Elaine VanCleave, a self-proclaimed “soccer mom” from Birmingham, AL, moonlights as a hunger activist.

Ten years ago, Elaine started the Hunger Work Group at Independent Presbyterian Church in Birmingham’s Southside. Early in this ministry, Elaine realized that to really make a difference in hunger relief, she would have to get involved in public policy advocacy.

This decision led her to work with Bread for the World, a founding partner in the ONE Campaign…in 2004 she was named as one of Bread’s thirty “Hunger Heroes”, an honor also bestowed on U2’s Bono and fellow Alabamian Representative Spencer Bachus.

When Elaine first learned about the ONE Campaign in spring 2004, she organized one of the first ONE events in the country – a forum (that included two members of Congress) for Birmingham area college students on “how they can change the world”….

When asked what keeps her motivated Elaine said

“simply, I am motivated by my faith. I strongly feel that my faith requires me to care for the “least of these”. I think Matthew 25: 31-46 is the most powerul instruction in the Bible, when Jesus says, among many things, “I was hungry and you fed me”.