News Release

14 March 2006

ACTRESS DREW BARRYMORE PHOTO AUCTION

RAISES $20,000 TO FEED KENYA HUNGRY

NEW YORK - The World Food Program today thanked actress Drew Barrymore and Marie Claire Magazine for focusing international attention on the plight of millions of hungry Kenyans who are currently in the grip of poverty and a deadly drought.

During an auction held last night at the International Center for Photography, and attended by actors Hugh Grant, Lucy Liu and Jimmy Fallon of NBC’s Saturday Night Live, photos by Ms. Barrymore and photographer Evelyn Hockstein fetched almost $18,656. (Mr. Grant and Ms. Liu were among the winning bidders.) The money is enough to feed almost 100,000 children for a day in WFP school feeding projects.

“Blessed to be a part of this and humbled in every way,” said Barrymore when informed of the auction tally. “This proves everyone can make a difference.”

The auction comes in the heels of a major and extensive cover story in Marie Claire magazine which featured Drew Barrymore who travelled to Kenya to see first-hand the effects of hunger on the poor, especially girls and women in the urban slums.

As part of Marie Claire’s World Hunger Campaign, the magazine is donating a percentage of the proceeds of new subscriptions to WFP’s Kenya operations. Marie Claire has also launched a campaign to sell sterling-silver lockets to feed hungry schoolchildren in Kenya. The lockets sell for $29.95 and can be purchased by going to www.netaya.com.

“This is the most amazing thing I’ve done in my career,” said Marie Claire editor-in-Chief Lesley Jane Seymour, who travelled to Kenya with Ms. Barrymore. “We have been given so much and it’s such a joy to give back.”

WFP is currently facing a major crisis across East Africa where drought resulting from consecutive seasons of failed rains is affecting over 11 million people. WFP is attempting to feed 6.5 million of these: in Kenya (3.5 million people), southern Somalia (1 million), Ethiopia (1.7 million) and Djibouti (50,000).

However, there are fears of a human catastrophe unless WFP receives urgent contributions. So far, WFP has received less than one third of the $314 million needed to feed the hungry people in the region. To make a contribution to the hungry there, please go to www.friendsofwfp.org.

“This generous initiative by Drew Barrymore and Marie Claire is extremely important,” said WFP Director of Communications Neil Gallagher. “Not only does it help focus international attention on a devastating threat to millions of people, but it shows that each one of us not only has a role in easing the suffering of these innocent victims who are in their sixth year of a natural disaster not of their making.”

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WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian agency: each year, we give food to an average of 90 million poor people to meet their nutritional needs, including 61 million hungry children, in at least 80 of the world’s poorest countries. WFP—We feed People.

WFP Global School Feeding Campaign—for just 19 US cents a day, you can help WFP give children in poor countries a healthy meal at school—a gift of hope for a brighter future.

Visit our website: www.wfp.org

For more information please contact:

Trevor Rowe, WFP/New York: 212-963-5196; Cell. 646-824-1112.

Margaret Carrington, WFP/New York: 917-367-5431; Cell: 917-428-1411

Peter Smerdon, WFP/Nairobi: 254-20-7622179; Cell. 254-733-528911