Leadership Team

The Leadership Team is a group of committed leaders from organizations dedicated to expanding hunger relief efforts beyond food distribution to address the root causes of hunger. The CTHG Leadership Team coordinates the network, plans a course for a collective movement, and ensures the Closing the Hunger Gap network’s actions are aligned with its values. 

In practice, this involves stewarding membership engagement and regional organizing efforts, coordinating biennial Closing the Hunger Gap conferences in partnership with local hosts, and identifying opportunities for CTHG to engage in allyship and collaboration. 

Leadership Team members currently include representatives from grassroots organizations, food banks, and food justice organizations. For more details on current members, see below.

The Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona provides food and food-related services throughout a 23,000 square-mile region of Southern Arizona including Pima, Cochise, Graham, Greenlee, and Santa Cruz counties. The Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona distributes over 63,000 meals a day to members of our community with the support of over 300 local nonprofit agencies. Each year, we assist over 225,000 people through our programs and services. At the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona, we change lives in the communities we serve by feeding the hungry today and building a healthy, hunger-free tomorrow.

http://www.communityfoodbank.org/

Oregon Food Bank collects and distributes food through a network of four Oregon Food Bank branches and 17 independent regional food banks serving Oregon and Clark County, Washington. Our mission: To eliminate hunger and its root causes … because no one should be hungry.

Along with approximately 970 partner agencies, we help nearly one in five households fend off hunger. We work to address the root causes of hunger by offering nutrition education, strengthening local food systems, collaborating with community groups, and advocating for hunger relief at the local and federal level.

http://www.oregonfoodbank.org/

Established in 1981 and headquartered in Elmira, NY, the Food Bank of the Southern Tier distributes food and other grocery products to people in need through a network of more than 150 partner agencies including food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters and other hunger relief organizations in Broome, Chemung, Schuyler, Steuben, Tioga and Tompkins Counties. The Food Bank also administers several direct service food distribution programs including the BackPack Program and Mobile Food Pantry. The Food Bank is a member of Feeding America and a regional agency of Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Rochester. The Food Bank helps fulfill Catholic Charities commitment to create a just and compassionate society rooted in the dignity of all people by working together to build and sustain hunger free communities throughout the Southern Tier.

http://www.foodbankst.org/

Elijah’s Promise harnesses the power of food to break the cycle of poverty, alleviate hunger, and change lives in New Brunswick, NJ. We envision a community where no one goes hungry for lack of food or funds; where a good meal is a nutritious meal; where our community learns to steward natural and financial resources wisely; and where we make opportunity available to those who seek it.

http://www.elijahspromise.org/

The Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future works with students, educators, researchers, policymakers, advocacy organizations and communities to build a healthier, more equitable, and resilient food system. Our research and programs prioritize food security, food production that supports environment and public health, effects of climate disruption on agriculture and vice versa, and food system policy change.

http://www.jhsph.edu/research/centers-and-institutes/johns-hopkins-center-for-a-livable-future/

The Foodbank of Santa Barbara County is ending hunger and transforming the health of Santa Barbara County through good nutrition. We serve the community as a leader and expert in improving the nutritional health of our county through increased food security.

http://www.foodbanksbc.org/

Center for Environmental Farming Systems envisions a future of vibrant farms, resilient ecosystems, strong communities, healthy people, and thriving local economies. CEFS is one of the nation’s most important centers for research, extension, and education in sustainable agriculture and community-based food systems. It is recognized as a national and international leader in the local foods movement, and celebrated for its work in building consensus around policies, programs and actions that facilitate a vibrant local food economy. CEFS is a collaboration between North Carolina State University, North Carolina A&T State University, and the North Carolina Department of Agriculture.

https://cefs.ncsu.edu/

In the five decades since its founding, Northwest Harvest has grown in scale and ambition. Starting as a coalition of Seattle social justice activists, today it distributes healthy, culturally appropriate food to every corner of the state through a network of more than 380 food banks, meal programs, and high-need schools that reach hungry children, seniors, the working poor, rural residents, the homeless, and others in need. It also spearheads a larger movement—in partnership with donors, volunteers, food producers, social service agencies, and public officials—to make an impact on the root causes of hunger and poverty in our state.

http://www.northwestharvest.org/

Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard (The Hub) is a community food resource center located in Bloomington, Indiana. The Hub’s mission is to increase access to healthy food for all in need in ways that cultivate dignity, self-sufficiency, and community. Our unique combination of programs work together to meet the immediate emergency food needs of community members and to equip them with skills and resources they need to live healthier, more self-sufficient lives.


http://mhcfoodpantry.org/

WhyHunger is a grassroots support organization working to build and support resilient, powerful and unified networks of grassroots leaders and communities working at the intersection of the root causes of hunger and poverty to build and strengthen social movements worldwide. WhyHunger envisions that these movements will transform food systems into ones that are socially and economically just, nourish whole communities, and ensure the rights of all people to food, land, water and sustainable livelihoods.

http://whyhunger.org