Warner’s Childhood Hunger Hoax Exposed
The Virginia senator has financial and political ties to the group behind the wild, murky claims that half of the state’s children are starving.
"Hungry kids are not a bargaining chip," Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) declared. Then he turned them into one—selling a 51 percent hunger crisis that even his own preferred charity puts at 9 percent.
Warner promised Virginians he'd serve just two terms. Now he's running for a fourth, and his campaign ads put hungry children front and center to win votes. It's a pattern that would make Pinocchio blush.
Warner claims half of Virginia families with kids are "food insecure." The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) puts Virginia's 2022–2024 average at about 13 percent, and a 2023 Hunger Free America study has this at 11.7 percent.
His ads use data from a "No Kid Hungry Virginia" survey commissioned by the nonprofit No Kid Hungry, also known as Share Our Strength, the Virginia Department of Social Services (VDSS), and the Federation of Virginia Food Banks. Yet, the Share Our Strength website says the state has close to 9 percent of children living in "food-insecure homes," while elsewhere promoting the "over half" figure Warner uses.
VDSS Commissioner Duke Storen is a former vice president of Share Our Strength, and just two days after Warner pushed his Virginia kids are starving talking points, Storen published a VDSS press release echoing the same narrative. Coincidence?
Warner, meanwhile, is a large donor to Share Our Strength, which lobbied for his Healthy Food Access for All Americans Act, legislation that could send taxpayer-funded grants to groups like the survey's sponsors. Legacy media outlets across the state, such as the Richmond Times-Dispatch, publicized Warner’s claims despite the glaring contradictions.
Warner and fellow socialists want to diminish Republican efforts to reform the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) welfare program. Socialists want Americans dependent on the government—starting with control of their food supply.
Highly Paid Executives Consume Donor Dollars
Share Our Strength's tax-deductible donations and grants were $87 million in 2024, but distributions to organizations that actually feed children were just $14 million. The group spent over $33 million on salaries and other compensation and $31 million toward "other expenses."
The group's 2024 federal return lists 23 salaried employees, each with six-figure annual earnings. The executive chair, William Shore, received over $700,000, and CEO Anne Filipic pulled in over $450,000. The nonprofit has over a half-dozen highly compensated senior vice presidents (SVPs), with pay ranging from $223,206 to $275,615, including an SVP of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). Plus, the organization paid 53 independent contractors more than $100,000 each.
The company leases space in one of the most expensive buildings in Washington, D.C. Its location on Thomas Circle labels it a "trophy office building." Tax records indicate the nonprofit spends nearly $10 million annually on lease expenses.
Lobbying is also an activity of Share Our Strength, spending nearly $1 million in 2025 to beg Congress for more taxpayer welfare subsidies.
In its press release about the hunger survey, Share Our Strength says they are "working to end childhood hunger by helping launch and improve programs that give all kids the healthy food they need to thrive."
With nearly 75 percent of its donations going toward compensation and "other expenses," Share Our Strength’s leadership appears more focused on padding their own wallets than ending childhood hunger.
Democrats Want Food Dependence
Democrats decry Republican efforts to equip Americans to be self-sufficient rather than dependent on the government dole.
The Federation of Virginia Food Banks admits they commissioned the food study because of Republican efforts to reduce dependence on taxpayer-funded welfare programs. In a press release, the group complains that "SNAP [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] participation has declined by more than 110,000 people in Virginia since the enactment of H.R. 1 in July 2025."
The socialist Democrats are upset about President Trump’s 2025 announcement that only American citizens and qualified legal aliens would be eligible for SNAP. This wasn’t a new rule, just the enforcement of existing laws. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said, "We are stewards of taxpayer dollars, and it is our duty to ensure states confirm the identity and verify the immigration status of SNAP applicants. USDA’s nutrition programs are intended to support the most vulnerable Americans. To allow those who broke our laws by entering the United States illegally to receive these benefits is outrageous."
In addition to immigration verification, 2025 witnessed new Republican legislation, which socialist Democrats vilify, that instituted a part-time work requirement for able-bodied individuals receiving welfare.
In 1996, when former President Bill Clinton signed welfare reform legislation, he emphasized the need for people to work and for welfare to not be permanent. Clinton said, “We are taking an historic chance to make welfare what it was meant to be: a second chance, not a way of life.”
Today’s socialist Democrats like Mark Warner align more with Zohran Mamdani than Clinton.
Flawed Survey Methodology
Restoration News reached out to all the organizations involved in the 2026 Virginia Hunger Study. The National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago conducted the study. In response to questions seeking the methodology behind the survey, NORC’s external affairs manager Anya Shelton told us, "If the VA Federation [of Food Banks] didn’t publicly share the methods when releasing the survey, it’s their call on sharing the full methods statement."
Hollie Lutz, a director with the Federation of Virginia Food Banks, indicated, "A forthcoming technical report will provide additional findings and a more detailed description of the study's methodology. That report is expected to be published in early 2027."
When pressed further, Lutz provided some of the methodology to Restoration News. The surveys were sent to addresses covered by food banks in the state. Participants were offered monetary incentives for completing the surveys, and areas with a low propensity to respond were sampled at twice the rate.
Wouldn’t individuals struggling to make ends meet be more likely to complete the survey due to the monetary incentive? What are the low-propensity areas that had higher samplings—were they poorer areas? Why does Share Our Strength still report a child food insecurity rate of 9 percent, in conflict with the study’s reported 51 percent?
These are answers the public deserves to know.
The VDSS responded after Lutz saying, “I understand our survey partners have responded to your request, and VDSS is aligned with the information they provided.”
Share Our Strength—A Propaganda Arm of the Left
Filipic, the highly paid CEO of Share Our Strength, is a former Biden administration official. She previously worked for the Democratic National Committee and the 2008 Obama presidential campaign.
Share Our Strength SVP of DEI Nefertiri Sickout oversees efforts to “feed kids in communities of color.”
Sickout’s planning DEI checklist includes:
- When planning events, "be intentional about" the community demographic. Teams should ask, "Are various identities represented (e.g., gender identities, diverse racial backgrounds)?"
- In event sessions, "Plan for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Ensure gender and race/ethnicity is balanced within each session (especially keynotes and plenary speakers), not just the overall program."
- Regarding paid speakers: "Actively solicit proposals and submissions from underrepresented groups."
- During events, ask "participants to communicate their preferred pronouns."
Share Our Strength also operates the Medicaid Food Security Network (MFSN), whose goal is to "expand the number of Medicaid-enrolled children."
The group's leadership, spending priorities, and programming suggest an organization focused on political and ideological goals, not on its stated mission of ending childhood hunger.
Virginians deserve honest numbers, not campaign talking points dressed up as research. Multiple reports put the child food insecurity rate in Virginia between 9 and13 percent, nowhere close to the 51 percent Warner spews in his ads. When the study behind that claim was commissioned by groups with financial and political ties to the senator, and when its full methodology remains unreleased until 2027, voters should treat Warner’s claim for what it appears to be: fake news and not a credible measure of childhood hunger in the commonwealth.
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