Bipartisan Group Of Hunger Champions To Be Honored

WASHINGTON, June 14, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Congressional Hunger Center will honor seven distinguished leaders from government, business and the nonprofit community at the 10^th Annual Hunger Leadership Awards on June 15, 2016 at the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C.

The honorees were selected for their significant contributions to fighting hunger in the United States and around the world. They embody the determination necessary to make hunger and poverty a focal point of U.S. policy at home and globally. The Hunger Center will also recognize two outstanding alumni from its Bill Emerson National and Mickey Leland International Hunger Fellows programs.

"These hunger fighters have all demonstrated their commitment to making the United States and the world food secure and ensuring all people have the opportunity to realize their full potential," said Shannon Maynard, Executive Director of the Congressional Hunger Center. "Governments, corporations, nonprofits, and individuals all have a role to play in ending hunger, and these honorees exemplify the diversity of approaches it will take to be successful."

The 2016 honorees include:

• Senators Pat Roberts and Debbie Stabenow in recognition of their bipartisan efforts to reauthorize the child nutrition programs through introduction and strong advocacy of their joint Improving Child Nutrition Integrity and Access Act of 2016 which reauthorizes and strengthens child nutrition programs under the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act and the Child Nutrition Act of 1966.
• Representative Gwen Moore for her outspoken advocacy against "demonizing the recipients" of federal nutrition programs and efforts to require mandatory drug testing or limit the food choices of SNAP beneficiaries. She has been a longtime supporter of The Hunger Task Force in Milwaukee and also has been part of Oxfam America's "Sisters of the Planet" Initiative.
• Representative Jackie Walorski, chair of the House Subcommittee on Nutrition since 2015, for her commitment to ensuring that no child or adult endures what she has seen others experience firsthand in her district and overseas. She is a co-sponsor of the Global Food Security Act. Congresswoman Walorski and CHC Board Chair Rep. James P. McGovern (D-MA) have worked hard to model effective and productive bipartisan dialogue and collaboration.
• Chef and restaurateur José Andrés for his passionate and entrepreneurial advocacy for people experiencing hunger in Washington, D.C., the U.S, and globally. Mr. Andrés has given of his time, talent and treasure in many ways including the creation of the Chef's Network, which aims to build a network of renowned chefs that support initiatives to improve local and global food systems, and the launch of World Central Kitchen, which leverages many of the lessons learned at DC Central Kitchen to empower people experiencing food insecurity to be change agents in creating a more equitable food system.
• Emerson Fellow alumnus Indivar Dutta-Gupta is Director of the Project on Deep Poverty and Senior Fellow at the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality. Previously, Indivar was Project Director at Freedman Consulting, LLC, leading strategic initiatives for major philanthropies, children's groups, and workers' organizations. Indivar also served as Senior Policy Advisor at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, focusing on budget and tax policies and cross-cutting low-income issues.
• Leland Fellow alumnus Michael Johnson serves as Political Affairs Officer, Political Affairs Division at the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali.  Michael previously worked at the Secretariat of the South Sudan Recovery Fund, administered by the United Nations Development Program and at USAID, where he helped design the agency's strategy on South Sudan and manage the Peace and Security Pillar in Haiti in 2007.

The 2016 Hunger Leadership Awards are sponsored by General Mills Foundation, Kellogg Company Fund, Land O'Lakes, Inc., Monsanto, Inc., PepsiCo, Tyson Foods, Walmart, AARP, The Kraft Heinz Company, General Motors Company, Feeding America, WFP USA, Bread for the World, and the Food Research and Action Center, along with a host of other supporting organizations and individuals.

The Congressional Hunger Center (CHC) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that works to make issues of domestic and international hunger a priority to policymakers in the U.S. government, and to raise a new generation of leaders to fight against hunger and poverty.  For more information, visit www.hungercenter.org

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SOURCE Congressional Hunger Center

Related Links

http://www.hungercenter.org