In a bid to boost nutrition and diet, the Rockefeller Foundation has announced a five-year, $100 million commitment to support the efforts of more than a dozen countries to expand and further develop their school meal programs.
Announced during the 2025 Nutrition for Growth Summit (N4G), hosted by the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, the latest funding is part of a more than $220 million global commitment to nutrition from the foundation. This includes its ‘Big Bet’ of $100 million to advance Food is Medicine solutions in the United States, as well as more than $20 million for the Periodic Table of Food Initiative, which provides standardized tools, data, and training to map the quality of the world’s edible biodiversity.
The new initiative, which builds on initial work in Brazil and Kenya, aims to reach 100 million children worldwide, including in the United States, providing nutritious, locally, and regeneratively grown school meals. A partner of the School Meals Coalition, the Rockefeller Foundation will collaborate with organizations including the Novo Nordisk Foundation and the UN World Food Program to help strengthen the resilience of countries’ food systems, improve the nutritional quality of school meals, mobilize finance, and design procurement standards that incentivize investment in locally and regeneratively sourced foods.
“The world can’t stand by and let kids go hungry. We need to come together behind bold, innovative solutions like locally grown, sustainable school meals that address today’s urgent needs while safeguarding against tomorrow’s urgent threats,” said Rockefeller Foundation president Rajiv J. Shah. “This announcement reflects the Rockefeller Foundation’s commitment to delivering results for people in the United States and around the world by investing in solutions and working with a range of partners that can advance the food security of children, economic opportunities for farmers, businesses, and communities, and the health of our planet.”
