Mediators’ weekly webinars aim at reducing global hunger

A trio of ADR professionals have come together to present complimentary weekly webinars on worldly topics to help food banks fill the pantries of food-deprived homes.

The idea for “New Possibilities Hour: Will Work for Food Project” was conceptualized by Natalie Armstrong-Motin. She and her husband were in France during the initial COVID-19 lockdown of 2020, and she wanted to do something to help others in need, mediator Jeffery G. Kichaven said.

“Natalie came up with this brilliant idea of putting on webinars for mediators and arbitrators, basically, and for lawyers, and not charging anything for them, but instead asking people to contribute to food banks if they liked what they saw,” Kichaven said. ”We started this when Natalie asked me to partner up with her on this, and I was happy to do it because I too was looking for something uplifting and something to give my life some added meaning at that time.”

Since holding its first webinar, Armstron-Motin, Kichaven and longtime Los Angeles mediator Jean M. Lawler have seen significant charitable donations from viewers to food banks around the globe.

“I joined up with Natalie around the spring of 2020, and we started producing and promoting these things once a week,” Kichaven said. “Our viewers have contributed over $500,000 to food banks worldwide, providing millions of meals to people suffering from food insecurity. It’s tremendous to know that we’ve contributed in some small way.”

Two of the biggest beneficiaries of this program have been the San Francisco Marin Food Bank and the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank.

According to a 2021 report from the Department of Health and Human Services, more than one in five Black and Latino adults with children struggle to find enough to eat or feed their families.

Some of the legal world’s leading lights have joined the webinar to help raise awareness of the project.

“The world-famous Ken Feinberg has presented for us. We’ve had two past presidents of the American Bar Association, Laurel Bellows and Linda Klein. We’ve had several professors from Harvard Law School. We’ve had Jim Brosnahan from Morrison Forrester and Microsoft’s General Counsel Jonathan Palmer present for us,” Kichaven said. “They talk about negotiation skills, communication skills, mediation skills — things of that nature. There is a great deal of detail in these presentations. People put a lot of thought into these presentations, and the most important thing is that we raise money for food banks and that the audiences have contributed half a million dollars.”

Please go to www.willworkforfood.news/upcoming-events for information on upcoming events.