When your mom runs a do-good organization that has donated over 100 million meals to hungry kids around the world, you’re bound to grow up feeling a duty to help others.
But FEED Projects founder Lauren Bush Lauren said that right now, she and husband David Lauren are just starting with the basics when it comes to their son, James. After all, he’s only two.
‘I definitely want him to grow up conscious of the world and feeling empowered to help and make a difference where and when he can,’ she told DailyMail.com.
Happy ten years! Lauren Bush Lauren spoke to DailyMail.com about her decade heading up FEED Projects
Giving family: She said she wants her son James, who just turned two, to ‘grow up conscious of the world and feeling empowered to help and make a difference where and when he can’
Someone’s expecting! She announced on Instagram on Thanksgiving that James is going to be a big brother come May
Good start! She and her husband David Lauren want to instill the idea of service in James, but said for now the little boy is just learning about sharing
‘James just turned two so he is a bit young to grasp the idea of service and giving back, but we are starting with the concept of sharing and will go from there,’ Lauren added.
Sharing is going to become increasingly important now that the little boy is getting a new little sister or brother next spring.
Just two days after he celebrated his second birthday on November 21, Lauren took to Instagram to announce that she’s expecting once again.
‘Feeling extra gratitude for this little boy and to be adding another cub to our tribe next May!’ she wrote on Thanksgiving, captioning a picture of James playing near a tree on her father-in-law Ralph Lauren’s Double RL Ranch in Colorado.
For now, the blonde toddler has a bit more time to enjoy being an only child, including during the holiday season.
Holiday fun: Lauren (pictured with James on Christmas last year) said they’ll be ‘taking it easy’ during the holidays but will probably decorate some cookies
Happy family: Lauren and David celebrated their sixth wedding anniversary this year
Big honor: On Monday, Lauren received the International Quality of Life Awards’ Laureate Award
Big deal: She was recognized for FEED Projects and said it was ‘quite surreal’ to take home an award that has been accepted by ‘so many of my personal heroes’
‘We plan on just taking it easy and spending some good old fashion quality time together,’ Lauren said of her family’s plans. ‘And perhaps some cookie decorating at some point!’
The soon-to-be mother-of-two will be squeezing those festivities into what is likely a packed schedule. The granddaughter of former President George H. W. Bush, Lauren is also the CEO of FEED Projects, an organization she launched ten years ago after serving as an honorary spokesperson for the World Food Programme.
The work takes her all over the world, and on Monday, she received the Laureate Award at the International Quality of Life Awards held at the United Nations — an honor that has previously been given to Madeleine Albright and Desmond Tutu.
‘It was a huge honor and quite surreal,’ she said of the award, noting how ‘so many of my personal heroes’ accepted it before her. ‘I feel that my work with FEED to help fight hunger is just getting started, but this recognition was very encouraging.’
A decade of giving: This year, FEED Projects celebrated its tenth anniversary
Major: In that time, proceeds from sales of the brand’s bags, jewelry, and accessories have provided over 100 million meals for children around the world
Though it’s ‘just getting started,’ Lauren certainly has accomplished a lot since FEED began in 2007.
FEED — which launched with a single burlap tote but now offers leather bags, jewelry, and apparel as well — donates proceeds from every item sold to the UN World Food Programme.
Those donations provide nutritious meals for impoverished children (as well as pregnant and nursing mothers) in countries like the US, Guatemala, Haiti, Kenya, Rwanda, Syria, and Egypt.
For example, the purchase of a $198 Ruby Whipstitch Crossbody Bag provides 100 meals. A $48 Jenny Cuff provides 25 meals.
All those meals add up, and recently, the brand reached a major milestone.
‘This past fall we reached 100 million meals donated, which was truly one of my proudest moments since starting FEED,’ Lauren said.
Getting to work: This summer, she visited Madagascar (pictured) and said it ‘was so inspiring to see the UN World Food Programme’s School Feeding Program in action’
Hands-on! She also stopped in Mozambique, saying ‘was a highlight of the trip for us to volunteer and help prepare the school meal with the moms of the community’
FEED started with a simple burlap bag (left), but now sells a wide range of products, some of which are made by people in the countries where meals are donated
Keeping them healthy: Each item provides a number of meals to children and new mothers
Goodies: Lauren said the product line will be expanding in 2018
In 2018, they’ll be adding more to their product line-up — which includes pieces made by artisans in Colombia, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Kenya, El Salvador, and Peru in order to provide livelihoods to those populations.
Lauren also visits many of these countries to help her mission. This summer, she traveled to Mozambique and Madagascar, where she got to meet some of the children that FEED, well, feeds.
‘It was so inspiring to see the UN World Food Programme’s School Feeding Program in action, with kids going to school and receiving a free school lunch,’ she said. ‘This free lunch helps provide them with some of the daily nutrition they need, and it also encourages education.
‘It was a highlight of the trip for us to volunteer and help prepare the school meal with the moms of the community, as well as get to dish it out to a long line of sweet, curious kids.’
Instilled at a young age: In the past, Lauren has spoken about how much the importance of service was stressed in her family
In the family: She, her sister Ashley (pictured), and her brother Pierce are grandchildren of former President George H.W. Bush
Though she grew up with privilege, Lauren is very aware of how that was a matter of good luck.
‘It’s a birth lottery,’ she told the Huffington Post in 2013. ‘Depending on where you’re born, you literally could be born into a life where you don’t know where your next meal is coming from.’
It’s not much of a surprise, though, that she’s has made it her mission to help others. The granddaughter of one president and the niece of another, the idea of ‘service’ was always stressed in her family.
‘I did grow up in a household where the narrative was about public service, and how are you going to effect change and help people,’ she said at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Next Gen Summit last month. ‘I’m so glad I grew up around that narrative, but I never had the calling to go out and shake hands and try to get elected.’