$25 million food bank donation came out of left field

By Peter Finney Jr.
Clarion Herald

Natalie Jayroe was minding her own business on Nov. 11 when the phone call came in from somewhere beyond left field: Would the Second Harvest Food Bank CEO and president be willing to stay on the line to hear about a special donation an anonymous donor was considering making to the Archdiocese of New Orleans’ hunger-fighting organization?

“I said, ‘Sure, I’ll talk to anybody,’” Jayroe said, smiling.

The donor’s representative then started running through a checklist.

“It’s very important that this remains anonymous until the donor chooses to go public,” the caller said. “Is that OK?”

“That’s fine, we can do that,” Jayroe replied.

“The donor has looked at organizations from across the country and believes you are doing great work,” the caller continued. “She’s a huge admirer of your work, and even more so since COVID.”

At this point, Jayroe wasn’t sure if the call was legitimate or if she might be a victim of someone promising a windfall if only she would divulge her Social Security number.

“I’d like to tell you the amount of the gift,” the caller said. “Twenty-five million dollars.”

“My head hit the desk,” Jayroe said. “I was utterly stunned. It was a once-in-a-lifetime phone call.”

Mega donation was legit
As it turned out, everything the caller said – and more – was true. The $25 million gift from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott – the largest single donation in the history of Second Harvest – was confirmed on Dec. 15. The money comes up front with no strings attached.

In total, Scott, the former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has given nearly $4.2 billion to 385 organizations in the last four months. Many of the beneficiaries, such as Second Harvest, address basic human needs, especially during a time of economic upheaval.

To put the donation into perspective, Second Harvest’s annual operating budget is approximately $10 million. How to best utilize the $25 million windfall will be the job of Second Harvest’s board of directors over the next six months, with an initial idea gaining traction to create an endowment to sustain the organization during any future economic downturns.     

“We feel it is imperative that we spend every dollar given to us to make the biggest difference we can possibly make,” Jayroe said. “We are morally and ethically obligated to do that. We can look at long-term plans that protect Second Harvest. We can’t waste it or squander it.”

Data spoke for itself
Jayroe said what made her particularly proud was that Scott’s representatives told her the decisions to make the individual donations was “data-driven.”

“She wanted to make sure she was supporting organizations with strong leadership and proven results,” Jayroe said. “Everyone here deserves praise. This wasn’t anything we asked for or could ever imagine. Feeding America (Second Harvest’s umbrella organization) had nothing to do with it. She ended up supporting 42 food banks out of about 200 in the country. We are so grateful to our team members, our board and to the archbishop.”

Second Harvest, which serves 23 parishes in south Louisiana, has just completed a capital campaign to expand and make major renovations to its existing food warehouse in the Elmwood area, a $16 million project.

“We had a long-term goal of improving our endowment and making strategic investments throughout south Louisiana, which are things we can’t do within the normal operating budget,” she said. “This gets us a large way there. The archbishop was extremely excited for us and really grateful to God that this opportunity was made available to us.”

Second Harvest board chair Robert Marks said the gift will have a major impact in south Louisiana.

“This gift comes as we prepare to celebrate our fourth decade of serving south Louisiana,” Marks said. “Since our founding in 1982 by Archbishop (Philip) Hannan with faith and community leaders, Second Harvest has grown from humble roots to serving hundreds of thousands of people in need every month. With this donation, we will continue to strive toward our founders’ vision of a hunger-free south Louisiana.” 

The gift also came during a time when south Louisiana is in the midst of an unprecedented hunger crisis. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the service area had a 65 million “meal gap” after residents did all they could to feed their families.  

One out of five Louisianans were not sure where their next meal was coming from. Second Harvest had been able to make up 35 million of those meals annually, representing $112 million worth of food. To fill the remaining gap, Second Harvest is hoping to find another 30 million meals or $96 million worth of food. 

Distribution of food has nearly doubled in the last 10 months. 

“We could not be more grateful,” Jayroe said. 

For more information about Second Harvest, visit no-hunger.org. Follow Second Harvest on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/2ndHarvestGNOA; Facebook at www.Facebook.com/2ndHarvestGNOA or Instagram at @2ndHarvestGNOA.

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