Variety Coverage of No Kid Hungry Dinner

We Can Actually Solve the Problem of Childhood Hunger, Says Participant’s Jim Berk

October 30, 2013 | 01:40PM PT
Magical Elves partners also honored at Share Our Strength gala
Pat Saperstein

“We can actually solve the problem” of childhood hunger, said Participant Media CEO Jim Berk, one of the honorees at Tuesday night’s No Kid Hungry dinner and auction for Share Our Strength at Ron Burkle‘s expansive Green Acres estate in Beverly Hills. Participant produced 2012 documentary “A Place at the Table” focusing on families that struggle to feed their children.

Also honored were Magical Elves’ partners Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz, who produced the Emmy-winning Food Network docu “Hunger Hits Home” with Share Our Strength. “Top Chef” judge Curtis Stone joked that the pair must be “amazing storytellers” to produce so much food-focused fare, since Cutforth “doesn’t eat vegetables” while Lipsitz is a vegetarian.

Berk said that this might not have been the best time for him to start a gluten-free, sugar-free, wheat-free diet, as the four-course dinner featured dishes from Stone, Father’s Office chef Sang Yoon, San Francisco chef Traci Des Jardins and pastry chef Sherry Yard, with appetizers from Picca’s Ricardo Zarate, Fig’s Ray Garcia and Sotto’s Zach Pollack and Steve Samson.

But while the dinner’s well-heeled attendees can choose all manner of specific diets, the evening’s speakers such as Share Our Strength founder Billy Shore drove home the point that childhood hunger is a solvable problem. He explained that programs such as breakfast in schools can increase attendance and graduation rates, congratulating the crowd for helping the org raise $400 million dollars to fight hunger since its start in 1984.