Friends, could I ask for 4 minutes of your time to watch a powerful documentary short? Unilever Project Sunlight has just released it, and it showed me something I REALLY needed to see:

The face of hunger doesn’t always look like what we think, does it? A hungry child might be sitting right next to your own child at school, or might live in the house next door to yours. Hunger is penetrating every city and even every neighborhood. You can never be too sure about what other people might be going through, even if everything seems on the surface to be just fine.

When my family and I make donations to our local food bank, I try to involve my children as much as possible. When my oldest asks why we are giving food away, I explain it like this: everyone on this planet needs some kind of help from other people at some point or another. Maybe the help needed is money or food. Maybe it’s love. Maybe it’s a certain set of skills. Whatever it is, we all have to rely on others somewhere along the way. Right now, it’s our turn to give because we are able to do so. Tomorrow, it might be our turn to ask for help. I want her to understand why giving is so important, and I also want her to understand that the truth is, none of us are very many tragedies away from being in dire need.

I want to encourage you to take a moment to share a meal, in whatever form that might take for you. It might mean calling up your local food pantry and asking what they need donated. It might mean volunteering in a community garden, or even committing to teaching yourself a bit about gardening so that you can grow some of your own food, and also share your harvest with neighbors. It might mean getting involved in a great organization that works to end food deserts in communities, like the Junior League of Chattanooga (I’m so proud to be part of this amazing group of women!). We are partnering with other great organizations to ensure that people all over the city can have fresh produce. You’d be shocked to realize just how many people in most communities cannot get access to fresh fruits and veggies on a regular basis.

Or perhaps you can just commit to getting to know your neighbors a little better in the coming weeks. You may learn about some struggles that you didn’t know were going on, and then you may be better poised to help out in some way.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Unilever. The opinions and text are all mine.