Gina Plata-Nino

Interim Director, SNAP, Food Research & Action Center

Washington, District of Columbia

Gina Plata-Nino is the interim director for SNAP at the Food Research & Action Center, a nonprofit where she addresses food insecurity by alleviating immediate hunger and tackling its root causes. She led inventive initiatives in Massachusetts, including a successful campaign to introduce a restaurant meals program, enabling unhoused individuals and those with disabilities to use SNAP benefits for hot meals, and a hot meals delivery program during the COVID-19 pandemic. She has applied those local lessons to expand her reach; for example, she applied local lessons to help implement the National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health and to co-lead the White House Challenge to Build Healthy Communities—efforts that helped secure nearly $1.7 billion in support for food access, nutrition education, and improved health outcomes.