This month, Claire Babineaux-Fontenot will transition out of her role as CEO of Feeding America, seven and a half years after taking the helm. She has had a tremendous impact on the network, perhaps most notably by giving people with lived experience of hunger greater say in how the food banking system should work.

Her legacy includes introducing an annual survey, now in its fifth year, which features the voices of people who have been food insecure. She also oversaw development of a strategic framework that included input from thousands of people facing food insecurity. “I am most proud of the ways that we have centered people experiencing hunger,” Babineaux-Fontenot said in a press release announcing her departure.

Her unwavering attention to those in need of food assistance was evident in a recent podcast with Food Secure Nation (listen to the full podcast here). During her interview with hosts Dr. Phil Knight and Gerry Brisson, both Founding Partners of Know Better Do Better, she told three stories that underscore the breadth and depth of her focus on people who know hunger best because they’ve lived it. 

Her first story was about “a big moment of epiphany” she had while leading a fireside chat with people who had experienced food insecurity. One of the panelists mentioned lived expertise. “She just said it casually, and we kept on going, but it never left me,” Babineaux-Fontenot said. She asked herself, “How would we show up if we really valued people as having expertise? How would we talk about them? Would we speak for them? What would we do with our microphones? Would we mostly use them on their behalf, or would we turn it over to them?”

Her second story was about a green badge, given to her upon her arrival at the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health in 2022, to indicate her preferred seating status at the front of the room. However, none of the people with whom she had arrived at the conference – all with lived experience of hunger – had a similar badge. After being escorted to the front, Babineaux-Fontenot turned around and went all the way to the back to sit. “I was with my people,” she said. “And I loved the seat that I had.”

The third story happened during a meeting that included people with lived experience of hunger. The goal of the meeting was to advance a pillar of Feeding America’s strategic framework that had to do with data. All that remained was to get a blessing on the strategy from the people in the meeting with lived experience. One of them, however, noted that the strategic plan failed to address her biggest need, which was to use data to show people where to find food. That feature wasn’t even on the list, Babineaux-Fontenot said, adding, “Now it’s at the top of the list.”

Babineaux-Fontenot’s clarity of purpose helped her achieve what many have described as transformational change while at Feeding America. Her strategy was seemingly simple:  She listened to the people, she sat with the people, and she acted on what they said. – Chris Costanzo

CAPTION FOR PHOTO, TOP: Claire Babineaux-Fontenot announcing her departure from Feeding America in a post on LinkedIn.

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