Feeding America, the nation's largest hunger-relief organization, named Melanie Hall as its new chief research and innovation officer. Hall has nearly two decades of experience working at the intersection of food insecurity and health. She has focused on removing barriers to health equity while advancing the strategic, programmatic, and legislative objectives of organizations that seek to improve health outcomes in marginalized communities.
“Melanie has a wealth of experience in developing systems that support wellbeing, create access to healthy food and invest in a more sustainable future for our neighbors,” said Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, Feeding America chief executive officer. “She has a strong track record in strategic planning, staff development, advocacy, and building partnerships to support health equity programs that span the for-profit, not-for-profit, and public sectors. She has also developed programs to support under-served communities working to improve their overall health.”
In her role at Feeding America, Hall will lead the development of the organization’s research and innovation strategy. She will focus on developing a deeper understanding of hunger, designing effective solutions for ending hunger in America and evaluating the effectiveness of Feeding America’s work. She will be responsible for ensuring that Feeding America’s research strategy, program innovation and systems change work is guided by people facing hunger, our network partners, and other key stakeholders.
“I’m thrilled to join Feeding America at such a pivotal time in this country’s growing understanding of food insecurity and what it takes to address it,” said Hall. “I am leading an amazing team, and I’m eager to partner with members, neighbors, and other stakeholders to pursue systems change that supports food secure communities where all families have what they need to thrive.”
Hall spent 14 years with Kellanova. In her last role as director, wellbeing and regulatory research and development, she led a cross-functional team to help marketers collaborate with retailers and nongovernmental organizations to create, test, and scale programs that support wellbeing, create access to healthy food and develop a more sustainable future. Hall also led evaluation and planning for federal school nutrition programs and state-level sustainable packaging legislation. During this time, she also served on Kellanova’s People Development Council, where she focused on guiding career development programs, ensuring gender and racial equity in hiring policies and improving performance review practices. Prior to that, Hall served as director of brand marketing for Kashi Foods, and as senior manager, national WIC partnerships, where she gained experience in leading teams through significant transformation and growth
Prior to Kellanova, Hall worked for the Public Health Institute in partnership with the California Department of Public Health as a program director and health educator. Hall holds a Master of Science degree in nutrition communications from Tufts University and a Bachelor of Science degree in nutritional sciences from the University of California, Berkeley. She is also a registered dietician.
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About Feeding America
Feeding America® is the largest hunger-relief organization in the United States. Through a network of more than 200 food banks, 21 statewide food bank associations, and over 60,000 partner agencies, food pantries and meal programs, we helped provide 5.3 billion meals to tens of millions of people in need last year. Feeding America also supports programs that prevent food waste and improve food security among the people we serve; brings attention to the social and systemic barriers that contribute to food insecurity in our nation; and advocates for legislation that protects people from going hungry. Visit www.feedingamerica.org, find us on Facebook or follow us on X.com.