Kellie Pickler is spending her 26th birthday doing things she loves---appearing on the Ellen Show today and  helping kids and pets.   The country cutie was at the Nashville headquarters of the Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee Tuesday, where she and a group of middle-school children loaded backpacks to help hungry children in need. 

It was all part of her participation in the Hunger-Free Summer program, which partners her with the ConAgra Foods Foundation and Feeding America.     Kellie is passionate about the program in an interview with The Boot.   "It's really a way to help give, even if you're not able to donate money, there are still other ways to help and make a big difference and to save a life. You can do something as simple as being a part of this campaign. There are a lot of people hurting all over the world and we should do everything we can to help everybody. But I also think we should help the people here in our country, in our backyard. You see the commercials on television of all these third-world countries that are hurting, and we should help them, too. But we've got to help the kids here as well."     Read all about how you can help here.  Happy Birthday Kellie!!!  You can probably bet she'll share why her husband Kyle Jacobs won't let her have any more pets!   Here's one of our fave "Ellen" appearances!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swH-ExK4Hoo