Charlotte Moss and Darren Walker on Home, Dignity, and Ending Child Hunger

Interior designer and philanthropist Charlotte Moss and Ford Foundation President Darren Walker discuss the importance of ending child hunger. Moss...

About This Episode

Interior designer and philanthropist Charlotte Moss and Ford Foundation President Darren Walker discuss the importance of ending child hunger. Moss selected No Kid Hungry to be the beneficiary of her latest project, Home: A Celebration . Home is an ode to Edith Wharton’s The Book of the Homeless, which was a 1916 fundraiser to help refugees and children during WWI. Home features 120 artists, poets, chefs, designers, photographers, and writers offering personal reflections on the essence of home. Contributors include Drew Barrymore, Candice Bergen, Tory Burch, Seth Godin, Renee and John Grisham, Bianca Jagger, Annie Leibovitz, Jon Meacham, Bette Midler, Joyce Carol Oates, Al Roker, Gloria Steinem, Darren Walker, and Fanny and Alice Waters. “This is really philanthropy at its best, when people come together to for single cause and give of themselves - in essence sharing their strength - is what you're all about and what this book is all about,” says Moss. Walker was compelled to write the book’s foreword. “It was a moment when we were all experiencing deep anguish in this country over the impacts of COVID which we immediately recognized as compounding the already deep inequality we have in this country… Charlotte used her privilege to raise awareness and consciousness of the conditions of poverty, particularly child poverty, which is the most difficult and pernicious poverty that we have in this country… Charlotte reminded us that there are far too many Americans who live without the dignity of shelter, of food, of nutrition, and particularly the most vulnerable among us, our children,” he says. All royalties from book sales support No Kid Hungry’s essential mission to help end childhood hunger.

Resources and Mentions:

Charlotte Moss

Charlotte Moss is an interior designer and author. She has received numerous honors, including the New York School of Interior Design’s Centennial Medal, The Royal Oak Foundation’s Timeless Design award, is named one of Elle Décor’s Grand Master List of Top Designers and is on the Advisory Board of The New York School of Interior Design where she holds an Honorary Doctorate Degree. She has designed licensed collections with Century Furniture, Fabricut, Stark Carpet, Pickard, P.E. Guerin, Soicher Marin, IBU Clothing Artemis Design Company and more. Moss is a prolific author, having published eleven books to date. Her latest, Home: A Celebration: Notable Voices Reflect on the Meaning of Home (Rizzoli, 2021) benefits No Kid Hungry.

Darren Walker

President

Darren Walker is the former president of the Ford Foundation and is the newly announced president of the National Gallery of Art. He is a member of the Reimagining New York Commission and co-chair of NYC Census 2020. Darren co-chairs New York City’s Mayoral Advisory Commission on City Art, Monuments, and Markers, and has served on the Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform and the UN International Labour Organization Global Commission on the Future of Work. Before joining Ford, Darren was vice president at Rockefeller Foundation and COO of the Abyssinian Development Corporation, Harlem’s largest community development organization.

HOME: A CELEBRATION

Celebrated artists, designers, photographers, writers, actors, and activists offer personal reflections on the essence of home in this inspirational book to benefit No Kid Hungry. Filled with personal insight, humor, creativity, joy, and poignancy, Home: A Celebration is a lyrical ode to sanctuary and a thoughtful and inspirational book to peruse again and again. Through the lenses of their crafts and passions, each illustrious contributor presents an offering—either a personal text or work of art—on what home means to them. Historian Jon Meacham discusses books as the emotional infrastructure of the houses in his life. Photographer Oberto Gili documents the glorious garden at his property in northwest Italy. Chef Alice Waters proffers a recipe from her home garden. Interior designers—including Nina Campbell, Steven Gambrel, and Kelly Wearstler—share aspects of their profession that define home to them. Other notable pieces are from Joan Juliet Buck, Julian Fellowes, John Grisham, Jill Kargman, Joyce Carol Oates, and Gloria Steinem. Charlotte Moss’s inspiration for this project is Edith Wharton’s The Book of the Homeless (1916), a fundraising effort that aided refugees and children during the First World War. For this book, a portion of the profits are benefiting the organization No Kid Hungry, which works to feed more than 11 million children in the United States who live in food-insecure homes.

Ford Foundation

The Ford Foundation believes in the inherent dignity of all people. But around the world, too many people are excluded from the political, economic, and social institutions that shape their lives. Across eight decades, their mission has sought to reduce poverty and injustice, strengthen democratic values, promote international cooperation, and advance human achievement. Learn more about their mission, our values and culture, and how they approach their work.

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