Kellie Pickler spent Tuesday morning (June 26) at the Nashville headquarters of the Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee, where she and a group of middle-school children loaded backpacks to help hungry children in need. Her presence there was also a way to pay tribute to those who give selflessly to fight hunger on a daily basis. Now, the "Tough" singer finds herself "fired up" about the issue, announcing her participation in the Hunger-Free Summer program, which partners her with the ConAgra Foods Foundation and Feeding America.

The staggering statistics, that nearly 400,000 children in Tennessee don't know where their next meal is coming from, have obviously had an effect on Kellie, who sat down with The Boot for an exclusive interview on Tuesday afternoon to talk about the program and the ways her fans can make a difference.

"My brother is 12, he was there helping," Kellie tells The Boot of the morning's activity. "It's really a way to help give, even if you're not able to donate money, there are still other ways to help and make a big difference and to save a life. You can do something as simple as being a part of this campaign. There are a lot of people hurting all over the world and we should do everything we can to help everybody. But I also think we should help the people here in our country, in our backyard. You see the commercials on television of all these third-world countries that are hurting, and we should help them, too. But we've got to help the kids here as well."

Dean Dixon, ConAgra Foods Foundation
Dean Dixon, ConAgra Foods Foundation
loading...


One of the easiest ways to offer help is to visit ConAgra Food's Facebook page, to download a free copy of "The Hunger Avengers," an activity booklet for kids designed to raise awareness of child hunger. For each download of the book from now until Sept. 3, 2012, ConAgra Foods Foundation will donate the equivalent of one meal (or $0.13, the cost to provide one meal through Feeding America's network of food banks) to Feeding America, with the goal of reaching 500,000 meals. "Share" with your Facebook friends and another meal will then be donated.

"This program doesn't cost anything but two minutes of your time," says the passionate singer. "There's no excuse not to help. If you have a computer, if you have a Facebook page, there is absolutely no excuse for you not to download a booklet and share it with your friends. Two seconds, two clicks, bam! No excuse except laziness ... and that's not an excuse. You alone can help provide two meals for a child that would not be eating today if it weren't for you. As many people as are on Facebook, there's no reason we can't meet our goal. There's almost half a million kids in Tennessee that have the worry and the burden and stress of wondering if they're going to eat today. That's a problem. That's a big issue and it's not acceptable. Not to me, anyhow. Especially when we have the means to fix this problem and we do. That's why we're here, because it is fixable. This is about the kids. The only thing they should have to worry about is being a kid."

Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee serves 46 counties in the Volunteer state and feeds nearly 8,600 children each week through its children's feeding programs. Feeding America's network members (of more than 200 food banks) supply food to over 37 million Americans each year.

Watch Kellie Perform 'Unlock That Honky Tonk' in Our Studio

if(typeof AOLVP_cfg==='undefined')AOLVP_cfg=[];AOLVP_cfg.push({id:'AOLVP_1445323332001','codever':0.1,'autoload':false,'autoplay':false,'displaymnads':true,'playerid':'89761511001','videoid':'1445323332001','width':476,'height':357,'playertype':'inline','stillurl':'dynamic','videolink':'#','videotitle':'dynamic','videodesc':''});

More From TheBoot