The Congressional Hunger Center is pleased to announce the 2024 alum recipients of the Hunger Leadership Awards: Robert Campbell, Vice President of Policy at Feeding America, will receive the Outstanding Alum Hunger Leadership Award, and Bryan Pride, Technical Program Director at Rise Against Hunger, will receive the Rising Star Alum Award.
“I am thrilled to recognize these two alums of our fellowship programs for their steadfast dedication to the work of creating a hunger-free world,” said Executive Director Shannon Maynard (Emerson ’98). “With dogged persistence and commitment to creating equitable and effective change, Robert and Bryan embody the type of servant leadership that we strive to develop in all alums of our programs.”
Outstanding Alum Award
Robert Campbell
The Outstanding Alum Hunger Leadership Award is presented to an alum of the Hunger Center’s fellowship or internship programs who has demonstrated excellence in their continued work in the movement to end hunger. This year, the Hunger Center recognizes Robert Campbell (Emerson ’03) for his outstanding work with Feeding America over the past decade, particularly the instrumental role he has played in developing and advocating for Summer EBT.
Low-income students in the U.S. rely on school lunch and school breakfast as a stable source of nutrition during the school year. Yet when school is out for the summer, students lose access to these free and reduced-price meals. Robert’s tireless advocacy before Congress and USDA, along with the support of countless organizations and individuals, led to permanent expansion of Summer EBT, which launches this summer. The program will cover the summer mealtime gap by providing families with benefit payments to purchase groceries while schools are out. This new program could potentially reach more than 30 million children across the country.
Beyond his work at Feeding America, Robert continues to be engaged in the Hunger Center community by supervising and mentoring fellows and regularly serving as a speaker and training for learning events.
Robert currently serves as Vice President of Policy at Feeding America where he is responsible for overall public policy development and strategy for federal nutrition programs including SNAP, Child Nutrition programs, and other issues important to Feeding America’s food banks and the millions of individuals and families facing food insecurity. Robert has more than 22 years of experience in addressing hunger and poverty. Prior to joining Feeding America in 2014, Robert spent time at the Government Accountability Office, the Western Regional Office of USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service, and the Food Bank of Central New York. As a Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellow in the 9th Class, Rober was placed with Florida Impact in Tallahassee, and Food Research & Action Center in Washington, D.C. Robert has a Masters in Public Policy from the University of California at Berkeley and a bachelor’s degree from Rhodes College.
Rising Star Award
Bryan Pride
The Rising Star Hunger Leadership Award is presented to an alum who has completed their fellowship or internship program within the past seven years and is demonstrating leadership in the movement to end hunger. This year, the Hunger Center recognizes Bryan Pride (Leland ’21) for his work with Rise Against Hunger and his engagement with organizations in the Global South as true partners in development.
As the Technical Program Director for Rise Against Hunger, Bryan is working to not just treat—but prevent—malnutrition by incorporating nutrition into agriculture and food security programs. Bryan has helped Rise Against Hunger develop a new strategic approach that aims to provide immediate nourishment for people facing hunger while working alongside those same communities to achieve long-term food security through nutrition-sensitive agriculture projects. These projects, like the ones Bryan has helped establish in Mali and South Sudan, emphasize the connection between food production and its impact on the body rather than simply focusing on income generation for the grower. Bryan’s work with Rise Against Hunger is also helping families develop home gardens that incorporate indigenous crops and utilize local recipes and cultural meals.
In Hunger Fellow fashion, Bryan continues to connect the dots between policy and practice, spending his time advising implementation of projects in the field and finding ways that those learnings can help shape the priorities for other practitioners and policymakers.
Bryan joined Rise Against Hunger following the conclusion of his Mickey Leland International Hunger Fellowship in fall 2021. Prior to his fellowship, Bryan served with the U.S. Peace Corps in Ghana, as well as several positions promoting urban gardening in school settings with Just BEET It and EarthWorks Community Farm and Garden. Bryan has a Master’s of Public Policy and Sustainable Development from California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Government from University of La Verne.
About the Congressional Hunger Center
Founded in 1993 by a bipartisan group of Members of Congress, the Congressional Hunger Center fights hunger by developing leaders and advocating for public policies that will create a food-secure world. Through our Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellowship, Mickey Leland International Hunger Fellowship, Zero Hunger Internship, and online learning hub Zero Hunger Academy, the Hunger Center has trained thousands of leaders working across the private, public, and nonprofit sectors toward a day when all people have access to affordable, nutritious, and culturally appropriate food.
About the Hunger Leadership Awards
The annual Hunger Leadership Awards bring together representatives from government, philanthropy, the private sector, and the wider anti-hunger community to recognize distinguished leaders who are working together toward a hunger-free future. This year’s Hunger Leadership Awards will be held on Wednesday, June 12, in Washington, D.C.