Mickey Leland and Bill Emerson

"I cannot get used to hunger and desperate poverty in our plentiful land. There is no reason for it, there is no excuse for it, and it is time that we as a nation put an end to it." --Mickey Leland

The Mickey Leland International and Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellows Programs serve as a living legacy to former Congressmen Mickey Leland of Texas and Bill Emerson of Missouri.

Mickey Leland

Congressman Leland founded the House Select Committee on Hunger in 1984 and was a dedicated humanitarian committed to ending hunger both within the United States and abroad. His dedicated efforts serve as a foundation for our own anti-hunger work.

With a "heart as big as Texas," Mickey Leland proudly served as a Representative to Houston for 11 years. Mickey entered Congress with an agenda for social change, bringing issues of poverty and justice into the forefront. He acted as a "compelling voice on behalf of the voiceless among us - the poor and neglected and abused and forgotten," according to Representative Joseph Early. Former Representative Leon Panetta called him the "conscience of the House," an image that earned Mickey Leland respect on both sides of the political aisle.

Mickey Leland established the House Select Committee on Hunger in 1984 and served as its chairman until his death in 1989. The Select Committee was instrumental in drawing attention to the problem of hunger internationally and within the United States. On a humanitarian mission to Africa, Mickey experienced the death of a starving child in his arms. This transformative experience led him to redouble his efforts to fight hunger, resulting in 350,000 tons of food to aid famine victims in Ethiopia. In the United States, Mickey Leland and the Select Committee on Hunger were able to save thousands of women and children from being denied access to the WIC Program. Mickey serves as a legacy for our current and future actions.

A man of integrity and principle, honor and courage, Mickey Leland's mission knew no political bounds, and transcended party lines and national boundaries. He died in a plane crash during a humanitarian mission to Ethiopia in August, 1989. Mickey Leland's vision of a hunger-free world has yet to be realized, but his example serves as an inspiration.

In a memorial service held for Mickey Leland in Washington, D.C., Speaker Foley said, "He gave his life in the quest to end world hunger, to the maintenance of peace, to the protection of the young and the old, those who were disadvantaged and destitute and by speaking out everywhere at home and abroad for the rights and spirit of humanity."

Bill Emerson

Representative Bill Emerson served eight terms, 1980 until his death in 1996, as a Representative for the Eighth District of Missouri. Emerson was a long-time leader in the fight against hunger in the United States and abroad. Over many years, he held leadership positions on the House Agriculture Committee, the House Select Committee on Hunger, and with the Congressional Hunger Center.

Bill Emerson participated in countless hearings on the issue of hunger. He was a lead sponsor of many important pieces of legislation, including the Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Act of 1983, the nutrition title of the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act of 1987, the Hunger Prevention Act of 1988, and the Mickey Leland Childhood Hunger Relief Act of 1991.

Representative Emerson also was a dedicated friend of the anti hunger movement, working tirelessly to give food banks the tools they need to provide for the emergency needs of hungry children and families. He sought to reduce administrative rules that deny food assistance to hungry Americans and he was considered a leading congressional advocate of "one-stop shopping," the concept that public programs' operations should be harmonized to best meet the needs of low income households.

The Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act of October 1996 protects food donors from liability and encourages companies that have excess food to donate it to charitable feeding programs.