{"id":115,"date":"2010-11-19T04:38:12","date_gmt":"2010-11-19T04:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/11\/as-thanksgiving-nears-the-hungerthon-reminds-us-to-be-grateful-and-to-give-back.html"},"modified":"2010-11-19T04:38:12","modified_gmt":"2010-11-19T04:38:12","slug":"as-thanksgiving-nears-the-hungerthon-reminds-us-to-be-grateful-and-to-give-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/11\/as-thanksgiving-nears-the-hungerthon-reminds-us-to-be-grateful-and-to-give-back.html","title":{"rendered":"As Thanksgiving nears, the Hungerthon reminds us to be grateful — and to give back"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had the good pleasure recently to speak with Bill Ayres, the executive director of WhyHunger<\/a>.  (This Bill Ayres is not to be confused with the controversial college professor\/1960’s anti-war radical.)<\/p>\n

Our primary topic was this year’s radio Hungerthon<\/a>, an annual multi-channel event that provides the bulk of the funding for his organization’s aid programs. Some of the music world’s biggest stars will be on hand in support of the event, including Yoko Ono, Carlos Santana and Bruce Springsteen.  <\/p>\n

Hungerthon On-Air Schedule<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/b>\n<\/div>\n

SATURDAY<\/strong><\/em>:<\/p>\n

Richard Neer, 6-10 a.m. on WFAN (660 AM).
Pete Fornatale, 4-8 p.m. on WFUV (90.7 FM).
Cousin Bruce Morrow, 6 p.m.-midnight on Sirius.
Joe Causi, 7 p.m.-midnight, on WCBS-FM (101.1).<\/p>\n

SUNDAY<\/strong><\/em>:<\/p>\n

Public service on WAXQ (104.3 FM), WXRK (92.3 FM), WFAN and WRXP (101.9
\nFM).
Dashow on WAXQ, 8-10 a.m.<\/p>\n

TUESDAY<\/strong><\/em>:<\/p>\n

WINS (1010 AM), WCBS-AM (880), WRXP, 5 a.m.-10 p.m.
WFAN, 6 a.m.-6:30 p.m.
WCBS-FM: 6 a.m.-10 p.m.
WAXQ: 5:30 a.m.-7 p.m.
Sirius XM (multiple channels).<\/p>\n

Also supporting Hungerthon<\/a>: WHTZ, WLTW, WKTU, WWPR, WPLJ, WQHT, WRKS, WABC,
\nLast.fm, Kweevak.com<\/a> and rocklandworldradio.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

ABOUT BILL AYRES<\/b><\/u><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Bill Ayres. the Executive Directer of WhyHunger, founded the organization (then called World Hunger Year), in 1975 along with the late  singer\/songwriter Harry Chapin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Since then Ayres,  who also hosts two radio shows on WPLJ (95.5 FM in NYC), has devoted his life to promoting innovative initiatives aimed at getting essential food and services to those in need. Those efforts have included the creation of the New York Hunger Hotline in New York City and the Center for Food Action in New Jersey, as well as support of the National Food Hotline<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Under Ayres leadership, WhyHunger<\/a> has helped found the National Association of Hunger Organizations and the National Jobs for All Coalition.  He is also a board member of Long Island Cares, a Long Island food bank and is the author of All You Need Is Love<\/i><\/a>, published by Simon & Schuster. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

My Interview with Bill Ayres<\/b><\/u>
<\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

So tell me about WhyHunger<\/a> and a bit about yourself.<\/b><\/p>\n

We started the organization in 1975. So we been around for
\n35 years. I was doing a lot of this kind of work before that but it’s
\nbeen my major work for a very long time now.<\/i><\/p>\n

I also am the host of a couple of radio shows each week on
\nWPLJ in New York.<\/i><\/p>\n

One of them is a call-in show on a different topic each
\nweek. We have some guests on and then the other 
\n<\/span>is where I interview people who are doing something good in the
\ncommunity. It’s called Community Connections. 
\n<\/span>And that’s a half hour show. The other one is an hour and a half, live.<\/i><\/p>\n

I’ve been doing the live show 35 years and I’ve been doing
\nthe other show for about 10 years.<\/i><\/p>\n

How’d you become involved with Harry Chapin and the group?<\/b><\/p>\n

I was doing a radio show for the ABC Radio Network called
\n“On This Rock” and it was a show about rock music and I interviewed rock and
\nroll performers.  <\/span>And, one day, Tom
\nChapin, Harry’s brother, came on.
<\/i><\/p>\n

He did a agreat show and said “You know, you
\nshould talk to my brother. He loves to talk. 
\n<\/span>And I always said that was the understatement of the century.  <\/span>Harry liked to talk and so I had him on my
\nshow and he said “Wow. That was a great interview.  <\/span>
<\/i><\/p>\n

Afterwards he said “You asked good questions.  <\/span>Why don’t you come to my house for dinner?”
\nSo I did. And, you know, we both lived out on Long Island. So after a couple of
\nthese dinners, I said why don’t we do a – this would have been like 1973–why
\ndon’t we do another kind of Bangladesh-type concert and make this one for the
\nSaharian region of Africa – the part just under the Sarara Desert.  <\/span>
<\/i><\/p>\n

There was a major famine going on there – all
\nacross Africa .  <\/span>So, yeah, so we did. We
\nwent to the UN. We had all kinds of good connections but it never happened and,
\nmeantime, we’re doing a lot of research and studying  <\/span>and we decided that we were gonna spend the
\nrest of our lives  <\/span>working on
\nhunger.  <\/span>And realizing that an event
\nwould not solve the problem so we made a life-long commitment.  <\/span>
<\/i><\/p>\n

But we didn’t know, of course, at the time
\nthat Harry wouldn’t live that much longer. 
\n<\/span>So, that’s how we got started.<\/i><\/p>\n

What happened next?<\/b><\/p>\n

And then we decided to form the organization because he was
\ndoing all these concerts and he and I were giving talks in high schools and
\ncolleges, churches and  <\/span>all kinds of
\nplaces.  <\/span>(But) we realized we would get people
\nall excited and then we’d leave.  <\/span>It
\ndidn’t make a lot of sense.  <\/span>So we
\ndecided we needed an organization to follow up and so that’s how it started in
\n’75.<\/i><\/p>\n

And then, you know, it grew a little bit. Harry did almost
\nall the funding. Eighty percent of the money came from him. And then when he died, of
\ncourse, we fell off a cliff.  <\/span>
<\/i><\/p>\n

So, I took
\nover in 1983. I’d been on the board. I was the chair of the board  <\/span>and, you know, we’ve kept growing and we’re
\nvery fortunate. We’ve had some wonderful partners.  <\/span>Kenny Rogers helped us for a long time. Bruce
\nSpringsteen has helped us for more than 20 years.  <\/span>We have a partnership with the Hard Rock
\nCaf\u00e9.  <\/span>And we also have been doing this
\nHungerthon<\/a>.
<\/i><\/p>\n

Harry and I did the first one in 1975. We went on WNEW-FM. That was a
\ngreat station.  <\/span>It was THE experimental
\nrock and roll station in the seventies and so we went there and they said they
\nwould do this Hungerthon with us and we would just take over the station for a
\nwhole day – 24 hours — and do it.  <\/span>Then
\nwe did them around the country – in San Francisco and Detroit and Philadelphia,
\nand Dallas, Washington. All over the place.<\/i><\/p>\n

And then after Harry died we didn’t do them again until 1985 when we picked up. And we’ve done them ever since.
<\/i><\/p>\n

We’re on all of the CBS
\nstations and we’re on about 17 stations all together and Sirius Satellite Radio
\nas well. And it’s our major fundraiser. It helps us to keep going and do all
\nthe good work that we do. If we didn’t have the Hungerthon we would not have
\nmade it this far.<\/i> <\/p>\n

How has the recession affected you?<\/b><\/p>\n

Well, that’s interesting. The last two years  <\/span>we’ve been flat. So I’m hoping that this year
\nwe’re not going to be flat, we’re going to go up. <\/i><\/p>\n

It’s kind of like the Perfect Bad Storm –  your needs go up but your resources go down.<\/b><\/p>\n

That’s exactly right. The need has gone up dramatically and,
\nyou know, we certainly don’t have all the resources that we need.  <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

How does WhyHunger work?<\/b><\/p>\n

We’re not a direct feeding operation.  <\/span>We connect people through the hotline  <\/span>to emergency food and to all the government
\nfeeding programs.  <\/span>And that’s a big
\njob.  <\/span>But our niche is
\nreally community-based organizations. We work with 84 or 85 hundred community
\nbased organizations in America and a growing number (though nowhere near as
\nbig) throughout the world.<\/i><\/p>\n

And we try to connect them to resources.  <\/span>All these people are working very hard.
\nThey’re some of the best people you’d ever want to meet in your life. They
\ndedicate they’re live to this. They don’t have money, they don’t have the
\nresources, they’re all overworked.  <\/span>So
\nwhat we try to do is connect them to is resources. It might be the media, it might
\nbe government or businesses, <\/i><\/p>\n

We connect individuals through the National Hunger Hotline<\/a>. We work with community based
\norganizations  <\/span>because they’re the ones
\nthat are on the ground.  <\/span>They’re the ones
\nthat are meeting people every day and they don’t have enough resources to do it
\nproperly. So we try to help them to get connected. <\/i><\/p>\n

We have a program called Artists Against Hunger and Poverty<\/a>
\nand Bruce Springsteen has been our biggest fundraiser for that, but there’s a
\nlot of other people now doing it, and every place he goes and the other artists
\ngo we hook them up with a community-based organization wherever their tour is
\ngoing.  <\/span>And (Bruce) lets them raise money
\nafterwards. He gives them money. He lets them collect food and he also might
\ngive people “meet and greet” tickets. That kind of thing (has) raised close to
\nten million dollars over the years for (our) organizations<\/i>C<\/p>\n

What can ordinary people do?<\/b><\/p>\n

One of the things they can do is to listen to the
\nHungerthon<\/a>.  <\/span>It will be on Saturday on  WFAN from 6 AM to 10 AM in the
\nmorning  <\/span>and then on SiriusXM Radio from
\n6 to 12 at night with Cousin Brucie.  
\n<\/span>
<\/i><\/p>\n

And then on Tuesday (Nov. 23), we start at five in the morning and we go
\ntill ten at night.  We’re on CBS 880, a news station, 1010 WINS, the other
\nnews station, WFAN.  <\/span>We’re also on a
\nwhole bunch of Sirius Satellite Radio stations that day, (as well as) Hot
\n97, KISS, WRXT. We’re also on the Clear Channel stations – Q-101. <\/span>We’re
\non a number of other stations.<\/i><\/p>\n

What will people hear when they tune in?<\/b><\/p>\n

Well, they’ll  <\/span>hear
\nthe regular format of the station but from time to time  <\/span>they’ll hear somebody – in the case of WCBS
\nFM it might be the disc jockey but it also could be me,  <\/span>Or the talk show host or the news person  <\/span>And we’ll be talking about hunger and poverty
\n– getting people some (information about) things that they can do. 
\n<\/span>Also asking people to make donations.<\/i><\/p>\n

Who else is helping out?<\/b> <\/p>\n

One of our partners in all this is Yoko Ono. <\/span>Her deal is that she’s a partner with us and
\nwith the Hard Rock Caf\u00e9 in the Imagine Campaign<\/a>. And, for the past three years
\nnow, we’ve been raising money all over the world .
<\/i><\/p>\n

The Hard Rock Caf\u00e9 is
\nselling little bracelets. And every dollar that we raise goes to the community-based organizations.  <\/span>And the idea there
\nis people go into a Hard Rock Caf\u00e9 and they buy one of these things for a
\ndollar and it all adds up. <\/i><\/p>\n

So we were able to raise last year I think about $400,000.
\nAnd we dividedthat up through organizations <\/span>in Asia, Africa and Latin America. 
\n<\/span>But they have to be organizations that are not just feeding people.  <\/span>If you just give them food
\nthey’re gonna come back tomorrow and next week, you know?  <\/span>So we help them to find programs that are
\npromoting self reliance – teaching kids to grow food, giving kids an eduation
\nthat (helps) their families. So, that’s what we do.<\/i><\/p>\n

We’re trying to help them to get skills and talents and
\nresources in Asia, Africa and Latin America so they can grow their own food or
\nget a job in a place that’s gonna pay them a living wage so they can actually
\ntake care of themselves.<\/i><\/p>\n

So, you’re focused on self reliance.<\/b><\/p>\n

But we do believe in government programs. We think they’re
\nabsolutely essential but, ultimately, what we believe in is self reliance. We
\nwant people to get back on their feet again.<\/i><\/p>\n

So, the government program is a means – not an end?<\/b><\/p>\n

Exactly.<\/i> <\/p>\n

What’s the Benefit Bank?<\/b><\/p>\n

The Benefit Bank<\/a> is something that’s relatively new. It’s
\nnot something we created but we’re partnering with the folks who created it.
<\/i><\/p>\n

The
\nBenefit Bank is operating big time in Ohio. You oughtta take a look at that
\nwebsite<\/a>. It’s truly amazing. They’ve brought in close to $350 million into the
\npockets of poor people. And I received a note today from one of our
\npartners saying North Carolina<\/a> and South Carolina<\/a> are moving even faster than
\nOhio did at the beginning.<\/i><\/p>\n

And we’re in a few other states too but not as successfully
\nyet.  <\/span>But the whole idea of the Benefit
\nBank is (that) you walk into a non-profit organization. It could be a church. It could
\nbe a hunger organization., a job training organization or a temple.
<\/i><\/p>\n

Wherever it
\nis, somebody’s there with a computer that has special software for the
\nBenefit Bank and within a half hour they will tell you all of  <\/span>the federal grants and state programs that
\nyou’re eligible for.  <\/span>Not only that but
\nthey can sign you up and even send electronic imaging of  <\/span>the proper papers into the (appropriate government office).
\n<\/i><\/p>\n

 So, it’s an amazing program. I think there must be about
\n3500 or 4000 trained people in Ohio who are trained to help people to get the
\nmoney and it’s very, very exciting.  <\/span>So,
\nwe’d like to see that around the whole country. 
\n<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Are you concerned about fraud?<\/b><\/p>\n

Oh, sure. You’re always gonna have that.
<\/i><\/p>\n

But, for example, with the SNAP program – there are no food
\nstamps anymore. They’re all gone.  <\/span>And
\nthat has reduced  <\/span>error and also fraud
\nenormously  <\/span>and it’s also reduced the
\nshame. You know, people used to have to go in and show those little coupons.
\nBut now they walk in and it’s an EBT card – same as you or I. <\/span>And there’s a lot less fraud.<\/i><\/p>\n

There are some people who cheat. Absolutely. But it’s very
\ntiny.  <\/span>The program is very, very
\nsuccessful.<\/i><\/p>\n

What would you like people to know about Hunger in America
\ntoday and in the world?<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

Well, let’s take America. There shouldn’t be any hunger in
\nAmerica because we’re so rich here in terms of resources and we grow a lot of
\nfood.  <\/span>The problem is not that there’s
\nnot enough food. We’ve got plenty  <\/span>of
\nfood. We waste enough food to feed all the hungry people in America many times
\nover. <\/i><\/p>\n

When you say Hunger are your talking about starvation?<\/b><\/p>\n

No, we’re not. That’s in Asia, Africa and Latin America. You
\ndo see it here but it’s rare.  <\/span>
<\/i><\/p>\n

What you
\ndo see is a couple of things.  <\/span>One is
\nmalnourishment,  <\/span>where kids aren’t getting
\nenough calories or they’re getting the wrong kind of calories. They’re not
\ngetting protein, they’re not getting enough fruits and vegetables and so we’ve
\ngot a campaign going to work on that as well, so that people can be eating a
\nbetter quality of food. <\/i><\/p>\n

<\/span>There are two problems. One is that
\nthe cheapest food is often the food that’s the worst for you. It’s very high in
\nfat, sugar and, you know, it doesn’t have enough nutrients in it and it
\nproduces obesity, diabetes, heart disease, all of those other kinds of things.<\/i><\/p>\n

And there are higher incidents of all of those diseases in
\npoor people than there are in everybody else. 
\n<\/span>I mean we have too much obesity in this country overall but its most
\nprevalent with poor people. <\/i><\/p>\n

The rich have better food.<\/b><\/p>\n

Exactly.  <\/span>They have
\nmore choices. We’re working now in two places that we call “food deserts.” That’s a term that’s crept into our language and it simply means that you can’t
\nget fresh fruits and vegetables  <\/span>and
\nsometimes dairy. So you wind up with convenience stores that
\nmight have a banana or milk but they don’t have much else in the way of healthy
\nfood. And you end up with gas stations and with fast food restaurants and, in
\nsome places, you wind up with nothing. <\/i><\/p>\n

What are you doing about these “food deserts”?<\/b><\/p>\n

We’re working for example in two areas of the country – in
\nthe Mississippi Delta and Southeastern Arizona and they’re definitely food
\ndeserts.  <\/span>You may have to travel 30 or 40 miles to find a grocery store.  <\/span>So,
\nwhat we’re trying to do there is to help those folks.  <\/span>And, of course, God help you if you don’t
\nhave a car, then you’re really in trouble. 
\n<\/span>
<\/i><\/p>\n

So, what we’re trying to do is to help the folks there to learn to grow
\ntheir own food and also to bring in farmer’s markets, community-supported
\nagriculture, farm to school programs  <\/span>to
\nimprove the quality of food in the schools 
\n<\/span>and to help people to have access to better foods. So the backyard
\ngardens,  <\/span>all those kinds of things. <\/i><\/p>\n

How about rooftop gardens?<\/b><\/p>\n

Rooftop gardens are great as well. Those are more urban
\nthough.  <\/span>You don’t find them so much out
\nin the sticks but rooftop gardens are great. <\/i><\/p>\n

Do you find food deserts in urban areas?<\/b><\/p>\n

Yes.  <\/span>Exactly, you’re
\nabsolutely right.  <\/span>We got ’em right here
\nin New York City – parts of the Bronx and Brooklyn, even a little bit in parts of
\nNorthern Manhattan.  <\/span>But  <\/span>a lot in the Bronx, a lot in Brooklyn  <\/span>and parts of Quuens. And that means for a
\nmile or two there are no stores, no supermarkets or anything like that.  <\/span>
<\/i><\/p>\n

And it means, again, if you don’t have a car,
\nit becomes a burden.  <\/span>You can get on a
\nsubway and go somewhere and find food, and people do it, but then you gotta lug
\nit home. It discourages people. <\/i><\/p>\n

It short circuits desire to get good food because it so much
\ntrouble to get it.<\/b><\/p>\n

Exactly.  <\/span>And a lot of
\nthe people who are trying to do this are working two jobs and they don’t have the time to do it.  <\/span>So, the fast food
\nrestaurants, of course, do very well in these places.<\/i><\/p>\n

Do you work with fast food restaurants?<\/b><\/p>\n

No. Although there is a movement to try and improve the
\nquality of food offered by fast food restaurants. We’re certainly supportive of
\nthat but that’s not our connection.<\/i><\/p>\n

What we do is to work with community gardeners and farmer’s
\nmarkets  <\/span>and rooftop gardens, backyard
\ngardens,  <\/span>all that kinda stuff. And we try
\nto work to get grocery stores into neighborhoods and to improve the quality of
\nthe food in the bodegas.  <\/span>
<\/i><\/p>\n

There’s a
\nmovement now that’s been going on for awhile 
\n<\/span>to get low-fat milk into bodegas and to get carrots into bodegas. The New York City Health Department is trying to promote that with a
\nsubsidized program to try to help the bodegas to expand their variety of milk.<\/i><\/p>\n

This goes on and on. There are so many different
\npossibilities here. <\/i><\/p>\n

A lot of unemployed people are seeing their benefits run out. How has that impacted your work?<\/b><\/p>\n

Yes, yes. A lot of those people are calling us up on the
\nhotline. There’s a lot of guys calling us up who never called before, (including) families
\nof veterans.  <\/span>Desperate people. So you
\ngot a major problem.<\/i><\/p>\n

(About) 49 million hungry people are in America, 17 million are
\nchildren. One out of five kids in America grows up in poverty . One out of
\nseven people in America is poor. I mean that just tells the story right there. <\/i><\/p>\n

And right now it’s not getting better.  So, you’re right. All of these organizations have more
\npressure on them to serve people  <\/span>and
\nless resources to do it. <\/i><\/p>\n

Are you making it through?<\/b><\/p>\n

We’ve been able to survive. Right now, it’s before the
\nHungerthon<\/a>, so we’re down to our last 
\n<\/span>dollar. But I think we’ll do okay on the Hungerthon<\/a>. It’s been a little
\nscary  <\/span>but we have some good prospects
\nand very good partners who help us.  <\/span>But
\nwe don’t have much money right now. <\/i><\/p>\n

So the Hungerthon<\/a> is coming along just in time?<\/b><\/p>\n

Yeah it comes along just in time. You know, it saves us
\nevery year and it has, well, since 1985. <\/i>
<\/b><\/p>\n

You’re Catholic. How important a role does your faith play in your work?<\/b><\/p>\n

My whole
\nmotivation for being involved in this is really to follow the Scriptures<\/i>. <\/p>\n

Have Churches been supportive?<\/b><\/p>\n

Churches have been very supportive.  <\/span>Churches and synagogues have been very, very
\nsupportive. <\/i><\/p>\n

Final thoughts?<\/b><\/p>\n

The number to call for radio stations on the day of Hungerthon<\/a> is
\n1-800-5-HUNGRY. The website <\/span>is
\nHungerthon.org<\/a>. (Go there and you’ll) see a large array of auction items –. music
\nitems like signed guitars,<\/span> sports items and other things. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had the good pleasure recently to speak with Bill Ayres, the executive director of WhyHunger.  (This Bill Ayres is not to be confused with the controversial college professor\/1960’s anti-war radical.) Our primary topic was this year’s radio Hungerthon, an annual multi-channel event that provides the bulk of the funding for his organization’s aid programs.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12,5,18,16,11,1,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholic-church","category-christianity","category-current-events","category-education","category-family-matters","category-internet","category-media","category-radio"],"yoast_head":"\nAs Thanksgiving nears, the Hungerthon reminds us to be grateful - and to give back - Catholics Media and Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/11\/as-thanksgiving-nears-the-hungerthon-reminds-us-to-be-grateful-and-to-give-back.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"As Thanksgiving nears, the Hungerthon reminds us to be grateful - and to give back - Catholics Media and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I had the good pleasure recently to speak with Bill Ayres, the executive director of WhyHunger.  (This Bill Ayres is not to be confused with the controversial college professor\/1960’s anti-war radical.) Our primary topic was this year’s radio Hungerthon, an annual multi-channel event that provides the bulk of the funding for his organization’s aid programs.…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/11\/as-thanksgiving-nears-the-hungerthon-reminds-us-to-be-grateful-and-to-give-back.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Catholics Media and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-11-19T04:38:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John W. 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Kennedy","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/d80\/d801bc09698c0995d9ae402b4b55ab61x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/d80\/d801bc09698c0995d9ae402b4b55ab61x96.jpg","caption":"John W. Kennedy"},"description":"John W. Kennedy is the founder and Dir. of Development of The Creative Universe Entertainment\u2122, a media consultation and development company focusing on the creation, development and support of high-quality mainstream entertainment that upholds positive timeless values, including trust in God. Current projects include \"Bryant Park\" (an uplifting romantic-comedy) and \"Photo Finish\" (an award-winning sci-fi TV pilot). 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