Topline
The billionaire founders of the Wonderful Company, one of the largest farming operations in North America, on Thursday announced a donation of $100 million to UCLA Health to fund its mental and behavioral health services, including the expansion of a neuropsychiatric hospital already named after Lynda and Stewart Resnick.
Stewart and Lynda Resnick on April 21, 2018 in Los Angeles, California.
Getty Images for LACMA
Key Facts
The donation from the Resnicks, who are each worth an estimated $5.4 billion as of Thursday, is the single largest gift to advance mental health care in the history of UCLA Health, the organization said.
The money will be used to build a new location for the Stewart and Lynda Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA, increasing capacity from 74 to 119 beds, and for a new 20-bed unit for patients experiencing acute behavioral health crises.
This latest donation brings the combined lifetime giving of the Resnicks, their companies and their foundation to UCLA to nearly $200 million, including initial funding for the neuropsychiatric hospital, $2.3 million for the Resnick Center for Food Law and Policy and $30 million to the Hammer Museum.
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Forbes Valuation
Together, the Resnicks are worth an estimated $10.8 billion. They co-founded the Wonderful Company in 1979, which has become the world’s leading grower of tree nuts and America’s largest citrus grower. Their products include POM Wonderful, Fiji Water and Halo mandarin oranges, and they also own a majority stake in the Kern Water Bank, one of California’s largest underground water-storage facilities. The Wonderful Company ranks at No. 104 on Forbes’ list of the country’s top private companies with $6 billion in revenue in 2024.
Big Number
More than $2 billion. That’s how much the Resnicks have pledged to charitable causes, including climate change research. The Resnicks announced a $750 million pledge to the California Institute of Technology in 2019 to support environmental sustainability research. It was the second-largest gift ever given to an American university. In addition to their UCLA donations, they funded the construction of the Resnick Exhibition Pavilion at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to the tune of $45 million and pledged $50 million to UC Davis in 2022 to establish the Lynda and Stewart Resnick Center for Agricultural Innovation.
Chief Critics
The Resnicks are big-time donors to universities prioritizing sustainability in agriculture, but have been accused of using the gifts to greenwash the reputation of the Wonderful Company. Their firm is often criticized for its massive water consumption and pesticide use. The company uses enough water for its California crops annually to rival the usage of the city of San Francisco over a decade, and is reportedly a major user of the toxic herbicide paraquat, which has been linked to Parkinson’s disease and cancer. Its 57% stake in the Kern Water Bank has also been called a hoarding of water resources.
Further Reading
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2026/02/26/billionaires-lynda-and-stewart-resnick-donate-100-million-to-ucla-for-mental-health-care/
