Amazon is donating $2.2 million to help students from underserved communities in Seattle and Bellevue, Wash., afford basic necessities, the company announced Tuesday.
Amazon first established its Right Now Needs Fund with a $2 million grant in 2018 in partnership with the nonprofits Alliance for Education and Bellevue LifeSpring. The money is intended to address students’ need for such things as food, shelter, clothing, and school supplies.
The donation will support 106 schools within the Seattle Public Schools district and all 29 schools in the Bellevue School District.
The Alliance for Education will get $1.4 million to help Seattle students. Since 2018, funds have supported more than 38,000 requests for student support, Amazon said.
Amazon donated $700,000 in cash and $150,000 in Amazon gift cards to Bellevue LifeSpring to support nearly 4,000 underserved students in that district. Amazon added Bellevue, where it is growing considerably, to the mix in 2020 and there have been 15,000 instances of student support since then.
Since launching the first Right Now Needs Fund Amazon has donated more than $8 million.
