Claire Babineaux-Fontenot Is on a Mission to End Hunger in the U.S.

Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, CEO of Feeding America, began to work at the country’s largest domestic hunger-­relief organization—overseeing a network of more than 200 food banks and 60,000 partners—two years before the COVID-19 pandemic shook the global economy. Many people assume that food insecurity rates peaked in 2020, when those facing hunger became more outwardly visible, Babineaux-­Fontenot says, but the problem is now more pressing than ever. “When all of those long lines of cars and the people that they represented went back to the insides of buildings, it’s like they disappeared from the American consciousness,” she says.

In 2023, an estimated 13.5% of households, or 1 in 7, were food insecure, up from 10.5% in 2020, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The price of food in the country has risen by nearly 28% since 2019. And while that rate has recently slowed, the emphasis on the economy in the 2024 election showed just how urgent an issue the cost of living has become for Americans.

Babineaux-Fontenot, 60, embraces the nonpartisan nature of her work. “No matter what your political positions are in this country, people consistently believe that people deserve to have access to nutritious food,” she says. Her purpose as a nonprofit leader has been deeply informed by her untraditional upbringing in a family with 108 children (connected via biology, fostering, and adoption), and by her Catholic faith, instilled in her by her devout parents. 

Last year, her dedication to service earned her the University of Notre Dame’s prestigious Laetare Medal, previously awarded to Presidents Joe Biden and John F. Kennedy. “To have been bestowed the highest honor bestowed to an American Catholic and to know how imperfectly I walk presented a bit of a challenge to me,” says Babineaux-­Fontenot. “There will be nothing I’m asked to do in this work that will ever be anywhere near as difficult as what tens of millions of people in this country are asked to do every day. And I’m privileged that I get the chance to be their partner in this.”