Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, Jeff Bezos' Ex, Donates To Local Food Bank

The Greater Cleveland Food Bank is one of hundreds of organizations that received a donation from philanthropist and novelist MacKenzie Scott.

Scott, ex-wife of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and one of the world’s wealthiest people, published ‘384 Ways to Help’ on Medium this week.

Scott has donated more than $4.2 billion to 384 organizations, including the Greater Cleveland Food Bank. The organizations span all 50 states, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico, Scott said.

“This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” she wrote. “Economic losses and health outcomes alike have been worse for women, for people of color, and for people living in poverty. Meanwhile, it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.”

Scott selected organizations dedicated to helping others.

"These 384 carefully selected teams have dedicated their lives to helping others, working and volunteering and serving real people face-to-face at bedsides and tables, in prisons and courtrooms and classrooms, on streets and hospital wards and hotlines and frontlines of all types and sizes, day after day after day," she wrote. "They help by delivering vital services, and also through the profound encouragement felt each time a person is seen, valued, and trusted by another human being. This kind of encouragement has a special power when it comes from a stranger, and it works its magic on everyone."

One in six people experiences food insecurity in Northeast Ohio, according to the Greater Cleveland Food Bank, the largest hunger relief organization in the region.

This year alone, the food bank has served more than 404,000 people in several Northeast Ohio counties, including Cuyahoga, Ashtabula, Geauga, Lake, Ashland and Richland.

For more information about the Greater Cleveland Food Bank, contact the organization at 216-738-2265 or visit https://www.greaterclevelandfoodbank.org/.

Scott also donated to these Ohio organizations:

• Easterseals Central and Southeast Ohio
• Southeast Ohio Foodbank
• Goodwill Industries of Akron, Ohio
• Goodwill of Greater Cleveland and East Central Ohio
• Meals on Wheels of Southwest Ohio & Northern Kentucky
• YWCA of Northwest Ohio
• Easterseals serving Greater Cincinnati

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