Today, The Papa John’s Foundation for Building Community announced it has awarded nearly $1.6 million to almost 180 organizations whose work supports one or more of the Foundation’s focus areas – youth leadership and entrepreneurship, food security and food waste reduction. Franchise partners who own and operate Papa John’s locations, as well as teams at Papa John’s corporate-owned restaurants, applied to the Foundation for these grants on behalf of local organizations addressing these areas within their respective communities.
Local organizations across 33 states and 96 communities nationwide will use these grants to support a wide range of efforts across the Foundation’s three focus areas:
- Youth leadership and entrepreneurship – including 23 local chapters of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, a national leader in youth development programs that supports local communities by building the next generation of leaders.
- Food security – including Just Food of Douglas County, a local Lawrence, Kan. organization that aims to end hunger by increasing access to healthy foods, reducing barriers to health and well-being and cultivating self-sufficiency within the local community, and Urban Harvest STL, who is building community around inclusive and resilient local food systems in St. Louis by growing produce across a network of urban farms to donate to local nonprofit partners.
- Food waste reduction – including Food Recovery Network, a national nonprofit that unites students at colleges and universities to fight food waste and hunger by recovering perishable food that would otherwise go to waste from their campus dining halls and donating it to those in need.
Learn how past recipients of grants from the Building Community Fund are making an impact in their communities at the links below!
