Texas Baptist Hunger Offering Luncheon celebrates 30 years; calls attendees to address hunger in their communities

The Texas Baptist Hunger Offering hosted their annual luncheon on Monday, Nov. 17, at the 2025 Texas Baptists Annual Meeting, highlighting and celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the Hunger Offering. Attendees heard from keynote speaker Jeremy Everett, founder and executive director of the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty. 

Katie Frugé, director of the Christian Life Commission (CLC) and the Center of Cultural Engagement, welcomed attendees to the luncheon. 

“For 30 years, the Hunger Offering has been able to be the embodiment of Matthew 25, in Texas and around the world, being able to feed the least of these in the name of Jesus Christ,” said Frugé. “We are so thankful for the witness, for the wisdom of our CLC forefathers and mothers who left before us and had the wisdom to know that we needed an offering like this.” 

Ending hunger in a collaborative capacity 

Everett shared a message on what it means to be a person of faith in a world with incredibly high rates of hunger and what your church can do about it right now to solve the problem of hunger in your community.  

Referencing Luke 4:18-19, Everett shared that “the most important thing that [the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty] has discovered over the course of our 17-year history is that the pathway forward to ending hunger in our communities is in a collaborative capacity.” 

“[We’ve learned] that no one organization or sector can end hunger by itself, that we have to get churches working alongside nonprofits and working alongside the business community and the government community, as well as your school districts, if we're actually going to end hunger in a comprehensive way,” said Everett. 

Everett told attendees about [the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty] Hunger Free Community Coalitions, for which people can sign up to learn how to address hunger in a comprehensive way in their community, starting with “Who's hungry?” and “Why are they hungry?” 

“We guide you through a community assessment so that you can find out the causes and consequences of food insecurity in your own community. You can better identify who the organizations are that are working to address the issue, and then you can identify as a community where the gaps are and what you can do as a community together [to fill the gaps]?” explained Everett.

Everett said when people utilize this program, they are organizing a Hunger Free Community Coalition and “you're better utilizing the resources that God has bestowed on your community.”

“If we can help leverage these resources that exist for the benefit of our families and our communities, and then take our resources that we are putting into food insecurity and be able to amplify the resources that exist,” said Everett. “That's how you can end hunger in your community.”

Everett challenged attendees that “we can't look to [Washington] D.C. to save us, only Jesus can do that.” 

“Our friends and neighbors that are facing impossible financial challenges need us to be the hands and feet of Christ right now,” said Everett. “Together we'll press forward… to end hunger. The Kingdom of God is here, and there is room at the table for everyone, but only when we make space for those in need.” 

“Jesus calls us to step out of our comfort zones and move beyond our ideological divides to stand with the dispossessed because where they are, Jesus is, and that's where we're called to be,” said Everett. 

Honoring legacy giving  

Irene Gallegos, director of Hunger and Care Ministries, alongside David Sanchez, associate director of the CLC and director of ethics and justice, and John Litzler, general counsel and director of public policy for the CLC, honored “Legacy Churches” who have given to the Hunger Offering for 24 years or more of its 30 years of existence. 

“It is our love for Christ that compels us to love our neighbors well, to feed the hungry, and it is out of that love that we continue to go forth and love our neighbors with the love of Christ. So thank you to all who continue to stand in the gap,” said Gallegos. 

To learn more about the Texas Baptist Hunger Offering or to make a gift, visit hungeroffering.org.