METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich was a guest this week on “Full Frontal With Samantha Bee”, where he discussed the band’s recent volunteer efforts with Feeding America.
As closures and social distancing orders meant to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) continue across the country, the impact is being felt in communities large and small. While changes taking place are disrupting the lives of nearly everyone in some way, food-insecure individuals — who numbered over 37 million (11.5%), including over 11 million children, in 2018 — are facing particular challenges, and the number of people who experience food insecurity is already increasing.
“The craziest thing, if you get into stats, is that one in six Americans are on track to be food insecure this year, and one in four kids, which is crazy,” Lars told host Samantha Bee via video. “And that’s the highest those numbers have ever been. What’s been happening in the last few months, during the pandemic, is making it even worse.”
The goal of METALLICA‘s All Within My Hands foundation, which was launched in 2016 in San Rafael, California, is to help creating sustainable communities by tackling the issues of hunger and workforce education and encouraging volunteerism.
The METALLICA family and the All Within My Hands foundation board members are committed to running an organization of the highest integrity where expenses are kept to a minimum and are paid for entirely by the band, the board, and friends who have worked with the band over many years and are excited to help in this mission. As such, 100% of all donations from fans and third parties go to the organizations AWMH supports.
“METALLICA started All Within My Hands four years ago to primarily work in the areas of food insecurity, education and disaster relief,” Lars said. “We’ve toured a lot in the U.S. the last two, three years. Every show, we meet with local volunteers, and these volunteers cover the whole state — they’re out there putting hundreds and hundreds of miles on their cars. It warms my Danish, hard rock heart to see how many of our fans all over America are stepping up. And basically, every time METALLICA plays a show in your community, two dollars from every ticket goes into our organization, and a lot of that goes into Feeding America.”
