Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation has expanded its staff by hiring food and nutrition innovator and 2023 Bush Fellow Omar Guevara-Soto for the new position of Strategic Initiatives Officer.
Guevara-Soto, who started his role on January 1, will help develop initiatives, foster collaborations, and drive grantmaking to advance the Foundation’s priorities, with a particular focus on food insecurity, nutrition, and food systems as they relate to health equity and economic stability in the Sarasota region.
Guevara-Soto joined Barancik Foundation from Minneapolis Public Schools, where he helped to transform food-service operations across the 30,000-student school district over more than a decade. For the past seven years, he served as the district’s assistant director of culinary and nutrition services.
Guevara-Soto is a 2023 Bush Fellow of the St. Paul, Minnesota-based Bush Foundation. The prestigious Bush Fellowship program funds leadership-development plans for individuals with extraordinary track records to become even more effective at leading community change. Guevara-Soto has centered his fellowship on learning from public- and social-sector innovators who are successfully addressing barriers that cause hunger.
“Omar is a proven business and operations leader and an innovator in providing access to fresh, nutritious food,” said Teri A Hansen, president and CEO of Barancik Foundation. “His combination of expertise and empathy when it comes to the complex realities of food insecurity will elevate our work with our partners to help more families obtain the resources they need to thrive.”
Guevara-Soto is also currently earning his executive MBA from the University of St. Thomas’s Opus College of Business. In addition to his professional experience, he has volunteered his leadership as a board member of YMCA Camp Warren and an advisory board member of Chef Ann Foundation.
