Grace Marr, the Founder of the Respect Foundation, is a 4th generation Jamaican. In the 1970s, her father was a Senator and the Chairman of the Cane Farmers Association, during the time when sugar cane was the primary driver of GDP in Jamaica. In the mid-’70s, during extremely turbulent political and economic times that saw the country’s government turn to socialism and forcefully nationalize privately held land, Grace’s father sent her to the United States supposedly “for three weeks to visit family” when, in fact, she was being evacuated for her own safety after a kidnapping attempt and an attempt on her father’s life. Weeks turned into years which turned into decades, and finally, in 2020 Grace decided to return to Jamaica full-time, to build a charitable foundation to carry on her father’s legacy of providing an opportunity for marginalized, rural farmers.