National Harbor, MD (Nov. 13, 2012) – The Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF) has selected Arlene Mitchell as recipient of the 2013 Gene White Lifetime Achievement Award for Child Nutrition.

 

Ms. Mitchell, Deputy Director in the Agricultural Development Access and Markets team, for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and former Chief of School Feeding for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), will receive the award during GCNF’s annual “A Possible Dream” gala. The gala will be held on Monday, March 4, 2013 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C. Over 500 executives and high level government and NGO officials are expected to attend.

 

The Gene White Lifetime Achievement Award for Child Nutrition is presented each year to an individual whose work has made significant strides toward helping the world’s poorest children receive adequate nutrition so they may thrive and reach their full potential. During her 30 years of work in international program development and management, Ms. Mitchell has helped strengthen and expand school feeding programs and the local agricultural markets that supply them. She is both a champion and mentor for school feeding leaders around the globe.

 

As the first Chief of School Feeding for WFP, Ms. Mitchell led a successful effort to re-establish school feeding as a flagship program both within WFP and the greater humanitarian and development communities. During her tenure, the number of children benefiting from WFP school feeding programs increased from just under 12 million to over 20 million. Ms. Mitchell oversaw notable achievements including the initiation of a regional school feeding network for Latin America, and a de-worming effort linked to school meals which benefited over 1 million children. She also helped expand WPF’s “Walk the World” benefit for child hunger programs, from 40,000 participants in 73 countries to 800,000 participants in 118 countries.

 

More recently, as Senior Program Officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Ms. Mitchell supported the Partnership for Child Development to strengthen nationally-owned school feeding programs linked to local agriculture and to expand the knowledge base around successfully planning and scaling such programs.

 

Ms. Mitchell joins a prestigious group of Gene White Lifetime Achievement Award recipients, including the late Senator George McGovern (D-SD), Senators Richard Lugar (R-IN) and Bob Dole (R-KS), the Honorable Catherine Bertini, and the Honorable Dan Glickman.