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H-E-B Chairman Charles Butt to donate $20 million to Texas food banks

By , Staff writer
H-E-B Chairman Charles Butt is donating $20 million to Feeding Texas.

H-E-B Chairman Charles Butt is donating $20 million to Feeding Texas.

Courtesy of HEB

H-E-B Chairman Charles Butt is donating $20 million of his money to support 20 food banks across Texas.

The money will go to Feeding Texas, a network of 20 food banks serving all 254 of the state’s counties, San Antonio-based H-E-B announced Wednesday.

“The thought of children going hungry anywhere is painful, but to have that happen here in Texas is unacceptable,” Butt, 86, said in a statement. “My aim is to support access to essential food programs and invest in solutions for Texans. By supporting the hunger relief efforts of these dedicated organizations, we hope to make a meaningful and positive impact across the state.”

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One in eight residents in Texas, or nearly 4 million people, experience food insecurity, and Black and Hispanic households are disproportionately affected, according to Feeding Texas.

H-E-B said it has also supported hunger relief as a company through donating over 1 billion pounds of food to 5,500 nonprofits across Texas and Mexico since 1982, running an annual “Help End Hunger” donation campaign and hosting “Feast of Sharing” dinners during the holidays.

Aside from food insecurity, Butt has pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to support public education in Texas.

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He founded a nonprofit called Raise Your Hand Texas in 2006 that has lobbied against school vouchers and donated $100 million in 2017 to the Holdsworth Center, a nonprofit named after his mother, philanthropist and educator Mary Elizabeth Holdsworth Butt. The Butt family and H-E-B also gave $10 million in 2022 to build a new elementary school in Uvalde to replace Robb Elementary School, the site of a mass shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers on May 24, 2022.

Photo of Madison Iszler

Madison Iszler

Staff Writer

Madison Iszler covers real estate, retail, economic development, and other business topics for the San Antonio Express-News.

Reach Madison at 210-250-3242, madison.iszler@express-news.net and @madisoniszler.

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