LAFAYETTE, La. — Feeding America CEO and Opelousas native, Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, was honored Wednesday, October 18th, with the 2023 Outstanding Alumni Award by the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. "When one considers that my grandparents on both sides were sharecroppers, out of Prairie Ronde, Louisiana and they had no opportunity for a formal education and that my brilliant parents, as brilliant as they were, they were not able to graduate high school. Yet here I am being honored by such a distinguished university with such a distinction. I mean, again, so many things are possible. It's clear," said Babineaux-Fontenot.
Feeding America is a non-profit organization that provides meals to billions of families each year. Forbes ranked Feeding America as the largest U.S. charity by revenue. Babineaux-Fontenot is one of 108 children through biology, adoption, and foster care. She learned first-hand about hunger in America and is proud that she's now able to help others. She said Feeding America saw the greatest need during the Covid pandemic, "Over 60 million people turned to Feeding America in need of resources during 2020. We provided over 5.7 billion meals that's billion with a b. So not only does that show that there's an incredible need, but it also shows that there was incredible service," said Babineaux-Fontenot.
Babindeaux-Fontenot has served as CEO since October of 2018. She said a breast cancer diagnosis brought her life full circle, "As soon as I heard that diagnosis, I knew that I was going to need to do something that was different and I'm so fortunate and I'm privileged that the different thing that I get to do now is to make certain that tens of billions of people in this country get access to the food that they need. I can't think of anything more gratifying that I might do with my career."
If you would like to help, you can volunteer at Second Harvest Food Bank or donate to give.feedingamerica.org.
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