Chef Tiffany Derry probably should have rescheduled my interview with her. The Cutthroat Kitchen and Top Chef alum had been washing dishes and on the line cooking in preparation for the grand opening of the newest location of Roots Chicken Shak, her Southern comfort food franchise, in Addison. It was chaos, she admitted as something clattered in the background, but “the need is too great to ignore,” she told me, referring to the one in five Texas children who are likely to go hungry at some point this year.

That’s why she’s throwing her toque in with advocates calling for Texas to enroll in a federal program called Sun Bucks that gives qualifying families $120 per child for groceries during summer, when kids can’t access free or reduced school lunches and food insecurity skyrockets. L

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