- We are back and hanging out with Gordon Ramsey
and Cheryl Burke, give it up.
(audience cheering)
So Gordon, you're really passionate about
kids having access to good food, I mean, obviously right,
you've got kids and also your chefs,
you want kids to have good food access, right?
- Yeah, that's really important,
also just getting that sort of one good meal of the day
and yeah, we grew up on food stamps and so,
it was embarrassing at the time
because you're called out to go and get in a special line
and so you sort of, you then understand the parents
that got that money to sort of eat properly,
so that school lunch or pack lunch was crucial.
- That's interesting, I love that though,
that where you've come from and where you're at now
and really appreciate that, that's so cool.
Well, for way too many kids in this country,
the only chance for a nutritious meal
is the government subsidized free lunch program at schools.
That means many kids still go hungry on the weekends
effecting not only their health, but their mindset.
My next guest is working hard
to change that for kids in Baltimore.
She is what we call a good neighbor.
♪ Good, good so good ♪
♪ Good neighbor, so good ♪
From Baltimore Hunger Project,
please welcome Lynne Kahn.
(audience clapping)
So Lynne, meet Gordon, meet Cheryl.
- Hi, nice to meet you. - So nice to see you.
- So you've been dedicated to feeding those in need
for more than a decade, right?
- I have, yes. - It's a long time.
How did you get started?
- I am a full-time accountant,
I'm a wife, I'm a mom of two kids,
and in 2009, when I turned 40,
I wanted to do something to give back to my community.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- And so I took a look at my kids
and I saw how blessed they were and I realized
how many children are not as fortunate as my own
and are having trouble making...
- [Kelly] Ends meet, yeah.
- Yeah, make ends meet
and so I got together with some friends
and we started something called Lynne's Garage,
which was an opportunity to come to our house
and make lunches for two women
and children's homeless shelters.
So one Sunday, a month for nine years, we made 250 lunches
and I was able to take them to the shelters,
and when I would show up,
the kids would come running out and they would say,
"Are you the lunch lady?" and I would say, "Today I am",
because I was bringing lunches for them and each month,
the moms would share with me how impactful it was
for their kids to receive a brown bag lunch
and that they could show up at school just like their peers,
even though that their lives were so different.
- Yeah, and that actually led
to Baltimore Hunger Project, right?
So what exactly do y'all do?
- So Baltimore Hunger Project is dedicated to
eliminating weekend childhood hunger
and we focus on kids who receive free breakfast and lunch
Monday through Friday.
And we want to bridge that hunger gap
from Friday afternoon to Monday mornings.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- So we send home a weekend sized bag of food
for our children.
I had seen a study that showed
kids who don't eat over the weekend,
it takes them until Wednesday
till they can focus on their studies.
And I wanna be sure that the kids that we are supporting
are treated exactly like my own kids.
So every week we have over a hundred volunteers
who come through and put together our weekend food bags.
They deliver the food bags to the schools
and the kids are identified by the guidance counselors
as the ones who are most in need.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- And then they take our food bags
and slip it into the kids' backpacks before they go home.
- [Gordon] Wow!
- So for us, it's the dignity of the kids that we--
- I was just about to say that, yeah,
just it takes away that shame,
I feel like that you were talking about when you said,
you were in that separate line
and slipping in their backpack
makes them feel like more normal, that's gotta be helpful,
it's hard enough school with kids.
- Yeah, really smart ideas, stops that complex,
stops that level anxiety and also more importantly
gives them that kind of nutrient and nourishment they need,
desperately need, especially when you said that
they're not focused until Wednesday, which is ridiculous.
No kids should be suffering that.
- That's right and so the dignity and handing the food
in a compassionate manner is really important to us.
- Yeah, what goes in the bag?
- So each food bag has four cans of protein,
box of cereal, box of milk, box of juice,
apple sauce pouch, protein bars, fruit snacks
and so we had learned a couple of years ago,
one of our teachers had called us and told us that
one of her students was in the faculty lounge,
rummaging through the drawers and she came in and she said,
"What are you doing?" And he said,
"I'm looking for a fork"
"because when I take this food bag home,"
"I don't have silverware at home."
- Wow!
- So I couldn't believe
and I also knew that he couldn't be the only child
that that was happening to
and so now inside each of our food bags,
we put plastic silverware, a napkin,
a note of encouragement and a can opener
because we wanna eliminate the barriers
that the kids might face when they take our food bags home.
- They're really important.
- Yeah, well, what's next for the food project?
- So currently we support 1600 children every Friday.
- Wow!
- Yes and we have over 2000 kids on our wait list
in order to...
- No.
- Yeah, so we live in Baltimore County and 114,000 students
receive free and reduced meals at schools.
And so we're just scratching the surface of the kids
who need our assistance and so what's next for us,
obviously we would like to put ourselves out of business,
but until we do that, we wanna make sure
that we're supporting as many kids as we can
and that we are taking care of them
in the same way we would take care of our own kids.
- Absolutely and well Conagra believes that
everybody deserves access to healthy and nutritious food.
When they heard about all the great work you're doing
to feed kids on the weekends,
it's so important and they wanted to help,
so they're donating $10,000 to your foundation.
(audience cheers)
And please let us know how else we can help in the future
'cause we wanna reach all those kids
that you said that are on that waiting list.
Nobody should be on that waiting list,
these are kids that didn't,
these are the cards that were dealt to them,
it's not their fault so, and you know what,
every family, my family, we all have hard times.
I think everybody really understands the impact of that
for the last two years.
People can fall under financially hard times,
so we really have to take care of each other
and I love what you're doing,