El Pasoans Fighting Hunger Food Bank Gets Huge Donation

Earlier this week, 3 El Paso charities were part of a larger number of charities around the country that received millions of dollars in unsolicited donations from the ex-wife of Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos.

Mackenzie Scott, who got almost 40 billion dollars a couple of years ago when she divorced Bezos, donated the 4 billion dollars to the US charities, including 20 million going to the YWCA El Paso, 5 million dollars going to United Way of El Paso, and yesterday we found out that the El Pasoans Fighting Hunger Food Bank received a 9 million dollar gift from Scott’s foundation.

In mid-July, Scott wrote a blog post about wanting to give away "the majority of my wealth back to the society that helped generate it". She set about finding organizations at a local level around the country to give money to. In four months, she has given away $4 billion. That's a helluva lot of money. Scott's group gave money to organizations she said could show that they had a positive impact on their community.

The donations took the charities across the country by surprise. Local officials with the El Paso charities said that they didn’t ask for the donations but they welcomed them because there is such a need for that money here in El Paso.

While all this money is amazing, believe it or not, it won't last long. Because so many people are out of work due to the COVID-19 pandemic, donations to local charities are also way down. These millions will help a lot, but if you can donate to a local charity, please do. And don't worry, you don't have to donate millions to make a difference. Every dollar counts. We are literally all in this together, so please, if you can, donate.