Hunter Sociology Professor Joins Michelle Obama as an Inaugural Winner of the James Beard Leadership Award

Hunter Professor of Sociology Janet Poppendieck, author of books such as Free for All: Fixing School Food in America and Sweet Charity?: Emergency Food and the End of Entitlement, was selected as one of 10 inaugural recipients of the James Beard Foundation Leadership Award. The award honors those helping to create a “healthier, safer, and more sustainable food world” through “excellence of work, innovation in approach and scale of impact within a community or the nation.” Among Poppendieck's co-honorees are First Lady Michelle Obama and Alice Waters, celebrated chef and pioneer in the organic food movement.

Poppendieck was singled out by the selection committee “for bringing issues of poverty, hunger, and food assistance to the forefront through her teaching and books.” She has taught at Hunter since 1976.