Sun Devil alumnus acts on mission to fight hunger

Adam Lowy practically grew up on the back of a moving truck. His family has owned and operated a moving company in New Jersey for nearly a century, and from a young age, he witnessed the surprising amount of “stuff” that often ended up in the trash during moves.

“Some of this ‘stuff,’ unfortunately, was perfectly good food that could be given to a family in need rather than thrown away,” says Lowy, now the founder and executive director of Move For Hunger.

That realization sparked a powerful idea. In the summer of 2009, he and his family began asking customers if they had any nonperishable food they’d like to donate before moving. In just the first month, they collected 300 pounds of food. After delivering it to a local food bank, Lowy learned that more than 140,000 people in his county were struggling with hunger.

In that moment, Move For Hunger was born.

Today, Move For Hunger is a nonprofit organization that partners with the relocation industry to reduce food waste and fight hunger in a sustainable way. What started as one family-owned moving company has grown into a network of more than 1,200 moving companies across all 50 states and Canada. The organization also engages over 500,000 apartments and collaborates with leading relocation management companies to make food recovery part of their daily operations.

“Over the past 16 years, Move For Hunger has helped provide more than 50 million meals to families in need,” Lowy says.

As the organization has grown in reach and impact, so too has Lowy’s journey as an entrepreneur – one that can be traced back to his time at ASU. He graduated from 2008 with a bachelor’s degree in marketing, and emphasized that his time at the university was an essential starting point for his career. His involvement with the Programming and Activities Board gave him firsthand knowledge about planning events and taking necessary risks.

“I felt like I was given the power to make decisions and bring ideas to life. That experience definitely gave me the confidence to ‘just try’ things in my professional career,” Lowy says.

In recognition of his organization’s growth, Lowy was recently named to the ASU Alumni Association’s Sun Devil 100 Class of 2025, where Move For Hunger was ranked third in revenue growth for the 2023 fiscal year in the $10 million-plus category.

“It's an incredible feeling to be honored with so many other amazing Sun Devil alumni that are doing great things in their communities,” Lowy says.

At its core, Lowy’s passion is driven by a mission larger than himself: building a lasting movement.

“Move For Hunger is about helping companies leverage the resources they already have to help support the communities they serve,” he says. “If we shut our doors tomorrow, thousands of companies would continue to fight hunger and food waste every day. Nonprofits exist to solve problems, and that's what we're trying to do.”