Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle Joins World Food Program USA’s Board
Washington, D.C. — World Food Program USA announced today that former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle is joining the nonprofit organization’s Board of Directors, harnessing three decades of public policy experience for the mission of solving global hunger.
“We have the capacity to feed the world — and we should,” Daschle says of WFP USA’s mission to make sure no child goes hungry anywhere in the world. “Feeding those in need is the right thing to do. It’s the humanitarian thing to do and it’s one of the most relevant lessons of Christianity and of most religions today.”
As one of the longest-serving Senate Democratic leaders in U.S. history — and one of only two Senators to serve twice as both majority and minority leader — Daschle boasts three decades of legislative experience in agriculture, foreign affairs and health policy. From 1983 to 2005, he represented the people of South Dakota in the U.S. Congress, first as a member of the House of Representatives and later as a U.S. Senator, participating in nearly every major public policy debate of the last three decades.
“We’re honored to welcome a hunger champion like Senator Daschle at such a critical time,” said Rick Leach, President and CEO of World Food Program USA. “Now more than ever, we need leaders like him to step up and fight for America’s legacy of feeding hungry families. This mission represents the best of who we are as a nation and one of the smartest investments we can make in our future.”
Daschle joins WFP USA at a particularly challenging time for humanitarian organizations as four famines loom in northeast Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen. As a member of WFP USA’s board, he will help educate members of Congress and the Administration about the importance of global food assistance for national security, economic development and global stability.
Senator Daschle joins another accomplished lawmaker on WFP USA’s board, Senator Bob Dole, one of the longest-serving Republican Senate Majority Leaders. George McGovern, another former South Dakota Senator and “a founding father of WFP,” served on WFP USA’s board until his passing in October 2012. Current members include former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman, former White House Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto and board chairwoman Bonnie Raquet, who served as Cargill’s Corporate Vice President.
Since retiring from public service, Daschle has emerged as a leading thinker on climate change, food security and renewable energy policy. In 2007, he teamed up with former Majority Leaders George Mitchell, Bob Dole and Howard Baker to create the Bipartisan Policy Center, an organization dedicated to finding common ground on some of the pressing public policy challenges of our time.
He is the founder and CEO of the Daschle Group in Washington, D.C. He is also Chair of the Board of Directors at the Center for American Progress and Vice-Chair for the National Democratic Institute. In addition to WFP USA, he serves on the board of Edward M. Kennedy Institute and the LBJ Foundation. He is also a member of the Health Policy and Management Executive Council at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Council of Foreign Relations.
Senator Daschle’s two-year term as a member of WFP USA’s board begins January 2018.
About World Food Program USA
World Food Program USA proudly supports the mission of the United Nations World Food Programme, the leading humanitarian agency fighting global hunger. By mobilizing individuals, lawmakers and businesses in the U.S. to advance the global movement to end hunger, we bolster an enduring American legacy of feeding families in need around the world.
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For media interviews and more information, contact M.J. Altman, WFP USA’s Editorial Director, at mjaltman@wfpusa.org or (202) 627-3932.
Listen to Senator Tom Daschle share his experience in Congress fighting global hunger by downloading WFP USA’s Hacking Hunger podcast.
