Forward from Ambassador Quinn
The Iowa Hunger Directory was created with three clear goals:
1) providing a central location to record all of the money, food,
medicine, volunteer hours and any other form of assistance that
private Iowa-based organizations contribute to fighting hunger both at
home and abroad
2) provide an easily accessible site where Iowans in all 99 counties
can be alerted to hunger alleviation events taking place in their
community
3) Demonstrating the incredible generosity of the citizens of Iowa in
seeking to alleviate the plight of suffering people around the world and
around our state.
The idea for the Iowa Hunger Directory was born from discussions at
The Iowa Hunger Summit with the dedicated representatives of
organizations from across our state who expressed an interest in
having such a central repository of information available.
By way of background, the World Food Prize created the Iowa Hunger Summit in 2006 with the support of our
four living governors: Robert Ray, Terry Branstad, Tom Vilsack and Chet Culver. We were so very pleased that
very quickly the Hunger Summit became the largest and best attended annual state-wide conference on this
key humanitarian issue. We have received feedback from attendees about the importance they attach to the
free and open-to-the-public Hunger Summit as a key place to network with colleagues and get ideas for best
practices.
Designing an on-line Hunger Directory was a logical next step. We have been enormously gratified that since
its creation in 2012, over 500 Iowa organizations representing all 99 counties have joined the Directory.
With the late Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and World Food Prize founder Dr. Norman Borlaug as our
inspiration, and such great Iowa heroes as George Washington Carver, Herbert Hoover and Henry A. Wallace
serving as avatars of humanitarian endeavors, Iowans have an amazing array of leaders to emulate.
The one theme that unites all Iowans is the pride we share in feeding people and alleviating hunger around our
state and around the world. Each October we present our Robert D. Ray Iowa SHARES Humanitarian Award
to an individual(s) who has been at the forefront of such efforts.
The organizations listed in the Hunger Directory therefore represent an amazing amalgamation of passionate
humanitarians carrying forward Dr. Borlaug's and our state's historic legacy, demonstrating that Iowa truly is
the "Hunger Fighting Capital of America."
Ambassador Kenneth M. Quinn (ret.)
President
The World Food Prize