In 2021, The Papa John’s Foundation for Building Community launched The Papa John’s Foundation for Building Community Fund, which empowers our restaurant team members and U.S. franchise partners to support the communities they serve by applying for grants on behalf of local organizations addressing one or more of the Foundation’s focus areas – youth leadership and entrepreneurship, food security and food waste reduction.
In its first year, the Building Community Fund provided nearly $1 million to more than 100 organizations based in 40 U.S. cities. Nominated by DMD Minnesota, LLC, and other Papa Johns franchise partners in the Minneapolis area, Every Meal received $10,000 to support their work strengthening food security.
Every Meal for Every Child
In the fall of 2010, Every Meal was founded to address the growing need to fight child hunger in Minnesota by providing a weekend’s supply of food to hungry children. Every Meal partners with approximately 300 schools and organizations to discreetly deliver meal bags to children at their school or a community site. To date, Every Meal has served thousands of children across 500 locations and provided 9.5 million meals and counting.
Every Meal is 100% community funded, relying on grants like the one they received from The Papa John’s Foundation in 2021, to ensure they can provide nutritious, delicious, and relevant meals to children in need. The grant funded the Weekend Food Program, providing students who receive free or reduced lunches from school with 4–5-pound meal bags to bring home at the end of each school week. With our support, Every Meal supplied 40 children with weekend meals for an entire school year.
