{"id":12500,"date":"2017-05-18t11:24:05","date_gmt":"2017-05-18t11:24:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dpetrov.2create.studio\/planet\/wordpress\/inside-the-hacking-hunger-podcast-telling-the-story-of-hunger\/"},"modified":"2023-03-07t19:36:15","modified_gmt":"2023-03-07t19:36:15","slug":"inside-the-hacking-hunger-podcast-telling-the-story-of-hunger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.getitdoneaz.com\/story\/inside-the-hacking-hunger-podcast-telling-the-story-of-hunger\/","title":{"rendered":"inside the ‘hacking hunger’ podcast: telling the story of hunger"},"content":{"rendered":"
editor’s note: world food program usa is a sponsor of planet forward. our correspondent reached out to the subject of this piece, who is employed by this sponsor, on his own to tell her story.<\/em><\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
m.j. altman uncovers the hidden human stories about people and food on the frontlines of hunger in her podcast called \u201chacking hunger.\u201d as editorial director at world food program usa, she also oversees the organization\u2019s multimedia projects, op-eds and communications outreach. her previous work experience includes writer-reporter for time magazine and public affairs producer at the smithsonian institution.<\/p>\n
altman\u2019s podcast features interviews with aid workers and families in the field who are involved with the world food program in some way. \u201chacking hunger\u201d is currently in its second season and was downloaded more than 10,000 times since starting last year.<\/p>\n
for altman, \u201chacking hunger\u201d is more than just one aspect of her role at wfp usa. she elaborated on that in a conversation with planet forward:<\/p>\n
q: has your work with global hunger issues changed the way you perceive food?<\/strong><\/p>\n
a: one thousand times yes. it has changed the way i look at food in so many ways. a third of the food grown globally is wasted and if we didn\u2019t waste that food we could feed most of the hungry people on the planet, which is mind boggling and it\u2019s developed countries like the u.s. that are responsible for a lot of it.<\/p>\n
i\u2019m very conscientious about throwing out food. i\u2019m that person where if it\u2019s a half eaten sandwich, i\u2019m asking for a to go box.<\/p>\n
q: \u201chacking hunger\u201d has been going on for some time. have you noticed an impact?<\/strong><\/p>\n
a: this upcoming episode on south sudan will be the 18th one. we\u2019ve changed a lot. i won\u2019t lie we dove into this not really knowing what we were doing. the podcast actually raised $25,000, which was huge for us because knowing that with that money you can feed 100,000 people really makes the project even more worthwhile.<\/p>\n
q: in january\u2019s episode of \u201chacking hunger,\u201d you said, \u201ci dove in headfirst without knowing exactly what i wanted hacking hunger to be.\u201d what was your mindset in early episodes of the podcast?<\/strong><\/p>\n
a: you’re in d.c., it\u2019s such a bubble and we didn\u2019t want to be lending our microphones to people who already have a platform. so i found personally that the episodes i did with people that you wouldn\u2019t have otherwise heard from like an ethiopian donor who crowdsourced facebook support for the drought relief in his homeland, those are the stories that really moved me and those are the stories that really moved our listeners.<\/p>\n