{"id":379950,"date":"2026-06-29T23:47:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T23:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/379950\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T23:47:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T23:47:08","slug":"auction-of-celebrity-signed-groceries-benefits-hungry-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/379950\/","title":{"rendered":"Auction of Celebrity-Signed Groceries Benefits Hungry Kids"},"content":{"rendered":"

Free school lunches are harder to come by during summer break, so buy an autographed box of Cheerios to help out<\/p>\n

Every day, the number of kids who attend Los Angeles schools is greater than the entire population of Miami, Atlanta, or Sacramento. The district covers over 700 square miles, including parts of Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Culver City and Long Beach.<\/p>\n

Under California\u2019s Universal Meals program<\/a>, every one of those students is entitled to eat up to three meals a day during the school year. \u201cWe know that when 75% or more of the kids in our community live at or below the\u00a0poverty\u00a0level,\u201d former LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho told the Los Angeles Times<\/a> in 2023. \u201cSchool\u00a0for them is far more than just a great education \u2014 it\u2019s where they receive nourishing meals every day.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Pringles can autographed by Mario LopezCredit: Photo courtesy Nourish the American Dream<\/p>\n

Lately, LAUSD has been working hard to improve the quality and desirability of their menu, adding fruit smoothies, spicy Nashville-inspired chicken tenders and a carnitas bowl. The district\u2019s food services division<\/a> serves over 100 million meals every year. This is the largest School Breakfast Program and the second largest National School Lunch Program in the United States. They even take feedback and eliminate items that do not score at least 70% student approval rating.<\/p>\n

Having said all that, there are still kids who go hungry during the summer break. LAUSD runs a Summer Meal Program<\/a> that started last week and runs through July 20 at more than 400 schools, but that doesn\u2019t reach everyone and around a half-million school-age children live in food-insecure households, the most in the state.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Planters Peanuts can signed by Kathy BatesCredit: Photo courtesy Nourish the American Dream<\/p>\n

Non-profits Nourish the American Dream<\/a> and the Dream Pantry Auction<\/a> are raising funds to help feed kids during the summer. From July 1 to July 7 there will be donation stations at Albertsons, Vons and Pavilions\u00a0stores and sports and entertainment stars including Robert Downey Jr., Khlo\u00e9 Kardashian, Tony Hawk, Stephen Curry and Mario Lopez are donating signed boxes of food to be auctioned off to help the effort.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Cheerios box signed by Mario LopezCredit: Photo courtesy Nourish the American Dream<\/p>\n

Scroll to continue reading<\/p>\n

Lopez serves as the national spokesman for the campaign, sponsored by the Albertsons Companies Foundation<\/a>. \u201cGrowing up, I saw how difficult it can be for families when food isn\u2019t always guaranteed, which is why this cause is so important to me,\u201d Lopez said in a statement. \u201c\u2018Nourish the American Dream\u2019 is about bringing people together to end childhood hunger, and I wanted to rally as many Americans as possible to join in.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

The auction<\/a> starts Wednesday, with opening bids on the can of Pringles signed by Lopez, the jar of Planters peanuts signed by Kathy Bates and the Frosted Flakes signed by Tony Hawk all starting at $50. I would guess the chips, peanuts and cereal are included.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Free school lunches are harder to come by during summer break, so buy an autographed box of Cheerios…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379951,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[151891,153666,135449,48,52,51,17248,47,50,49,147435,153667,14843,56985],"class_list":["post-379950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-albert-carvalho","tag-kathy-bates","tag-khloe-kardashian","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-lausd","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-mario-lopez","tag-robert-downey-jr","tag-stephen-curry","tag-tony-hawk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}