The Vermont Foodbank has received its largest ever donation, from MacKenzie Scott, the philanthropist ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
The $9 million donation is part of a $4.2 billion burst of donations Scott announced this week in a post on Medium called “384 ways to help,” referring to the number of organizations in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico she has made contributions to.
The food bank is the only Vermont organization on the list.
John Sayles, CEO of the Vermont Foodbank said he received an email on Dec. 3 from a philanthropic adviser who said their client was interested in making a donation. Shortly thereafter, Sayles learned who was making the donation and how much it was for.
“And then I just spent about a day in shock,” Sayles said.
The gift is “exponentially” bigger than any other the nonprofit has received, Sayles said. The amount is the equivalent of the organization’s annual operating budget.
The Vermont Foodbank is the largest anti-hunger organization in the state. The food bank collects donations from producers and retailers, and distributes food to 300 food shelves, senior centers, schools and hospitals statewide.
“We’re always trying to think big, think about questions like ‘What would we do if we got a $10 million gift,’ so we did have some thoughts about it,” Sayles said. “But still, it’s a big responsibility.”
Pre-pandemic, one in 10 Vermonters was considered food insecure. When Covid hit that number surged to one in three, and is now at one in four. Sayles said he thinks the numbers are even greater and believes the Vermont Foodbank is currently feeding, through one program or another, about a third of Vermonters.
Sayles said they’ll likely spend the money trying to combat the “last mile problem” — making food as accessible as possible to people who need it most and might have trouble accessing it because of barriers in transportation or work schedules.
“We’re not like a grocery store that’s open seven days a week 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. We need to be able to get people the food they want and need where and when they need it,” he said.
He said they are considering home delivery, order ahead programs and longer hours for food shelves as ways to improve access.
“These funds will help us scale up some pilots and partnerships and hopefully find something that can make a longer term difference,” he said.
The money will also likely go toward targeting the root causes of food insecurity, namely poverty, systemic oppression and racism.
He said it’s “a little daunting” to have been the only Vermont organization selected to receive the funds, especially knowing so many others could use financial help. It is troubling that government hasn’t stepped up to meet the need, he said.
“I will never miss an opportunity to say this: The charitable food network cannot be the solution to hunger,” Sayles said. “We’re an imperfect vehicle at best.”
3SquaresVT, the state’s foodstamps program, needs to grow exponentially, he said, so families can use money on an EBT card to buy food at the time and place that works for them without having to wait in line for food distributions.
Scott used a data-driven approach to identify groups with “strong leadership teams and results,” paying particular attention to those in communities with high rates of food insecurity, racial inequality, poverty and low access to philanthropic capital.
As part of Scott’s divorce last year with Bezos, she received 4% of the outstanding shares in Amazon, then worth $38.4 billion. As Amazon stocks surge, the shares are now worth nearly $60 billion.
Scott is the third-richest woman in the world. In 2019, she signed the Giving Pledge, promising to give away most of her fortune in her lifetime.
Scott’s blog post said that in determining the size of the gifts, her team talked with nonprofit leaders and local experts to determine community needs, program outcomes, and each organization’s capacity to absorb and make effective use of funding.
“I think we could probably do more, frankly,” Sayles said. “I hope this inspires other people who are thinking about where a gift would make sense to say ‘Hey, a billionaire thinks this organization has the capacity to handle this money and do some good, maybe we can add to that.’”
