This article appeared in the Miami Herald

April 4, 2007

Bush's niece helps U.N. food agency

Fashion model Lauren Bush, the niece of President Bush, helped the U.N. food agency launch the sale of a new tote bag on Monday to raise money to feed the world's hungry children, reports The Associated Press.

The 22-year-old Bush designed the burlap and muslin ''FEED bag'' to look like one of the agency's grain sacks, which she has seen in her visits to World Food Program operations in Africa, Asia and Latin America over the past three years in her capacity as an honorary spokeswoman for the agency.

The agency said proceeds from the sale of each large, reversible bag will feed one child at school for a year as part of WFP's efforts to provide millions of children with free lunches, often the only meal they eat each day.

The shoulder bag is stamped with ''FEED the children of the world'' on one side. The other side has a ''1,'' a reminder of the one child being fed.

In 2005, WFP said the free lunch program provided meals for 21.7 million of the nearly 400 million children around the world who are chronically hungry.

It costs $34 to feed one child for an academic year; the bags will be sold for $59.95 on Amazon.com, the agency said.