Apple, Leonardo DiCaprio and Laurene Powell Jobs launch food fund for people affected by Coronavirus in the USA

America's Food Fund, fundo alimentĂ­cio apoiado pela Apple

The images of perfect suburbs and dynamic metropolises, which have always been engraved in our heads, can make us forget, but – just like in much of the world – there are also a lot of people in the United States passing by hunger. And the situation only tends to worsen with the crisis brought about by the Coronavirus (COVID-19), since the low economy means low employment and, therefore, more people in a situation of social vulnerability.

The problem is huge and it only tends to get worse, but there are people, companies and institutions interested in helping to mitigate it. I say this because, today, the Apple announced a partnership with the actor Leonardo DiCaprio, the businesswoman Laurene Powell Jobs (Steve Jobs’s widow), in addition to several other personalities and companies, to launch the America’s Food Fund – a collaborative food fund designed to help people and families affected by the Coronavirus pandemic.

More specifically, the fund will receive donations from volunteers from all over the world (people, institutions and companies) and will donate this money to two of the main hunger-fighting institutions in the world: World Central Kitchen, which was created by the renowned chef José Andrés and distributes meals to people affected by natural disasters, and Feeding America, which has maintained more than 200 food banks responsible for feeding more than 46 million people in the US since 1979.

The campaign is described as follows:

In neighborhoods and communities around the country, hunger is a problem that people, including families and children, face every day. Our most vulnerable populations – children who are out of school and dependent on food in schools, low-income families, the elderly and individuals facing job losses – encounter enormous barriers in the task of receiving safe and constant access to meals.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 37 million people [nos EUA] they had difficulty knowing where their next meal would come from daily. Now, we are seeing that number grow at an exponential rate.

We have an opportunity to come together to help our neighbors in this time of critical need.

America’s Food Fund creators – Apple, DiCaprio, Powell Jobs and other institutions, such as the Ford Foundation – made an initial contribution of $ 12 million for the initiative; just over 17 hours after the campaign’s launch, its GoFundMe.com page already accounts for nearly $ 12.5 million, with nearly half a million dollars donated by individuals.

Obviously, other major contributions will come: the presenter Oprah Winfrey, for example, pledged to donate $ 1 million to the campaign. Oprah, by the way, today released the latest episode of his talk show «Oprah Talks COVID-19», available on Apple TV + – just talking to the chef José Andrés and Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, CEO of Feeding America, on the initiative. It is worth noting that, unfortunately, the series is not yet available outside the USA.

In the latest episode of #OprahTalks COVID-19, Oprah talks to @chefjoseandres, founder of @wckitchen, and Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, CEO of @feedingamerica, about the launch of America’s Food Fund.

Tim Cook highlighted the initiative on his Twitter:

Apple is proud to support @ChefJoseAndres @WCKitchen and @FeedingAmerica. We will only be able to overcome this crisis if we make sure that each person will have the essentials to take care of themselves, their families and the vulnerable people in their lives.

Pretty good, isn’t it? It would be great to see such an initiative being reproduced here.

via MacRumors