Jeff Bezos: Champion Of The Poor?

Jeff Bezos is looking to put his $84.9 billion to good use.

The polymath owner of the Washington Post and CEO of Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN and Blue Origin tweeted Thursday a request for philanthropic proposals to build on recent social justice efforts.

Bezos’ Charity Portfolio

In May, Bezos donated more than 47,000 square feet of Amazon's newest Seattle headquarters to Mary’s Place Family Shelter, providing 65 rooms to lodge more than 200 homeless women and children. The two tenants will move in early 2020.

"Mary's Place does incredible, life-saving work every day for women, children, and families experiencing homelessness in the Seattle community," Bezos said in a press release at the time. "We are lucky to count them as neighbors and thrilled to offer them a permanent home within our downtown Seattle headquarters.”

Amazon previously granted Mary’s Place temporary use of a former Travelodge on its campus, which the company upgraded and decorated for short-term tenants.

The charitable act was shortly followed by a Prime discount for low-income consumers. In June, Amazon announced $5.99 access to Prime benefits for customers with Electronic Benefits Transfer cards, which support those participating in government assistance programs such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families; Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program; and Women, Infants and Children Nutrition Program.

Bezos positioned himself for further social disruption Friday with Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods Market, Inc. WFM.

The new business branch is one of few U.S. grocers daring enough to open sites in urban food deserts in Detroit and Chicago. As he considers price cuts to the store’s nutritious inventory, Bezos could improve health foods accessibility for low-income neighborhoods often reliant on cheap, high-fat fast food.

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______ Image Credit: By Yolo0906 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons