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YOUNGSTOWN -- The Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley in Youngstown received a huge donation from one of the world's wealthiest women.
MacKenzie Scott, ex-wife of Amazon chief executive officer Jeff Bezos, donated $3 million to the local food bank, Executive Director Mike Iberis confirmed Wednesday.
When he received word and a check, Iberis collected himself.
"I took a deep breath, and I thought to myself: 'How can we help the community with this generous donation,'" Iberis said. "We are thrilled to have been brought to her attention as one such organization by her team of nonprofit advisers."
While use of the funds will be discussed by the food bank's board of directors, Iberis said that coupling it with continued generosity from the Valley will help ensure families don't go hungry.
There are 150 pantries, Iberis said, that are part of Second Harvest's network spanning Trumbull, Mahoning and Columbiana counties.
"Our first priority for this money is to offer every one of our pantries" the opportunity to identify equipment needing replaced, Iberis said.
In 2021, the goal is to give new equipment to each pantry, as Iberis said they are working with outdated tools.
ABOVE AND BEYOND
Still, his army of volunteers has been going above and beyond.
"These folks are the salt of the earth," Iberis said of those agencies helping to feed the Mahoning Valley.
On Jan. 2, written information to the pantries will be communicated to fill out their wish lists.
"The philanthropic investment from MacKenzie Scott will be an accelerator and amplifier as we work toward the goal of ending hunger in the Mahoning Valley," Iberis said.
Iberis explained that Scott chose the Valley organization from a team of advisers that identifed Second Harvest.
Scott's team looked at 6,490 organizations total.
Scott received a 4 percent stake in Amazon in her divorce.
In a blog post by Scott published earlier this week, she said that her team looked at organizations possessing "strong leadership teams and results, with special attention to those operating in communities facing high projected food inescurity, high measures of inequality, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital."
Iberis said that through working with Scott's team, her values align with those of the Second Harvest Food Bank, which he believes drew them together.
Last year, Scott signed the Giving Pledge, promising to give most of her wealth away in her lifetime.
While the large donation will go a long way, Iberis said that 2020 will end as a second-consecutive record breaker.
As of Wednesday, more than 15 million pounds of food have been distributed this year, against last year's 11.5 million pounds, Iberis said, which is a 40 percent increase that he attributed to the pandemic.
He anticipates a final count between 15.5 million and 16 million pounds of food will have been given to communities this year by the end of 2020.