NEW YORK — Today FoodCorps announced a $2.3 million grant from the Walmart Foundation to help support the nonprofit’s mission to connect students to healthy food in schools. The grant is part of Walmart and the Walmart Foundation’s goal to break down barriers to access to healthier, nutritious food.
FoodCorps has been a grantee of the Walmart Foundation since 2014, and its continued support allows FoodCorps to have greater impact at the local level and nationwide. The additional investment from the Walmart Foundation will assist FoodCorps in providing culturally responsive hands-on nutrition education and equitable access to healthy food to 170,000 kids in 375 schools in rural, urban, and Indigenous communities across 18 states. The grant will also support FoodCorps service member experience and training, along with the purchase of teaching supplies to further enhance hands-on lessons among the students, and the organization’s emerging work around school cafeterias.
“Walmart Foundation’s transformative support for FoodCorps’ work in schools has fueled our efforts towards larger systemic change,” said Curt Ellis, Co-Founder and CEO at FoodCorps. “Our growing relationship will help us strengthen support for our service members on the ground who are making the case for hands-on nutrition education alongside access to healthy food.”
Together with communities, FoodCorps connects kids to healthy food in schools so that every child — regardless of race, place, or class — get the nourishment they need to thrive. Eight years ago, the organization set out to address a nationwide epidemic: the broken relationship between children and their food.
“FoodCorps’ continuing focus on changing the school-wide culture of health is helping kids thrive both in and outside of the classroom,” says Julie Gehrki, vice president of philanthropy for Walmart.org. “Walmart.org is proud to continue our support for FoodCorps’ talented and diverse service members that are at the heart of partnering with local schools to make impact across the country.”
ABOUT FOODCORPS
Together with communities, FoodCorps connects kids to healthy food in school so that every child—regardless of race, place, or class—gets the nourishment they need to thrive. Our AmeriCorps leaders transform schools into places where all students learn what healthy food is, fall in love with it, and eat it every day. Building on this foundation of direct impact, FoodCorps develops leaders, forges networks, and pursues policy reforms that in time have the potential to improve all of our nation’s 100,000 schools. To learn more about FoodCorps’ work across the country, visit http://www.foodcorps.org.
ABOUT WALMART FOUNDATION
Walmart.org represents the philanthropic efforts of Walmart and the Walmart Foundation. By leaning in where our business has unique strengths, we work to tackle key social issues and collaborate with others to spark long-lasting systemic change. Walmart has stores in 27 countries, employing more than 2 million associates and doing business with thousands of suppliers who, in turn, employ millions of people. Walmart.org is helping people live better by supporting programs that work to accelerate upward job mobility for frontline workers, address hunger and make healthier, more sustainably-grown food a reality, and build strong communities where Walmart operates. To learn more, visit www.walmart.org or find us on Twitter @walmartorg.
