Michael Jordan Donates $ 2 Million From Blockbuster Documentary To Feed Hungry Americans

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Feeding America, the nation’s largest anti-hunger group, on Wednesday thanked His Airness for a $ 2 million gift to the organization, which comes as the pandemic pushes excess numbers of Americans toward food security .
“In these difficult times and in a year of unimaginable hardship due to Covid-19, it is more important than ever to take a break and thank,” the 14-time NBA all-star. said in a tweet sent by the organization.

“I am proud to donate the extra profits from ‘The Last Dance’ to Feeding America and its member food banks in the Carolinas and Chicago,” Jordan said.

Hit doc does more than entertain

ESPN’s 10-part documentary about one of the greatest basketball players in history (and, yes, many hoop heads would say the the biggest) came as a welcome distraction in April, around the start of the pandemic.
“The Last Dance” was cobbled together from hundreds of hours of footage documenting the Bulls’ rise to total dominance in the 1990s, with particular emphasis on the 1997-98 season, when Jordan & Co. won their last of six titles.
The documentary series was slated to debut in June, but after Covid-19 forced a hiatus from the NBA season and other sports offerings, ESPN increased its output to fill the programming void.
Sports fans and sports fans alike loved it, with 5.6 million people watching each episode on average, making it the most-watched ESPN documentary of all time, surpassing a 2012 production on the Auburn University’s two-sport phenomenon, Bo Jackson.

The timing of MJ’s donation is excellent, as Feeding America warned earlier this month that more than 54 million Americans could soon face food insecurity – a figure that rivals recession statistics.

That’s about 16% of the population, more than one in six Americans. The sum is about 17 million more people than those who were hungry before the coronavirus epidemic, Feeding America estimates.

“What we’ve seen, unfortunately, has been a consistent level of dramatically increased need since the start of the pandemic,” said Katie Fitzgerald, chief operating officer of the non-profit organization. “About 40 percent of people who show up for food distributions have never had to rely on charitable food assistance.”

In April, the US Department of Agriculture said it had set aside more than $ 1.7 billion to help food banks in the looming crisis.

‘It is a relief’

This week, Regina Status accepted a food basket, filled with turkey and other Thanksgiving pillars, from the Agatha House Foundation, a local pantry, at her apartment in the Bronx, New York.

She was not eligible for unemployment and relied on the money she set aside for her daughters’ college fund to survive, she told CNN.

Toting his car several weeks ago has made life even more difficult. She is grateful for the weekly deliveries from Agatha House, she said.

Regina Status, right, and her 13-year-old daughter feed their neighbor, Mammie Vinning, in the Bronx.

“I didn’t even know where it was going to come from,” she says. “It’s a relief that someone is actually thinking of me.”

Agatha House is seeing many new faces, with demand increasing 100% since the start of the pandemic, founder Jeanette Joseph-Greenaway said.

The Bronx, New York’s poorest borough, serves as a microcosm of the national crisis: it has the highest number of Covd-19 cases and the highest unemployment rate in the five boroughs, showing how the pandemic and its severe side effects are already threatening to worsen. stark health disparities among low income families.

Hunger and health problems hit minorities the most

The congressional district that includes the Bronx, which is made up mostly of black and Latino households, is the second worst in the country in child food insecurity – a condition that is only exacerbated by school closures .

“There are 22 million children who, even before this pandemic, relied on a free and reduced lunch,” said Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, CEO of Feeding America. “When you hear that schools are closed, it not only means that there are challenges for the children in school, but it also means that meals are wasted.

Status knows this too well.

“I have to constantly buy food because now I have to provide food for breakfast. Now I have to provide food for lunch, ”she said.

Before the pandemic, black Americans were nearly two and a half times more likely to live in food insecure households than white Americans, while Latin Americans were twice as likely, according to Feeding America, whose Projections for 2020 indicate 18 of the 25 counties that will be hardest hit are predominantly African-American.

Feeding America operates in every county in the United States, with a network of 200 food banks and 60,000 pantries, and has low or no contact options in place in many locations, including senior citizen hours, drive-through pantries and expanded home delivery.

CNN’s Lauren Lee and Vanessa Yurkevich contributed to this report.



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