National, international leaders calling on Baylor for expertise on fighting hunger

Since the beginning, Baylor’s Texas Hunger Initiative (THI) has had two goals: to develop (and implement) plans to end hunger in Texas, and to create methods that can be reproduced elsewhere around the country.

THI’s work has already made an impact. THI has gathered and trained more than 1,100 community-based organizations — churches, libraries, hospitals, schools, shelters, etc. — that are working together to make existing food and resources more readily and efficiently available to those in need.

Recognizing the impressive work THI has accomplished via public-private partnerships, Baylor representatives are increasingly being asked to share what they’ve learned with national groups and even internationally. On Wednesday, two different Baylor representatives testified before a pair of U.S. Congressional committees; at the same time, a third staff member was in England presenting her work at the University of Warwick.

• Dr. Kathy Krey, BBA ’99, MA ’05, PhD ’08 (pictured above), the THI’s director of research, was one of four panelists to speak to the U.S. House of Representatives’ Education and the Workforce Committee on “Serving Students and Families through Child Nutrition Programs.” [Watch or read Krey’s testimony.]
• Dustin Kunz, MDiv ’11, a research project manager for THI, joined four other experts in speaking to the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture on “The Past, Present and Future of SNAP: The World of Nutrition and the Role of the Charitable Sector.” [Watch or read Kunz’s testimony.]
• Rachel Wilkerson, BA ’11, a THI research project manager, was invited by the University of Warwick to share her studies on food security with a panel of British experts aiming to develop and implement policies to help alleviate food poverty in the United Kingdom.

Sic ’em, Texas Hunger Initiative!

You might also like:
* Texas Hunger Initiative hosting hunger & poverty summit at Baylor (Oct. 2014)
* Baylor alum appointed to National Commission on Hunger (April 2014)
* Interdisciplinary Baylor partnership to study best ways of reaching and serving hungry children (Sept. 2013)