Convoy
of Hope
Tackles Global Need One Person at a Time
When Convoy of Hope was founded in 1994, global hunger and poverty levels were daunting. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, about 790 million people were afflicted with chronic malnutrition, of which 190 million were children.
To some, those numbers would represent an overwhelming obstacle. For Convoy Founder and President Hal Donaldson and the early team members who joined him, the solution was to focus on what could be done initially and then grow from there.
Convoy confronted hunger in California, its first home, by holding community events in partnership with local churches and other nonprofits and giving groceries to foodinsecure families. Relocating its headquarters to Missouri in 1996, Convoy more than doubled the number of events held, steadily increasing vision and capacity to serve families and communities in need. A local businessman donated the first tractor-trailer to Convoy in 1997, and the vision grew to include a fleet of response vehicles.
Key milestones in Convoy’ s expansion from a national to a global outreach include the first U. S. and international disaster responses in 1998, the establishment of Children’ s Feeding in 2007, the start of Women’ s Empowerment in 2010, and the addition of an Agriculture program in 2011. In 2024, Convoy of Hope served 40 program nations and had grown its daily Children’ s Feeding initiative to more than 639,000 schoolchildren. Tens of thousands of women had started their own businesses around the world, and thousands of farmers each year were being trained to expand their crops.
Over the years, the Republic community has been a good neighbor to Convoy of Hope through volunteer service and many corporate and church connections. In 2020, Convoy became a literal neighbor as
8 • REPUBLIC CHATTER 2025