100+ Jewelry Brands Are Donating to No Kid Hungry in the Wake of School Closures

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is causing schools across the country to close, and as a result, millions of kids have lost access to the free and reduced-cost meals their schools provide. Two communications agencies, IHPR and Danielle Gadi PR, have linked up to bring the fine jewelry community together in support of No Kid Hungry, which is providing emergency grants and additional programming to families in need of immediate assistance. The agencies have assembled over 100 jewelry brands, including Irene Neuwirth, Brent Neale, Alison Lou, AUrate, and Eva Fehren, all of which are committing to donating between 10 and 30 percent of sales to No Kid Hungry through at least the end of March.

"Once we heard the news that school systems were shutting down, we immediately started thinking about ways we could use our roles as connectors between brands to do anything at all to help," Jen Lowitz of IHPR and Danielle Gadi of Danielle Gadi PR said in a joint statement. "We quickly created some artwork and reached out to our clients to participate through a donation of sales and using the hashtag #Linked. What started as a call to action to clients quickly led to a domino effect, leading to the participation of more than 100 fine jewelry designers and counting."

Designers are announcing their participation through posts on Instagram and encouraging others to join the movement. "We started outreach late on Saturday, and by Tuesday morning, dozens of jewelry brands were on board and eager to get involved," Jen and Danielle said. "We both live in cities where enormous numbers of kids and families are going to be seriously affected by school closures, and as a parent and neighbor, it wasn't an option to not try and mobilize the community. While we're just at the beginning of this wild unknown, we can't move fast enough to help families in need."

Shopping for nonessential items can feel frivolous in times of uncertainty, and fine jewelry is absolutely an investment. But a thoughtful purchase like this can show support to brands that are doing their part to give back, and in this case make a massive difference to children in need of meals. Keep scrolling to see some of our favorite jewelry brands' Instagrams announcing their participation in #Linked, plus an edit of pieces to shop for this worthy cause.