David Baldacci donates $100K to Smith Mountain Lake meals program

Bestselling author David Baldacci and his wife, Michelle, have donated $100,000 to The Landing Love Project, a nonprofit initiative to expand meal delivery services to at-risk families and seniors in the Smith Mountain Lake region.

The Landing Love Project was established in March 2020 by March  Bruno and Tiffany Silva, owners of The Landing Restaurant, in response to the pandemic.

“The Landing Love Project is humbled by this generous financial contribution from the Baldaccis as it will go a long way in supporting our mission,” Bruno Silva said in a statement. “We recently reached another milestone by delivering over 35,000 meals to those in need within our community. This is the most important thing we have ever done, and The Landing Love Project is a part of us now and we have no plans to stop feeding those in need within our community.”

The next goal for the project is to secure a facility to distribute meals and establish a learning area for adult education in topics including reading skills, GED preparation, résumé writing and job searches.

“As a community, we have an opportunity to support each other and make a difference,” David Baldacci said in a statement. “This only makes our community stronger and an even better place for all of us to call home.”

A lifelong Virginian, David Baldacci has published 42 adult novels and seven children’s novels, including “Wish You Well” and “Absolute Power,” both of which were adapted into feature films. The Baldaccis have their own Wish You Well Foundation, which in 2008 partnered with Feeding America to launch a program to address literacy, poverty and hunger.

Subscribe to Virginia Business.

Get our daily e-newsletter.