Trey, you are just the kind of person the Sullivan Ballou Fund seeks to recognize and affirm. You became alert to basic health and needs inequalities when you worked at a local homeless shelter every week throughout high school. At the very beginning of your collegiate career, you realized that food insecurity among college students was a serious problem, especially among students from low-income families, first generation college students, and international students. And like Sullivan Ballou, once your heart was engaged, you followed it where it led you. You quickly became a leader of Swipe Out Hunger, an innovative program that collects students’ unused meal swipes and donates them to students struggling to get enough to eat.
You have turned a small group of students collecting meal swipes to a university wide program offering many levels of support. You have made it your personal responsibility to see that every University of Minnesota student has enough food.
This goal has required exceptional creativity during the pandemic, when job losses among students worsened food insecurity. The dining halls suddenly closed, so you quickly pivoted and developed and funded a new program that donated meal delivery gift cards to needy students. All the university events where food is served were also canceled, so you partnered with Minnesota’s largest food bank and a local restaurant to deliver ready-made, nutritious meals to students.
Like all true advocates, you have seen that the problem of food insecurity is a systemic problem that requires a systemic solution. You have worked on legislation with the staffs of Senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, sought assistance from the University administration and the policy team of Governor Tim Walz, increased awareness statewide through the Minnesota Student Association, and founded a national student food insecurity coalition across the 14 campuses of the Big Ten.
You are described as a natural born leader. Through your work, countless students in Minnesota and across the country have improved access to food that will help them succeed. All this has required not only heart-felt commitment, but leadership, charisma, and communication skills. Thus, it was no surprise when we learned that those same skills enabled you to obtain the milestone of Eagle Scout with three palms. These qualities are exactly what the Sullivan Ballou Fund seeks to recognize and affirm.
Congratulations!
Elissa and Bruce Peterson, Founding Members