Apple, Laurene Powell Jobs, Leonardo DiCaprio, and others team up to launch America’s Food Fund

A prominent group has come together to launch a new fund that aims to make sure that all people across the United States have reasonable and reliable access to food.

America’s Food Fund is that effort, and it has launched with the backing of $12 million from actor and environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio, Laurene Powell Jobs, Apple, and the Ford Foundation. They’ve partnered up (according to Deadline) in an effort to make sure people in the U.S. have access to food “in response to the coronavirus pandemic”.

Oprah Winfrey recently spoke with Chef Jose Andrés, and Feeding America’s CEO, Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, on her Apple TV+ series Oprah Talks Covid-19.

Andrés founded World Central Kitchen in 2010 and since then it has been at the forefront of urgently providing meals to people in need in the wake of man-made and natural disasters around the world. WCK began their COVID-19 relief efforts by deploying their food first responders to distribute fresh meals to cruise ship passengers under quarantine, and have since expanded this mission to feed vulnerable communities and frontline medical professionals through mobile distributions, restaurant partners and more.

The new initiative is being hosted on the fundraising platform GoFundMe, and it will help Feeding America and World Central Kitchen, two hunger-relief organizations. To get things going, the aforementioned individuals and the Ford Foundation donated a combination of $12 million. At the time of publication, the fundraiser has brought in $12,327,600 from a total of 209 donors.

The project is currently accepting donations from the public as well. And since the initial report was published, another individual has donated money to the effort: Oprah Winfrey herself. According to Deadline, the influential figure has committed to donate $1 million towards the fund as well.

In times of need, a plate of food is both vital nourishment and a message of hope from the community, that we care and we’re here to make sure that tomorrow, things will be better,” said Andrés. “Now more than ever – for our frontline heroes, our most vulnerable neighbors, and our out-of-work restaurant workers – WCK is prepared to make sure that food is part of the solution.

Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, also made a statement on the matter:

No one can be well if they’re not well fed, and we can only overcome this crisis if we make sure that every person has the essentials that they need to care for themselves, their families and the vulnerable people in their lives. World Central Kitchen and Feeding America do heroic work, and if there is any lesson in this time that we must spend apart, it’s that we are stronger and more resilient when we support one another.

The GoFundMe is still open and taking donations. It has a goal of $15,000,000 still to meet.