Alex, thank you so much for joining us.
So for those who may not be familiar, explain to us the kind
of work you're doing at the Newman's Own Foundation.
Thank you so much for having me, Lisa.
So Newman's Own Foundation, our mission is to nourish and
transform the lives of children who face adversity.
And we have several program priority areas.
One relates to the summer camps that Paul Newman founded back in
the 80s, so SeriousFun.
So we fund those to allow children with multiple serious
illnesses to come to camp.
And then we also have Indigenous Food Justice, and nutrition
education, and school food.
And we give grants every year to almost 100 organizations, mostly
across the US.
And because this business model may seem a
little unorthodox to people, what would you say to skeptics
or those who are looking to follow in your footsteps?
Yeah.
So what's pretty unique about the foundation is that our money
comes entirely from the sales of Newman's Own product.
And we put on all the labels of the salad dressing, the popcorn, pizza.
We say "100% profit to kids."
And people are sort of like, is it really 100%?
And the answer is yes, because the foundation owns
the food company.
And so unlike a traditional, if you think of a corporate
foundation, usually it's under the corporation and maybe they
give 1% of their profits or something like that.
The governance is completely reversed.
So we give 100% of the profits.
And I think first for skeptics, well, all I can say is we've
been doing this for 40 years.
We've made a profit, you know, since, Paul Newman, when he
started, made a profit since the beginning.
We've given away $600 million to nonprofits since 1982.
That's pretty incredible.
And compared to being under the corporation, our products and
our mission is it's really all about the kids and really about
having maximum impact.
And so that's pretty incredible.
And then to those who want to follow in our footsteps, please
come along.
This is how we can align the best of for profit and nonprofit
business models, in my view.
So looking ahead, where do you think the biggest opportunities
are for making an impact in what's the future looking like
for Newman's Own Foundation?
Thank you for asking.
So I think there's two big places where we're very hopeful
we can make an impact through our grantee partners.
The 1st is Healthy Free School Meals for All.
That's a campaign led by a number of partners, including
FoodCorps and FRAC.
And it's really about ensuring that in public schools in the
United States, kids get free breakfast and free school meals.
One in five kids in this country go to school to bed hungry.
That number, unfortunately, is going in the wrong direction.
It's a real issue and I think there can be a lot to be done in
this country and it's a big point of leverage.
The other thing that we're really continuing to work in,
but deepening and expanding our work is around the Indigenous
Food Justice.
So we have about 30 grantee partners which are working in
Hawaii, in Alaska, and in different tribal reservations
across the country to really help reclaim and rematriate
traditional indigenous wisdom on healthy food and how to cook it
and to gather it.
And it's not only really to support indigenous communities
and the kids there, but also to make everybody healthier overall.
Thank you so much.