The Advertising Council and Feeding America, a domestic hunger relief organization, introduced a public service campaign on Thursday to tackle childhood hunger.
According to the New York Times, the campaign from the Ad Council and Feeding America underscores how food banks distribute food to people in need.
According to the Agriculture Department, almost 16 million children or more than one in five, face hunger in the United States. About 50 million Americans are living in a food insecure household. The figures have remained unchanged since the economic downtown in 2008. The numbers are also higher than it was a decade ago.
The campaign is aimed at bringing awareness and target the current hunger problem Americans are facing.
Feeding America supplies food to more than 37 million Americans through a network of 200 local food banks. Those food banks, in turn, distribute food to 61,000 food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters.
The new ad's released coincide with Feeding America's Hunger Action Day. This is part of September's Hunger Action Month. The ads are displayed through TV, radio, print, outdoor and digital executions.
According to the New York Times, the television ad uses video of workers and volunteers at the Food Share food bank in Oxnard, Calif., which is also part of the Feeding America network. They are pictured wearing drawings of angel wings. The voice-over says, "They've earned their wings and you can, too."
The radio ad includes celebrities like singer Kelly Clarkson, the boxer Laila Ali, the chef Curtis Stone and Ms. Guthrie lending their voice to the cause.
In one, Ms. Clarkson says: "Seventeen million kids in America don't know where their next meal is coming from or if it's even coming at all. That's why the Feeding America nationwide network of food banks gets surplus food to hungry kids. They're like food angels. And you can earn your wings, too."
The Hunger campaign has also teamed up with Sony Pictures Animation to create PSAs featuring characters from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, inviting families to help solve hunger in their community.
Priscilla Natkins, an executive vice president of the Ad Council, said when the organization began working on hunger relief efforts, only one in 10 Americans was hungry. The number has dramatically +increased to one in six adults and more than one in five children.
"One reason we've chosen to focus on children is that it is a more poignant approach of illustrating the problem," she said, according to the Times. "The numbers are more stark; it drives home the severity of the issue."
Maura Daly, chief communication and development officer at Feeding America, said the new campaign was aimed at "adults who care" and could make financial contributions or volunteer at a food bank.
Find out how at FeedingAmerica.org.
