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CEO
Hunger Free America
New York, New York, United States
Joel Berg is a nationally recognized leader, author and media spokesman in the fields of domestic hunger, food security, obesity, poverty, food-related economic development, national service, and volunteerism. He is CEO of Hunger Free America. He is also the author of "All You Can Eat: How Hungry Is America?", the definitive and most well-reviewed book on American hunger of the two decades. Nobel Prize-winner Toni Morrison called his second book. “America We Need to Talk: a Self Help Book for the Nation" "important and entertaining." Joel currently leads Hunger Free America, formerly known as the New York City Coalition Against Hunger. Joining the organization in 2001, Joel has grown the nonprofit into a multi-million-dollar, respected national champion for Americans struggling to obtain nutritious food. Hunger Free America is building a nonpartisan grassroots movement coast-to-coast to enact the economic policies and programs needed to finally solve the problem of domestic hunger. Operating on the philosophy, “Ending hunger lifts us all,” Joel and his team advocate for systemic change across the country, seeking higher wages, more living wage jobs, and a stronger nutrition safety net. The group also manages AmeriCorps*VISTA national service projects in 29 states and the USDA National Hunger Hotline, which provides callers the tools they need to obtain government and private food resources close to home. Joel is recognized as a powerful voice arguing for skilled volunteerism and has led his organization to establish a nationwide volunteer matching website, allowing people to best use their special skills like accounting, web design, or fundraising to help local soup kitchens and food pantries beyond packing cans or serving food.Prior to his work with Hunger Free America, Joel served for eight years in the Clinton Administration in senior executive service positions at USDA. For two years, he acted as USDA Coordinator of Community Food Security, a new position in which he created and implemented the first-ever federal initiative to better enable faith-based and other nonprofit groups to fight hunger, bolster food security, and help low-income Americans move out of poverty. In addition, Joel worked as USDA Coordinator of Food Recovery and Gleaning for two years, working with community groups to increase the amount of food recovered, gleaned, and distributed to hungry Americans. Also while at USDA, he served as Director of National Service, Director of Public Liaison, and as acting Director of Public Affairs and Press Secretary.
From 1989 to 1993, he served as a policy analyst for the Progressive Policy Institute and as a domestic policy staff member for then President-elect Bill Clinton’s transition team. A native of Rockland County, NY, and a graduate of Columbia University, Joel now resides in Brooklyn.
He is the past winner of the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture’s Honor Award for Superior Service (one of the department’s highest honors) and the Congressional Hunger Center’s Mickey Leland National Hunger Fighter Award. Joel also services on the Tufts University, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Nutrition Advisory Committee, and on the New York State Hunger and Food Policy Task Force.
Thursday, June 16, 2022
12:00 PM – 1:30 PM ET
Disclosure(s): No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.