ABC’s hit comedy “Abbott Elementary” may center around teachers who want the best for their students, but the show is just as passionate about philanthropy in real life.
According to Variety, Warner Bros. TV will be donating 150,000 meals to Feeding America to help raise awareness of food insecurity.
This initiative kicked off on Monday, April 11, and will wrap on Friday, April 15. The network has joined forces with influencer chefs Eitan Bernath and Ahmad Alzahbi for the “Think Outside the Box” campaign. The chefs will curate lunchbox meals while speaking on the impacts of food insecurity on their social media.
“Elevating the issue of food insecurity is essential in the fight to end hunger,” Lauren Biedron, vice president of corporate partnerships at Feeding America, said in a statement to the publication. “We are grateful to Warner Bros. Television, ABC/Disney and the ‘Abbott Elementary’ team for joining us to help ensure that our neighbors facing hunger get the meals that they need.”
Each dollar donated to Feeding America provides at least ten meals to families in need through a network of member food banks.
In an interview with The New York Times, “Abbott Elemnetary” creator Quinta Brunson explained what inspired her to center her idea around a school.
“Part of what made me want to base “Abbott” around elementary school was that I knew the audience would understand that these teachers’ job is to keep these kids alive and to teach them. They get that. So now you’re more invested in, How are they going to do this? Who are they? What kind of person takes this job?” she shared. “It was important for me to show that in a grounded way. There was another good show recently: “Teachers” on TV Land. That took place in an elementary school, but that show was done in a heightened, kind of cartoony way. What if we took the approach that teachers are real people instead of heightened stereotypes? That was kind of my goal, and that was inspired by
my mother.”
Brunson’s mother, Norma Jean Brunson, is a longtime Philadelphia kindergarten teacher.
