Singer-actress Hilary Duff brought her Blessings in a Backpack program
to Colombia Friday to distribute 3,000 knapsacks of food to poor
children in a school district south of the capital city.
Duff will spend three days visiting children and participating in a
vaccination campaign. She was greeted by Bogota Mayor Samuel Moreno,
whom Duff said gave her “an amazing invitation” to bring the program to
Colombia.
“We’ve been working for four years feeding children
over the weekends,” she said. “They invited us to come here, and we got
our first school in Bogota.”
Duff and USA Harvest founder Stan
Curtis started Blessings in a Backpack for children who get their best
meals at school, giving them backpacks of food every Friday to take
home and share with their families when they’re away from their main
source of nutrition. The program serves 106 schools and 26,000 children
in the U.S. and Canada.
Colombia is the third country to take on
the program, said Duff, 21, who earned fame as the teenage character
Lizzie McGuire in a Disney series of the same title. She has appeared
more recently in “War, Inc.” and “Material Girls” and recorded several
hit songs and music videos.
Duff said she only has time to visit
Colombia because of work. She is filming six episodes of the television
series “Gossip Girl,” followed by a romantic comedy and a remake of
“Bonnie and Clyde.”
When asked if she had a favorite Colombian
singer, she said Shakira, who also does charity work with children in
her home country.
“I think she’s an amazing writer,” Duff said.
“She really has a strong idea of what she wants and she can play a lot
of instruments and that really impresses me.” (AP)