MAZON's celebrity spokespeople, Jeremy Piven & Michael Ian Black, have joined the MAZON team to help us in the fight against hunger.

What Jeremy has to say...

As driven and successful super agent Ari Gold on HBO’s “Entourage,” I play a character well acquainted with the finer things in life.  In real life, I have also been lucky, enjoying a level of success that carries with it many financial rewards.

And yet, I am constantly mindful of those millions of Americans who have not been similarly blessed, and for whom each day is a struggle to make ends meet.  From an early age, my parents instilled in me the obligation to give back to the community, to be a part of a network of people offering support to families down on their luck.  Today, that has become more important than ever before.

Increasingly, we are a nation of opposites, of great wealth and enormous poverty.  While so many of us see our incomes grow, literally millions of others live on the margins, unable to afford basic necessities like shelter or food.  Every day, we hear about people pushed out of their homes with nowhere to go, of low-income workers laid off without prospects for another job, of kids at risk of diabetes and other life-threatening diseases because their parents can’t provide them with basic nutritious meals.  And these are just the stories that are in the paper or make it onto the nightly news, a mere fraction of the suffering that occurs throughout our country and beyond.

I believe that things don’t have to be this way.  Ours is an amazing country, filled not only with vast resources, but also with people committed to using them for the common good.  I’m not saying it will be simple or easy.  But, through careful collaboration, I know we can make life better for so many families who want nothing more than to provide for their children and grandchildren.

I am especially proud of one organization working to make a difference.  MAZON is a group that brings people of all faiths and backgrounds together in the fight against hunger.  By focusing on both alleviating hunger and ending it permanently, the work they do today plants a seed for tomorrow.

Poverty is a complicated problem, but we don’t need the resources of Ari Gold to make a difference.  It’s a problem we can fix, not by hugging it out, but by working it out, together.

What Michael has to say...

In late August 2005, I was glued, as many of us were, to my television as Hurricane Katrina ravaged Louisiana and Mississippi. As the storm hit, I could not believe the devastation I was seeing. It was the stories that I heard in the storm’s aftermath, of those struggling to live day-to-day that moved me to act on behalf of those who are hungry.

Soon after the storm, I was asked to participate in a celebrity poker tournament to raise funds for organizations that helped victims of the hurricane. I played on behalf of MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger because of its dedication to providing critical food aid to those who desperately needed it throughout the region. I was so impressed not only with their first response, but also with the assistance they continued to provide in the region long after the floodwaters had receded. I appreciated MAZON’s willingness to address both the short- and long-term needs of the affected communities.

Since the hurricane, I have begun to understand the larger picture of hunger in the United States and the urgent need to address it not only today, but also through the lens of tomorrow. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, over 35 million people, including 12 million children, are hungry or on the verge of hunger. Today, the hard work of our nation’s food banks, food pantries and soup kitchens ensures that children don’t go to bed with empty bellies and adults have enough food to make it through the day. But what about tomorrow? How will these people find their next meal? It is our responsibility to join together and speak up on their behalf.

Each of us can play a part in ending hunger: by volunteering at a local soup kitchen; writing a letter to our elected officials; learning about hunger; and providing those who are hungry with the resources to get back on their feet through MAZON. Please join me in making a difference in so many lives.

Click here to learn more about MAZON's work.