Taylor Swift has donated $1m to victims battered by a series of killer tornadoes in Tennessee.
The 33-year-old singer – who recently became a billionaire and has been named Time magazine’s 2023 Person of the Year – gave the donation to the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee (CFMT) to help residents whose homes were ravaged by the storms, which have killed six people in the state including a child.
Hal Cato, chief executive of the community foundation, said Swift’s donation will “support the immediate and long-term recovery needs” in Sumner County and the areas around it most devastated by the tornadoes.
Officials in Montgomery County, north of Nashville, say 23 people have been injured in the tornadoes.
Born in Pennsylvania, Swift has a close affinity with Tennessee as she moved to Nashville with her family at the age of 14 to pursue her musical career. Her cash will go towards food, temporary housing, the clean-up, and more.
Taylor has become renowned for her philanthropy after previously giving away $1m to another tornado emergency response fund— (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
Swift previously donated $1m to the Middle Tennessee Emergency Response Fund in March 2020 after deadly tornadoes took lives and destroyed homes.
She said at the time: “Nashville is my home and the fact that so many people have lost their homes and so much more in Middle Tennessee is devastating to me.”
Devastation wreaked by the Tennessee tornadoes— (MNPD/LOCAL NEWS X /TMX)
The Grammy winner has also donated to food poverty charities in cities on her blockbuster Eras Tour – with the singer giving away enough money to make 125,000 meals for food bank users in Tampa Bay, Florida.
Swift kicked off her latest global trek in Glendale, Arizona, on 17 March, and it was revealed that she made a surprise donation to the Arizona Food Bank Network as part of a commitment to make a positive impact in the communities during her tour.
Terri Shoemaker, Vice President of External Relations at the Arizona Food Bank Network, told Azcentral.com: “It’s not every day that you get a call from someone who works in PR for Taylor Swift, so we were dubious at first, but happily, it turned out to be absolutely real.
“Donations like this from very high-profile people like Taylor Swift help denote that hunger is still a problem in the U.S. It’s here and it’s a problem across the country. “The recognition of that is so important and so is just setting an example of how to support organisations in the community.“
