Kellie Pickler becomes face of ConAgra hunger awareness campaign

OMAHA, Neb. — Country music artist Kellie Pickler has been named the national spokesperson for the ConAgra Foods Foundation Hunger-Free Summer program. The joint effort between the ConAgra Foods Foundation and Feeding America helps provide children with access to nutritious meals, especially in the summer.



Pickler will kick off the third year of the program by visiting Nashville's Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee where she will assist in food fulfillment activities as a volunteer and unveil a downloadable activity booklet that offers families a way to donate meals to Feeding America while teaching children about the issue of hunger. For each booklet downloaded from https://www.facebook.com/ConAgraFoods between today and Sept. 3, the ConAgra Foods Foundation will donate the monetary equivalent of one meal* to Feeding America, up to 500,000 meals this summer. The organization will also donate the monetary equivalent of one meal for every "Share" on Facebook.



During the school year, almost 21 million children in the United States depend on free or reduced-priced school meals to help keep them from going hungry. Sadly, millions of these same children do not participate in summer meal programs due, in part, to a lack of awareness of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's "Summer Food Service Program," which provides children from low-income families with free, nutritious meals during the summer months. The ConAgra Foods Foundation Hunger-Free Summer campaign helps raise awareness and additional meals to support food banks and reach children who would otherwise go hungry when school is out.



"At some point, all of us have encountered hungry children in our own community, but I was shocked to learn that millions of kids may go hungry during the summer," said Pickler. "That is why I am honored to be working with the ConAgra Foods Foundation and Feeding America to raise awareness of this problem and show there's help through programs like Hunger-Free Summer."



The goal of the Hunger-Free Summer campaign is to help participating Feeding America network food banks serve an additional one million meals through their unique and innovative, community-based programs. This summer, 23 food banks in 15 states have received grants from Feeding America, thanks to $5 million in funding provided by the ConAgra Foods Foundation.