2024 ReFED Food Waste Solutions Summit

As Chief Communications & Community Engagement Officer, Rajesh Mirchandani leads the organization’s efforts to galvanize a broad movement to end hunger in America, position Feeding America and the people it serves as thought leaders on issues related to food insecurity, and promote community engagement across the country, across communities, and across sectors to support its mission to end hunger in America. Mirchandani and his team are responsible for cultivating influential voices who can extend Feeding America’s reach and impact, by overseeing neighbor engagement, advocacy and building deep partnerships with communities disproportionately experiencing food insecurity. Additionally, Mirchandani and his team work closely and collaboratively with Feeding America’s government relations, equity and marketing teams, to help ensure that the organization’s messages and storytelling continuously connect and resonate with new and varied audiences.

Prior to joining Feeding America, Mirchandani worked for the United Nations (UN) Foundation, an independent non-profit set up to support the UN and its priority issues. There, Mirchandani acted as senior adviser to the executive office, and as chief communications officer, leading a team of skilled professionals in building award-winning campaigns, and communities to amplify and galvanize cross-sectoral support for the UN’s work to create a more peaceful, sustainable world, free of hunger, poverty, and inequality.

Before working at the UN Foundation, Mirchandani spent more than 20 years in journalism as a global correspondent, news anchor and host for the BBC, including six years in the U.S. In that time, he covered a wide range of stories and issues, including two U.S. Presidential elections, the 2008-09 Great Recession, the Oscars, the earthquake in Haiti, and many stories of food insecurity and poverty around the world. He also ran communications for the influential Washington, D.C. think tank, Center for Global Development.

Mirchandani is the host of the podcast, Finding Our Flavor, about food and identity. He holds a Bachelor of Science in economics from Bristol University, a Postgraduate Diploma in broadcast journalism from Cardiff University and a Master of Arts in public diplomacy from University of Southern California.