The Dohmen Company Foundation, a leading organization dedicated to eliminating diet-related diseases, is donating $1 million to FoodCorps, a national nonprofit that partners with schools and communities to nourish children’s health, education, and sense of belonging.
The foundation’s gift, which was announced on Tuesday, will support FoodCorps’ Nourishing Futures initiative, an effort that seeks to ensure all 50 million students in the United States have food education and access to nourishing, free meals in school by 2030.
Funding from the Dohmen Company Foundation will allow FoodCorps to further build upon its national education, awareness, and mobilization movement efforts to increase students’ access to nutritious meals and food education across the country, a press release states. Additionally, the donation will allow FoodCorps to expand its school-based programs in Missouri and Michigan, reaching more than 16,000 additional students with hands-on food education and more than 50,000 additional students with school meals programming.
“The Dohmen Company Foundation and FoodCorps share a vision and commitment to creating healthier communities through access to nutritious food and education,” said Rachel Roller, the Dohmen Company Foundation’s president and CEO. “To that end, the foundation is proud to support FoodCorps as they work to improve the nation’s health trajectory by empowering children through food education, awareness, and access to healthy, unprocessed meals.”
Working to ensure that all 50 million students in the country have access to nourishing, free meals is certainly no small feat, but Robert S. Harvey, President and Co-CEO, FoodCorps said it was through the support from organizations like the Dohmen Company Foundation that makes such an ambitious goal possible.
“We are honored and thankful that the Dohmen Company Foundation shares our vision and believes in our mission to provide this generous gift that will propel our movement forward,” Harvey added.
First announced at the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health in 2022, FoodCorps’ Nourishing Futures initiative seeks to: Partner with schools and districts to advance food education and school nutrition, expanding FoodCorps programming to reach 500,000 students a year; prepare 1,000 BIMPOC (Black, Indigenous, Multiracial, People of Color) emerging leaders for mission-driven careers in food education and school nutrition, and mobilizing one million supporters for policies that expand free school meals; fund food educators; update garden, kitchen, and cafeteria infrastructure; and strengthen local supply chains.
With more than 165 years of healthcare experience, Dohmen has found a way to combine the rigor of business with the heart of philanthropy. After exiting the life science industry in 2018, Dohmen shareholders transformed the multi-generational family-owned business to a private foundation. Today, the Dohmen Company Foundation advances its vision of life without diet-related disease in three powerful ways: via a $67 million investment fund focused on accelerating the growth of for-profit social businesses with proven food solutions that improve human health, via a traditional endowment dedicated to increasing the impact of charitable organizations aligned with our vision, and via a fund dedicated to building public awareness of the surging rates of diet-related disease that threaten our national wellbeing.
