Episode 224: Food is Freedom: David Ambroz on Hunger, Power, and the Fight for Dignity
About the Podcast
Today, Clancy speaks with David Ambroz, national poverty and child welfare advocate, author of A Place Called Home, and Head of Community Engagement (West) at Amazon. You won’t want to miss this deeply moving conversation about how hunger and homelessness shaped his early life, how food becomes a tool of power and control, and why restoring food dignity must start with radical empathy and action.
About David Ambroz
David Ambroz is a nationally recognized poverty and child welfare expert. Named an American Champion of Change by President Obama, he has led social impact efforts for major institutions including Amazon and Walt Disney Television. He served as President of the Los Angeles City Planning Commission and is a California Child Welfare Council Member. His memoir A Place Called Home traces his journey through homelessness, foster care, and advocacy, grounded in lived experience and a commitment to justice.
Discussion Takeaways
- Abject poverty is a stark reality of living without safety, education, shelter, or regular nutrition. It is a perpetual sense of unsafety.
- In his memoir, A Place Called Home, David reveals not just trauma but solutions, small moments of human kindness that shaped his future. Teachers are slipping granola bars. The lunch ladies are letting him take from the free table. These “angels” changed his life.
- Food isn't about eating; it is about dignity, survival, and control. When you are hungry, it is the aching absence of control.
- Hunger and food govern our choices. It controls our mood and determines our safety.
- Volunteers' and donors' role is not to police dignity but to protect food-insecure people.
- 20% of American children are hungry. That is one in five, or 14 million kids.
- The lack of food is the lack of life. Food is dignity, and dignity is meeting your basic needs.
You'll find David's socials and links to buy the book below:
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/hjdambroz/?hl=en
Threads: https://www.threads.com/@hjdambroz
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidambroz
Links to buy the book:
#1 tip to improve access to healthy food
If you've never been truly hungry, it's hard to understand what survival feels like... No one wants to be there asking for food — it's desperate, it's embarrassing. Your role as a volunteer is not to police dignity, it's to protect it.
Each week on the Food Dignity® Podcast, the Food Dignity® Movement's Clancy Harrison hosts a wide variety of hunger experts and other people making changes on the frontlines. Join us as we dive deep into conversations that will change the way you think about food insecurity.
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