Jeff Bridges on How to End Childhood Hunger

Americans should be "ashamed" that one in four kids in their country is hungry, Academy Award winner Jeff Bridges said on Thursday's "Washington Unplugged."

Bridges, the National Spokesman for Share Our Strength's "No Kid Hungry" campaign, came on the program to discuss his group's mission to end childhood hunger by 2015.

"According to the United States Department of Agriculture, one in four of our kids are living in households with food insecurity," he said. "They live in households where there is not enough nutrition to let them live healthy and happy lives."

Despite federal funding to decreasing childhood hunger, Bridges said, the problem is getting worse.

"There is a billion dollars that is allocated to different states for meal programs that are not being used," Bridges told Crawford. "It would help prevent kids from suffering from hunger but it would also bring all this money to the state for their economy."

Bridges said that the "No Kid Hungry" campaign is focused on the fact that only half of the 19 million children entitled to free or reduced price meals are getting them.

"We are working with the government and mayors to make this a local problem," he said. "There is a child nutrition bill coming up in two weeks and I encourage viewers to call their Congressman to pass this bill."

Asked if he thought that his campaign complemented Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" campaign, Bridges responded, "Absolutely, they go hand in hand."

Bridges said he was drawn to the campaign because of how 'solvable' the issue is.

"This is the most satisfying work I could do," he told Crawford. "If we can end hunger here in our country, we can look outside to the rest of the world."

He encourages people to go to nokidhungry.org to find out what they can do personally to help alleviate childhood hunger.

Watch Washington Unplugged above, also featuring the Washington Post's Perry Bacon and CBS News' Fernando Suarez with a commemorative piece for Veterans Day.