When President Obama Calls Your Name: Meet Hannah Moore, FoodCorps Member

When President Obama shouted out Hannah Moore, a current FoodCorps member with Cumberland County Food Security Council in Maine, during his remarks at the grand opening of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, it spotlighted a journey that’s been years in the making. From studying nutrition and food access in college to serving up student-driven meals in Westbrook, Hannah’s career path has been dedicated to an inspiring goal: making sure every child has access to nourishing school meals and a real voice in what’s on their lunch tray. Read about Hannah’s story, her day-to-day work as a FoodCorps member, and how she champions student agency and self-advocacy through school food. 

Click the play button above to hear President Obama’s shoutout to Hannah. Video is timestamped to start at 2:46:04.

Q: It was such a cool surprise to hear President Obama give you a shout-out! How did that come to happen?
Hannah: It was a total surprise! A friend sent me a link to the speech. I didn’t know it was going to happen! I received a Voyager Scholarship from the Obama Foundation in 2022, about halfway through my undergraduate studies. I applied because of my work in nutrition education and food access in Appalachia, while I was studying nutrition at Ohio University. The scholarship funded the rest of my degree and a “summer voyage,” where I traveled to different countries to learn about nutrition, food access, and food culture around the world. Through that program, I also met Morgan McGee (FoodCorps’ Director of School Nutrition Leadership). 

Q: What drew you to join FoodCorps?
Hannah: I actually first found FoodCorps through a college assignment where we had to research potential jobs. It stuck with me as something I was really interested in. A few months later, when I met Morgan—right around application season—it felt like a sign that I was on the right path.

After graduating, I became a FoodCorps member in Maine. I was especially drawn to the school nutrition side of the work. In Appalachia, I had loved teaching nutrition, but I saw a big gap: we were teaching kids about foods they often couldn’t access. FoodCorps’ school nutrition corps member position felt like the chance to help close that gap.

Q: What has been your favorite part of being a FoodCorps member?
Hannah: It’s been such a unique experience. I get to be part of both the FoodCorps community—locally and nationally—and the school and school nutrition teams in my district.

There are other FoodCorps members in my town, and we’re each in different districts, so I have that peer support while also being deeply embedded in my own schools. Working directly with students is one of the best parts. I lead taste tests, spend time in the cafeteria, and then bring student feedback straight into menu planning meetings. I really enjoy helping make sure there is a continuous loop between kids’ voices and district decisions.

Q: Can you share a moment when student feedback clearly influenced the menu?
Hannah: Here’s a recent example: a sixth grader emailed me the other week and said, “Hey, I told you I wanted quesadillas, and now we have quesadillas on the menu! Thank you so much.” She had told me that a year ago, but she remembered—and followed up in writing! Moments like that, and students greeting me in the halls with, “Miss Hannah, what are we going to try today?” make it clear that students feel heard.

Q: Are you doing any work with local foods or other student-driven requests?
Hannah: Yes, a lot. We run Harvest of the Month efforts and support school gardens, making sure the food grown there actually shows up on the menu or in taste tests, not just in the ground.

One of my biggest projects at Westbrook has been working with the Halal School Meals Network. When I started, one school in the district was certified to serve halal meals. Now, all five schools in our district are certified. That’s been one of my proudest accomplishments—seeing students light up when they realize, “Wait, I can eat this, this is halal!”

Q: What does a typical day look like for you as a school nutrition corps member?
Hannah: I usually arrive around breakfast time, catching the tail end of the breakfast rush. I often bounce between schools—sometimes because one school has the celery I need for a student group at another. I run student food councils and small food groups, including groups in some special education classrooms where we explore new foods together.

Midday, I usually eat lunch with the school nutrition staff—that’s always a highlight. The rest of the day is often spent in the nutrition office, working alongside our food service director and administrative assistants on menu planning and projects like summer meals. When the team is deciding, “Should we swap X for Y?” I can say, “Here’s what students are telling us,” and bring their voices directly into the conversation. It’s student advocacy in real time.

Q: What motivates you to serve nourishing meals and uplift student agency in the cafeteria?
Hannah: I originally thought I would go into healthcare—I’d said for years that I wanted to be a doctor. Studying nutrition at Ohio University shifted my perspective. I saw how deeply nutrition shapes our lives and how many chronic conditions are connected to what we eat.

What really clicked for me was the idea that we can be proactive rather than reactive. Instead of only treating illness, we can build health in the first place. School nutrition is one of the best tools we have. I’ve always loved working with students, and I loved teaching nutrition and food culture, but I kept feeling that gap around access. School meals programs already exist, and they’re powerful. We just have to use them to their fullest potential.

Q: What has FoodCorps taught you about being a leader?
Hannah: FoodCorps has taught me to take myself seriously as a professional leader. In college, I loved taking on leadership roles in clubs and extracurriculars, but it’s a big shift to walk into a professional setting where everyone else in the room is the age of your parents—or grandparents! That was intimidating at first. But FoodCorps consistently backed me up, giving me tools, coaching, and the message that my voice mattered. As FoodCorps took me seriously, I started taking myself more seriously. I’ve learned how to use my voice positively and confidently in rooms where decisions get made.

Q: You’re wrapping up your second year with FoodCorps. What’s next?
Hannah: I’m planning to stay in the field of school nutrition! I’ve put down roots in my community in Maine and care deeply about my district and the students I serve. I’m excited to continue doing this kind of work and to keep growing in roles that center student voice, food access, and nourishing school meals for every kid. 

Inspired by Hannah’s story? You can become a FoodCorps member to jumpstart your career, apply to our Kindred Fellowship to deepen your leadership in school nutrition, or enroll in our Food Education in the Classroom Microcredential with Teachers College, Columbia University to build new skills for bringing food education to your school community. We can’t promise a shout-out from President Obama, but we can promise you’ll be part of an incredible network of people like Hannah who are making a real difference for kids every day.