Billionaire John Paul DeJoria backs Appalachian food project helping families grow produce
The founder of John Paul Mitchell Systems supports a Kentucky initiative that has helped 13,000 families grow nearly 8 million pounds of produce.
Billionaire John Paul DeJoria is supporting Grow Appalachia, a Berea College initiative in Kentucky that teaches families to grow their own food. According to the Times of India, the programme has helped more than 13,000 families grow almost 8 million pounds of produce.
DeJoria, the 82-year-old founder of hair-care company John Paul Mitchell Systems and Patrón Spirits Company, made an initial donation of $150,000 to the project in 2009. The work has continued through his JP’s Peace, Love & Happiness Foundation, which he established with his family in 2011.
The foundation focuses on interests including food security, animal protection, and support for veterans, homeless people, and vulnerable women and children. DeJoria also signed the Giving Pledge in 2011, committing to give away at least half of his wealth to philanthropy.
DeJoria's philanthropic outlook was shaped by his childhood in Los Angeles and two periods of homelessness. He previously lived in a car after his wife emptied their bank account, and later faced hardship when an investor pulled out of his hair-care business in 1980.
Before launching John Paul Mitchell Systems with Paul Mitchell in 1980, DeJoria and Mitchell pooled $350 each to start the company. DeJoria later co-founded The Patrón Spirits Company in 1989, which was valued at $5.1 billion in a 2018 deal.