Nicole Richie & Joel Madden spend $150,000 on poor mums-to-be

After her own Wizard of Oz-themed baby shower last month, Nicole Richie and fiance Joel Madden held a baby shower for 100 mums-to-be in need yesterday.

The event at the Los Angeles Free Clinic served as part of the official launch of their Richie-Madden Children’s Foundation, which aims to help provide entertainment and special events for poverty-stricken children.

The foundation, along with BabyCenter, donated over $150,000 of new products for distribution to the other mums-to-be, including nursery furniture, blankets, bottles, nappies, organic baby products and “Mom-to-Be” kits for the women themselves, who were attending the clinic just as part of their regular prenatal care. Many of the items were donated by celebrity guests at Nicole’s shower last month - guests were asked to buy gifts on the registry to donate to the foundation and just a book for Nicole and Joel’s baby.

Speaking at the event, Nicole said: “The looks on their faces were priceless. Some of them didn’t even believe us - they thought that we were joking! It’s really, really amazing. And they’re fantastic.”

Good Charlotte star Joel added: “Everything that’s going to be in our nursery is going to be in their nursery. It’s pretty great.”

But Nicole insists it’s not all about just providing much needed money and supplies: “It’s not just us giving to them. They’ve got something that they can give me as well and that’s just a woman talking to another woman about pregnancy, about being a new mom. That’s not something that I can give them [but] they can give it to me.”

“I’m really looking forward to developing personal relationships with the mothers here. It feels really good to know that you have someone to talk to and that you have someone to lean on.”

Joel added: “Sometimes people don’t want to believe that me and Nicole are just a young couple having a baby and we’re really excited. We don’t really get to share our lives with people. It’s nice to connect with people on a real level.”

Nicole is due to give birth to the couple’s first child early in the new year.