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.
HandUp Student Advisory Board and Executive Committee,
HandUp
Youth Food Pantry at JFS
Tanya Selig,
Food Not Bombs
Mike
Mallory,
Second Harvest Food Bank of San Joaquin and Stanilaus County
Hunger Fighter Awards are given to people who show a commitment to alleviating hunger in California and are innovative and collaborative in their work.
Below you'll find a list of hunger advocates (in no particular order) that have been nominated by their peers from communities across the state. We've included the nominee, their organizational affiliation, community, and selected description of why they were nominated.
Vote by April 30th, 2011! Based on your votes we'll select the 2011 Hunger Fighter! The Hunger Fighter Award will be presented on May 17th, 2011 at Hunger Action Day in Sacramento, CA.
Gary Petill and his staff at the San Diego Unified School District's Food Services Department have led the way in improving access to healthy meals for all children. The department has championed Breakfast in the Classroom, healthy choices for kids, Farm to School connections for local and organic produce, and ensured that all children, no matter their financial situation, get healthy food each day.
Between September and April, Hand Up teen leaders have volunteered for more than 1,000 hours. they have coordinated 26 food drives, 5 fundraisers, and managed 14 military food distributions in addition to working in our pantry each week. They serve as community ambassadors around the issues of hunger, do CalFresh outreach with low-income military families and have contributed to a variety of food policy advocacy projects, including a AB 6 paper plate campaign, recognized by FRAC
Mike Sproull founded the Food Bank of El Dorado County in 2000. Working during its early years as a dedicated volunteer, Mr. Sproull built what is now the largest collaborative charity in El Dorado County. Working with 40 partner charities in the community, the Food Bank of El Dorado County feeds more than 10,000 individuals a month in a rural county spanning El Dorado Hills to South Lake Tahoe. It is Mr. Sproulls hard work and dedication that has made this organization a success.
Tanya's life is dedicated to seeing every person have access to healthy food. She works tirelessly to prepare meals for hungry people across Los Angeles, to advocate for policies that ensure all people have access to good healthy affordable food, to teach people about healthy cooking, gardening and sustainable food. Tanya's fight is against much more than hunger - its against the injustice, oppression, and alienation that is the cause of hunger for so many.
She prepares and takes food to hungry people on the streets of LA all the time, with Food not Bombs or just on her own. And whenever one of our personal friends have been in a financial crunch and hungry...she delivers homemade vegan food to them whenever they need more!
Developing Food Forward program to collect fruit from people's backyards to donate to food pantries
Jennifer Tracy has worked diligently in San Diego County to improve the CalFresh program. Her continued efforts include work with a number of county partners, including those associated with local community based organizations and the CalFresh county administration. This past year, Jennifer also took on a significant leadership role as part of the SNAP Work Group of the Social Services Advisory Board for the San Diego County Board of Supervisors.
Mike has poured his life and soul into ensuring that those in his community have food through many creative ventures. He supports the "Food 4 Thought" program by purchasing high quality foods to go into food bags for children who attend after school enrichment programs. He continually works with Feeding America and local donors to bring in much needed food, not only to his service area of Stanislaus and San Joaquin Counties, but to the Foothill region as well. He works very collaboratively.
Since 2002, Barbara has been a dedicated weekly volunteer at our JFS’ SOVA Community Food & Resource Program. She is also a former Co-Chair of SOVA’s Advisory and Resource Development Committees. Additionally, Barbara and her husband Bobby are some of JFS’ SOVA’s most significant financial supporters. Last year, Barbara and Bobby created the Margolis Wall of honor, and after 18 months of dedicated fundraising efforts, more than a million dollars was raised to support SOVA’s hunger relief work.
