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Three times nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, former US Ambassador Tony P. Hall is one of the leading advocates for hunger relief programs and improving international human rights conditions in the world. Mr. Tony Hall served in the Ohio House of Representatives from 1969 to 1972, and in the Ohio Senate from 1973 to 1978. He represented the Third District of Ohio from 1979 to 2003. He was sworn in as United States Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture in September 2002.

Mr. Hall has been an outspoken advocate for fighting domestic and international hunger and he has initiated legislation enacted into law to fight hunger-related diseases in developing nations. He was the sponsor of a successful 1990 emergency measure to assist state Women, Infants and Children (WIC) programs and legislation to establish a clearinghouse to promote gleaning to provide poor people with food. Mr. Hall has worked to promote micro-enterprise to reduce joblessness.

Ambassador Hall was a founding member of the Select Committee on Hunger and served as its chairman from 1989 until it was abolished in 1993. In response to the abolishment of the Hunger Committee, in April 1993, Mr. Hall fasted for 22 days in order to draw attention to the needs of hungry people in the United States and around the world. Ambassador Tony Hall is also founder and was chairman of the Congressional Hunger Center, a non-governmental organization dedicated to fighting hunger by developing leaders.

In Tony Hall's efforts to witness the plight of the poor and hungry first-hand, he has visited numerous poverty-stricken and war-torn regions of the world. Ambassador Hall has spent time in more than 100 countries, ranging from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. He visited North Korea seven times since 1995, and was one of the first Western officials to see the famine outside of the capital, Pyongyang.

As the chief of the U.S. Mission to the U.N. Agencies in Rome (the World Food Program (WFP), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)), Ambassador Tony Hall was responsible for "putting into action America's commitment to alleviate hunger and build hope in the world."

Ambassador Hall was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for 1998, 1999 and 2001 for his humanitarian and hunger-related work. For his hunger legislation and for his proposal for a Humanitarian Summit in the Horn of Africa, Mr. Hall and the Hunger Committee received the 1992 Silver World Food Day Medal from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. He received honorary Doctor of Laws degrees from Asbury College, Antioch College and Eastern College and a Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Loyola College.