Melissa Joan Hart has a new note on her phone: "When I'm President". The Sabrina the Teenage Witch star tells HELLO! that she has started to keep a list of policies she would want to implement if she ever took charge of the country, sharing that top of her list would be mandatory compositing.
"Two days ago, I started a note in my phone that's called: 'When I'm President,' and I started writing down things," she tells HELLO! in November, when asked if she has ever considered going into policy-making. "Composting is going to be mandatory at all waste management facilities, and there will be high-speed train lines all across the country."
Composting and high-speed trains are both sustainability-friendly and energy efficient, with composting in the process of becoming mandatory in California and New York.
Another item that she is keen to see in the US? "France just passed a law that the grocery stores are no longer allowed to throw away food. They have to give it to the hungry, so you're helping with hunger and you're helping with food waste."
That love of giving back and ensuring a better world for the next generation started when she was a young girl, growing up outside of New York City.
"When my sister and I were kids, we'd draw homeless shelters and figure out how we could house unhoused people," said Melissa. "What would that look like? And if there are addiction issues, then there needs to be rehab, and then they get to come to the apartment. But then, how do they get food? Or what about a job? Maybe we give them a suit so they can go out and find a job? Then I moved to Los Angeles for Sabrina, and I locked into the LA charities, especially the LA mission, and I realized that they built homeless shelters very similar to what we were considering.
"We didn't have it right at the age of 10, but I always wanted to be a part of it, and I hope I've passed that down to my boys by getting them out there and letting them see the face of homelessness and not being afraid of people that are different and understanding that everyone has a story."
Melissa has previously identified as a moderate conservative but has often crossed party lines for key topics important to her, including gun reform views, and environmental policies.
In 2023. Melissa and her husband Mark Wilkerson came to the aid of students escaping the Covenant School massacre in Nashville, during which six people died. Melissa and her family moved to Nashville after they previously lived in Connecticut, close to Sandy Hook, where 26 people died, including 20 children, after a school shooting in 2012.
Melissa and her husband Mark are parents to three sons: Mason, 19, who is studying at an aeronautics school to become a pilot; Braydon, 17, and a football player for his high school; and 13-year-old Tucker.
In 2023, Melissa also told HELLO! that she is raising her boys to value equality and to understand that marriage is hard work; Mark quit his career and became a stay-at-home dad in 2008 when their second son was born.
"I'm a little bit nervous about the world that we're raising them in right now," she said. "If women want to be equal, do you have to hold the door for them? Yes, it's polite. Give them your coat when they're cold. I am teaching them to have basic manners and be kind to everybody, but being especially gentle to girls, especially when it comes to dating and understanding that hearts break differently for everybody.
"As far as raising them, they can see I am in the working world, and I have a really good work ethic. I’m trying to teach them to stay busy, to be a part of your community. I’m trying to make them well-rounded men."