By Francine Friedman Griesing, Esq.
What is Will Work for Food and the New Possibilities Hour?
This column usually addresses legal developments or ethical issues raised in dispute resolution. Today the column focuses on ADR practitioners doing above and beyond to help others. There is an extraordinary initiative launched and sustained by dispute resolution professionals devoted to tackling food insecurity. In 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic left some Americans with limited resources, people lined up in vast numbers across the country to receive free food and other necessities for their struggling families. Natalie Armstrong Motin took notice and acted, launching Will Work for Food (WFF) and the affiliated New Possibilities Hour webinars. This initiative exemplifies the best of the dispute resolution field.
Natalie may be familiar to many of you. She is a mediator and long-time advocate for ADR professionals. Through her company Marketing Resolution, she collaborates with mediators and arbitrators at every stage of their careers to refine their branding, strengthen their visibility, and grow their reach. She is also a highly visible thought leader through her video series Idle Chat for the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution. Although Natalie has been on my radar for several years, what caught my attention more recently is her commitment to tackling hunger. She devised a plan to raise money for food banks from audiences enjoying thought-provoking educational programs initially with an ADR spin. Deeply troubled by news reels of families struggling to put food on the table during the pandemic, in Spring 2020, Natalie started offering free online programming and encouraging appreciative attendees to donate what they could afford to food banks. This became the New Possibilities Hour.
With people working from home with limited access to outside activities, Natalie tapped into two needs – people were hungry for stimulating content and for food especially when they were isolated or out of work during the crisis. Natalie, who is a well-known speaker on dispute resolution topics, began by offering her own content at no charge, urging listeners to consider contributing to a food bank. Devotees of Natalie’s work not only listened, but they offered to jump on board to speak and support feeding those in need. Natalie readily recruited additional experts to share their knowledge voluntarily in furtherance of WWFF’s mission.
Before long, Natalie was joined by Jeff Kichaven, an accomplished mediator and dispute resolution thought leader in his own right, who offered his backing to this important endeavor. Involved from the initial stages, Jeff continues to commit considerable effort to attract engaging speakers, moderate thought-provoking programs, and raise awareness of the acute need for food availability. Even with a heavy calendar of mediations and speaking engagements, Jeff prioritizes WWFF. Among the obvious virtues of WWFF’s work, Jeff pointed out another contribution that should not be overlooked. Given the breadth of topics covered and the leading voices heard, Jeff noted “there is a legacy aspect to it; fifty-one hundred years from now, people may ask what mediation was like in our time.” According to Jeff, the WWFF library of programs “are like a time capsule regarding what mediation, negotiation and good lawyering looks like.” Jeff also acknowledges that his involvement in WWFF and The New Possibilities Hour has enriched his life as well, enlightening him on innovative topics and enabling him to establish new relationships with a diverse group of professionals.
Over time, accomplished mediators and dispute resolution professionals also joined as moderators and promoters of WWFF’s New Possibilities Hour. Jean Lawler jumped on board eagerly in January 2021 and has been a moderator as well as managing a variety of “behind the scenes” projects essential to keeping the mission going. Jean is an established commercial and insurance mediator and arbitrator with over three decades of experience representing clients in these areas. Passionate about WWFF’s mission for which she has devoted considerable time for over five years, Jean noted how the efforts embrace a “global legal community” and have fed people “all over the world.” She describes the New Possibilities Hour aptly as “feed your mind while feeding the world.” Jean noted the programs benefit so many, both by addressing hunger internationally and by enriching those who partake in the programs. For example, she shared a thank you note from a new lawyer to a speaker explaining how following the speaker’s guidance helped the lawyer achieve a favorable resolution in their first mediation. WWFF and the New Possibilities Hour touches people in diverse ways.
David Shraga and Michael Schwimmer, also ADR professionals, more recently joined the core group advancing WFF’s agenda. Through their networks, they too have expanded the network of prominent speakers who share their expertise to support this worthy agenda and increase the audience of potential donors. Led by Natalie, the voluntary contributions of these accomplished neutrals have enabled this initiative to sustain more families in need of help through engaging programs.
The programs are presented primarily by and for attorneys, mediators, arbitrators, and negotiators. With the exception of select holidays, each Thursday at 11 a.m. East Coast time, an esteemed speaker joins a WWFF moderator or two for a webinar presentation about a timely topic. The programs are free; the WWFF team and their generous speakers do not ask those who tune in to pay for these invaluable webinars. They encourage and hope that attendees will donate any amount to their local food bank or one designated by the featured speaker.
One recent program was particularly helpful to me. I relied upon the content in preparing my last column that appeared in The Legal Intelligencer on February 6, 2026, ABA Formal Opinion 518: Mediators in the Hotseat or Business as Usual. On November 20, 2025, Jeff Kichaven led a stimulating conversation with Professor Ellen Waldman, Vice President of Advocacy and Educational Outreach at the Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution, who is responsible for initiatives involving dispute prevention, diversity in the professional neutral field, mediation, and education. Jeff and Ellen presented ABA Ethics Opinion 518 Dawn of a Golden Age for Mediation. Their dialogue and debate provided much for me to think about as I prepared my last column, and I was happy to donate to a Westchester New York Food Bank, Professor Waldman’s recipient of choice.
What can you learn from listening to a WWFF program? As Natalie noted, the WWFF programming “is one of the largest repositories of alternate dispute resolution resources available” with “bar associations and other professional organizations recognize their programming for accredited continuing legal education.” They initially focused on issues related to the dispute resolution community, but its reach is far beyond that. Speakers are drawn from a broad swath of the legal, business, academic and public interest communities. They include in house counsel, law firm partners, professors, top notch neutrals and experienced plaintiff and defense trial lawyers. Topics range from negotiating strategies to common ethical challenges, from health and wellness for dispute resolution practitioners to navigating artificial intelligence in ADR. The portfolio is deep and broad and keeps growing. There is something on virtually every aspect of dispute prevention, resolution, and legal problem-solving.
According to Natalie, the New Possibilities Hour has “been honored to have Nobel Laureate, ambassadors, authors, neutrals, attorneys, so many fabulous folks support the initiative each week.” As Jeff noted, “prior speakers include Nobel Laureate Saul Perlmutter (Berkeley), former National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien, Ken Feinberg, and other professors from Columbia (Alexandra Carter, Peter Coleman), Harvard (Max Bazerman, Sheila Heen, Bob Mnookin, David Wilkins), Yale (Barry Nalebuff), Penn (Richard Shell) and others.”
Fast forward to Spring 2026. As of this column’s publication, between Spring 2020 and 2026, WWFF has confirmed monetary donations to food banks totaling nearly $1 million. The WWFF team only tracks donations that are reported to them, so if audience members donated without attribution to the New Possibilities Hour, the WWFF broadcasts generated even more financial support to feed those in need. In addition, those who prefer can volunteer at local food banks. Although food donations are also welcome, you may not be aware that a dollar donated to a food bank, which can buy in bulk, will yield more than a dollar spent singularly at your local grocer. As Natalie explained, “food banks have buying leverage” that individuals do not.
Despite the stellar efforts of WWFF and the generosity of the speakers and audience donors, there is more need to be met. The extent of hunger in the United States and around the world is staggering. According to Feeding America, roughly thirteen percent of all households nationwide experience food insecurity and eighteen percent of households with children face these challenges. Working families still cannot afford enough to sustain their families. For too many children, school meals are their primary and too often their sole source of daily nourishment. Without adequate nutrition, children cannot grow or learn, perpetuating a vicious cycle of struggle.
If WWFF’s mission resonates with you, you can support its important work directly or indirectly. As Natalie noted, “it is more imperative than ever” to support those in need of food. Consider sharing your expertise on a program, listening to other New Possibilities Hour recordings, and contributing what you can in honor of the speakers. You can volunteer your time at a local shelter or food bank. You can spread the word within your organization and network so that others can benefit from WWFF’s substantive programming and fewer people go to bed hungry. You can learn more about WWFF on its website at https://www.willworkforfood.news/ and can access New Possibilities Hour programs at https://youtube.com/@willworkforfood.
As always, I welcome suggestions of topics you would like to read about in future columns.
Francine Griesing, Founder of Griesing Law, LLC, has been involved in every aspect of litigation and alternate dispute resolution over the past 40-plus years. For most of her career, she represented individual and institutional plaintiffs and defendants as an advocate in business litigation, employment, and alternate dispute resolution. With over 30 years of experience as a neutral, she now concentrates on dispute prevention and resolution. She is admitted to practice in Arizona, New York, Pennsylvania, Utah, and the United States Supreme Court. You can contact Fran at fgriesing@griesinglaw.com.
Reprinted with permission from the May 12, 2026 edition of the “Legal Intelligencer” (c) 2026 ALM Global Properties, LLC. All rights reserved. Further duplication without permission is prohibited, contact 877-256-2472 or asset-and-logo-licensing@alm.com.