Nutrition student wins Rise Against Hunger World Hunger Leadership Award, ASN fellowship
April 1, 2019
Jessica Soldavini, MPH, RD, LDN, doctoral student in nutrition at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, has won the 2019 Rise Against Hunger World Hunger Leadership Award.
Jessica Soldavini (left) accepts the 2019 Rise Against Hunger World Hunger Leadership Award.
Rise Against Hunger is an international hunger relief organization that distributes food and life-changing aid to the world’s most vulnerable.
Soldavini also is a graduate research assistant for No Kid Hungry North Carolina, based at the UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention (HPDP).
No Kid Hungry NC works to end child hunger by connecting children to federal nutrition programs such as school breakfast, summer meals and after-school meals, and by teaching families how to cook healthful, affordable food. The initiative, which also engages the public to make ending child hunger a national priority, was formed in 2011 in partnership with state leaders and the national No Kid Hungry campaign, and became based at the UNC HPDP in 2014.
Soldavini received the award for her work to address hunger in North Carolina.
“Jessica implements a creative and impactful blend of strategies to tackle hunger, ranging from giving cooking classes in elementary schools to educating legislators in Washington, D.C.,” said Alice Ammerman, DrPH, Mildred Kaufman Distinguished Professor of nutrition at the Gillings School. “She is very deserving of this award.”
Soldavini said that she is “passionate about ending hunger and honored to have been selected to receive the 2019 World Hunger Leadership Award.” She wrote a guest blog post for Rise Against Hunger that shares the details some of her work toward this goal.
She accepted the award at the Universities Fighting World Hunger Summit in Portland, Maine, on March 16. While at the Summit, she also led a workshop on addressing child hunger during the summer months and presented a poster on food insecurity in college students.
Additionally, Soldavani recently was named an American Society for Nutrition (ASN) Science Policy Fellow. The fellowship provides awardees with the opportunity to gain an enhanced perspective on public policy issues related to nutrition and empowers them with the skills necessary to be well-informed advocates for nutrition research and policy.
Fellows travel to Washington, D.C., to participate in Capitol Hill visits with their state’s senators and representatives and interact with federal agency personnel. Each fellow is paired with an ASN member who mentors the fellow’s nutrition policy research and career. Soldavini shared her experiences as a new fellow in an interview with ASN staff.
Contact the Gillings School of Global Public Health communications team at sphcomm@listserv.unc.edu.
