New Sesame Street Puppet Deals With Childhood Hunger

October 4, 2011

Beloved children's program Sesame Street will air a primetime special called "Growing Hope Against Hunger" this weekend. For the occasion, the show has announced plans for a new character, Lily, who is "food insecure."

According to the Department of Agriculture, more than 17 million children are "food insecure"— meaning they have limited or uncertain access to food. Currently, the show plans to only use Lily in the special. 

“We thought long and hard about how do we really represent this from a child’s point of view?” Jeanette Betancourt, Sesame Workshop’s senior vice president for outreach and educational practices, told the New York Times. “We felt it was best to have this new Muppet take this on in a positive way and a healthy way.”

 

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