The spread of novel coronavirus has not just made hundreds of thousands of people ill in America, it has cost thousands of people their lives as well as massive unemployment, upended the economy and made food harder to get for the poor -- a population already facing daily challenges when it comes to simply finding enough food to eat.
Once again, Oprah Winfrey is proving she is not just about that talk, she’s about that walk pledging $1 million to America’s Food Fund, a charity co-founded by actor Leonardo DiCaprio and philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs. It launched on Thursday, April 2 and has already raised $12 million in funding, according to the Associated Press.

Fully supporting the charity’s mission, Winfrey said she is giving directly to it and also committing $10 million to aid people in various ways nationwide who are dealing with the pandemic.

“I was struck by the work these organizations are doing and while everyone’s priority right now is to stay safer at home, I know there are many of us looking for ways to help. I believe that America’s Food Fund will be a powerful way to make a difference for our neighbors in need,” Winfrey wrote on Instagram.

Donations to America’s Food Fund are currently being accepted through its GoFundMe page. 

“With millions losing their jobs and programs like school lunches in jeopardy, making sure people aren’t going hungry is of the utmost urgency,” Powell Jobs told the AP.

The need for aid to Americans affected by coronavirus is likely to rise as a record 6.6 million people filed for unemployment benefits last week meaning as many as 10 million have lost their jobs in the last two weeks, according to data from the US Department of Labor.