Dr. Awab Ali Ibrahim Named to Project Bread’s Board of Directors

Project Bread, the state’s leading anti-hunger organization spearheading Massachusetts’ COVID-19 hunger relief efforts, is pleased to welcome Dr. Awab Ali Ibrahim, a pediatric gastroenterology fellow at Mass General Hospital, to the nonprofit’s Board of Directors. Project Bread’s Board of Directors is a group of professionals who provide governance, expertise and strategic support to the nonprofit.

“Project Bread’s pursuit of bold, systemic solutions to the problem of hunger will benefit greatly from Dr. Ali Ibrahim’s medical and personal perspective especially as we look to expand our impact reaching patients through our healthcare partnerships in community health centers,” says Erin McAleer, Project Bread CEO. “I believe he will be a strong advocate and a great partner in our work to end hunger statewide.

Meeting four times a year, the Project Bread Board of Directors hold governance and fiduciary responsibility for the organization and serve as the nonprofit’s greatest ambassadors. While providing advice and strategic direction, taken from their individual areas of significant expertise, the group also strengthens Project Bread’s position by connecting leadership to their personal and professional networks. The Board of Directors is also philanthropically engaged, raising more than $350,000 annually in support of the organization’s strategic initiatives. 

Born in Sudan and raised in Hungary and Qatar, Dr. Ali Ibrahim, 33, now a North End resident, has fond memories of sitting down with his family for home-cooked meals. However, he recounts seeing a startling contrast of food insecurity and poverty in his surrounding communities, vivid images that have stayed with him through adulthood. 

“I come from one of the poorest countries in the world where hunger is a big problem,” says Dr. Ali Ibrahim. “Hunger and food insecurity lead to parents making very tough decisions about their kids. This includes removing them from school to work or having them get married at a very young age. Because of my parents’ sacrifices, I was fortunate enough to not be affected by this. I believe that the nutrition my parents afforded to me contributed to why I was able to do well in school and become a doctor. I have therefore made it my mission to help kids with hunger so they too can achieve their dreams.”

 As a pediatric gastroenterology fellow, Dr. Ali Ibrahim takes a food-as-medicine approach while caring for patients with various gastrointestinal problems, including illnesses like obesity, constipation, weight loss, and inflammatory bowel disease. He recently spoke at one of Project Bread’s legislative panels for the nonprofit’s Feed Kids Coalition about the need for universal school meals to address childhood hunger. The Feed Kids Coalition is a diverse cohort of stakeholders, from school districts to social justice organizations for the passing of School Meals for All legislation, which would allow every student who wants or needs a school breakfast or lunch to receive it – at no cost to their family and with no requirement to sign up or provide income or other information. If passed, participation in school meals would increase by an estimated 50,000 students statewide.

“I really believe that nutrition is the key to determining one’s health trajectory,” says Dr. Ali Ibrahim. “The food we eat will either make us live a longer, heathier life or have debilitating long-term effects on our bodies. Furthermore, we are also expanding our knowledge about how food can also act as a cure for many diseases. This is especially true in my field of gastroenterology as almost all of the conditions that we see have a nutritional therapeutic component. How we eat can have a huge effect on someone’s quality of life.”

People experiencing food insecurity should call into Project Bread’s toll-free FoodSource Hotline (1-800-645-8333), which provides confidential assistance to connect with food resources, including SNAP benefits, in 180 languages and for the hearing impaired. For more information, visit: www.projectbread.org/get-help.

 About Project Bread

Project Bread is the leading statewide anti-hunger organization in Massachusetts.  Beginning in 1969 with the first Walk for Hunger, the nonprofit focuses on driving systemic change to ensure people of all ages have reliable access to healthy food. Project Bread works collaboratively across sectors to create innovative solutions to end hunger and improve lives across the Commonwealth. For more information, visit: www.projectbread.org.