2025 Year-End Spotlight

Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty

Year-End Spotlight‌ 2025

Hunger and Poverty End Where Collaboration Begins

Friends and Partners, As we reflect on 2025, I’m reminded of a truth we see validated again and again in communities across the country: hunger and poverty end where collaboration begins.

This year, the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty witnessed extraordinary examples of the power of shared leadership—from rural Alaskan villages strengthening children’s access to meals, to Texas communities launching new hunger coalitions, to students and AmeriCorps members discovering their callings as future changemakers.

This report highlights the work of community leaders, partners, volunteers, students, and supporters who took bold steps this year to build sustainable, locally driven solutions to hunger. These pages showcase milestones, such as the launch of the Hunger Free Communities Certificate Course, the beginning of the Hunger Collaborative’s Two-Year Intensive, and the expansion of Meals-to-You Alaska.

We are honored to learn from communities who invite us into their work and trust us to walk alongside them. The progress you’ll read about is not ours alone—it belongs to every partner, every leader, and every neighbor committed to creating a future in which all people have the food they need to thrive.

Thank you for your collaboration, your courage, and your belief that we can do more when we do it together.

With gratitude,

Dr. Jeremy K. Everett Executive Director Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty

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2025 Highlights Increasing Healthy Food Access for Children and Seniors Increasing Participation in Summer Meals Across Texas: This year, the Hunger Collaborative continued its campaign to increase participation in summer meal sites across Texas in partnership with the Texas Department of Agriculture and the Moody Foundation. Through targeted outreach to over 1,500 program operators and county officials, plus providing support to summer meal events in school districts across Texas, the Hunger Collaborative aims to strengthen infrastructure and increase visibility for summer meals.

“On the ground in Kotzebue, meetings brought to light the realities of rural and remote Alaska. One nutrition director we spoke with talked to us about her community’s inconsistent

Launching Data Tools to Maximize Meal Access for Kids: The Hunger Collaborative expanded its data footprint with the launch of the updated School Meals Dashboard—now offering district- and campus-level insights. This new version includes a powerful feature that highlights which districts are eligible for the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), helping communities more easily identify opportunities to maximize meal access for kids.

access to running or clean water

Supporting Summer Meals for Kids Across Rural Alaska: Since 2020, the Hunger Collaborative and Alaska’s Department of Education and Early Development have partnered to provide summer meals to children in some of Alaska’s hardest to reach areas. Now, as the Hunger Collaborative completes its second year of providing support to the State of Alaska as it launches this project on its own, Meals-to-You Alaska distributed over one million meals to children across the state. The Hunger Collaborative staff traveled to Anchorage and Kotzebue to meet partners and families, gaining deeper insight into the program’s impact and reach.

innovative programs like Meals-

and the regular delays to freight deliveries. With the help of Meals-to-You, families are able to count on meals that are both safe and accessible. These realities emphasized the need for to-You and allowed our team to see the value that boxes can hold for families.”

- Codie Robinson, Program Director, Innovation Hub

Engaging Policymakers to End Summer Hunger: This year, the Hunger Collaborative engaged policymakers in Austin and Washington, D.C. to discuss efforts to end summer hunger for children in urban and rural America. Joined by the Hunger Collaborative’s Board of Advocates in March, these efforts led to the successful incorporation of federal appropriations language encouraging USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) to provide funding to help summer meal providers expand meal options in rural areas.

Alleviating Senior Hunger Through Outreach and Education: The Hunger Collaborative’s pilot program—Eating Well is a SNAP!— helps older adults understand and access the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). In 2025, this program expanded into more Texas counties, with participants reporting the program helped them better understand how SNAP is a resource for them.

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Building Hunger Free Com Through For nearly seventeen years, the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty has worked alongside community leaders building coalitions to end hunger in their states and communities through collective impact – a model called Hunger Free Community Coalitions.

This year marked two major milestones that allow the Hunger Collaborative to both broaden and deepen the impact of that work: the official launch of the Hunger Free Communities Certificate Course and the inaugural cohorts of the Hunger Free Communities Two-Year Training Intensive.

The most impactful part of the…

[Hunger Free Communities Certificate] Course was learning how to combine data-driven strategies with community engagement to create sustainable, equity-focused hunger solutions.”

Anonymous Course Participant

The Hunger Free Communities Certificate Course Designed by the Hunger Collaborative in partnership with Baylor University’s Extended Learning and Learning Design, the Hunger Free Communities Certificate Course teaches community leaders how to build and sustain a collective impact coalition focused on ending hunger, providing the knowledge, skills, and credentials to implement lasting change. The selfpaced, online program guides participants through the five phases of creating and sustaining a successful Hunger Free Community Coalition: Establishing a Shared Vision Understanding Your Community and Resources Convening a Coalition Creating a Multisectoral Strategic Plan Implementing the Plan In addition to asynchronous learning modules, the course also includes a digital handbook and a workbook. As of December 1, nearly 100 students have enrolled in the course.

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The Hunger Free Community Certificate Course

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mmunities Collective Impact The Hunger Free Communities Two-Year Intensive The Baylor Hunger Collaborative’s Hunger Free Communities Two-Year Intensive is a two-year, six element training program for groups seeking to build a Hunger Free Community Coalition. During the two-year intensive Hunger Collaborative experts work closely with participants one-on-one, guiding them through six program elements: Forming a Community Leadership Council Completing the Hunger Free Communities Certificate Course Participating in the Hunger Collaborative’s Together at the Table: Hunger and Poverty Summit at Baylor University Participating in a Food Security Policy Workshop in Washington, D.C. Organizing a Hunger Free Community Coalition launch event Developing a coalition through ongoing, personalized coaching support

In January, with support from Episcopal Health Foundation, Amarillo Area Foundation, and Methodist Healthcare Ministries, the first training cohorts launched in Amarillo, Nacogdoches, Galveston, and West Texas.

These cohorts completed four of the six program elements by forming community leadership councils, completing the Hunger Free Communities Certificate Course, and participating in Together at the Table and the Washington, D.C. Food Security Policy Workshop.

The [Hunger Free Communities Two-Year Intensive] has been a transformative learning experience that deepened my understanding of community-led approaches to hunger and poverty alleviation.

Anonymous Two-Year Intensive Participant Year-End Spotlight | 4

Creating a Legacy of Hunger Free Leaders‌ As we invest in the leaders actively shaping communities today, the Hunger Collaborative also prepares the next generation of problem-solvers—students, researchers, AmeriCorps members, and emerging professionals—committed to advancing food justice.

Undergraduate Internships and Experiential Learning The Hunger Collaborative hosts undergraduate interns and student employees across a broad range of fields, including: Political Science, Criminal Justice, Communications, Legal Reasoning and Analysis, Medical Humanities, Pre-Med, Military Studies, Business, and Economics.

In 2025, the Hunger Collaborative engaged undergraduate students through classes, workshops, lectures, and extracurriculars. These experiences equipped students to build digital tools for rural summer meal delivery, explore reentry and economic insecurity through simulations, and engage guest speakers representing food justice organizations:

The Hunger Collaborative’s Student Food Security Council Hunger and Punishment: Food Insecurity and the American Carceral System (Philanthropy and Public Service 1100) Global Health Poverty Simulation Computer Science Capstone

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Other Campus Hunger Initiatives

Graduate Partnerships with the Garland School of Social Work and Truett Seminary In partnership with Baylor University’s Diana Garland School of Social Work, the Baylor Hunger Collaborative hosted five graduate interns pursuing their MSW and partnered with GSSW faculty to lead Program Evaluation for Practice Improvement. Additionally, the Hunger Collaborative is excited to announce the launch of a new degree program with the School of Social Work: the online Master of Arts in Social, Nonprofit, and Public Leadership. This degree program cultivates early to mid-career professionals to make a lasting, meaningful impact in social and public service sectors.

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Now in its fifth year, in partnership with Truett Seminary’s Master of Arts in Theology, Ecology, and Food Justice, the Hunger Collaborative offered an experiential-learning Intersection of Theology, Food Justice, and Public Policy class in Washington, D.C. in May. During the class, students spent a week in Washington, D.C. meeting with key policy leaders and program stakeholders.

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The MA in Social, Nonprofit & Public Leadership Baylor University admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin, sex, age, disability, or veteran status.

AmeriCorps VISTA: Equipping Leaders Through Service AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) places members in yearlong, full-time roles with non-profits, public agencies, and community organizations to help alleviate poverty. Instead of direct service, VISTA members fsdff

build long-term capacity – developing programs, securing resources, and strengthening partnerships. For more than 10 years, the Hunger Collaborative has partnered with AmeriCorps VISTA to place VISTA members with communities working to strengthen local initiatives to end hunger.

In 2025, despite national budget cuts and staffing reductions across the AmeriCorps VISTA network, the Hunger Collaborative’s VISTA members demonstrated remarkable resilience and dedication through: Completing 570+ hours of community outreach Recruiting and managing 738 volunteers Generating 905 additional volunteer hours Leveraging $13,185 to strengthen local nonprofits and coalitions

VISTA members served communities in Austin, Brady, Burleson, and Waco, Texas, as well as Bowling Green, Ohio, in partnership with Tackle Hunger, Johnson County Hunger Coalition, McCulloch County Hunger Coalition, and the Hunger Collaborative. Together, these collaborations strengthened local initiatives to improve food security and community well-being at the local level. VISTA members’ work spanned hunger free community coalition rebuilding, curriculum development, expansion of senior hunger programs, coordination of hunger summits, and bolstering food bank capacity.

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BAYLOR UNIVERSITY

HUNGER COLLABORATIVE The Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty unites communities, schools, nonprofits, and government partners to drive bold, scalable solutions to end hunger. Through a powerful collective impact approach, it expands access to nutritious meals, tests and evaluates innovative models to end hunger, and sparks partnerships that create lasting change. From Texas to communities around the world, the Baylor Hunger Collaborative is transforming ideas into action to ensure everyone has access to the food they need.

Our 2025 Board of Advocates Leadership Team

Membership

Desiree Tucker-Sorini (Chairperson)

Rev. Willie Bennett

Tariq Thowfeek

Betty Bauer

Kris Kaiser Olson

Dr. Kate Weaver

Dr. Don Arispe

Deidra Emerson

Dr. Elsa Murano

Bob Barkley

Max Finberg

Belinda Oakley

Jessica Beachum

Kelly Harp

Audrey Rowe

Ambassador Eric Bost

Megan Henderson

Ruben Sanchez

Bo Bryant

Dr. Thomas Hibbs

Niki Shah

Dr. Matt Burchett

Margaret Elizabeth McKissack

Dr. Charles

Kevin Cherry

Denton McLane

Weathers

The Honorable Mike Conaway

Dillon Meek

Paul Whitcomb

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