Bianca: the severity of global food insecurity is worse than ever, according to a report from the world food bank.

This is not just a problem in countries facing war, famine and climate disasters.

In the U.S. committee third of college students struggle with food insecurity.

Chef and activists José Andres is on the front lines of the global food crisis.He joined us to discuss his plans to tackle it all.

>> thanks so much for joining us, chef.

You have been addressing and tackling the problems of food insecurity for so long.

And we see you launching a new Institute partnered with George Washington University.

Why, what will it do?

Jose: let me tell you why the idea of global food Institute arrived at George Washington University.

It's one of the universities in America that addresses politics and food policy like no other university.

So close to Washington, D.C. power, the White House and Ca pitol.

Today we see a world where food is always an afterthought.

Where the different departments -- they see food as a commodity.

Where often they are not solving the issues that people face.

Today, planet Earth produces enough food to feed all of humanity two or three times, but still we have hundreds of millions of people that go to bed hungry.

We need to start creating a smarter policy, a smarter bill that becomes good politics in bipartisan ways.

We need to consider food as a national security issue.

And we need to start thinking that the -- that every country should have a national food security advisor.

Why?

Because time is precious.

We have right now things that are affecting crops in every country.

We have droughts, we have plagues that are attacking entire countries in the heart of Africa.

We have wars, mass migrations happening.

If we do not take food more seriously, I am afraid that we will be very close to one of the biggest mass migrations in our history.

And today food is available to all of us, but one day we may wake up and we are actually with not enough food to feed everybody.

That is why we needed to start this Institute, to put more importance into the work of food.

Everybody running for governor, senator, President, in America and around the world will have to ask, what is the food policy?

How will they be thinking about food in the way that they do politics.

That is what we hope to achieve.

Hari: is the Institute responsible for primary research?

Will you try to make practical suggestions?

Will there be a training camp for food policy activists from all over the world to watch and participate?

Jose: obviously, you need to start small and keep building bigger.

I would say it is all of the above.

Right now, in the United States, we have more than 40 departments and offices running over 200 food programs.

They do not speak with each other.

What we will be trying to do is one simple thing, we need to put food in the middle of the table, like I have been doing for over 10 years.

What we have done with a class at George Washington, where we have been testing the waters.

And you realize food is immigration, food is climate change.

Food, in many ways, is in the Department of Defense.

Remember the food programs in the U.S. was launched at the request of the Department of defense.

Why?

Because the Pentagon could not fulfill all the needs of the Army because all the young men and women going into the military were unfit to serve because they were hungry and coming from poor areas.

Now we see the opposite.

Right now we see the military is having issues fulfilling needs because of other issues like obesity.

So, if we start thinking about food as everything, even the way we do humanitarian aid.

It cannot be the way that countries do humanitarian aid.

It's with a surplus of food to solve a food programs.

Why?

We sent it so much food for free after the earthquakes that we put the farmers out of business.

Years later, now farmers are trying to come to America.

Everything is connected.

The way that we do humanitarian aid is what makes poor countries poorer.

Then we have people migrating because they cannot feed their families.

We need to have an entire government that works with a different departments, and they speak more to each other.

The Department of Health, agriculture, the Department of infrastructure -- we need to have a more kind of interaction when we put food in the middle, about every single department.

All working together.

Or we will have many problems.

If we make them work together, we can solve many of the issues we are facing.

Hari: most people, if they have seen you over the past few years, they think of you in the context of crises.

There's other ways where it is not just in the context of a war or immediate famine or an earthquake that people are suffering food insecurity.

Even in the U.S. Jose: traditionally, we would say that what is happening in Haiti is cannot affecting what is happening in Ohio.

But if we have enough food, we still have people hungry.

So you would agree with me that this is an issue.

We have seen what was happening the last week in Washington, Republicans and Democrats negotiating about increasing the debt.

One of the names of the issues has been about -- what we call in more practical terms food stamps, which is a supplement given to American families who may have a difficult time putting food on the table.

The way that we are doing the stamps right should not be about if we can or not, but the conversation, the Republicans and Democrats should be talking about how to improve it.

There has been programs that have been effective, but has not modernized.

Why not make sure we increase the stamps to buy fresh fruits and vegetables from different farmers in rural areas.

In the process of keeping those families fed.

We help the local rural economies in the process of solving the problem of hunger, and it increases the output of those farmers invested in the rural areas.

We solve the problem, but in the process we help rural economies do better.

Why we cannot use stamps in the restaurants?

Why the people who receive them benefit -- they live in the poor communities -- why can't they be spending that money in the same community that they live?

They usually have to go so far because in those communities where they live, sometimes and they are so poor that there is no restaurant or supermarket.

So let's make sure that in the process of helping American families, we do not throw money at the problem but we help economic growth by opening diners, opening up food trucks, creating areas in those communities and opening markets that sell fresh fruits and vegetables.

If we have a smarter policy, if we have smarter bills, all of a sudden we are solving problems one at a time.

Hari: speaking of hunger here at home, based on a survey in 2020 by Temple University, about 30% of students at four year colleges in 40% of students at two year colleges are facing food insecurity today.

I'm wondering whether that is something you will be studying at the food Institute at George Washington.

Jose: I am a big believer in working both ends.

You have to make sure big thinking happens in places of power and you achieve this through good policy, but make sure that the -- filters down through every single situation and community.

Yes, some of the richest universities in America, tuition is very expensive.

And we hear it over and over that students, that they are having a hard time opening -- or putting food on the table.

At George Washington, say I am a new faculty member now and I will be getting more involved in the University to make sure that if anything George Washington becomes one of these universities that is part of the solution and not part of the problem.

But like in Washington, I was 26 or 27 when President Clinton came to visit.

I saw in first person where senators in both parties left the Hill and came to a soup kitchen, where in entire homeless shelter was a right above, to do this kind of conversation about how to solve hunger issues.

I'm a believer that policymakers need to be thinking big, but they need to be doing things at street level where the problems are.

Hunger and poverty is not an issue of Republicans or Democrats, it is an issue of Americans.

It is not a problem for us to solve, but an opportunity for us to -- That is the reason for the global food Institute.

We have big dreams, but obviously you need to start one thing at a time.

One policy at a time.

I hope that slowly but surely we will be able to bring everybody to the hunger table, where the ideas happening right now at every point in America, many places around the world, that we give voice to those ideas.

And than one idea at a time we become a smart policy that hopefully will help America and the world in the way that we feed the world.

Hari: the world food program put out a report that said 18 hotspots across 22 countries, and essay basically millions of people are currently in or on the brink of "catastrophic conditions" in which starvation, destitution and extremely critical malnutrition levels are evident.

What are the consequences of that?

How do you intercede?

How do you, in the immediate reasons of crisis, get food into places that oth r agencies have a tough time getting into?

Jose: obviously in my case, with the world kitchen we have been based around the idea of showing up in the early days, the earliest weeks to cover their short-term needs of getting food into communities.

Obviously, there are many agencies around the world.

The biggest one being the world food program.

They have been doing an amazing job over the years.

An amazing job over the years.

But here in this moment, we are having many issues that are localized.

What is happening in Ukraine is a country defending themselves from massive attacks by Russians, unfair attacks.

Killing civilians may be every single day with bombs.

But in the process, we realize the war is not only about people and their freedom.

Ukraine, where the grain is produced, feeds the millions of people every year, over 450 million people every year.

That is why you see the grain deal, trying to make sure that the Russians allow the exports to continue because without that grain we will have bigger hunger issues in the world, in Africa.

And this is a conversation.

The bigger conversation is why do African countries still depend on Ukrainian grain to feed themselves?

Why after so many years of talking that we have to make sure that Africa is the place itself?

Why are we talking about shipping grain to feed Africans?

To solve the hunger issues, yes, we are hoping to get the grain from Ukraine to Africa, but the bigger picture is why once and for all the African nations, with the help of countries around the world, does not have stronger farming production itself, that Africa, can be feeding itself?

These are the long-term solutions that will not find a result in one day.

They will not be resolved by one bill or by the U.N. program overnight.

We need to start investing right now.

Hari: for people who may not be familiar, how do you get aid into a place after a national disaster so quickly?

How are you able to scale up, whether it is Haiti or Turkey?

How does the world of central kitchen do it?

Jose: we are not the only food relief organization in the United States or in many parts of the world.

But very often, especially since we were founded 14 years ago, and especially I would say right after Maria is when we had a very big growth.

I said before, big problems have simple solutions.

And everybody always asks, Jos where are you getting the foode, -- Jose, where are you getting the food?

In the food warehouse is into supermarkets.

The food is there.

But we do is fairly practical.

When you send, you sent five fighters.

Or you take care of the wounded, you send nurses and doctors.

When you need to be feeding people, you sent cooks -- send cooks.

You send people who think like cooks ,a big team of people.

But ultimately to feed you have to cook.

What do you do?

You find restaurants that have survived at the hurricane, tha have survived an earthquaket.

I do not need to build a field kitchen if I have restaurants that are available.

So, let's use the assets they have.

If we have to bring food trucks, we may be activating 10, 20, 40 or 50 of them.

If we do not have a kitchen, because an entire island is underwater, we bring it in by helicopter or boat to every island.

We did more than 80,000 meals a day in the early weeks.

And waybill at a field kitchen when -- we build a field kitchen when things improve.

Usually we adapt.

It is usually local people wanting to help.

There are usually local restaurants and food trucks we can activate immediately.

And then usually it is always warehouse is full of food and we bring it with us, in case of a hurricane.

And we can bring food trucks, fill them with food, generators, get everything running.

Again, the only thing we do is we show up and do it.

We say we do not like to make much, but we like to cook in the field.

And we look at one community at a time.

In the process Camille increase the output every day.

-- in the process, you increase the output every day.

Hari: chef José Andres, thank you for joining us.

Jose: thank you for having me.