For most American kids, summer is the best time of year — carefree days, cold popsicles, and no school. But summer isn’t so carefree for millions of kids. During the school year, some 21 million children receive free or reduced-price meals. When summer vacation starts, those meals end, and 90% have limited or no access to replacements.

For more than 20 years our client, the ConAgra Foods Foundation, has been committed to fighting child hunger in America. But the issue of “summer hunger” still hadn’t hit home. Even some socially conscious mothers didn’t know it was taking place in their own backyard, affecting schoolmates of their own children. And if they knew, many weren’t acting. In a world of social media causes, summer hunger wasn’t something people wanted to “like” or share.

So we changed the entire dynamic. Our messenger was charismatic 10-year-old Kid President, host of a joyful YouTube web series seen by millions, whose unique perspective on summer hunger put the difficult issue in a positive new light. Our problem came attached to an instant and gratifying solution. By simply viewing, liking or sharing our Kid President video, the ConAgra Foods Foundation would donate the monetary equivalent of one meal to Feeding America.

Moms nationwide immediately embraced Kid President, driving 23 million daily media impressions, 37 million social media impressions, unprecedented awareness of the issue, and most importantly, 1.1 million meals to Feeding America.

Our campaign needed to engage consumers, especially parents, who had previously been unaware of and uninvolved in the issue of summertime child hunger. First, we had to raise awareness and educate around a serious problem affecting their local communities. Next we needed to inspire and prompt individual action. We needed an easy engagement mechanism that motivated immediate and maximum participation.

But Summer Hunger was a difficult issue. People didn’t want to think about it happening in their own backyard, especially in summer, idealized as fun, carefree time for children. Our creative execution came from an unexpected and positive place. Our face of summer hunger had a smile on it, and a point of view people wanted to share. The exuberant and disarmingly wise 10-year-old YouTube star Kid President fit the bill perfectly, introducing the problem and delivering an emotionally rewarding solution at the same time.

In just two weeks, the Hunger Free Summer video with Kid President drove more than one million combined views, likes and shares, exceeding campaign goals and encouraging the ConAgra Foods Foundation to extend their commitment past the initial one million meal mark.

Integrated media efforts generated 23 million traditional daily media impressions and 37 million social media impressions thanks to key earned placements with Huffington Post, HuffPost Live, MSNBC Live and WSJ Live. Of this earned coverage, 93 percent included a consumer call to action to view, like or share the video, helping us surpass our total engagements goal.

The biggest measure for the campaign and the company was that the one million video engagements generated the monetary equivalent of 1,156,992 meal donations to Feeding America on behalf of the ConAgra Foods Foundation. The simplified interaction and emotional connection provided a valuable new model for CSR campaigns that want to make a real difference.