INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Apple has made a donation to a new fundraising campaign, America Food Fund, along with Laurene Powell Jobs, Leonardo DiCaprio and the Ford
Together, they&ve contributed $12 million toward the $15 million goal for the new initiative being hosted on fundraising platform GoFundMe
The proceeds will go to benefit World Central Kitchen and Feeding America.
The former was founded in 2020 by Chef José Andrés to provide
meals to the hungry in the wake of man-made and natural disasters worldwide
Since its debut, World Central Kitchen has served more than 15 million meals across 19 disasters, including Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas
It also served 3.7 million meals in 2017-2018 in Puerto Rico.
The organization began its COVID-19 relief efforts by deploying food to cruise
ship passengers under quarantine
It now working to feed vulnerable communities and front-line medical professionals through mobile distributions and restaurant
partners.
Chef José Andrés and World Central Kitchen CEO Claire Babineaux-Fontenot also sat down with Oprah Winfrey on her new Apple TV+
show &Oprah Talks COVID-19& to discuss their efforts.
Feeding America, meanwhile, is the United States largest hunger-relief
organization, serving more than 40 million Americans through a network of 200 food banks and 60,000 food pantries and meal programs with a
presence across the United States Its COVID-19 relief efforts involve its Response Fund, launched to help member food banks secure the
resources they need to continue operations.
The choice to essentially run a GoFundMe campaign for America Food Fund is unusual
Frankly, the optics aren''t great here.
Most of the philanthropic efforts from corporations or high-net-worth individuals so far during the
COVID-19 outbreak have involved direct donations to nonprofits, food banks and other relief efforts
If $15 million is what needed now, then the donors involved here should just have given the $15 million
But instead, they&ve donated $12 million and presented this campaign in the hopes that &us regular folks& will pitch in the rest.
If you are
in a position to contribute and you have the means to take action, we hope you will donate today
No dollar amount is too small, the GoFundMe campaign reads.
That asking people who are far more impacted by the coronavirus crisis than Jobs
or DiCaprio to step up at a time when job security is questionable, food prices are going up and the threat of losing work due to infection
is also a serious concern
It is wonderful that people are willing to do this, but there something just odd about billionaires and millionaires acting like we&re all
They have their yachts, after all
Everyone else is just trying to survive.
The campaign is also losing a percentage of donations to fees
(GoFundMe will charge 2.9% and a $0.30 per donation transaction fee.) An in-cash donation directly to the organizations in need would be
Even a campaign where you can donate online directly to the selected organization would be an improvement.
On World Central Kitchen site,
for example, there a checkbox where you can opt to cover the fees with your donation
On Feeding America site, you have the option to commit to a monthly donation and also are told explicitly how much your cash donation will
provide, in terms of meals.
To date, several high-net-worth individuals have donated to various relief efforts during the COVID-19 outbreak
Winfrey, for instance, gave $10 million to coronavirus relief efforts, with $1 million of that toward this new America Food Fund campaign
Jeff Bezos today announced a direct donation of $100 million to Feeding America
Michael Bloomberg is committing $40 million to fight the spread of the virus in low and middle-income countries
Dolly Parton donated $1 million to coronavirus research
Actors Ryan Reynolds and Blake Livelysaid they were donating $1 million to food banks.
And through their respective foundations, Bill gates
contributed $100 million; Jack Ma pledged $14 million; Ralph Lauren donated $10 million; and Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan donated $30
million to various COVID-19 efforts.
If you want to donate to a local food bank feeding the hungry — or volunteer — in your own
neighborhood, you can do so from Feeding America website here
From its search results, you&ll get the web addresses for the food banks in your city
And from their own websites, you can find out how to give directly.
