Swipe Out Hunger Launches Inaugural Leadership Council

Swipe Out Hunger is thrilled to launch its new Leadership Council, a cohort of 15 food security leaders from our network representing 15 campuses and 11 states. On March 14, 2023, Swipe Out Hunger convened its first meeting of the inaugural Leadership Council where the group connected for the first time and identified areas of priority for the council’s first year, including:

• Evaluating and institutionalizing basic needs funding models,
• Getting more states to pass the Hunger Free Campus Bill,
• Understanding how students perceive themselves while experiencing food insecurity to begin to get to the root of stigma, 
• Working with the Feeding America Network to decrease barriers to partnering with food banks, and
• Expanding and implementing Swipe Drives across campuses in the United States.

As part of the October 2021 acquisition of the College and University Food Bank Alliance (CUFBA), Swipe Out Hunger committed to continuously recognize outstanding leaders in basic needs security through the creation of a Leadership Council that will build community, advise the organization’s work, and create shared expertise about food and basic needs security at the national level.

“So many of the individuals leading the way in campus food security initiatives work alone without the support of peers or a national body of knowledge and expertise to look to,” said Swipe Out Hunger’s Network Engagement Manager, Heather Parrie, who is leading the council. “Through Leadership Council, we’re working to elevate the work and expertise of these incredible leaders to push forward the national conversation about creating hunger-free campuses,” said Parrie.  

Cohort members will serve one-year terms, meeting regularly and in working groups to advance the mission of ending college hunger. Members will also participate in Swipe Out Hunger’s 2023 Strategic Planning alongside their staff and Board of Directors. 

Congratulations and thank you to these 15 members for their outstanding work and commitment to the mission and values of Swipe Out Hunger: