Nebraska senator donating half of her small business profits to Los Angeles wildfire victims

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – Nebraska State Senator Megan Hunt is using two of her small businesses to bring relief to those effected by the wildfires in Los Angeles County.

Both stores, Five Nine and Ceremony Shop, are based in downtown Omaha and focus on serving the art and vintage communities.

Hunt is donating 50% of her in-store and online profits to a variety of GoFundMe accounts for people in California.

She said it’s a top priority to use her platform as a local lawmaker and a small business owner to help out.

“One thing I really believe as a business owner is you have a platform, you have customers, you’re making some money hopefully,” Hunt said. “I think that if you can manage it, it is good to use that platform to help other people that are in need.”

Hunt told Channel 8 that she chose to contribute to different GoFundMe accounts to ensure the money goes directly into the pocket of those in need.

“We have had a lot of conversations internally about should we donate to these organizations that are distributing funds. How do we get it directly to the people who need it,” she said. “And there is never gonna be a perfect answer but I encourage everybody who wants to give support to the survivors of the fires in LA to do whatever feels right for you.”

This is not the first time Hunt has done something like this.

In the past, she helped raise donations for organizations in Nebraska and across the United States.

Hunt said it is her way of making everyone feel welcome and supported.

“You know, this is one thing we took the initiative to do ourselves, knowing how many customers we have and designers we work with in Los Angeles who are suffering right now,” she said.

Right now, Hunt said the focus should be on helping the people of Los Angeles rather than politicizing the crisis.

“What we need to do is make sure that we’re caring for each other and if you look around, you see lots of people in the community who are there in solidarity and no matter what election turnout says, you do see those people who just wanna help each other,” she said.

Both of Hunt’s shops will continue to donate half of its profits for the next week.