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. 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.