Down for the Cause: Here Are Some Celebrities Who Have Donated to COVID-19 Relief Efforts

Many celebrities are trying to do their part to assist hospital employees who are risking their health and safety to help patients during this difficult time. Lizzo donated lunches to workers at three U.S. hospitals, and Rihanna’s Clara Lionel Foundation donated $1 million to aid in COVID-19 response efforts, a deed matched by Jay-Z and his Shawn Carter Foundation.

The buck doesn’t stop there—no pun intended—as there are some other big names who have been donating to relief efforts.

Musician Ciara and her athlete husband Russell Wilson donated one million meals in Seattle through Food Lifeline, which distributes goods to shelters and food banks throughout the Western Washington State area. “Everything makes a difference, and together we will conquer this tough time,” Ciara said in an Instagram video.

Gospel singer Lecrae also teamed up with Love Beyond Walls to set up portable handwashing stations around Atlanta. He detailed in a social media post that 300 homeless people living in the area showed up to shelters in order to sanitize, stressing: “This is not the end.”

Grammy Award-winning producer DJ Khaled just announced that, along with the medical-resource organization Direct Relief and hands-free soap pump business Simplehuman, he will donate supplies to healthcare workers in Miami and New York with 10,000 medical masks, PPE kits and gloves.

Sports stars are also getting in on the action. Since the NBA season has been postponed indefinitely as the peak of the illness persists, Golden State Warriors player Steph Curry and his wife Ayesha donated to the Alameda County Community Food Bank and Feeding America through their foundation Eat. Learn. Play. in order to assist Oakland school children with access to meals.

“18,000 kids [in Oakland] rely on at least two meals a day, so we wanna make sure we rally around everyone,” says Ayesha in a video of her and Steph discussing their donations. “We just wanna make sure there’s one less thing to worry about.”

Additionally, Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo plans to donate $100,000 to the staff members who work at his team’s arena, the Fiserv Forum (“We can get through this together,” he wrote on Twitter). His teammate Khris Middleton matched the offer.

Props to everyone for their help.