Medgar Evers College’s Dr. Waleek Boone to be honored at 15th Planter Awards Gala

By David Gil de Rubio | dgilderubio@mec.cuny.edu

On Tuesday, May 6, Brooklyn’s Giando on the Water will be the site of the 15th Planter Awards Gala, an event celebrating innovation and sustainability. Dr. Waleek Boone, director of the Medgar Evers College Transition Academy, is one of five honorees being recognized as a local leader committed to fighting hunger and keeping with the host Campaign Against Hunger’s investment in food equity across New York City. 

The nonprofit host serves 150 zip codes with food and other vital programs and services while seeking to bring food justice to underserved New Yorkers along the way. Boone’s fellow honorees that night will be New York City Council member Mercedes Narcisse, the namesake founder and CEO of The Elizabeth Elting Foundation, Brady Hunter Foundation Josh Fox and Ann Marie Adamson-Serieux, AVP Community and Corporate Engagement EmblemHealth. 

A proud Medgar Evers College alum whose journey at the school began in 2007, Boone’s role in founding the Transition Academy in 2017 meant that students gained a support system that helped them navigate homelessness, as well as housing and food insecurity issues. 

It’s a selfless role that also translates to Boone voluntarily pulling six-day work-weeks while making sure that services like the Cougar Country Food Pantry unfailingly delivers for members of the Medgar Evers College family and the surrounding Central Brooklyn community. The ever-modest academic insists it’s all part of what drives him, all while providing his charges with an environment that allows them to navigate these obstacles with dignity and discretion.

“I provide the resources to make sure their basic needs are being met,” Boone said. “We do strategic campaigns whereas we do the best to bring these students from the shadows so they can get these resources, stay on track, graduate on time and improve their living conditions.” 

The Campaign Against Hunger’s mission statement is to “…empower our neighbors to lead healthier, more productive, and self-sufficient lives by increasing access to safe, nutritious food and related resources.” 

It’s no coincidence that this falls completely in line with Boone’s own values.

“I want to be able to give back in any way I can and not knowing that it would lead me here wherever the spirit leads me,” he said. “This is why I’m in the position I’m in now and why I’m continuing to do all I can to provide resources for these students.”