More Than Food: How Parents, Policy, and Economic Mobility Help End Child Hunger
In this episode of Add Passion and Stir, host Billy Shore talks with Maureen Conway, vice president at the Aspe...
About This Episode
In this episode of Add Passion and Stir, host Billy Shore talks with Maureen Conway, vice president at the Aspen Institute and executive director of the Institute’s Economic Opportunities Program, and Giselli Veloz, senior program manager of parent engagement and recruitment for LIFT in New York. The conversation explores why ending childhood hunger requires more than food alone — it also means supporting parents, reducing systemic barriers, and creating pathways to economic mobility. Maureen explains how the Aspen Institute’s Economic Opportunities Program advances promising policies and practices that help low- and moderate-income people connect to better opportunities and build better lives. Giselli shares how LIFT’s coaching, cash infusions, and trust-based support help parents move toward stability. Together, they make the case that poverty is not an individual failure but the result of systems, and that real change comes from policy, partnership, and lived experience. If you care about child hunger, family well-being, or practical solutions to poverty, this is an essential listen.Resources and Mentions:
Maureen Conway
Executive Director
Maureen Conway is vice president at the Aspen Institute and executive director of the Institute’s Economic Opportunities Program (EOP), which works to expand individuals’ opportunities to connect to quality work, start businesses, and build economic stability that provides the freedom to pursue opportunity.
Giselli Veloz
Program Senior Manager of Parent Engagement
Giselli Veloz is a mom and program senior manager, parent engagement at LIFT, an organization dedicated to breaking the cycle of poverty, and a passionate advocate for social justice. She has dedicated her career to addressing issues of systemic inequalities including poverty, education, and access to basic needs.
The Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program
The Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program advances strategies, policies, and ideas to help low- and moderate-income people thrive in a changing economy.
LIFT
Poverty, like wealth, is passed down from generation to generation. And decades of racial inequity and underinvestment in our communities have kept families trapped in a cycle. LIFT's mission is to break that cycle by investing in parents. We build families’ well-being, financial strength, and social connections to lift two generations at once. And they have a plan to change lives and change systems at scale.
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