Social entrepreneur Lauren Bush Lauren named Moynihan Spirit of Public Service Award winner
The Maxwell
School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University is pleased to
announce that Lauren Bush Lauren, the founder and CEO of FEED Projects, is the inaugural
winner of the School’s Moynihan Spirit of Public Service Award, named for the
late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. She
will receive the award during a celebration of the School’s 90th
anniversary in Washington, DC, on November 20, 2014.
For more
than 10 years, Lauren has dedicated herself to developing innovative ways to
engage the public in the fight to end world hunger. In 2004, after seeing the effects of poverty and
hunger firsthand while traveling in Asia, Latin America, and Africa as an
honorary student spokesperson for the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP),
Lauren conceptualized the idea for FEED Projects. The organization was launched in 2007 with
the sale of a reversible burlap and organic cotton bag, reminiscent of the bags
in which food is distributed by the WFP.
Since then, FEED has gone on to forge successful partnerships
with companies like Target, Disney, Pottery Barn, Whole Foods, Gap, west elm, and
TOMS Shoes, working together to design and develop co-branded products such as
handbags, apparel, jewelry, and dishware.
Some of these items are sold through the FEED website; others are
available through partner stores.
Every item
sold has a set donation added to its price and, to date, the social business
has been able to donate more than $10.4 million and provide nearly 84 million
school meals globally through the WFP and Feeding America. FEED has also supported nutrition programs
around the world, providing vitamin supplements to more than 3.5 million
children through UNICEF. Forbes magazine calls FEED “a for-profit
venture with a social conscience.”
The Moynihan
Spirit of Public Service Award is given by the Maxwell School to an individual
or organization whose life and work reflect a creative and passionate
commitment to public service and to translating ideas into action — qualities that
characterize the exceptional career of Senator Moynihan as a thinker, teacher, and
leader. Winners also embody the Maxwell School’s
dedication to understanding complex issues.
“Lauren Bush
Lauren’s work reflects a remarkable commitment to addressing the daunting
challenge of world hunger through widening public awareness and developing
innovative mechanisms for facilitating financial support. It’s the kind of
pragmatic yet effective strategy that was so characteristic of Senator
Moynihan’s approach to public policy and public service,” said Maxwell School Dean
James Steinberg.
Statesman,
diplomat, scholar, intellectual, historian, and politician, four-time U.S.
Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan was a highly respected leader in the worlds of
politics, academia, and public affairs. His extraordinary capacity to convert
insight into action mirrors the blending of theory, policy, and practice that
is distinctive about the Maxwell School and Syracuse University, where Senator
Moynihan twice belonged to the faculty. His career exemplified the values of
enlightened and engaged citizenship that are embodied in the Maxwell School’s name.
Founded in
1924, the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs is among America’s
top graduate schools in public affairs; it is consistently ranked number one in
that category by U.S.News & World
Report. Alongside its professional
degrees in public administration and international relations are PhD programs
in the social sciences (e.g., political science, geography, anthropology,
history, sociology, and economics); undergraduate teaching in the social
sciences – including a new Citizenship and Civic Engagement major -- and
topically focused interdisciplinary research institutes.
In this, the
School’s 90th anniversary year, Maxwell is launching its Tenth Decade Project
to develop and fund further initiatives in citizenship education, scholarship,
and engagement. When completed, the project will allow Maxwell to approach its
2024 centennial with a range of new programs ideally suited to the future of
both the School and the world at large. 10/15/14