- The philanthropies will support school meals in Ghana’s Eastern Region and Kenya’s Bomet County to improve nutrition, learning, attendance, and help keep children out of child labor.
- School meals have been proven to reduce child poverty and exploitation, food insecurity, and poor health and well-being.
GREENVILLE, N.C. and NEW YORK , Sept. 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Ahead of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Beast Philanthropy and The Rockefeller Foundation announced in a short form video today the first projects of their strategic partnership, committing to establish community-led, regenerative school meal (RSM) programs in Ghana’s Eastern Region and Kenya’s Bomet County. Beast Philanthropy has built six schools in the past twelve months.
“Building schools gives kids a place to learn, but if they’re hungry, they can’t focus or reach their full potential,” said Jimmy Donaldson (aka MrBeast), founder of Beast Philanthropy. “Partnering with The Rockefeller Foundation to provide nutritious, locally grown meals to these kids is a total game-changer. We’re not just feeding thousands of students, we’re helping local farmers and keeping kids healthy in a sustainable way.”
“Jimmy has shown the extraordinary power of video-based storytelling to inspire young people to help their neighbors in need—and to do so with the accountability and transparency that audiences are rightfully demanding,” said Dr. Rajiv J. Shah, President of The Rockefeller Foundation. “This partnership between The Rockefeller Foundation and Beast Philanthropy pairs a century of expertise in food systems and nutrition with an innovative platform for reaching and motivating people. Together, we’ll show that in a more pessimistic world, it’s still possible to lift up humanity’s most vulnerable people, deliver results, and inspire people to give back.”
Over the next five years, Beast Philanthropy and The Rockefeller Foundation will stand up RSM programs in Ghana and Kenya to provide approximately 4,000 children with a school lunch, five days a week. The meals are sourced from local farmers using agricultural practices that improve soil health and resilience and generate data‑proven benefits for children’s health and learning, local food systems, and economic development. With support from The Rockefeller Foundation, Beast Philanthropy will document these efforts, bringing the stories of the students, families, and farmers to global audiences and inspiring transformational action worldwide.
In January 2026, leaders from Beast Philanthropy and The Rockefeller Foundation visited schools in Ghana and Kenya, meeting with community members, educators, and local farmers to learn about existing school meal programs and identify where support was needed most. The visit was part of a strategic partnership announced in late November 2025.
These new initiatives work with country-specific programs designed to reflect local needs, leverage existing agricultural livelihoods, and build toward long-term durability and community ownership:
- Ghana: In Ghana, Beast Philanthropy and The Rockefeller Foundation are collaborating with local stakeholders, including CARE, Fairtrade Africa, West Akyem Co-operative Cocoa Farmers and Marketing Union, and Gold Coast Nutrition Fund, to expand local cocoa farmers’ agroforestry through the adoption of intercropping techniques for food in school meal programs. This community-centered approach uses regenerative principles and integrates food production directly into existing agricultural livelihoods. The initiative will begin by ensuring consistent, nutritious meals across ten schools serving 9 communities in Ghana’s Eastern Region, with school gardens and farms as the program scales over the next five years. Where compatible, the Foundation’s partner the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet will explore providing reliable electricity access for meal preparation as well as for school and local market activity.
“This project is a testament to what sustainable development in action can look like,” said Michael Alandu, Country Director of CARE Ghana. “It brings together one of the most robust policy solutions – school meals – and connects it with local efforts to support farmers and ensure they transition to practices that will help them sustain their farms when extreme weather hits. We hope this can be a model for school meal programs across Ghana and the world.”
- Kenya: In Kenya, Beast Philanthropy and The Rockefeller Foundation are partnering to build a scalable RSM model suited to southwestern Kenya’s arid landscapes. The initiative will establish school gardens as centers of learning on nutrition and regenerative agriculture, link local fortified bean producers—through The Rockefeller Foundation’s existing work with AGRA—directly to school meal supply chains, and deploy solar-powered clean-cooking infrastructure that improves health outcomes, starting in three schools.
“We are excited to work alongside The Rockefeller Foundation to advance Regenerative School Meals in Kenya,” said Carol Moraa, Project Principal at Beast Philanthropy. “Already we are seeing immense opportunity for more sustainable, nutritious, and regenerative school meals and what a difference it makes in the lives of learners.”
The Beast Philanthropy-Rockefeller Foundation Partnership
The Beast Philanthropy-Rockefeller Foundation partnership is already taking shape on the ground. In Kenya, The Rockefeller Foundation partnered with local organizations to install a hybrid, solar-electric cooking system from local, youth-led company Ecobora in one school and a BURN Manufacturing clean cookstove, which is powered by farm waste briquettes, in another school. These efforts are enabling more nutritious school meals, while reducing reliance on traditional cooking fuels that lead to toxic indoor pollution, deforestation, and heavy economic and time burdens on families.
Before partnering, Beast Philanthropy and The Rockefeller Foundation had been working independently to improve nutrition, health, education, and economic outcomes in Ghana and Kenya. In Ghana, Beast Philanthropy is focused on getting children off cocoa farms and into classrooms by removing barriers and providing direct community investment. Separately, The Rockefeller Foundation has committed more than $6.75 million over the past five years to expand and improve school meal programs that nourish vulnerable children in Ghana and Kenya, while promoting community resilience and more equitable and regenerative food systems.
Together, their strategic partnership brings complementary strengths: Beast Philanthropy’s unparalleled storytelling reach and on-the-ground school-building work, and The Rockefeller Foundation’s expertise in food systems, regenerative agriculture, and clean cooking.
About Beast Philanthropy
Beast Philanthropy is a 501(c)3 organization that leverages the power of social media to support charitable causes around the world and make kindness go viral. Founded by Jimmy Donaldson, known as MrBeast, he is the world’s largest creator with 900 million+ followers. Beast Philanthropy aims to elevate and showcase inspirational activations that result in tangible change. For more information, visit www.beastphilanthropy.org, follow us on X @BeastPhilanthr and Instagram @beastphilanthropy.
About The Rockefeller Foundation
Investing $30 billion over the last 113 years to promote the well-being of humanity, The Rockefeller Foundation is a pioneering philanthropy built on unlikely partnerships and innovative solutions that deliver measurable results for people in the United States and around the world. We leverage scientific breakthroughs, artificial intelligence, and new technologies to make big bets across energy, food, health, and finance, including with our public charity, RF Catalytic Capital (RFCC). For more information, sign up for our newsletter at www.rockefellerfoundation.org/subscribe and follow us on X @RockefellerFdn, Instagram @rockefellerfdn, and LinkedIn @the-rockefeller-foundation.
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SOURCE The Rockefeller Foundation
