Apple is teaming up with Laurene Powell Jobs and Leonardo DiCaprio to raise a $15 million food fund for coronavirus relief
- Apple, Laurene Powell Jobs, and Leonardo DiCaprio have jointly launched a food fund called America's Food Fund that aims to raise $15 million.
- America's Food Fund's first two beneficiaries will be World Central Kitchen and Feeding America.
- The fund has already raised $12.3 million of its $15 million goal.
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Apple is teaming up with philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs and actor Leonardo DiCaprio to jointly launch a food fund that seeks to raise $15 million to promote food charity efforts during the coronavirus outbreak.
The initiative, called America's Food Fund, will be working with World Central Kitchen and Feeding America as its first two beneficiaries. The fund has already raised $12.3 million of its $15 million goal.
"Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 37 million people struggled to know where their next meal might come from on a daily basis, a number that we are seeing rise at an exponential rate," the fundraiser's description reads. "We have an opportunity to come together to support our neighbors in this time of critical need."
World Central Kitchen has already been participating in coronavirus relief efforts by distributing meals to cruise ship passengers under quarantine, and it's currently distributing meals in US cities, including New York, Newark, Miami, Los Angeles, Oakland, New Orleans, Little Rock, and Washington D.C. Feeding America also launched its own COVID-19 response fund to ensure food banks have the resources and funding necessary to continue operations.
The goal of the program is to help organizations like World Central Kitchen and Feeding America overcome obstacles that have surfaced in the wake of COVID-19, such as ensuring they're able to respond to the number of people in need, dealing with food supply chain disruptions, and distributing meals in a safe way that complies with social distancing guidelines.
The fundraiser is the latest example of tech giants and philanthropists coming together to organize relief efforts amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the philanthropic organization that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg started with his wife in 2015, recently announced that it would be donating $25 million to Bill Gates' accelerator for developing therapies and medicine to treat COVID-19.
Apple has also committed to donating 10 million protective face masks to medical workers across the US, and companies such as Microsoft, Twitter, and Facebook are supporting a hackathon meant to encourage developers to create tech products that can be used to solve challenges related to the coronavirus.
