Proximity, policy and research play significant roles in the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty’s fight to end food insecurity. In this Baylor Connections, Jeremy Everett, BCHP executive director, conveys the heart behind the call to feed the hungry—both close to home and around the world—and examines how relationships, high-level research and multi-sector partnerships boost the work they do.

Jeremy Everett Baylor Connections

Jeremy Everett

Baylor University, a private Christian university and a nationally ranked research institution, provides a vibrant campus community for more than 15,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship.

Baylor University 

Dr. Jeremy Everett is the founder and executive director of the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty.  The Collaborative integrates research, policy, and practice through projects such as: the Hunger Free Community Accelerator; the Baylor Collaborative Innovation Hub; the Master’s degree in Theology, Ecology, and Food Justice; and the Hunger Data Lab.

With nearly 100 staff, interns, and researchers, the Baylor Collaborative team has assisted community-based, state-based, and national efforts to increase hundreds of millions of additional meals through innovative, researched-based interventions. In Dr. Everett’s tenure with the Collaborative, he has raised more than 300 million dollars to support faculty research, public service, and policy analysis.

Prior to his appointment with the Baylor Collaborative, Dr. Everett worked for international and community development organizations as a teacher, religious leader, community organizer, and farmer. He frequently delivers presentations to congregations, non-profit organizations, universities, and the government sector about hunger and poverty.

Dr. Everett earned a bachelor’s degree from Samford University, a Master of Divinity from Truett Seminary at Baylor University, and his Doctor of Ministry from Duke Divinity School at Duke University. Jeremy is a Next Generation Fellow of the University of Texas LBJ School’s Strauss Center for International Security and Law, an Affiliate with Temple University’s Hope Center, and was the 2022 Waco Tribune Person of the Year.  In 2014, Dr. Everett was appointed by U.S. Congress to serve on the National Commission on Hunger.  He serves on various boards such as the 2030 Collaborative and Bread for the World where he is currently serving as Chair.

Dr. Everett is the author of "I Was Hungry: Cultivating Common Ground to End an American Crisis" (Brazos Press, 2019), a contributing author in "What Justice Looks Like" (Baylor Press), "Food and Poverty: Food Insecurity and Food Sovereignty Among America’s Poor" (Vanderbilt University Press), and "The End of Hunger: How Science, Religion, and Politics Can Work Together to Make Possible" (InterVarsity Press).

Poverty

Hunger Policy

National Hunger Issues

Food Insecurity

Food Policy

Community Organizing

Community Development

Systems Theory

Congregational Outreach

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Jeremy Everett, Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty

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Baylor Connections

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Founder and Executive Director, Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty

As the founder and director of Baylor’s Texas Hunger Initiative, Jeremy Everett (MDiv ’01) is literally considered an expert on fighting hunger. Recently, he’s followed in the footsteps of many experts before him — by authoring his first book on his area of expertise.

The book, I Was Hungry, offers an assessment of the current hunger crisis in America and a strategy for addressing the problem. Everett focuses on scripture, calling Christians to listen to Matthew 25:35 and work intentionally across ideological divides to effectively end America’s hunger crisis.

 “Approximately 40 million Americans experience food insecurity,” Everett told Christianity Today last month. “My view is that this particular group bears the weight of all the brokenness in our social systems. Often, we look at Americans experiencing hunger or food insecurity and place them in different categories than Americans who, say, lack access to healthcare, live in poverty, or struggle to find good jobs. But the reality, on the local level, is that these groups are all part of the same family. Their struggles are interconnected.”


Baylor expert’s new book offers hope for addressing America’s hunger crisis

Hear the facts about hunger in Texas—and what you can do about the need—in this presentation at Wilshire Baptist Church by Jeremy Everett, founding director of the Texas Hunger Initiative.

The Texas Hunger Initiative is a capacity-building project housed at Baylor University in partnership with the United States Department of Agriculture, Texas state agencies and Share our Strength. The initiative seeks to develop and implement strategies to alleviate hunger through policy, education, community organizing and community development. The program now has coalitions representing 48 percent of the population of Texas, which have resulted in millions of additional meals being served to Texas children.

Jeremy is the son of a Baptist pastor and was the founder of Guadalupe Street Coffee, a social entrepreneurship venture, whose mission is to deal with the root causes of poverty in San Antonio’s West Side. The coffee shop was developed in collaboration with the West Side community, city government and the nonprofit sector.

He has worked for international and community development organizations as a teacher, religious leader, community organizer, fundraiser and organic farmer. He frequently delivers presentations to churches, nonprofit organizations, universities and the government sector on the subjects of poverty, community development and organizing, hunger and social entrepreneurship.

Jeremy earned a bachelor’s degree from Samford University and a master of divinity from Baylor University’s Truett Seminary. He is the co-author of Advancing Childhood Food Security Through Organizing Strategies and is a Next Generation Fellow of the Strauss Center for International Security and Law at the University of Texas. He also serves on the National Commission on Hunger.

What You Need to Know about Hunger in Texas, with Jeremy Everett

Jeremy Everett, director of the Texas Hunger Initiative at Baylor University discusses how significant a problem hunger is in Texas, why the current partisan approaches to alleviating hunger are flawed and how efforts to improve participation in federal programs can stimulate local economies.

TT Interview: Jeremy Everett

Good Faith Media (GFM) CEO Mitch Randall interviews Jeremy Everett, Founder and Executive Director of the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty, at FSW's 2024 Compassion and Justice Conference in Dallas, Texas.

The conversation focuses on how underemployment is contributing to food scarcity across America.

Produced 2024. 

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Learn more about the FSW conference at https://fellowshipsouthwest.org/conference-2024

Executive Director Jeremy Everett of the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty - 2024

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