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.
Hunger Fighter Awards are given to people who show a commitment to alleviating hunger in California and are innovative and collaborative in their work.
Author of AB 508 ending the barring recoverred and reformed ex-drug offenses from food stamp program
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.
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 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.
As Executive Director of the California Association of Food Banks, 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 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.
