U.C. Berkeley students Jacquelyn Hoffman and Komal Ahmad come from very different worlds, but when they met in a class about global poverty, the two young women discovered how much they had in common.
Hoffman, who grew up in a Reform Jewish household in Los Angeles, and Ahmad, a Muslim born in Pakistan and raised in Las Vegas, both are passionate about wanting to make the world a better place. It wasn’t long before their shared interest in global development led to action: the creation of BareAbundance, a nonprofit dedicated to combating hunger, eliminating food waste and educating others about the connection between economic inequality and food insecurity.
Less than a year later, the two women are committed business partners, with BareAbundance at the center of their lives.
Seated outside a campus café a week before Thanksgiving, the holiday of abundance, the fourth-year undergrads are animated, excitable and obviously very close. (“We’re basically married at this point!” says Hoffman.) They almost interrupt each other as they take turns talking about the organization.
The group’s day-to-day operations are straightforward: Seek out events and businesses that might have food going to waste, round up the excess and figure out how to distribute it to those in need.
“I live in [the student residence] International House, and it’s hard to watch how much food is thrown away — we’re talking good, healthy food,” says Ahmad, who grew up wanting to be a doctor in Africa. “Then you go to West Oakland and there’s literally 53 liquor stores and zero grocery stores. And we realized, ‘We’re in a position to help.’ ”
Hoffman and Ahmad are determined to expand the volunteer-driven organization beyond the scale of most student initiatives.
Over the past semester, they have recruited a leadership team to help with financials, communications and outreach. They’ve secured funding through the Big Ideas Competition at Berkeley, which rewards student projects that tackle global social issues. BareAbundance was honored at the Clinton Global Initiative University in September, and the organization recently became green-certified. In November the duo submitted a proposal to teach a course at Berkeley based on the organization’s principles.
And starting in January, BareAbundance will implement another part of its mission: training volunteers to go into low-income schools and talk to kids about nutrition and health issues.
The link between poverty and poor health stemming from diet is undeniable, Hoffman and Ahmad agree, with a clear juxtaposition of economic disparity — the wealthier parts of Berkeley and the underserved communities of Oakland — right in their backyard.
“Part of my interest in these issues began when I was working in a health clinic,” says Hoffman, who entered school as a pre-med student before switching her major to gender and women’s studies. She plans to pursue a master’s degree in public health following graduation.
“You would see patients come in presenting symptoms of diabetes, and the doctor says, ‘You must eat healthier.’ And then that person turns around and goes back to their community, where it might be incredibly difficult, time-consuming and expensive to do that.”
Hoffman says BareAbundance understands the necessity of food banks and other donation centers but hopes to get away from the canned food on which many emergency aid centers rely.
The two women say they’ve learned a tremendous amount in the relatively short time they have invested in BareAbundance. What began as a series of scattered ideas, scribbled in notebook margins during class, has become “an education in and of itself,” says Hoffman.
Through their work with each other and with groups in the U.C. Berkeley community, the women say they’ve learned about much more than nonprofit management — for instance, how easy it can be to bring different kinds of groups together.
“We never wanted to make it about ‘This is an interfaith group,’ because we want to emphasize the fact that hunger doesn’t have a face, a religion, a color,” explains Hoffman. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t talk about it. Religion is important to us, it’s innate in who we are.”
Both the Muslim Student Association and Berkeley Hillel have been active supporters of the organization since it got off the ground in September.
“I’ve learned so much about her community,” says Hoffman. “I mean, we’re a Jewish girl from L.A. and a Muslim girl from Pakistan. I’d like to think it shows something that we make such a great team.”
“Judaism and Islam have so many similarities,” offers Ahmad. “Helping people in your community is a big part of both our faiths … and then there’s the food aspect,” she says with a laugh, recalling the aftermath of a Hillel event when the pair drove through West Oakland to deliver an overflowing excess of Middle Eastern fare.
“I always say, the way to really bring Jews and Muslims together is hummus.”
For information on BareAbundance, visit www.bareabundance.org.