thanks @AdamSpriggs ! Everything appeared to be fine in the both Date Extension so I ended up making a copy of the Foodies Data Extension for testing and it was displaying everything properly & I was receiving an odd error when trying to use it in a send preview. I had to call customer support. At least we know the code works! thanks again!

yep, hardcoded that to test and it shows.

Yeah, FoodID has a value. All columns from both Data Extensions do. 'm not sure if either DE is in Shared Items, I do know that they are not in the location, two different folders under "Data Extension" When the subscribers enter the info, I get the number (1111) but the name for that only lives in the other DE and the email would state something like "Your favorite food is: BANANAS" (i'm sure you knew this, just revisiting for my own benefit.)

Thanks @AdamSpriggs ! Still coming up blank. Would the location of the Data extension be a factor?

FavoriteFoods has two columns: FavoriteFood (text, it has a the word for the food, such as "Pizza") FoodID (number, has the number id for that food, such as "1111", also has the same FoodID value as in the "Foodie"DE.