By Maxine Tatlonghari on
On Tuesday November 16, 2010, I had the pleasure of joining Ali Landry and Yum! Brands as they co-hosted their first LA Area WE CAN Community-wide Food Drive benefiting the Burbank Temporary Aid Center and the Burbank Boys' and Girls' Club.
Ali and volunteers – including celebrity parents Adrienne Maloof-Nassif (“The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills”), Marissa Jaret Winokur (“The Talk”), Ally Walker (“Sons of Anarchy”), and Bill Horn and Scout Masterson (the “Guncles” from “Home Sweet Hollywood”) – greeted contributors curbside to collect their canned good contributions to benefit the Burbank Temporary Aid Center.
In addition to hosting the WE CAN Food Drive, Ali and her celebrity friends served the children and staff members of the Boys & Girls Clubs a pre-Thanksgiving KFC dinner complete with KFC’s world famous chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, corn and biscuits. In fact, when I asked the celebrities why they came out to support this cause, many cited the fact that Ali had asked them. Of course, they were engaged by the cause but it really helped to have that personal touch from Ali herself. I had the pleasure of talking with many of the stars involved, and the interviews will feature on LookToTheStars.org over the next few days.
Approximately 100 children/members of the Boys & Girls Club of Burbank were served. The kids were so cute and full of energy that day. It was a family affair as Adrienne Maloof was accompanied by her three sons (ages 7 and 4), Marissa Jaret Winokur with her 2 year old son and Ali Landry with her 3 year old daughter. Marissa Jaret Winokur’s son Zev loved putting the cans into the collection bins, while Adrienne Maloof’s sons and Ali Landry’s daughter helped to serve the food! While I was interviewing Marissa, her adorable Zev was “riding” the police motorcycle in front of us with a huge smile on his face. It really drove home the fact that Marissa is a ten-year cancer survivor and that the work of American Cancer Society (and organizations like it) and their more birthdays campaign is so important.
The Burbank Temporary Aid Center is a small organization serving those in need at a time when the need has never been greater. In fact, the agency has experienced an increase in demand of 300% over previous years. It’s through the dedication and commitment of volunteers such as you that the agency is able to meet this demand. The Boys and Girls Club serves over 2,000 children annually, providing affordable after school care, day care and mentoring programs. The staff and members of the Boys & Girls Club are proud supports of the Burbank Temporary Aid Society, assisting the agency throughout the year with canned food drives and fundraisers.
Yum! Brands’ annual World Hunger Relief campaign, now in its fourth year, is the world’s largest private sector hunger relief effort, spanning more than 110 countries, 37,000 KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Long John Silver’s and A&W All-American Food restaurants and over one million employees, to raise awareness, volunteerism and funds for the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) and other hunger relief agencies. Multi-Grammy Award winner and pop superstar Christina Aguilera serves as the global spokesperson for World Hunger Relief.
In the past three years, Yum! Brands’ World Hunger Relief campaign has raised nearly $60 million for WFP and other hunger relief organizations and is helping to provide approximately 250 million meals, saving the lives of millions of people in remote corners of the world. More than one million of the Company’s employees, franchisees and their families have volunteered more than 15 million hours to aid hunger relief efforts in communities worldwide.
For more than ten years, the Company has also donated nearly $50 million of prepared food annually to the those in need in the United States through an established program and partner, Food Donation Connection. Since the Company went public in 1997, it has donated more than $550 million of its food to 3,000 hunger relief agencies in the U.S. The Company also has been the primary sponsor of the Dare to Care Food Bank in Louisville for nine years, and has donated $9 million to this local agency.
Copyright © 2010 Look to the Stars
