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North Carolina Hunger Champion, Jessica Soldavini, Wins 2019 World Hunger Leadership Award

on  March 29, 2019

It was an honor to be selected to receive the 2019 World Hunger Leadership Award from Rise Against Hunger. My passion for fighting hunger began over 10 years ago while I interned at a local health department providing nutrition programs in low-income communities. This allowed me to see the negative impacts that food insecurity and hunger can have and inspired me to pursue a career in public health nutrition so I could help alleviate these issues.Hunger is a complex issue that I cannot solve alone, so I have found it very important to work with partners in order to have a larger impact. Currently, I work with No Kid Hungry NC, which addresses hunger through increasing access to meals served through underutilized federal child nutrition programs. We partner with organizations administering these programs to support communities in reaching as many children as possible. I also lead our nutrition education program, which teaches individuals how to prepare healthy meals on a budget. Since 2016, I have worked with the mayor of Chapel Hill and numerous other organizations on the Food for the Summer Partnership. Food for the Summer aims to increase the number of free summer meals served in low-income areas during the summer through the federal Summer Food Service Program. I have been actively involved with the partnership since it began and help with a variety of activities, such as planning, promotion, implementation and evaluation. With the help of hundreds of volunteers, we serve nearly 50,000 healthy meals each summer!I also conduct research related to food insecurity and federal nutrition programs. I work closely with state and local agencies administering federal child nutrition programs on the research and evaluation I conduct to ensure that the information I collect and results I am able to provide are most useful. I work with Dr. Maureen Berner at UNC Chapel Hill to conduct research related to food insecurity among college students.I believe that education is especially critical in addressing hunger because individuals are not going to get involved if they are not aware that an issue exists, the causes of an issue, or how they can get involved. I educate others to increase awareness that hunger is a serious issue and strategies for addressing it to both local audiences, such as student groups and large audiences at national conferences. I think the best way to learn is through experience, so over the past few years, I have provided volunteer and internship opportunities to nearly 100 students to work on projects with me at No Kid Hungry NC. I also think that it is important to educate policymakers on these issues as policy can play an important role in addressing hunger. I am excited to be participating in the American Society for Nutrition Science Policy Fellowship this year which will help make me more effective at doing this.I admire the work being done by Rise Against Hunger and join them on their mission to end world hunger by 2030!

About the Author

Jessica Soldavini is the recipient of the 2019 World Hunger Leadership Award from Rise Against Hunger. She is currently a doctoral student in nutrition at UNC Chapel Hill.

More Posts by Jessica Soldavini

Strength, Stability And Hope

The gift that filled Nelly’s table.

“We were yielding very little, and the crops could not sustain us the whole year,” Nelly remembers. As a mother of seven and a farmer with two decades of experience, the stress of inconsistent yields was all-consuming. A poor harvest not only strained her family financially, but also limited their own meals to just two a day. Their story reflects that of many in their fishing and farming village near a lake in the Karonga district of northern Malawi. Here, heavy rainfall makes conventional farming methods nearly impossible. The entire village is, quite literally, saturated in food insecurity — a reality that leaves families struggling to survive season after season without a dependable source of nourishment.

In 2019, Nelly began participating in Harvesting Prosperity and Resilience, a sustainable agriculture project implemented by Rise Against Hunger in partnership with the Foundation for Community Support Services (FOCUS). The project works with 3,100 smallholder farmers in Malawi’s Karonga and Mzimba districts to strengthen food and nutrition security by improving production methods, nutrition practices and household income.

Just one year later, Nelly was ready to expand the variety of crops on her farm. What land once only produced maize began to flourish with sesame, cowpeas, rice and groundnuts during the rainy season (summer), as well as maize and vegetables during the dry season (winter). Through climate-smart agriculture training, she learned new techniques like manure making, pit planting and mulching, crop rotation and intercropping. Equipped with these tools, Nelly’s farm began to thrive.

After the 2023–2024 growing season, she sold enough produce to purchase an ox cart. Her harvests in 2024-2025 season yielded over 500 pounds of crops, including 22 bags of groundnuts, seven bags of maize, 12 tins of sesame and three bags of rice. With this surplus, she was able to invest in a motorbike, which she now uses to transport African doughnuts (mandasi) that she cooks and sells — creating yet another source of income for her family.

The transformation reaches far beyond her finances. Nelly now has the stability to provide for her husband and children. “I am able to eat different food types, pay school fees for my children and fulfill the visions that I have made with my family,” she beams. “I am now sleeping peacefully without any fears of food or paying school fees for the children.”

Her leadership has also grown. Today, Nelly serves as a leader in the Harvesting Prosperity and Resilience project, teaching other farmers in her district to adopt climate-resilient, labor-saving practices. By sharing her knowledge, she is multiplying her impact — empowering her neighbors to experience the same transformation she has achieved.

Across Nelly’s community, food and economic security are on the rise. Lombani, a government extension officer for the region, explains, “I can see the community is being transformed in the sense that in the area, there is food, income and nutrition security. Development is also happening at the household level.”

Nelly reflects on what it means to invest in holistic programs that address the root causes of hunger: “We are now healthy people. Children are going to school after eating their breakfast, having high yields and different types of crops due to conservation agriculture practices. With the support from the project, we have food, and we can access other food items from the market after selling our produce.”

This is the gift that fills: a future full of stability, strength and hope. It fills tables with food, families with security and communities with the resources to thrive. It’s an investment in futures rooted in resilience and hope.