Ellen Gustafson is an activist for improving the global food system for all eaters. She is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of the FEED Foundation, a 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring healthful, nutritious food in school for all children as a first step towards a sustainable global food system.

She is also Co-Founder and Executive Vice President of FEED Projects, LLC, a charitable company that creates good products that help FEED the world. For each FEED Bag sold, a measurable donation is given to support school-feeding programs for hungry children. Sales of the initial “FEED 1 bag”, which provides meals for one child in school for one year, have fed over 40,000 children since April 2007. The FEED 100 bags provided funding for the World Food Program’s entire school-feeding operation in Rwanda for 2008. Working together the FEED Foundation and FEED Projects, LLC have provided close to $6 million to UN World Food Program school-feeding operations since April 2007.

Previously, Ellen was a Public Information Officer and Senior Spokesperson for the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), where she directed the New York Communications office and met WFP Honorary Spokesperson and FEED co-Director, Lauren Bush. At WFP, Ellen managed U.S. media relations, launched the 52-school Universities Fighting World Hunger initiative, and oversaw U.S. celebrity outreach.

Before joining WFP, she was a Researcher and Reporter for the ABC News Investigative Unit, where she wrote and edited pieces on international terrorism for Senior Investigative Correspondent Brian Ross. Ellen also worked at the Council on Foreign Relations, the US foreign policy think-tank, as a Military Research Associate, acting as the sole researcher for four senior military officers, and as a Communications Associate. She serves on the Columbia University Alumni Board of Directors, the founding Board of Directors for a new Bronx charter school within the Success Charter Network, and on the Advisory Board of Doc to Dock, a non-profit that brings needed medical supplies to hospitals in Africa. Ellen has a BA in Political Science from Columbia University and is pursuing a Masters Degree in Food Studies at New York University. She has been featured, with business partner Lauren Bush, as one of Fortune Magazine’s Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs and has guest lectured at Harvard Business School, NYU, Lehigh University, Columbia University and the US Naval Academy.

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