Warren Buffett Auctions Smith & Wollensky Lunch for $1 Million

Warren Buffett recently auctioned off a lunch invite at NYC’s Smith & Wollensky on eBay for his 14th annual anti-poverty fundraiser. The anonymous winner generously bid $1,000,100 on Friday for a meal with the man of Berkshire Hathaway, the lowest bid since 2007 and much lower than last year’s $3.5 million record. The auction began on June 2 and required a minimum of $25,000 for pre-qualified bidders.

Proceeds benefit the anti-poverty and educational charity GLIDE, which annually feeds the poor nearly a million meals, all on a $17 million dollar budget. Since 2000, the auction has raised $15.8 million for the charity. “We never know, from year to year, how much we’re going to raise,” said GLIDE founder Reverend Cecil Williams. “Whatever comes through, we see it as a gift that is needed and that is shared.”

As a leading philanthropist, Buffett is giving away billions to causes worldwide, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and his very own, The Giving Pledge.