WASHINGTON — Multi-platinum recording artist Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye is allocating $2 million from his XO Humanitarian Fund toward the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and its humanitarian response efforts in Gaza. The donation will provide more than 1,500 tonnes of fortified wheat flour, which may be used to make more than 18 million loaves of bread that can help feed more than 157,000 Palestinians for one month.

Tesfaye, who has been a Goodwill Ambassador for the WFP since October 2021, previously donated $2.5 million, which is equal to four million emergency meals, to the organization’s Gaza response back in December 2023. The WFP said the funding provided 820 tonnes of food parcels to feed more than 173,000 Palestinians for two weeks.

Tesfaye also has been urging his fans to donate to the WFP’s efforts in Gaza as more than one million Palestinians “face catastrophic levels of hunger across Gaza,” the organization said.

“We are very grateful for Abel’s continued support as WFP works to respond to the urgent hunger crisis in Gaza,” said Barron Segar, president and chief executive officer of World Food Program USA. “Hunger is a human-made problem, and as such, it is solvable. We have enough food in this world to feed everyone; all we need is the funding and safe access to make it happen. Thanks to Abel’s designation, families and children will receive the food they so desperately need.”

The WFP said it is providing food to the people of Gaza each month and is working to re-activate collapsed food systems in the region. Most of this food is distributed in central and southern Gaza, with food deliveries in the north increasing since March. The organization said it delivered approximately 2,100 tonnes of food parcels and wheat flour to northern Gaza via land routes plus an additional 45 tonnes via airdrops.

Moreover, the WFP distributes a wide variety of foods in UN shelters, communities and make-shift camps across the region. These food items include ready-to-eat food, wheat flour and specialized nutritional products for children as well as pregnant and nursing mothers. The organization said it currently supports more than 100 community kitchens and aims to provide 500,000 meals daily. The WFP also is helping bakeries become operational again, supplying wheat flour, fuel, yeast, salt and sugar to four bakeries in the north and 12 bakeries in central and southern Gaza.