Chef Carla Hall Honored with Trailblazer Hunger Leadership Award

We are pleased to announce that celebrity chef, author, television personality, restaurateur, and motivational speaker Carla Hall is the recipient this year’s Trailblazer Hunger Leadership Award.

This award is presented to public figures who have used their influence to improve the lives of people experiencing hunger.

Throughout her career Hall has celebrated food as a means of connection and nourishment and has worked to end hunger for children and seniors in the U.S. and abroad.

“Being a chef, it is my business and my passion to feed people,” said Hall in an interview with AARP. “To know that so many people aren’t being fed is a travesty.”

Her approach to ending hunger is rooted in her philosophy of always cooking with love. She is a program ambassador for 4-H Healthy Habits, which provides nutrition education to 250,000 children and their families in communities across the U.S. She also serves on the board of GenYOUth and of Helen Keller International, is a member of Feeding America’s Entertainment Council, and has volunteered her time with other nonprofits focused on hunger and poverty, including AARP Foundation and the Jacques Pépin Foundation.

Hall first gained national recognition in 2008 as a contestant on Bravo’s “Top Chef” and “Top Chef: All Stars.” She spent seven years co-hosting ABC’s Emmy Award-winning lifestyle show “The Chew,” and currently serves as a judge on Food Network baking championship programs and as the host of “Chasing Flavors” on HBO Max. She is the author of several cookbooks, the latest of which, “Carla Hall’s Soul Food: Everyday and Celebration,” was nominated for an NAACP Image Award. In 2024 Hall was named a Grande Dame of Les Dames d’Escoffier for recognition of extraordinary contributions in the fields of food, beverage, and hospitality.

Carla Hall will receive her award via a video acceptance at the Hunger Leadership Awards, along with our other award recipients, on June 24 in Washington, D.C. Our annual celebration brings together leaders from government, philanthropy, the private sector, and the wider anti-hunger community to recognize distinguished leaders whose vision and commitment are building the momentum to achieve zero hunger in the U.S. and around the world.