UPDATE: Check out video of Daytime Tri-Cities' hosts Morgan King and Amy Lynn who sat down with Kate Gosselin this morning during the Second Harvest event at Food City.
BY MAC McLEAN
BRISTOL HERALD COURIER
KINGSPORT, Tenn. – Kristin Burton peered over a crowd gathered at the Eastman Road Food City to snap a picture of one of her favorite reality TV show stars who was in town to sign autographs and help a local food bank collect several tons of food.
“I just love all the kids,” Burton said as she watched Kate Gosselin, the star of the TLC Network’s “Kate Plus 8” work a donation with the eight children who are the “plus 8” in her show’s title. She is mother to sextuplets and twins.
This winter, Gosselin and several other TLC Network celebrities joined forces with Feeding America, a Chicago-based charity supporting more than 200 food banks across the country, to help fight hunger by making celebrity appearances like Wednesday’s stop at the grocery store.
“It’s all about giving back,” said Rhonda Chafin, executive director of the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee, which helps more than 33,000 Northeast Tennessee residents each month from its headquarters in Gray.
Chafin said Second Harvest is the only Feeding America food bank where Gosselin and her children stopped to help, and the food bank was honored by being selected. She also said the visit will be aired on a “Kate Plus 8” show later this spring. The TV crews spent two days filming in the area, Chafin said, adding that Second Harvest benefitted from the donated food items that Burton and other fans donated in exchange for Gosselin’s autograph and picture.
Chafin said the appearance helped her food bank collect 12,000 pounds of food Wednesday.
Gosselin, who recently appeared on another popular TV show, “Dancing with the Stars,” personally contributed to the effort by sponsoring eight children in the food bank’s Food for Kids Backpack program, which currently gives more than 3,700 needy children two backpacks full of food each month during the school year.
“It was pretty cool,” Christy Moore said after getting Gosselin’s autograph when she made a cash donation to the food bank. “Though, we didn’t get a chance to talk that much.”
Neither did anyone else, because Gosselin left the event after she finished signing autographs. Her only local interview was with “Daytime Tri-Cities,” a morning show produced by WJHL Channel 11.
gmclean@bristolnews.com
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