A World Without Hunger Is Possible
Baylor University's Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty takes a collective impact approach to pioneer research, test and evaluate innovative models for ending hunger, and collaborate with leaders to scale those ideas for maximum impact.
The Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty employs strategies to end hunger that take into account proximity, the dignity of all people, and the need to test new solutions for old challenges.
Housed within a prominent R1 research institution, The Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty believes research and practice are cyclical, with research identifying gaps and opportunities where practice should aim its efforts, and with practice identifying where more research is needed.
There is no single sector of society that can solve a social challenge on its own. The Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty is a bridge builder that connects various stakeholders with a common goal of cultivating scalable solutions to end hunger.
Change Champions: The Meals-to-You Story
The Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty envisions a world without hunger, and through cross-sectoral partnerships this vision can become a reality.
Jeremy Everett, executive director, explains how a partnership with the USDA helped establish the Meals-to-You initiative. What was originally a one-year demonstration project that developed into a five-year pilot program, Meals-to-You helped improve food accessibility in the most rural communities in the country.
LIVE: New Data Dashboard for Texas School Districts!
The Baylor Collaborative believes the ability to access and understand school meal data is a key contributing factor to implementing successful hunger interventions. We are proud to announce the launch of our newest dashboard - the School Meals Dashboard for Texas School Districts!
Our Hunger Data Lab team has worked tirelessly over the past several months to bring to you these online, interactive hunger data tools made especially with you in mind.
School Meals Dashboard - School Districts School Meals Dashboard - Texas CountiesIn the News
More NewsLast week, the U.S. House passed legislation to cut $290 billion from SNAP and further limit Medicaid access. This policy decision revealed how far removed many lawmakers are from the day-to-day realities of hunger in Texas.
One such reality can be found in the story of Lupe and Luis, and how decisions to pay rent, buy food, or seek medical care cost Lupe her life.
In Texas, one of the wealthiest states in the nation, food insecurity isn't just a by-product of poverty; it's the direct result of policy. Lupe and Luis should be enjoying their grandchildren today.
School nutrition efforts are widely recognized as one of the most effective ways to alleviate child hunger around the world. Data from the Urban Institute show that the Meals-to-You program was just as effective as the federal free and reduced-price lunch program, if not more so. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Meals-to-You reduced child hunger in rural areas by an estimated eight times more per meal than the National School Lunch Program.
The program that’s now languishing in a bureaucratic morass is one of the most efficient solutions to rural child hunger the country has ever seen.
Recent cuts by the U.S. Department of Agriculture have forced the cancellation of 396 food deliveries to Texas food banks, putting at risk nearly 12 million pounds of food valued at $19 million and intended for emergency food assistance.
“That means we have simply chosen not to prioritize food insecure households when we have all the resources available to us to ensure that no one goes hungry,” he said. “The issue isn’t production. The issue is access.”
Removing junk food from Supplemental Nutrition Assistant Program benefits has been on the chopping block for years, but now there seems to be a growing momentum to get this done.
Dr. Craig Gundersen, a professor of economics and chair of the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty, is an expert in SNAP and food insecurity with his work cited and used across the country. One of his many reasons for supporting SNAP comes from the fact that the program gives "dignity and autonomy" to its struggling users. The core issue at hand with these proposed junk food restrictions is that they challenge SNAP users' autonomy.