The year 2020 saw a rise in altruism with celebrities across the globe donating to charities of all shapes and sizes as a way to do their part and give to those that requiring extra support due to the pandemic. Food banks are a top priority for many celebrities, recognizing the large number of families that are going hungry across the globe, but that was far and away not the only charity celebrities donated to during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are seven celebrities who donated during the pandemic.
7 Celebrities Who Donated During the Pandemic
- Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds: Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds donated $1 million which they split between food banks in Canada, Ryan Reynolds’ home country, and the United States. The couple urged the importance of donating to organizations such as Food Banks Canada as the COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted organizations like it throughout 2020. Food Banks Canada saw a total donation of $28 million worth of food in 2020 and fed roughly 8 million families across Canada. Food Banks Canada fed over 1 million people in 2019, while roughly 3.2 million people accessed food banks across the country in 2020.
- Shakira: The singer donated ventilators and thousands of N95 masks to health care workers in her home town of Barranquilla, Colombia. The mayor thanked Shakira in a tweet saying, “One of the most beloved Barranquilleras in the world is Shakira, and she is also one of the people who most love this city. Huge thank you for your contribution of thousands of N95 masks for our health care workers and ventilators that will save lives.” Shakira’s donation will allow doctors to continue to treat COVID-19 patients, as well as continue to help get medicine to those in need safely.
- UB40: British reggae-pop group did a cover of “Lean on Me” to help raise funds for NHS Charities Together. The organization includes more than 250 charities across the U.K. NHS donates approximately £1 million a day in providing care for those who are in need across the United Kingdom. It also strives in making medical breakthroughs to better help keep at-risk communities across the globe healthy and safe. NHS started several studies to see how COVID-19 affected various communities by examining the effects it has on school-aged children, communities’ mental health and the health of health care workers, to better prepare for a pandemic of this scale in the future.
- Elton John: Elton John, the legendary singer and HIV/AIDS prevention advocate, pledged to donate over $1 million to help support marginalized communities across the globe during the pandemic. John discussed on Twitter how he still intends to focus on preventing HIV/AIDS across the globe, but pushed for awareness of the coronavirus and urged for those who can to donate to communities that are the most at risk across the globe. Elton John’s Aids Foundation has donated over $450 million worldwide, saved 5 million lives and supported over 3,000 projects to help end HIV/AIDS. In addition to the $1 million he donated, he also hosted a living room concert featuring Tim McGraw, the Backstreet Boys, Sam Smith, Dave Grohl, Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong, Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes. The concert raised over $8 million for his foundation’s COVID-19 Emergency Fund.
- Rihanna: The global superstar donated a total of $5 million to several different charities across the globe, one of the charities being the International Rescue Committee (IRC). The Committee focuses on helping refugees across 40 different countries by providing them with tools such as education, clean water, shelter, food and anything else that necessary for them to go back to a normal life. In 2019, the organization supplied over 1 million kids with education and provided a million more with clean water.
- Akshay Kumar: The Bollywood star donated to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s CARES fund. Kumar donated Rs 25 crore, an amount that is equivalent to over $3 million USD. The PM-CARES fund emerged in direct response to India’s lockdown plans to support citizens that are the most at risk and strives to make India a healthier and cleaner country.
- Liam Payne: A former member of the band One Direction, Payne donated 360,000 meals through the Trussell Trust. The Trussell Trust is an organization in U.K. that works directly with food banks to directly donate/distribute food. The goal of the organization is to get food to the 14 million people including 4.5 million children who live at or below the poverty line, with the ultimate goal of there no longer being a need for food banks across the U.K.
The fact that these celebrities donated during the pandemic will continue to ensure that those in need across the globe get the food, health care and shelter they require to thrive. It is important that individuals continue to support groups that give back well past the end of this pandemic and continue to focus on ways to help those in need in 2021 and beyond.
– Claire Olmstead
Photo: Flickr