No Kid Hungry Chicago Chef Campaign

Stephanie in the alley behind Girl & the Goat.

Several weeks ago members of the state legislature gathered at a Chicago elementary school with local media, joined by representatives of the Greater Chicago Food Depository, students, parents, and staff from Share Our Strength and Taste of the Nation Chicago. The gathering marked the launch of No Kid Hungry Illinois, a statewide collaborative effort supported by government, schools, and the Greater Chicago Food Depository, and anchored by Share Our Strength. No Kid Hungry, a national program developed to help eliminate childhood hunger by 2015 on a state-by-state level, has the potential to do a heck of a lot of good for hungry children in Illinois—and we're taking this very seriously at Taste of the Nation.

You've seen us post a lot to twitter and Facebook about the "No Kid Hungry Pledge," but maybe you haven't quite understood exactly what that means. It's pretty simple: if you think no child should ever skip a meal or go hungry, you're going to want to take this pledge. Here's what you agree to:

I believe that no child in America should go hungry. By pledging today, I add my voice to the national movement of people committed to ending childhood hunger in America by 2015.

And here's more about No Kid Hungry:

Yes. That's Jeff Bridges, The Dude, working as a spokesperson for this very cause. Pretty effective, right? And that's the very reason we've teamed up with Galdones Photography for our own No Kid Hungry campaign.

Over the next couple of weeks we'll be visiting Chicago kitchens to photograph chefs who have been advocates and supporters for Share Our Strength and Taste of the Nation Chicago. We started with chefs Jared Van Camp (Nellcôte, Old Town Social) and Stephanie Izard (Girl & the Goat), shooting the two of them in the alley behind Stephanie's restaurant. And just like Jeff Bridges, they're encouraging you to take the pledge.

Blake films as Huge shoots Jared.

You'll see these photographs on display at Taste of the Nation this August, and we're internally discussing other means in which they might be used to help drive awareness for this cause. But one of the biggest ways you can help? Take the pledge and share it with friends. So far over 150,000 people have taken the pledge—a great number, but we should be able to get that many people on board just in Chicago alone.