Models Raise Money for Food Charity

Last month, designer Michael Kors took over the upper floor gallery of Spring Studios for his floral, flouncy Spring 2017 show (and Rufus Wainwright concert). He returned to the same spot Monday night for a wholly different occasion: the annual God’s Love We Deliver Golden Heart Awards, which, on its 10th anniversary, brought out a glittering crowd that included event host Neil Patrick Harris (a previous nominee), actresses Kate Hudson and Priyanka Chopra, and singer John Legend, as well as models such as Joan Smalls, Martha Hunt, Soo Joo Park, and Sara Sampaio.

The gala, which helped raise $2 million for the meal delivery and nutrition counseling program God’s Love We Deliver, honored three New Yorkers for their own brand of activism: “I’ve delivered food, I’ve chopped vegetables, I’ve packed food, and these volunteers, they’re here every day in the trenches, and it’s great to wave the flag for them,” host Kors said as he entered Spring Studios.

Chef and restaurateur Danny Meyer, who has served on the boards of City Harvest and Share Our Strength, as well as various other New York City conservancies, received the Golden Heart Award for Lifetime Achievement; model Karlie Kloss, who has partnered with Momofuku Milk Bar’s Christina Tosi on a series of cookies benefiting FEED Projects, was awarded the Michael Kors Award for Outstanding Community Service (she accepted the award via video chat); and God’s Love volunteer Wing Tat Leung received of the Golden Heart Award for Outstanding Volunteerism.

“She’s a dynamo. I’ve known her since she was 15,” Kors said of Kloss. Before she became a household name, the supermodel earned a reputation for bringing homemade cookies to sets before shoots and backstage at runway gigs — “Always. Always! Always!” Kors cried. “I remember Karlie’s cookies before they were ‘Karlie’s Kookies,’” he recalled. “Before she turned it into something to raise money and awareness.”

Among the cadre of models who turned out to support the supermodel, Sampaio remembered Kloss brought cookies to the Victoria’s Secret show; Smalls cited one in particular as her favorite among Kloss’s specialties: “Chocolate. Chocolate on chocolate.” (Nina Agdal, on the other hand, said she likes them all.)

The night confirmed both Kors and Kloss’s reputations as fashion uber-connectors: Hudson met Kors at the now-defunct Fashion’s Night Out around a decade ago, and they have collaborated in support of the United Nations’ World Food Program (the pair plans to travel with WFP in the coming months) and Kors’s Watch Hunger Stop campaign.

“I will always, always show up for Michael,” Hudson said.

British actress Erivo connected with Kors over her Broadway musical “The Color Purple,” which the designer saw multiple times; Erivo, for her, part, sat front-row at Kors’s Spring 2017 show last month alongside fellow gala attendee Chrissy Teigen.

“Fashion is a wonderful way to express oneself, and the idea that you can express something through a piece of clothing is a wonderful way to reach out,” Erivo said. “You can connect all types of people if you get to the heart of their art.”