Oscar Winner Jeff Bridges Battles Child Hunger

By Kyle LaFleur

Oscar Award winning actor and National Spokesman for Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry  campaign Jeff Bridges addressed Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley (D) and members of the National Press Club on his fight to end child hunger in America.  

“According to the United States Department of Agriculture currently we have 17 million of our children living in food insecure homes,” said Bridges. “These are households where they are not certain if they are going to get enough nutritious food to lead a healthy active life. That’s one in four of our kids, 17 million.” 

Bridges applauded but critiqued the work of federally funded programs such as SNAP (formerly Food Stamps), WIC, and various school meal programs. Bridges said that there is no problem with the programs themselves but rather that their efforts do not reach enough children, especially during summer.  According to Bridges, of all the children eligible to receive food from schools during the summer months, only 15 percent participate. 

“Poverty is a very complex issue but feeding a child isn’t,” said Bridges. 

The “Crazy Heart” star praised Governor O’Malley for making Maryland the first “No Kid Hungry” state in the nation.

“He is an inspiration to all of us and hopefully to all of the other governors,” he said.