Texas Roots
Global vision for a world without hunger
Since its inception as the organization’s former name — Texas Hunger Initiative — the now more aptly named Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty (BCHP) has maintained a vision of a world without hunger.
In its former iteration focused almost solely within the Texas borders, that work stayed primarily centered around Texas residents and the unique needs of the second-largest state in the country.
Fighting food insecurity and poverty led to the 2019 pilot program, Meals-to-You, a BCHP initiative to provide nourishing, shelf-stable meals through the mail to families in rural areas across Texas. Many rural Americans, far away from the nearest community or school, cannot easily access food site programs when school is out, a challenge amplified during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In partnership with the USDA, McLane Global and PepsiCo, the Collaborative twice scaled the program nationally — now providing more than 5 million meals to rural schoolchildren in 38 states and Puerto Rico.
To further amplify their impact, BCHP has increased a focus on research. In 2021, BCHP hired Craig Gundersen, Ph.D. — one of the nation’s leading experts and sought-after voices on strategies to address food insecurity with a special emphasis on publicly funded nutrition programs — as the inaugural Jim and Tammy Snee Family Chair in Food Security. “Our work at the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty stands on the pillars of research, policy and practice,” said Jeremy Everett, founder and executive director of BCHP. “Our field staff and partners around the country are on the front lines, practicing innovative solutions for lifting the burdens of poverty on individuals and communities. And our policy team works with legislators to create more just and equitable systems. But all this work would amount to spinning our wheels without solid research and evaluation to inform what we are doing. This has always been a vital component of our work, but the addition of Dr. Gundersen exponentially elevates our status as the premier research-
focused organization devoted to alleviating hunger.”