Iowa Hunger Summit at 20: Bipartisan Leaders Say Fighting Hunger Can Still Unite a Divided Nation

By John Damon | Just The News Iowa

Twenty years after launching the Iowa Hunger Summit, former governors Terry Branstad and Tom Vilsack and former U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Quinn gathered Wednesday to celebrate its legacy. Their message: addressing hunger through agriculture remains a powerful force for unity, even in today's politically fractured landscape.

Quinn, a former U.S. ambassador to Cambodia and past president of the World Food Prize Foundation, said he has seen hunger bring people together across political, religious and physical divides throughout his career. He recalled the summit's bipartisan origins, when he asked former Gov. Robert D. Ray and Branstad, both Republicans, and then-Gov. Vilsack, a Democrat, to co-chair the first event. All three agreed, and they continued to show up alongside other governors through the years.

“Hunger, at home or abroad, was a nonpartisan, bipartisan issue that united Iowans in a way that almost nothing else could,” Quinn said during a panel discussion with Vilsack and Branstad.

How the Iowa Hunger Summit Works

While the World Food Prize, founded by Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug, focuses on ending global hunger, the Iowa Hunger Summit targets hunger within Iowa and the United States. The summit brings together state government, federal agencies, religious groups, companies and nonprofits to collaborate on solutions.

Branstad noted that health problems and other challenges leave some Iowans food insecure. “I'm very proud that our great agricultural state recognized that not everybody in Iowa is food secure, and we need to do what we can to try to help in a lot of different ways,” he said.

All three panelists have held leadership roles at the World Food Prize Foundation. Quinn and Branstad each served as president during different periods, and Vilsack currently serves as CEO.

Making Hunger a Top Priority

Vilsack said if he could make one change to reduce hunger in Iowa and the nation, it would be to make hunger the number one priority. “If you make hunger the number one priority, then I can guarantee you that governors will have to listen, corporate CEOs will have to listen, nonprofits will have to listen,” Vilsack said.

Can Agriculture Still Bridge Political Divides?

The federal Farm Bill has historically tied hunger to agriculture, combining food assistance programs like SNAP with rural development, energy and agricultural aid. This structure has long fostered bipartisan collaboration. But Congress has struggled in recent years to reach consensus on updating the bill, with SNAP emerging as the sharpest point of debate.

Quinn, speaking with Iowa Capital Dispatch after the panel, said it is “always good” for people from different parties and administrations to review programs like those in the Farm Bill to ensure they remain effective. But he stressed the need to “find common agreement.”

“If there's any chance of pulling things back together, agriculture is the place to start,” Quinn said. “Confronting hunger can bring people together across even the biggest differences.”

The summit's 20-year track record shows that when Iowans focus on feeding their neighbors, political labels fade. As Quinn put it, the issue of hunger can still unite people, “even in our now more divided politics.”