The Weeknd’s humanitarian fund to help bring food to Gaza
WASHINGTON (WISH) — The United Nations World Food Programme announced that recording artist The Weeknd, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye, is using $2.5 million from the XO Humanitarian Fund.
He launched the fund in partnership with the World Food Programme to help feed millions of people, and to help the World Food Programme’s humanitarian response efforts in Gaza.
The donation equates to 4 million emergency meals and will fund 1.8 million parcels of food that could feed more than 173,000 Palestinians for two weeks, the organization says.
Billboard reported Tesfaye, “his partners” and fans have collectively raised raised more than $6.5 million for the XO Humanitarian Fund.
World Food Programme says the contribution comes at a critical time as it races to feed what it estimated to be more than 1 million Gazans on the verge of starvation.
World Food Programme says it has given food assistance to more than 856,000 Palestinians since the conflict began on Oct. 7. Other U.N. agencies as well as local and regional partners have helped, according to the World Food Programme.
Food assistance included fresh bread, fortified date bars, canned food, wheat flour, pasta, tomato paste, and oil, according to the organization.
Tesfaye is a goodwill ambassador for the World Food Programme.