 O'Brien founded the anti-hunger organization "Labels Are For Jars" with his friend and former Harvard dormmate Father Paul B. O' Brien.He also helped open the "Cor Unum" meal center in 2006.In January 2008, after his show was put on hold for two months owing to the strike by the Writers Guild of America, he reemerged on late-night TV sporting a beard, which guest Tom Brokaw described as making him look like "a draft dodger from the Civil War."