When we were young, our parents used to tell us to finish every bite at dinner time because of the poor, starving people in China who would give anything to have our meatloaf leftovers. It was a badly constructed piece of logic on the part of that generation, but at its best, the advice meant for us to count our blessings and be mindful of others in need.

Two new cookbooks on the market ask for that same type of humanitarian consideration more or less at mealtime. Both are published by divisions of Simon and Schuster. Both involve celebrities. And in a dandy trend for cookbooks, both are just as worthwhile as reading material as for putting together the night’s menu.

“The Hole in the Wall Gang Cookbook” by Paul Newman (the actor) and A.E. Hotchner (the writer) is a kid-friendly cookbook for families that like hands-on fun. All proceeds go to the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, which Newman and Hotcher founded in 1988 for children with cancer and other life-threatening diseases. The original camp is in Connecticut but, with the smashing success of Newman’s Own, the food company that donates all proceeds to the camp, Hole in the Wall now has several locations.

What’s great about this Newman-Hotchner collaboration is that it truly is well-suited for kids, who seem to like cheese, tomato sauce and brown sugar at nearly every meal. Adults might be apprehensive about recipes which inspire food-splattered tykes to exclaim: “I did it myself!” But if you’re the right kind of parent, or if you want to give your kids the kinds of delicacies they might find at summer camp, this book is a treasure.

Just to put the pressure on, many celebrities have contributed to this effort, too. For instance, there’s Julia Roberts’ Baked Potato Soup, Candice Bergen’s Baked Halibut Fillets with Lemon, Peanuts and Honey Mustard, Angelica Huston’s Bandito Broccoli, and Michael Bolton’s White Chocolate Brownie Hot Fudge Sundae (now if he could only sing something that complicated).

For more mature palates, there’s Tim Robbins’ Crunchy Oven-Fried Snapper Fillets. But plan on serving lots of variations of pizza — such as Tony Randall’s Sausage and Roasted Pepper Pizza — to which half a chapter is devoted. And it would be a good idea to have a cupboard full of Newman’s Own products — Sockarooni Spaghetti Sauce, Bombolina Sauce and Butch Barbeque Sauce. You can use other brands, of course, but, we’re talking charity here, so why not go for the gusto?

The recipes come from Newman’s family and friends, but many are from the winners of the Newman’s Own-Good Housekeeping recipe contest, which awards cash prizes to the charity of the winner’s choice. In some cases, elementary and secondary schools have made contributions, so under the serving size, a recipe such as Stone Soup lists: one class of 24 first-graders and eight adults.

Our favorite was Perfect Pasta for Peace, developed by 15 second-grade boys in a New York City school. In an effort to appeal to everyone’s tastes, the young chefs developed a recipe of choice — take what you want from the list of suggested ingredients (cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini, turkey sausage, corn, Spanish olives) and leave the rest behind.

None of this food will maintain your figure, but you may be able to cry off a few pounds after reading some of the extraordinarily touching segments written by Hole in the Wall campers. These are stories of loving hope told from the mouths of babes.

“Camp is a place where you learn to live life better because you can do all sorts of things you thought you’d never do again like fishing or horseback riding, because it’s hard getting on a horse even without having had a stroke,” writes a camper named Katie.

You won’t find poignancy, but you definitely will find entertainment in “Dining With the Stars,” celebrity recipes compiled by Paul Kent Dorn. An amateur gourmet, Dorn loves food, and has pledged that half the profits from this who’s-who cookbook will benefit AIDS Project Los Angeles, a nonprofit, community-based organization for HIV and AIDS services and information.

The recipes are accompanied by a glamorous photo and bio of each contributor. There are five former first ladies (Lady Bird Johnson, Rosalynn Carter, Betty Ford, Barbara Bush and Nancy Reagan) who seem to have set their politics aside for this project. Plus there are country singers (Travis Tritt, Tracy Lawrence, Joe Diffie), an Olympic gold medalist, talk show hosts, singers, actors, pianists and soap stars. There are even recipes from a few celebs who have gone to the great Kitchen in the Sky (Burgess Meredith’s Malibu Nacho Salad and Audrey Meadows’ Lazy Six Japanese Eggplant). There are even some who have been beyond that (Shirley Maclaine) and just short of that (Buzz Aldrin).

Ever wonder what happened to Phyllis Diller, or Connie Stevens, or Dean Jones? (Remember him from “The Love Bug”?) Well, they’ve all been busy cooking — Chicken Charisma, Bolognese Sauce and Southern Corn Bread, respectively.

“Star Trek” fans will be particularly thrilled to read about Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura), Majel Barrett Roddenberry (Nurse Chapel as well as Gene’s wife), and Mariette Hartley (remember when she and Spock fell in love?). James Earl Jones shows up, too, but that was “Star Wars,” right? Former cast members from “Dallas,” “Dynasty” and “The Brady Bunch” also show up in these pages.

Some of the recipes are pure jokestering, such as designer Kenneth Cole’s Eggs and Toast for the Well-shod Male, which calls for two blobs of butter, Band-Aids (for when you burn yourself) and paper towels (to clean up the mess), and requires the cook to sing “Volare” while wearing black dress socks. Some of the recipes are no-brainers, such as George Hamilton’s Chocolate Chip Cookies which look like every other batch of chocolate chip cookies. Couldn’t he have at least thrown in some vampire teeth from “Love at First Bite”?

Speaking of vampires, Zsa Zsa Gabor’s Dracula Goulash sounds frighteningly good — with onions, butter, pork, veal, paprika, caraway seeds, sauerkraut and Hungarian sausage.

Which leads us to the real joy of this book: There are some real winners among the recipes, and almost all of them are easy to prepare and delicious to eat. When you walk with the stars here, you eat well, too.

Neither of these cookbooks has a recipe for lobster, but both have lots of fish, chicken and meat dishes — not to mention the requisite vegetarian entrees. The “Hole in the Wall” cookbook would be perfect for young families, and everyone will find something deliciously appealing in “Dining with the Stars.”

The best part about these cookbooks is that they bring new meaning to Shakespeare’s line “If music be the food of love, play on.” This feast is for the stomach and the heart because every book buys something for someone needier than any of us. It’s a lesson we’ve known since the early days, but can now direct to those right here in our own neighborhood.