MrBeast says his fledgling food pantry delivered nearly 60,000 holiday meals in 2020, and now holds four food drives per week that support regular deliveries to North Carolina communities in need.
The famously generous YouTuber–IRL name Jimmy Donaldson–unveiled his charity last August, and it’s been operating since November.
In the first-ever upload to Beast Philanthropy, the side channel that’s financially supporting the food pantry, Donaldson gives an update on what the charity has been up to so far, and how fans can help.
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For Thanksgiving 2020, the pantry packed 30,000 meals for local residents, Donaldson says. It delivered a further 23,000 meals for Christmas. Donaldson says the pantry also delivered 1,000 pounds of food and water to North Carolinians when a disaster struck. (He didn’t specify, but is likely referring to Tropical Storm Eta.)
The pantry’s warehouse keeps a stock of around 50,000 pounds of food, and makes weekly deliveries to local communities, Donaldson says.
Darren, an expert who participated in two charitable MrBeast videos before Donaldson hired him to run the pantry full-time, estimates that between the warehouse, equipment, and food, it has probably spent around $500,000 so far.
“This has been a longtime dream of mine,” Donaldson says while walking through the charity’s headquarters. “We’re starting in North Carolina because that’s where I’m from, but also because North Carolina has a massive food insecurity problem.”
Darren adds that the food pantry is capable of feeding “millions of people a year.”
Toward the end of the upload, Donaldson reminds viewers that 100% of ad revenue, brand deals, and merch sales from Beast Philanthopy will go toward the food pantry’s costs. “Every view on this channel is literally putting food in people’s mouths,” he says.
Beast Philanthropy currently has 1.8 million subscribers; Donaldson says his goal is to grow it as big as his main channel, which has 56 million subscribers and is bringing in hundreds of millions of views per month.
Per the video’s description, Beast Philanthropy merch is coming soon, and so is a way for viewers to donate cash.
