[Lemon:] Welcome back, everyone. This week we are profiling celebrities that are more than their day jobs. Singing and dancing. We call it big stars and big giving. Today, actor, Matthew McConaughey shows us how he is giving back. He started a foundation to help kids live healthier lives. CNN's Alina Cho caught up with him to find out more about that as well as dramatic weight loss for a movie role.
[Matthew Mcconaughey, Actor:] I want something philanthropic or charitable. I want it on my desk every Monday morning. I need to follow it and build and track.
[Alina Cho, Cnn Correspondent:] Matthew McConaughey, movie star started to think about how he could give back.
[Mcconaughey:] I said I want to find a place where I can help out and it's prevention before you need a cure. That led me to kids.
[Unidentified Female:] It's 30 more seconds to warm up.
[Cho:] It led him to high schoolers and kids at a cross roads.
[Mcconaughey:] Freshman year in high school, a little odd because you came from being the big dog.
[Cho:] It led him and his wife to start the JK Living Foundation.
[Mcconaughey:] Just keep live in. Now go on the end because life is a verb.
[Cho:] JK Living doesn't just provide support to existing programs, but create and funds its own after school curriculum. In 14 schools with high poverty rates nationwide.
[Mcconaughey:] Break a sweat. Learn to eat healthy and say thank you. That's sort of the three monikers.
[Cho:] The kids meet twice a week, two hours a day, like 16-year-old Esperanza Ortega.
[Esperanza Ortega, Student:] We have our monthly goals. I'd say I'm going to lose five pounds, when I lost five pounds, I felt great.
[Cho:] And Jeffrey Jin.
[Jeffrey Jin, Student:] Working out, it's a great stress reliever. It takes off the pain and takes your mind off of a lot of things that happen.
[Mcconaughey:] If you can get them there and start good habits that maybe they didn't have or maintain good habits they already had, they have a better chance of carrying them over.
[Cho:] Then there the gratitude circle.
[Unidentified Female:] I am thankful for my best friends that I had.
[Unidentified Male:] The opportunity to pursue a college education.
[Cho:] Besides the obvious, what's the really value in doing that?
[Mcconaughey:] Reciprocity. The things that we show gratitude for, it creates more things to be thankful for.
[Cho:] Like McConaughey success as an actor.
[Unidentified Male:] I think I see a lot of lawbreakers in this house.
[Cho:] That leads us to that dramatic weight loss.
[Mcconaughey:] I'm the lightest I have been since I was I don't know, eighth grade.
[Cho:] Let's talk about that, 38 pounds. [voice-over]: The new film, "Dallas Buyer's Club." He plays an AIDS patient, a working actor with worldwide fame and a conscience.
[Mcconaughey:] I've got things. I'm one of the haves. There have nots. We are giving the fishing rod instead of a fish to a lot of these kids and thankfully they are taking it and coming back and customizing it in their life. That feels good.
[Lemon:] For more on Matthew McConaughey, JK Livin, no g, Foundation and how you can help, go to cnn.comimpact. Former President George H.W. Bush is in intensive care at a hospital in Houston this afternoon, ahead, the latest on his condition.