Jonathan Lowry '16
"Food is a universal human right, and our country is responsible for providing sustenance to those who are destitute or disabled."
Jonathan Lowry, a Biology and Government major in the College of
Arts and Sciences from Bethesda, Maryland is our
61st JFK Award winner.
In 2016, the John F. Kennedy Memorial Award’s application form moved to
a new platform, thanks to the good work of our friends in the Public
Service Center. More accessible and flexible, the new system attracted
more applicants for the award than at any earlier time in its history.
With 49 contenders, the competition this year was formidable.
Jonathan is also President of the
Class of 2016. His calling is fighting hunger, his career goal using the
power of government and legislation to change food and nutrition policy
to improve people’s lives. Jonathan believes that “food is a universal
human right, and our country is responsible for providing sustenance to
those who are destitute or disabled.” His drive to address the hunger
problem is fueled by his understanding of the perils of separation from
those around us. Echoing Elie Wiesel, he has internalized the
recognition that “Indifference reduces the other to an abstraction.”
His is no mere aspirational goal. Jonathan founded the
Cornell Food Recovery
Network which, through the work of over 40 volunteers that he
recruited and trained, has recovered some 4,800 pounds of usable food
from Cornell dining halls for distribution to local non-profits that
feed the hungry. “It was this organization,” Jonathan writes, “made up
of my closest friends, bonded by shared commitment to fight hunger, that
stoked the embers of my commitment to public service.” The Food Recovery
Network has garnered numerous awards.
The JFK Award committee was deeply impressed by Jonathan’s ability to
find and build on a moral calling in what is often regarded as
uninspiring labor – working in the dining halls; for regarding his
travels – in India and Ghana – as well as his internships in Washington
as means to acknowledge the commonalities among us and to challenge the
temptation toward indifference; and for planning work as a
soldier-diplomat humanitarian in an Army Reserves Civil Affairs unit
even as he pursues a civilian career fighting food insecurity at home.
Jonathan will further all these goals by gaining credentials in law.
One of Jonathan’s reviewers noted that he “believes in the pursuit of a
common good.” Another called him “one of the most impressive students I
have known in over thirty years of university teaching.” The Class of
1964 calls him our JFK Memorial Award winner for 2016.
Carolyn Neuman's serendipitous encounter with Jonathan at the
Cornell Alumni Leadership Conference (CALC) in February brought him
together with the class officers. Jon spoke eloquently about his work
with the Senate Judiciary Committee's Russia probe and particularly
about the critical importance of a free press in sustaining democracy.
This gratifying encounter renewed our enthusiasm for the JFK Award and
the extraordinary Cornell graduates it honors.