The William, Jeff and Jennifer Gross Family Foundation donates $50K to Laguna Food Pantry

The William, Jeff and Jennifer Gross Family Foundation, the charity founded by retired financial asset manager Bill Gross and his son and daughter, has donated a $50,000 emergency grant to the Laguna Food Pantry. 

The donation will assist the organization in its efforts to provide food to the dramatic surge in the number of South Orange County’s newly unemployed, food-insecure seniors, low-income families with children, disabled and sheltering veterans, and homeless men and women seeking help during this extraordinarily difficult time.

“Jeff, Jennifer and I greatly appreciate the work being done by the Laguna Food Pantry and its volunteers to bring nutritious food to our community during this crisis,” said Bill Gross, the co-founder of the Newport Beach-based PIMCO asset management firm and a longtime resident of Orange County. “Anne Belyea and her team deserve to be recognized for their tireless commitment to serving those in need.”

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Photo by Mary Hurlbut

Bill Gross of the William, Jeff and Jennifer Gross Family Foundation 

Anne Belyea, Executive Director of the Laguna Food Pantry, said: “Everyone at Laguna Food Pantry greatly appreciates the ongoing generous support received from the William, Jeff and Jennifer Gross Family Foundation. Thanks to the Gross Family Foundation and other donors, we can continue working to feed our neighbors-in-need in South Orange County.”

According to the Laguna Food Pantry, the Gross Family Foundation’s grant of $50,000 provides for:

--Groceries to 3,500 people and their 14,000 family members;

--PPE for Pantry volunteers and staff (masks, gloves, cleaning supplies);

--The ability to purchase protein (eggs, meat, peanut butter, beans, etc.) and fresh vegetables to augment fluctuating food bank staples and grocery store- rescued items;

--Trucking costs to pick up unique opportunities of donated or low-cost bulk food;

--Support for the new program of pre-packed fresh, nutritious groceries for delivery to seniors and veterans;

--Additional equipment and supplies to meet increased demand and accommodate outside distribution (an outdoor cold storage system for perishables, additional racks, carts, dollies, pop-up tents and tarps, grocery totes and cardboard boxes);

--One or two new refrigerators to hold the increased amount of perishables to meet the shopper volume;

--A new, three hours per day, five days a week, $12 per hour employee to handle the traffic flow during pick-up. (The employee is a previously unemployed, newly housed local man.)

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Photo by Mary Hurlbut

Laguna Food Pantry volunteers (L-R) Cecile Scott, Rebecca Washington-Lindsay, and Nancy Oughton

The population served by the Pantry was already struggling to provide food for themselves and their families. Since the outbreak, these food and financially insecure shoppers have lost their jobs and only source of income. 

The choice between paying rent and buying healthy food has become more desperate. With schools closed, more families need assistance to feed their children. 

In April, the Laguna Food Pantry served an all-time high of 472 first-time shoppers, a dramatic increase of new people needing food since the start of the pandemic.

The Gross Family Foundation’s donation to the Laguna Food Pantry continues a longstanding commitment to provide financial resources to organizations that provide a direct benefit to the communities in which they serve. 

The William, Jeff and Jennifer Gross Family Foundation and its predecessor have donated more than $60 million to nonprofit organizations since 2017, including $1.5 million in March to organizations providing relief from the effects of COVID-19 and its impact on Southern California communities. 

Prior to this latest donation, the Gross Family Foundation provided assistance to Miku, the industry’s leading contact-free baby monitor, in an accelerated program to equip hospitals nationwide with its real-time respiration monitoring system.

More information about the Gross Family Foundation can be found at www.grossfamilyfoundation.com.