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Dr. Phil Knight
Fenton
Hero Story
Dr. Phil Knight is the executive director of the Food Bank Council of Michigan. The state association for the seven Feeding America food banks that serve all of Michigan's 83 counties. During the pandemic, the number of food-insecure Michiganders soared from 1.3 to nearly 2 million people. A great number of this increase were children and senior citizens. The tireless effort of Dr. Knight to pursue partnerships, funding, and food to meet this need, helped enable our network to provide 47% more food than any time in our history.
This type of extraordinary leadership isn't new for Phil. He has invested 9.5 years of his life in East Africa leading projects to build the first schools, medical clinics, and community health centers in the Bavuma Islands of Lake Victoria, Uganda. He came face-to-face with poverty, food insecurity, and hardship. These experiences shaped his resolution to solve hunger in the state of Michigan. Dr. Phil often says, "Hunger is a bully but it is not bigger than we are, better than we are, and it is not beyond us to solve."
For the past seven years, he has led the FBCM and galvanized our network for this purpose, a food secure Michigan. His has been a life of service, a life of making a difference. His favorite quote that sums his life up is from George Washington Carver, "No individual has any right to come into this world and go out of it without leaving a distinct and legitimate reason for having passed through it." Michigan’s own "Dr. Phil" is certainly living out this quote with his life. Phil chairs the Governor's Food Security Council and is the creator and host of the award-winning radio show/podcast, Food First Michigan, heard at WJR and at https://foodfirstmi.org/.
Dr. Phil Knight
Fenton
Hero Story
Dr. Phil Knight is the executive director of the Food Bank Council of Michigan. The state association for the seven Feeding America food banks that serve all of Michigan's 83 counties. During the pandemic, the number of food-insecure Michiganders soared from 1.3 to nearly 2 million people. A great number of this increase were children and senior citizens. The tireless effort of Dr. Knight to pursue partnerships, funding, and food to meet this need, helped enable our network to provide 47% more food than any time in our history.
This type of extraordinary leadership isn't new for Phil. He has invested 9.5 years of his life in East Africa leading projects to build the first schools, medical clinics, and community health centers in the Bavuma Islands of Lake Victoria, Uganda. He came face-to-face with poverty, food insecurity, and hardship. These experiences shaped his resolution to solve hunger in the state of Michigan. Dr. Phil often says, "Hunger is a bully but it is not bigger than we are, better than we are, and it is not beyond us to solve."
For the past seven years, he has led the FBCM and galvanized our network for this purpose, a food secure Michigan. His has been a life of service, a life of making a difference. His favorite quote that sums his life up is from George Washington Carver, "No individual has any right to come into this world and go out of it without leaving a distinct and legitimate reason for having passed through it." Michigan’s own "Dr. Phil" is certainly living out this quote with his life. Phil chairs the Governor's Food Security Council and is the creator and host of the award-winning radio show/podcast, Food First Michigan, heard at WJR and at https://foodfirstmi.org/.