Duke World Food Policy Center

Kelly Brownell interviews Kevin Hoban and Jordie Simkovic, creators of the YouTube Kids preschool show Captain & Cat (200,000 subscribers, 200+ million views), about using songs and stories to get kids excited about healthy foods. They discuss their new series, Explorasaurus: Healthy Food and You, launched with a SugarBee apples episode filmed in Washington State that has 500,000+ views, and how visiting a cooperative of multigenerational family farms changed their assumptions about “factory farming,” revealing hand-harvesting, community ties, and both tradition and advanced technology. They explain how they translate farmers’ passion and nutrition science into kid-friendly content, run a classroom program that pairs episodes and worksheets with apples shipped to schools, and plan seasonal produce-focused episodes (including Sunkist mandarins) to build positive habits without shaming unhealthy choices.

Podcast and transcript – https://wfpc.sanford.duke.edu/podcasts/captain-cats-explorasaurus-on-healthy-food/

On Duke University’s Leading Voices in Food podcast, host Norbert Wilson speaks with Amy Beros, president and CEO of the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina, about hunger in an agricultural state where one in seven residents lacks reliable access to food. Beros explains how the food bank distributes 95 million meals annually across 34 counties through more than 700 partners and emphasizes today’s focus on nutritious food, education, and wraparound services. She describes how policy changes—including a government shutdown, delayed SNAP benefits, and cuts that reduced government support from 27% to under 10%—create immediate hardship for families and ripple effects for farmers and local economies, noting that SNAP provides nine meals for every one from a food bank. Beros discusses nonpartisan advocacy, building trust across differences, and finding hope in community action, volunteers, donors, and youth engagement.

Podcast and transcript – https://wfpc.sanford.duke.edu/podcasts/amy-beros-on-centering-community-in-food-banking/

In this episode of the Leading Voices in Food podcast, hosts Kate Stanley (Duke World Food Policy Center) and Katariina Koivusaari (NC State/Bezos Center for Sustainable Proteins) interview agricultural policy expert Greg Jaffe, president of Jaffe Policy Consulting, about how food policy is developed and how new food technologies reach the market. Jaffe discusses differences in how Democratic and Republican administrations interpret legal authority, using examples such as FDA’s voluntary consultation for biotech crops and current debates over making GRAS mandatory. He explains how federal legislation often follows crises, replaces outdated policy, or responds to divergent state regulations, citing FSMA, school milk policy changes, organic standards, GE disclosure, and pesticide preemption. He highlights regulatory trends including government lagging behind science, longer pathways for first-of-a-kind products, transparency, and interagency coordination, and advises product developers to be transparent, consult early, be creative, focus on scientific details, expect time, and accept compromise.

Podcast and transcript - https://wfpc.sanford.duke.edu/podcasts/greg-jaffe-on-food-and-ag-policy-trends/

Kelly Brownell interviews Jon-Paul Bianchi, Director of Systems Change at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, about the foundation’s systems-change approach linking food, health, early childhood, and family economic security to address inequities affecting children and families. Bianchi describes his path from PhD research to policy work and then to Kellogg, and explains how integrated grantmaking focuses upstream on policies, practices, resource flows, narratives, and long-term investment in people and relationships rather than isolated programs. He highlights Vermont’s inclusion of food quality in childcare ratings and the foundation’s Farm to Early Childhood efforts connecting procurement, regional food systems, and state policy, with examples from states like North Carolina, Iowa, and Wisconsin, and notes Brazil’s national local purchasing policy as a model for success.

Interview and transcript – https://wfpc.sanford.duke.edu/podcasts/food-and-nutrition-systems-change-at-the-kellogg-foundation/

Kelly Brownell interviews Dr. Joseph Skelton, professor of Pediatrics at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and director of Brenner FIT (Families in Training), about his culinary medicine course as applied nutrition that helps translate nutrition knowledge into real-world meals. Skelton explains how the program grew from a family-meals focus and a teaching kitchen used for pediatric obesity prevention, then expanded to medical student training inspired by models such as Tulane. The voluntary course includes five hands-on classes with short practical lectures on balanced plates, basic cooking skills, social determinants of health, food insecurity, and picky eating, followed by students eating together. He emphasizes celebrating food cultures, including Southern plant-based traditions, and describes students volunteering to teach community classes. Skelton argues doctors need practical cooking and food-access understanding, not just more biochemistry.

Podcast and transcript – https://wfpc.sanford.duke.edu/podcasts/culinary-medicine-and-connecting-med-students-with-patients/

Norbert Wilson will be speaking at in Charlotte May 19-21! Check out the full schedule and add his session - Home Grown: How Place, Culture, and Policy Are Shaping the Future of Food Waste in North Carolina—and Beyond - to your agenda at summit.refed.org

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