Large donors give an assist
Big organizations bolster food banks, coronavirus relief
What do Amazon, the Mormon Church, Wells Fargo and comedy fans have in common?
All have made hefty donations to Central Florida’s food banks, rental assistance funds and charities serving the elderly during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has triggered unprecedented demand for help.
A cut of the big money given at the national level — including $100 million from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to Feeding America and $6.6 million raised by last weekend’s Feeding America Comedy Festival, co-hosted by Billy Crystal, Tiffany Haddish and Kenan Thompson — will make its way to the Greater Orlando area.
“Our share of the Jeff Bezos donation worked out to $738,000,” said Greg Higgerson, chief development officer at Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida, part of the Feeding America network. “It came in last week, and we’ve already used most of it to pay for [previous] food orders.”
In early May, Amazon separately donated $100,000 to Feeding Florida, the state’s Feeding America affiliate, money aimed at addressing Florida’s 600% increase in demand for food. Second Harvest, one of 12 Florida food banks in the network, will get some of those funds, too, although Higgerson said he doesn’t yet know how much.
In April, the Central Florida Foundation, the region’s community foundation, announced it would give up to $1.2 million to the food bank as well — in part to cover new expenses as the charity starts a doorstep-delivery program to get groceries to vulnerable families who lack transporta
tion.
“COVID-19 forces all nonprofits to rethink the way they serve their communities,” said Mark Brewer, the foundation’s president and CEO. “To make it to the other side, every nonprofit has to create a new normal.”
Despite the large contributions, the food bank and others will need future donations to keep pace, nonprofit leaders said. Second Harvest, for instance, has provided a record 10 million meals since March 23 — an average of 300,000 meals a day — while costs climb for food and the masks, gloves and sanitation supplies needed on the front lines.
At the Heart of Florida United Way, officials have launched an ALICE recovery fund to address the “asset-limited, income-constrained, employed” population that lives paycheck to paycheck. The Central Florida Foundation made a $25,000 investment in that fund as well, and several banks are also contributing.
Wells Fargo, for instance, donated $40,000 to the ALICE Fund, launched in midMarch to help the tens of thousands of Central Floridians
who have lost their jobs during the pandemic.
That money was part of $300,000 Wells Fargo donated overall to Florida charities and $6.25 million it donated globally for COVID-19 relief efforts.
Meanwhile, Truist
Financial
Corporation — the company formed by the December merger of BB&T and SunTrust — has given $80,000 to the Osceola Council on Aging to cover basic needs, medical supplies and financial relief due to the pandemic.
The grant is part of the company’s Truist Cares initiative, a $25 million philanthropic pledge announced in March to address the crisis.
Bank of America donated $850,000 to 20 Orlandoarea nonprofits — including
Second Harvest and the Heart of Florida United Way — to address the need for food, health care and financial stability in the region.
And the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gave $10,000 to the Community
Hope Center, based in Kissimmee. The Mormon Church, a large landowner in the county and a frequent source of humanitarian aid worldwide, made the donation as thousands of local tourism and hospitality workers there were laid off, furloughed or had their hours cut.
“This … is an absolute gift during a very difficult time,” said the Rev. Mary Lee Downey, Hope’s founder and CEO. “Before COVID-19, we would have been talking about self-determined success with those who came to us — helping them overcome hurdles to long-term success and independence. Now, we are simply meeting their basic needs.”
Despite the theme park industry’s own suffering during the COVID-19 stayat-home orders, the Universal Orlando Foundation this week donated $25,000 to Shepherd’s Hope, the region’s largest free and charitable health clinic. The money is considered critical to cover the loss of expected revenue from the charity’s planned fundraising events, which had to be canceled because of the dangers of spreading the virus.