Leaders at the Ballard Center for Social Impact at the BYU Marriott School of Business know that fighting hunger requires more than compassion—it requires coordination. That’s why connecting with the people making a difference has been at the heart of the center’s hunger initiative, an ongoing series of events designed to spark dialogue and drive collective impact.
“Our desire is to find and celebrate best practices,” explains Mara Magill, a BYU Marriott strategy student from Layton, Utah, who is working toward a minor in global and community impact and leading the center’s student-run hunger team. In the first year of the initiative, students worked with the World Food Program USA (WFP USA), The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Humanitarian Services, other universities, and changemakers across the country.
The two-year initiative kicked off in September 2024 with the Ballard Center’s “Us Against Hunger” event, which aimed to educate students about food insecurity and solidify the center’s collaboration with WFP USA. “Having the CEO of WFP USA and Sharon Eubank with us provided an ideal opportunity to frame our local efforts as well as to raise awareness among both campus and community members about national and global initiatives,” says Jill Piacitelli, associate director of the Ballard Center.
A few months later, the center hosted another event—Social Impact Leaders Convening—a two-day conference that brought together faculty and staff who oversee social impact from universities across the country. “The gathering began a very deliberate and ongoing conversation around best practices that utilize faith and skills to solve social problems,” Piacitelli says.
At the conference, various organizations shared their efforts to relieve hunger. Jeremy Everett from Baylor University’s Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty related how Baylor’s efforts to feed schoolchildren expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic to reach more children in need. In an effort to promote the work of collaborating organizations, a team of Ballard Center student designers created a short video to share Baylor’s story with even more people.
Stories about local and global hunger initiatives were also shared at the Ballard Center’s annual Do Good. Better. Conference. The Ballard Center invited Rev. Dr. Heber Brown III to share how he started and scaled a multistate network of community gardens to help Black congregations have greater access to nutritious food. Listening to experiences, attendees like Magill gained hope in their ability to make a difference. “It’s not a blind hope,” Magill says. “It’s a very informed hope in which I realize that someone else is doing something cool that I can do too.”
As part of the ongoing initiative, the Ballard Center provided opportunities for students to take their learning off campus. In June, twenty Ballard Center students and employees attended the Consortia for the Global Initiative to Improve the Well-Being of Women and Children hosted in Salt Lake City by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The consortia taught students hunger-fighting practices as they engaged with a panel of church leaders and organizations. “The panel demonstrated the power of collaboration in fighting world hunger and malnutrition,” Magill says. “It solidified my resolve to always be kind, patient, and hopeful in creating innovative solutions.”
As Magill and other students on the hunger team learned more about food insecurity, they’ve found ways to make a difference for students on campus. Currently, the team is working with the Dean of Students Office to connect students to resources. Part of their efforts involve providing information for faculty to share with students or resources to list in course syllabi.
Magill explains that planning and participating in the Ballard Center’s hunger initiative has brought her closer to the Savior. “One of the things that Jesus Christ did was feed people,” Magill says. “For the rest of my life, I want to help make sure that people have enough food to do their jobs, to be good parents, to study well in school, and to do hard things.”
That desire to serve is what Ballard Center leaders like Piacitelli hope the initiative cultivates: an understanding of food insecurity and a willingness to get involved in meaningful ways. “As a family member, as a neighbor, as a citizen, and even as an employee,” Piacitelli says, “becoming involved ultimately increases our capacity to bless God’s children who are suffering.”