Days before they are set to marry at Madison Square Garden, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce have donated $26 million to at least 20 charities, a representative confirmed. The pop icon and the Kansas City Chiefs star, both 36, gave to organizations including food banks, children’s hospitals, and music education programs, choosing groups that hold meaning for each of them.
The donation – a sum that fans noted is double Swift’s favourite number, 13 – includes $2 million to Feeding America, which publicly thanked the couple: “Your support brings us all closer to a future where everyone has the food they need to thrive.” City Harvest, New York’s first and largest food rescue organisation, received $1 million. “This donation is a love letter to New York,” the charity said, “and a bold commitment to our efforts to ensure that no New Yorker goes hungry. Their support comes at a critical time, with visits to New York City soup kitchens and food pantries near record highs.”
“Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce donated $26 million to 20 charities before their Friday wedding at Madison Square Garden.”
The list of recipients also features New York Cares, the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, the Store in Nashville, Helping Harvest in Swift’s hometown of Reading, Pennsylvania, and Kansas City’s Children’s Mercy Hospital. National charities such as Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, ASPCA, and Grammy in the Schools also benefited.
The couple’s generosity comes as preparations for their Friday wedding ramp up at Madison Square Garden. Workers have been seen moving large props into the arena – a grand piano, tree branches, carpeting – and boxes labelled “garden party” and “GAZ”, thought to be short for gazebo. The celebrations begin with a rehearsal dinner for 100 guests on Thursday evening at the Infosys Theater within the 22,000-capacity venue. Friday’s festivities will start with a cocktail hour at 4pm, followed by the ceremony at 5.30pm, with partying expected to continue until 2am. More than 1,000 guests are expected, and TV presenter Graham Norton and actor Phoebe Waller-Bridge have been spotted arriving in the city. Performers reportedly include Stevie Nicks and Tim McGraw.
Neither Swift nor Kelce has addressed the wedding reports, and the press release announcing the donations made no mention of the nuptials. But the couple’s $26m gift – part of what is being called a $20m wedding extravaganza – has ensured that even as they celebrate their own union, thousands of New Yorkers and others across the country will not go hungry.