By BGR Staff
Over the past two and a half months, beginning in late March, BGR has donated over $45,000 to support communities, both globally and nationally, adversely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.
To assist the international effort, BGR contributed $5,000 to the World Food Program USA to provide food relief to people around the world whose persistent food insecurity has increased on account of the pandemic. While coronavirus is hurting everyone, it is hitting people in crisis zones the hardest. From Syria to Bangladesh, the virus is beginning to spread through crowded refugee camps and people living in extreme poverty. With its logistical and emergency expertise, WFP is ramping up its response to nourish and protect people already living in extremely vulnerable conditions.
In late March we donated $1,000 to the Karuna Trust in Sri Lanka, which is distributing food to poor families hard hit by the strict curfew currently in place in the country. The Karuna Trust worked together with the Additional Government Agent of Matale, to assist in feeding poor children and elders in orphanages and elders’ homes, which have no way now of obtaining food from their regular donors. In early June we donated another $600 to Karuna Trust to provide scholarships to needy students (see the separate article in this edition of the newsletter).
Further, BGR gave a donation of $500 to the Bangladesh Buddhist Missionary Society, a BGR partner, to support their efforts to combat the pandemic. The Society is using its spare space as a quarantine center; developing public awareness campaigns; providing hand sanitizer, masks, and other sanitation equipment; arranging for medical teams; and providing emergency food support.
More recently we donated $1,785 to White Lotus Charitable Trust’s Garden of Peace, in Tamil Nadu, India, to help the local community deal with the pandemic.
Here in the U.S., in early April BGR initially donated $7,000 to support food banks providing food relief to people adversely affected by the pandemic. Donations of $1,000 each were provided to food banks in seven locations: New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, New Orleans, El Paso, Philadelphia, and central New Jersey. We also donated $500 to provide meals to front-line health care workers on Long Island through a project organized by the Center for Spiritual Imagination at the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Garden City.
In late April and on #Giving Tuesday in May, BGR made additional donations of $12,000 each month to twelve food banks working in New York City, Westchester County, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago, South Florida, South Louisiana, Texas, southern Arizona, Los Angeles, and the World Central Kitchen. In each of those two months, donations of $1,000 were given to each of these food distribution centers.
In early June, BGR donated $5,000 to Feeding America, the national hub for food banks around the country. We intend to continue offering support to food banks here in the U.S., as well as to affected countries around the world.
BGR is blessed to be able to contribute to the important work being done by these courageous organizations.
