Marshall Matz Receives 2009 Gene White Lifetime Achievement Award for Child Nutrition
[WASHINGTON—March 4, 2009] Marshall Matz, Founding Chairman of the Friends of the World Food Programme and Principal at Olsson Frank Weeda was honored as a champion of child nutrition at the 6th annual A Possible Dream Gala on March 3, 2009, at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, DC.
Mr. Matz has spent his professional career raising awareness and seeking policy solutions to the causes of hunger. In the U.S., he has played an instrumental role in helping to craft five child nutrition reauthorization bills, with a focus on increasing access to school meals for all children. Internationally, through his involvement with the Friends of the World Food Programme, he has worked tirelessly to increase the organizational capacity of FWFP, particularly with regard to efforts that result in successful school feeding operations in Africa and elsewhere.
Mr. Matz has served as both a board member and a Chairman, of the Friends of the World Food Programme. He helped lead the organization’s growth to a staff of 15 people, with over $20 million per year in donations to the World Food Programme. He also serves on the board of the Congressional Hunger Center, the George McGovern-Bob Dole Counsel on Food and Nutrition, and the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC,) where he chaired the board from 1988 to 1993. He has spoken on hunger issues at a number of conferences and authored multiple op-ed pieces putting forth policy proposals to combat childhood hunger.
Mr. Matz is the seventh recipient of the award, created to honor the woman for whom it was named – Gene White, an extraordinary woman who dedicates her life to children and the benefits that good nutrition can provide them. Other recipients of this award include Senators Bob Dole and George McGovern, Dr. Josephine Martin, Edward Cooney and Catherine Bertini.
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