Hunger Fighter Awards

We will announce 2008 Winners on Hunger Action Day, May 7, 2008!

See our previous years winners below!
 Assembly Member Andre Swanson (D-Oakland) Author of AB 508 ending the barring recoverred and reformed ex-drug offenses from food stamp program

Assembly Member Jim Beall, Jr., California Assembly – 24th District, San Jose Time and time again people have heard Jim Beall say “No One Will Go to Bed Hungry.”  Jim has been a leading advocate for human services, the successful Santa Clara County food resources, health care system, affordable housing, quality transportation, environmental protection and safer neighborhoods.  In his first newsletter to constituents, he stated that, as Chair of the Human Services Committee, one of his goals is to develop a strategy to combat hunger.

Assembly Bill 433 - This year, Jim introduced AB 433 with the goal to reduce barriers for low-income families to receive food stamps. This legislation will better connect health care and nutrition programs, and improve the health and nutritional status of low-income Californians.  Jim recognizes that too many families suffer from poor nutrition and knows that programs like food stamps must be utilized in the effort to improve the nutrition and health of low-income Californians. 

Jeff Bridges – End Hunger Network, For more than 20 years, movie superstar Jeff Bridges has worked hard to raise consciousness about the possibility of ending world hunger. In the early 1980s he helped start the End Hunger Network, and has inspired and enlisted the help of many celebrities to help convince the public and the governments of the world that we can end world hunger if we make it a priority. In recent years, the End Hunger Network has been focusing on hunger in America. In the 1980s, thanks to public will and government programs, hunger had been ended in America. But today more than 35 million Americans are hungry and 13 million are children. The End Hunger Network's goal is to end childhood hunger in America.

Gail Harrison, PhD  Professor, Department of Community Health Sciences, UCLA School of Public Health & Senior Researcher, UCLA Center for Health Policy Research
Gail has spent her entire life and professional career leading research to demonstrate the incidence of hunger in California, across the nation, and in several countries. She has been a member of the Food and Nutrition Board (FNB) of the National Academy of Sciences/Institute of Medicine and several FNB committees, including the Committee on International Nutrition, the Committee to Review the Risk Criteria for the WIC Program, and the Committee on Implications of Dioxin in the Food Supply, and the Committee to Revise the WIC Food Packages. She has consulted with the World Health Organization and UNICEF and has worked in Egypt, the Sudan, Iran, Indonesia, and Lesotho on international hunger.

Her work on exposing and publishing the statistical incidence of food insecurity and hunger in California has assisted advocates across the state to secure more resources for meeting low-income Californians’ nutritional needs.

Kim McCoy-Wade, Executive Director, California Association of Food Banks
As Executive Director of the California Association of Food Bank’s, Kim launched the Association’s new Farm-To-Family Program. During the first year of operation, the Program provided 17 million pounds of high quality fresh fruits and vegetables to Food Banks for distribution to vulnerable people.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Senator Dean Florez Governor Schwarzenegger and Senator Florez teamed up to insure that the January citrus freeze did not leave farm-workers and their families without food.  Within days of the freeze, Senator Florez called on the Governor to provide food relief and the Governor used his emergency powers to provide over $2 million in food aid the first month and over $4 million to date – an
extraordinarily fast, strong, and effective response.  These funds have been used to provide essential food to disaster victims through food bank-Department of Social Services partnerships in 19 counties, especially in the Central Valley.

Description of the Award
The California Hunger Action Coalition, a broad-based membership organization of food program providers, consumers and advocates from throughout the state, bestows Hunger Fighter Awards every year to individuals and organizations that exhibit a commitment to ending hunger though innovative and collaborative approaches.

Criteria for Winning the Hunger Fighter Award
Hunger Fighter Awards are given to people who show a commitment to alleviating hunger in California and are innovative and collaborative in their work.

2006 Hunger Fighter Award Recipients

Representative Joe Baca, U.S. House of Representatives, San Bernardino has continually led the Congressional push against cuts to the USDA nutrition programs. Representative Baca is clearly focused on protecting legal immigrants' access to food stamps and organized leading opposition among the Agriculture Committee Minority Members, Congressional Hispanic Caucus, California Democrats and anti-hunger organizations. He has circulated three "Dear Colleague" sign-on letters just in the last year to mobilize opposition to cuts to the USDA programs.

Assembly Member Noreen Evans In her first term, Assembly Member Evans has authored the "3 Connections to Healthy Eating" legislation – AB 2205.  This bill is designed to make it easier for recipients of MediCAL to get food stamps - and ultimately to help more kids in these families to get free meals at school.

California’s Food Stamp Program is severely underutilized: an estimated 2 million eligible Californians do not participate. School meals are also severely underutilized, with only half the kids eating school lunch. The federal government has recognized how unconnected, complex application processes limit access to food stamps and school meals and have offered states two powerful options to connect government human service programs. One tool has already been put in place in California, and now Assembly Member Evans has introduced new legislation to take advantage of the second. The results will:

• Better nutrition for California’s low-income children. 
• Improve participation in nutrition programs: Participation in both food stamps and school meals will increase.
• Reduce Red Tape: MediCAL recipients will skip two – complicated steps in the food stamp application process, helping to reduce hassles for applicants and administrators.
• Bring in Federal Money: This action will bring into California more federal food stamp benefits and more in federal school meal reimbursement.
• Help Position the Food Stamp Program: The Food Stamp Program should be seen as a health and nutrition program. Connecting it more closely with MediCAL moves the program toward that goal.

Assembly Member Bonnie Garcia Introducing AB 1916 is Bonnie Garcia’s most recent contribution in a long history of working to end hunger.  AB1916, the Health Breakfast Act, will require schools with a high percentage of low-income children to offer a healthy breakfast.

She has in-depth knowledge and awareness of the importance a healthy breakfast has on a child’s physical health, and on their future physical and mental health.  She believes that our schools in low-income areas have a special responsibility to ensure health nutrition options.  Ms. Garcia has visited schools in her district to share her enthusiasm and information to help provide proper nutrition.

Prior to launching the Healthy Breakfast Act she was instrumental in the passage of AB 569 Child Nutrition, which addressed the need for nutritional information on food sold on school campuses.

Of particular importance to the Imperial Valley Food Bank is Assemblywoman Garcia’s 2005 involvement with the AgJOBS legislation.  While we are still some distance from having a  workable bill for migrant farm workers, Ms. Garcia is one of the best and hardest working representatives in our state.  She was the first Latina woman to represent the 80th Assembly District where her keen insight into the migrant situation is greatly appreciated.  She gives us all hope that this is not an unsolvable problem.

Jeffrey Davidson, Director of Food Services, Sanger Unified School District (Fresno County) As Director of Food Services at Sanger Unified School District, Jeffrey Davidson has changed the culture of school food services in order to fight hunger among his 9,000 students – 70% of which qualify for free or reduced priced meals.  Over the last three years he has helped move the district from serving 900,000 meals per year to over 1.8 million, doubling the amount of food served to Sanger's children!  This accomplishment was due in large part to Davidson's move to serve breakfast in the classroom, which kept student's learning through the whole morning.

When students still complained of being hungry in the morning, Davidson replaced the juices served for breakfast with a whole fruit purchased from local farmers.  By doing this, he went from buying 4-5 cases in a week to well over 120 per week all the while moving his department into the black!  Davidson also increased participation by redesigning the lunch program, making it more nutritious and appealing, and engaging students in meal and site design.  He threw out junk food and sodas and instituting salad bars at all 12 elementary school sites.  This last year Davidson has instituted a lunchtime ‘farmers market' where students are introduced to new fruits and vegetables like collard greens and Asian vegetables.  These items are then served on the salad bar the next day.

Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, San Francisco Board of SupervisorsIn February 2005 Supervisor Maxwell held a hearing at the Board of Supervisor’s Budget and Finance Committee on ending childhood hunger in San Francisco. Testimony at the hearing highlighted San Francisco’s underutilization of the federally funded nutrition programs, most notably the Food Stamp Program (66% eligible not served) and School Breakfast Program (82% eligible not served). In November 2005 Supervisor Maxwell successfully introduced legislation creating a Food Security Task Force. This task force is developing a strategic plan for San Francisco to increase participation in the federally funded nutrition programs and will advise the Board of Supervisors with regard to funding priorities, legislative action and city policies to address hunger and increase the food security of San Francisco residents. The Food Coordination Subcommittee of the Task Force is developing a proposal for an ongoing body to continue the work of evaluating and recommending strategies to end hunger in San Francisco beyond the two year mandate of the Food Security Task Force.

Joe Pezzini, Chair, Board of Directors, Ag Against Hunger, Salinas As VP of Ocean Mist Farms in Castroville, CA, Joe has provided opportunities for groups of senior and other volunteer gleaners from California Grey Bears and Ag Against Hunger to glean vegetables in company fields. Last year gleaners picked over 20,000 pounds of vegetables in bi-weekly gleaning sessions organized by Ag Against Hunger.

Though known for its artichokes, Ocean Mist now also grows, and often offers to the food banks for donation or for gleaning, various other produce including asparagus, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, onions, lettuce spinach and sweet corn.

Joe is also Chairman of the Board of Ag Against Hunger, a Salinas non-profit that is now supplying over 11 million pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables annually to food banks throughout California and Arizona. Ag Against Hunger is a food recovery program designed as a clearinghouse for surplus crops donated by the agriculture industry. It is a regional organization with a priority to distribute in Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito Counties, but it has procured sufficient produce donations annually to supply food banks throughout California and Arizona.

Joe’s father and grandfather were immigrants from Italy and began farming artichokes on the Central Coast in the 1920’s. 

Joyce Raley Teel, Raley’s Grocery Store Chain, Sacramento, CAAs the principal owner of the Raley’s Grocery Chain, has implemented the Food for families Program.  Shoppers were able to donate $20 worth of groceries for $10 at each of the Raley’s and Bel Air food stores.  For the 2005 Holiday season, they had sold 66,899 bags of groceries at the 137 stores.  Food for Families was started in 1986 and they raised over $15 million dollars and 5 million pounds of food.

2005 Hunger Fighter Award Recipients

Mindy Balaam, Food Stamp Specialist, Tulare County Mindy Balaam is the Food Stamp Program Specialist for Tulare County. She has made phenomenal strides in the past six months in an attempt to make Tulare County’s Food Stamp Program more user- friendly. Most recently she eliminated requirements for clients having to provide verifications of liquid resources, loans and shelter costs. She recognizes that there are significant barriers to participation in the Food Stamp Program, and is making an outstanding effort to make food stamps more accessible to folks that desperately need them. Ms. Balaam has been instrumental in the collaborative effort for food stamp outreach in Tulare County, and has an extremely positive “can do” kind of attitude. She is an active member of the newly formed Tulare County Food Stamp Task Force. Her advice and cooperation have helped the Task Force develop a workable and useful plan to increase the food stamp participation rate in Tulare County.

Ms. Balaam has provided professional training to volunteers who are willing to assist impoverished families during the food stamp application process. This partnership between FoodLink volunteers and Tulare County Food Stamp office has already succeeded in allowing dozens of families to apply for food stamp benefits that they were entitled to, but would not have applied for otherwise. We believe that the increased food purchasing power that these benefits are now providing will increase the nutrition and health status of the families.

On November 9, 2004, the Tulare County Board of Supervisors issued a proclamation declaring Tulare County as “Food Stamp Friendly”, and commended Ms. Balaam as “Outstanding Employee of the Year” for her dedication to ending hunger in her position as Food Stamp Program Specialist.

Karen McGlinn, Share Our Shelves, Costa Mesa has had a significant positive impact on the Orange County community. As the Executive Director of Share Our Shelves (SOS) for the past 12 years and a founding board member 35 years ago, she has been a tireless advocate of human and civil rights in all areas – hunger, health, education, immigration, labor, justices, housing, and employment. She was part of the original small group of parishioners at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church who conceived SOS and for many years was a volunteer. Her expertise, intelligence, knowledge of the conditions in Orange County community and commitment to the community is evidenced by her leadership at SOS and by the many organizations whose boards or communities she serves on as a volunteer.

Hunger related work

• Served on EBT Task Force with the county to change the system from paper to electronic system
• Met with local leaders in the food industry to create Orange Aid Project, encourages local vendors to donate both perishable and non perishable good to the SOS Food pantry- now up to 45 area restaurants donating.
• Significantly expanded the SOS Food Pantry program provides 200 bags of groceries every day.
• SOS also provides financial assistance, free medical care, free dental care, and provides a facility to the community.

2004 Hunger Fighter Award Recipients

Assembly Member Loni Hancock  Assembly Member Hancock has authored this year’s AB 2200 which aims to bring the nutrition benefits of the federally funded School Breakfast program to all California Schools.  Numerous studies indicate that school breakfasts mean higher test scores, improved attendance, better behavior and less risk of obesity for children.   This bill would be a huge help in our fight against hunger and malnutrition.  As a former Mayor of Berkeley, in work with the U.S. Department of Education, and as Director of ACTION, Loni Hancock has a long history of fighting for the education and economic development that are needed to end poverty and hunger in our communities.  She was a founding member of the Bay Area Partnership, a collaboration of five federal agencies, three state departments and nine Bay Area county governments working together to build vital and self-sufficient communities in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Gary Joseph  As Fresno County Economic Opportunities Commission Food Service Director, Gary has organized an innovative and extensive expansion of the Summer Lunch Program.  He has successfully requested waivers for Community Based Organizations running summer lunch sites from USDA.  He was able to acquire a waiver to go from 25 sites to 40 sites and has changed the need to have site inspection visits in the first week of Summer Lunch if there is a proven record of compliance.  He has advocated to the California Department of Education for clarification of rules to make summer lunch work better, with less administrative hassle.  He has been a mentor to sponsors starting up summer lunch programs throughout the Central Valley.  He understands the 'finances' of summer lunch and assists new sponsors to make it work. 

Assembly Member Mark Leno  This year, Assembly Member Leno authored AB 1796, legislation to restore food stamp benefits to people with former drug-related felony convictions.  Lifting the ban on food stamps will help people who have served their time and are working to rebuild their lives and support their families.   Assembly Member Leno has been a passionate advocate for this important legislation and for the individuals and families that are currently hurt by this unfair ban on food stamps.  He is also the Chair of the Select Committee on Childhood Obesity & Related Diabetes.

Assembly Member Darrell Steinberg  Assembly Member Steinberg has long been a hunger fighter in the legislature.  During the last legislative session, he authored legislation to improve the Food Stamp Program.  AB 231, which was signed into law last fall, will help over 81,000 households in California put food on the table and will draw in hundreds of millions of dollars in federal food stamp benefits to the state.  Though facing term limits, Assembly Member Steinberg has not given up the hunger fight.  This year he is authoring AB 2013, a bill to end the wasteful and time consuming practice of finger imaging welfare and food stamps recipients.  Mr. Steinberg has truly been a hunger fighter worthy of recognition.

Pastor Sysay Vilaylack  It was through Pastor Sysay Vilaylack that the Riverside Community Action Partnership became aware of the existence of a significant population of Asian farmers in their service area about two years ago. With their help (in a mini-grant), Pastor Sysay organized a community garden using the skills of these farmers who were otherwise becoming sick or unproductive because of language barriers and the American diet. The farmers (Laotians, Thais, Cambodians, Vietnamese, etc) started to grow food that was familiar to them. It resulted in having a healthier population—less visits to the doctor, etc. The vegetables are also making their way to the local markets thereby educating others about “exotic” Asian vegetables.

2003 Hunger Fighter Award Recipients

Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) introduced the Sanchez Senior Nutrition Act. This proposed legislation increases the income eligibility criteria for low-income seniors applying to obtain nutrition assistance from USDA's Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP). In January 2002, when disabled senior couples received the cost-of-living adjustment in their SSA/SSI checks, they became over-income for CSFP and had to be cut off the program. Within days of learning about this issue, Rep. Sanchez agreed to introduce federal legislation to fix the problem. Congresswoman Sanchez is being awarded the Hunger Fighter Award for her commitment to seniors and services to the poor and her willingness to act decisively when community needs have been brought to her attention.

Mary McAnerna is the founder of Mary's Kitchen where she started her work of giving food to the poor by bringing chicken soup to Hart Park 18 years ago. Mary just celebrated her 100th birthday and continues to serve food to low-income people in the Orange County community. Ms. McAnerna is being awarded the Hunger Fighter Award for her steadfastness in providing people with a basic need - food.

Senator Richard Alarcón, The Majority Whip of the California State Senate, is a former teacher, community activist, and a leader on issues regarding workers' rights and benefits. He is a Champion for working families. Richard Alarcón was brought up by working class parents who taught him the value of hard work, the importance of standing up for what is right and the moral responsibility to help those who are less fortunate help themselves. CHAC is awarding him the Hunger Fighter Award for establishing the new Select Committee on the Status of Ending Poverty and bringing attention to the issues related to poverty in California.


Debra Garcia, Policy Analyst for Consumers Union has lead the charge across the state to help make sure that the transition to the new electronic benefit transfer (EBT) system does the least amount of harm to low-income people receiving food stamps and cash benefits. Ms. Garcia has been an adamant advocate for the rights of low-income consumers with regards to the new EBT system and has help to build client-advocate forums throughout the state, giving clients and advocates a voice in how EBT is rolled out in their county. Debra Garcia is receiving the Hunger Fighter Award for her consistently demanding that low-income consumers be part of the advocacy and policy making forums for EBT rollout.

Moira La Mountain, is a team leader with HOPE (Helping Other People Eat) and is one of the chief organizers and plaintiff among those who feed homeless people in Santa Monica, who are challenging the legality of a new ordinance that seeks to outlaw outdoor meal programs and the distribution of food on public sidewalks. The effect of the ordinance would be to make it a crime for religious, charitable or political groups to publicly provide free food to the poor in Santa Monica. Ms. La Mountain is receiving the Hunger Fighter Award for her outspoken leadership on this issue.

Heidi Camorongan and West Contra Costa Unified School District Food Services Staff have been providing meals to hungry kids in the summer for 14 years. During the summer of 2002, the District added a total of 24 new sites offering meals to children through the Seamless Summer Feeding Waiver. They have also set up outdoor feeding sites in order to reach more children in the summer. Additionally, WCCUSD has increased the number of kids getting fed throughout the year through innovative strategies such as a mobile van and serving breakfast in the classroom. CHACH is awarding them the Hunger Fighter Award for their commitment to feeding hungry kids year round.

Congresswoman Diane Watson, has been an anti-hunger advocate through out her 25 years of service as a state and federal legislator. Congresswoman Watson has highlighted the problem of hunger on the state, federal and international levels. In 2003, Congresswoman Watson expressed concern that the welfare reform bill continues to impose an unfair lifetime ban on TANF and Food Stamp benefits for convicted drug felons unless the states elect to opt out or modify the plan. The state of California has chosen to fully opt into the ban on drug offenders. Congresswoman Watson offered an amendment, which ultimately was not included in the bill, which would have ended this unfair practice. Congresswoman Watson is receiving the Hunger Fighter Award for her commitment to provide food for former drug felons in recovery.

Previous Years Recipients Include:
Sequoia Middle School (Fresno), California Assemblyman Carl Washington, Casey McKeever with the Western Center on Law and Poverty, California Assemblyman Fred Keeley, California Assemblywoman Wilma Chan, California Assemblywoman Cathy Wright, California Assemblywoman Martha Escutia, California Assemblywoman Dion Aroner, Interfaith Coalition on Immigrant Rights, Farmer A.J. Kawamura, California Assemblyman Antonio Villaraigosa, National Association of Letter Carriers, and many others.