Hunger Free Oklahoma to Receive Community Champion Award

We are pleased to announce that Hunger Free Oklahoma will receive the 2026 Community Champion Hunger Leadership Award. This award is presented each year in recognition of an individual or organization making substantial strides to eradicate hunger at the local level.

Founded in 2017, Hunger Free Oklahoma (HFO) is a statewide organization dedicated to ensuring that all Oklahomans have access to affordable and nutritious food. With offices in Oklahoma City and in Tulsa, HFO has worked to expand senior citizens’ access to SNAP and to increase student participation in school breakfasts and summer and afterschool meals. In 2025, HFO and its partners served 3.5 million summer meals to Oklahoma children across 74 counties; partnered with the Muscogee (Creek), Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Choctaw Nations and the Otoe-Missouria Tribe to deliver an estimated $35 million in Summer EBT benefits to nearly two-thirds of all eligible children in the state; and distributed over $1 million in grocery gift cards to families impacted by loss of SNAP benefits during the government shutdown.

HFO is dedicated to incorporating the voices of those with lived experience in their program design and advocacy, offering a special paid advocacy training workshop (“LEARN”) for community members with personal experience of hunger. HFO has also hosted several Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellows. Beyond its food initiatives, HFO provides technical assistance, data, and planning to expand nutrition programs and serves as a platform for advancing local and national research efforts to address hunger.

Chris Bernard, President and CEO of Hunger Free Oklahoma, will accept the Community Champion Award on behalf of the organization at the 2026 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.