Jeff Bezos Awards Van Jones $100 Million for Charity

Just hours after being transported to space on Tuesday on Blue Origin’s first human flight, Blue Origin and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos announced CNN contributor Van Jones and celebrity chef José Andrés as the inaugural recipients of the $100 million Courage and Civility Award.

Jones and Andrés will each give $100 million to the charity of their choice or “they can share their wealth. It’s all up to them,” said Bezos during a press conference in Texas following the historic 10-minute space flight that also included his brother Mark Bezos, Wally Funk and Oliver Daemen. Funk, 82, became the oldest person to fly into space 60 years after being denied the opportunity by NASA to do so because of her gender, while Daemen, 18, became the youngest person to travel to space.

Jones, who is known for his political activism and criminal justice reform advocacy, “You take people on frontlines and their wisdom and their genius and their creativity, and you give them a shot.”

Andrés, the founder of World Central Kitchen, said, “This award itself cannot feed the world on its own, but this is the start of a new chapter for us.”