Healthy Living: Presidential family member totes her battle to fight hunger back to NYC
Hunger and malnutrition have often been called the world’s biggest health threat, and former model Lauren Bush Lauren, who is the niece of former President George W. Bush and granddaughter of former President George H.W. Bush, has answered the call with her own charitable business that has fed millions of children. YNN's Kafi Drexel filed the following report.
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Through the sale of her socially-conscious FEED Projects reusable tote bags, former model and presidential relative Lauren Bush Lauren has helped to feed about 60 million children school meals in some of the poorest countries around the globe.
"I call myself sort of an accidental entrepreneur. It really came from the very simple idea I had after traveling with the UN World Food Programme and really learning about the issues of hunger and poverty firsthand and wanting to do something," says Bush Lauren. "Feeling frustrated that I didn’t have a way to allow other people and myself to get involved and know we were making a measurable impact, that’s when I thought of the FEED bag idea."
Hunger and malnutrition doesn’t just hit the poorest countries, but also strikes right here at home. As FEED Projects marks its fifth anniversary, more resources are also going to her fellow New Yorkers.
"We are here at the Yorkville Common Pantry in East Harlem and it is one of the beneficiaries of our FEED NYC line of bags as well as our FEED NYC Fund," says Bush Lauren. "There is such a need here. In New York, one in eight people are food insecure."
The need is great, as last year Yorkville Common Pantry alone served about 1.9 million meals to more than 25,000 city families.
"This partnership allows us to continue to do what we do which is to provide people with the food and services to be self-sufficient," says Yorkville Common Pantry Executive Director Stephen Grimaldi.
As FEED Projects' home operating base is also in the city, and plans are in the works to do even more there, the organization is putting on a benefit concert at Lincoln Center on May 30. The Clarins Million Meals Concert will be hosted by Nick Cannon, with special appearances by John Legend and former President Bill Clinton, and it aims to raise enough cash in one night to provide one million school meals to children around the city and the world.