Celia Cole

Celia Cole is the Chief Executive Officer of Feeding Texas, the state association of food banks. The Feeding Texas network of 21 food banks works collaboratively with over 3,000 local partners to provide nutritious food to people facing hunger, improve community nutrition, mitigate the root causes of hunger, and strengthen crisis response. Over the course of her 25-year year career fighting hunger in Texas, Celia has led advocacy campaigns to make SNAP more accessible to vulnerable populations, including seniors, immigrants, and people leaving the criminal justice system, as well as to increase access to children’s feeding programs. At Feeding Texas, she has spearheaded efforts to develop a statewide produce collaborative to increase access to fresh fruits and vegetables for food insecure Texans and forged cross-sector partnerships with diverse stakeholders to build a robust response to hunger. Over the last two years, she has coordinated the network’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, marshaling new resources to food banks that have enabled them to double their food distribution to meet the surge in demand from communities devastated by the economic and health crisis.