Billy Shore

1991

Billy Shore

Share Our Strength

http://www.strength.org

Washington D.C., United States

Food, Nutrition, Agriculture

The Bold Idea:

More than 33 million Americans — one in ten households — cannot afford enough food to meet their basic needs. These 13 million children and 20 million adults live on the edge of hunger because they lack sufficient resources for life's necessities. Though most poor families in America are working families, the low wages earned by millions of Americans are not enough to cover the cost of housing, medical care, child care, transportation, clothing and food. Employment is simply not enough to safeguard against hunger and poverty.

Share Our Strength is committed to addressing both immediate and long-term solutions to hunger and poverty. They support organizations providing emergency food as well as programs working to help low-income individuals manage their own resources, such as nutrition education classes that build food budgeting and healthy cooking skills. Share Our Strength supports efforts to enroll more low-income children and families into federal nutrition programs, including School Breakfast and Food Stamps, and organizations that build community gardens and operate inner city farmers markets.
Share Our Strength fights hunger on the local, national and international levels by awarding grants to the most effective nonprofits. To support these efforts, Share Our Strength raises funds in innovative ways from mobilizing volunteer-led special events across the country to developing cause-related marketing ventures, to securing corporate partnerships.

Since its founding in 1984, Share Our Strength has distributed over $74 million to more than 1,000 anti-hunger, anti-poverty programs worldwide. Share Our Strength is fueled by a simple but powerful philosophy: It takes more than food to fight hunger. They believe it takes both short- and long-term solutions, such as food assistance, job training, economic development programs and advocacy, to have a lasting impact. They also believe it takes each one of us, sharing our strength, to make a difference.

(Note:Echoing Green supported Billy Shore and Share Our Strength in its early development, but through another grant program.)

Biography:

Bill Shore is the founder and executive director of Share Our Strength, the nation's leading organization working to end childhood hunger in the United States. Shore is also the chairman of Community Wealth Ventures, Inc., a for-profit subsidiary of Share Our Strength, that provides consulting services. Continue reading...

Shore founded Share Our Strength in 1984 in response to the Ethiopian famine and subsequently renewed concern about hunger in the United States. Since its founding, Share Our Strength has raised more than $200 million to support more than 1,000 anti-hunger, anti-poverty groups worldwide. Today, its priority is to end childhood hunger in America ensuring that the nearly 12 million American children facing hunger have access to the nutritious food they need to learn, grow and thrive.

In 1997, Shore launched Community Wealth Ventures, Inc., to provide strategic counsel to corporations, foundations and nonprofit organizations interested in creating community wealth – resources generated through profitable enterprise to promote social change.

From 1978 through 1987, Shore served on the senatorial and presidential campaign staffs of U.S. Senator Gary Hart (D-Colo.) From 1988 to 1991, Shore served as chief of staff for U.S. Senator Robert Kerrey (D-Neb.) His transition from politics to innovative community service and his prescription for community change are documented in his first book Revolution of the Heart (Riverhead Press, 1995). Shore's second book, The Cathedral Within (Random House, 1999) profiles a new breed of community leaders who are tapping every sector of society to improve community life. Shore's most recent book, The Light of Conscience, published in February of 2004, explores how acts of conscience can and have changed the world.

Shore is a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He earned his B.A. at the University of Pennsylvania and his law degree from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He currently serves on the board of directors of The Timberland Company, City Year, College Summit, and Venture Philanthropy Partners. In the past, Shore has taught a class on social entrepreneurship at New York University's Stern School of Business as an adjunct professor and has been a guest lecturer at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. In October 2005, US News & World Report selected Shore as one of America's Best Leaders, an accomplished group selected by an independent committee of judges assembled by the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

James Beard Foundation Humanitarian of the Year
Awarded in 1991

Washingtonian of the Year
Awarded in 1994

Billy was named one of the Caring Institute's top ten caring people of 1995.

He was named as one of The Non Profit Times "Power and Influence Top 50 Leaders " in 1999.

Bon Appetit's Humanitarian of the Year
Awarded in 1999