to let your policy makers know that you care.

You know, the U.S. Is, is an incredibly generous donor, both of the in-kind

assistance and also cash assistance for where markets are working.

And letting your members of Congress know that this is something you care

about, that you think it's a, a really valuable and important contribution from

the U.S. Going back decades, some could even make the case centuries, and we want

them to continue to, to uphold that for whatever reason ties to you personally.

That's really important.

The other thing you can do is also contribute.

I think some folks say, well, you know, it's such a big issue.

I only have so much to give.

It doesn't take much to make a difference in a person's life.

And I know that can sound a little bit trite, but it really is true.

Whether it's $5 or $50 or $5,000, that means that there are people that will

get food that wouldn't have otherwise.

The need far exceeds the resources available to address it, and so anything

that you can do as an individual from a a financial perspective

really does make a difference.

The more of those things you do in tandem, the better.

But if you can pick just one, whichever you have time for, you have space for,

you, have capacity for, do it, because it really will make a difference.

Aaron - Interview: We live in a time when human suffering is just

constantly paraded before our eyeballs.

Even more than just donor fatigue, it's just empathy fatigue

that people experience when it relates to human suffering.

How do you deal with that in your work?

You're more acutely attuned to the scale of human suffering around the

world, just related to hunger alone, which I think can be overwhelming.

How do you cope with the potential overwhelm that can

come in doing this kind of work?

I, I really appreciate the question.

That's such a, such a human question that I, I think we need to talk about

more just generally because it is a lot.

If you look just at global hunger issues, you had the Ukraine crisis, you

had Afghanistan crisis, Sudan, Yemen, gaza, Haiti, and it just feels like

it's just piling up and more and more.

And, and you're right.

In this line of work, we do have to pay attention to what's going on and

read these reports and know that there are human beings, children of God

that are attached to these numbers.

I think I just

remember the story of the starfish.

I, I think many folks are familiar with this.

Two people were walking down a beach together, and there are all

of these starfish that have been stranded as the tide has gone out

thousands and thousands of starfish.

And one of the people says, "Well, how on earth can I make a difference?

There's so many, there's no way that we can get them all back in the water.

And the other person picks up one, tosses it back in the ocean and said,

"It made a difference to that one."

And I, I think that's part of it, is realizing no one of us

is going to solve all of this.

But if all of us can do a little part in whatever matches up with

our job, our skills, our resources, our networks, that it can all add

up to a really significant impact.

Aaron - Narration: Like we talked about before, it's easy to feel overwhelmed

by the scale of global hunger, but there are real reasons for hope.

In the past few decades, the world has made remarkable progress.

Most people don't even know that in their lifetimes, extreme poverty

across the world has been cut in half.

The direst predictions of global starvation from the fifties and sixties

were averted thanks to incredible feats of science and political will.

If we want to have more hope, we ought to look at what we've already accomplished.

When I switched into the anti-hunger space, this is

about 12 years ago now, my daughter was seven going on eight at the time.

And the switch in jobs was going to require a bit of a

shift in our family's schedule.

And we talked to the kids about it at dinner.

And I was tucking her in that night and she said, "So mom, your job's going to

be to try to end hunger." And I said, "Yes, that's, that's what I'm working on."

And she paused for a minute.

She said, "Well, mom, if you do your job then if you end hunger, your job

won't exist." And all I could think about was, wow, you know, we all need

to have the optimism of an 8-year-old.

And she's almost 20 now, and, and she know, I tell this story and I think she

rolls her eyes a little bit, but I asked her, I said, "Sarah, you know, do you

still, do you still feel that way? That this is possible? That if all of us bring

whatever we can, you know, big or small to this problem, that we could end hunger?"

And she said, "Yeah, mom." She said, "Why not?

We've done a lot of amazing things as, as human beings, and if we put

our mind to something, it's absolutely something you can accomplish."

Aaron - Narration: As we wrap up this episode, you might be wondering

how to translate concern into action, how to find your own path

to meaningful work and contribution.

Rebecca's story offers some valuable lessons for anyone hoping to make a

difference, whether in hunger relief or any cause that matters to you.

Here's what she's learned about building a life and career of impact.

I think the thing that I always mention when I'm talking

to college students, or or, or just young adults, young professionals,

is think about what matters to you.

Think about what's meaningful to you, and take opportunities to

move in that direction, whether it's in your personal life, your

professional life, or ideally both.

This job that I'm in is Chief Advocacy and Engagement Officer

at the World Food Program USA didn't exist when I was in college.

I'm not even sure the World Food Program USA existed when I was graduating college.

So there's no way that I could have set out at age 22 and said, "Okay, I'm

gonna chart my path to get to this job."

But what I did at each stage of my career was say, what

opportunities does this open up?

What opportunities does this close?

How does this opportunity move me closer to something

that's really meaningful work?

A lot of times when you start at something feels like a job and, and sometimes

you need to do that job so that you build the skills or the relationships

or the experience that you need.

But at some point, you will probably have the opportunity to meld that with

something that you really care about.

Those are the moments, those are the moments of enlightenment, grace, joy

that I encourage folks to embrace.

Aaron - Narration: At the beginning of Les Miserables, the hardened

convict Jean Valjean had an experience with Bishop Myriel that showed him

more generosity than he believed could exist in the entire world.

Former prisoners like him were outcasts of society, so he responded with amazement.

Let me quote this passage from the book: said Valjean, "Monsieur, you are good.

You do not despise me.

You received me into your house.

You light your candles for me.

Yet I have not concealed from you whence I come and that I am an unfortunate man."

The bishop, who was sitting close to him, gently touched his hand.

"You could not help telling me who you were.

This is not my house.

It is the house of Jesus Christ.

This door does not demand of him who enters whether he has a

name, but whether he has a grief.

You suffer.

You are hungry and thirsty.

You are welcome."

I'm very grateful to Rebecca Middleton for spending time in this interview with me.

I hope you've come away with ideas for what you can do next to aid the

fight against hunger around the world.

We have links in the show notes for where you can get involved.

How to Help is hosted and written by me, Aaron Miller, and produced

in collaboration with BYU Radio.

My thanks to Erica Price, Kenny Mears, and Blake Morris for

their help with this episode.

Scoring and mixing was done by Seth Miller, and our music is by Eric Robertson

and the Pleasant Pictures Music Club.

For more information about this episode, use the links in the show

notes and if you haven't subscribed yet to How to Help, you can do that

in your favorite podcast player.

As always, thank you so much for listening.