Rite Aid Healthy Futures Provides Nearly $12 Million to Nonprofit Organizations to Drive Progress Against Acute Challenges Facing Children and Youth
Nutrition education, food distribution and urban agriculture are key programs to ensure healthy futures for kids and families.
PHILADELPHIA — Rite Aid Healthy Futures today announced grants totaling nearly $12M in 2024 to fund organizations and programs to address major societal challenges and crises facing children and youth, with a focus on food insecurity, mental health and racial equity. Grant recipients include national charitable networks, children’s hospitals, regional foodbanks and local organizations across Rite Aid communities.
Healthy Futures, a public charity affiliated with Rite Aid, one of the nation’s leading pharmacy retailers, seeks to accelerate progress and impact by supporting core services and innovative prototypes, while strengthening the capacity of its nonprofit partners, to ensure healthier and more equitable neighborhoods.
At a time when children increasingly face the harsh realities and stressors of inadequate access to nutritious food, with one in five children in the US facing food insecurity daily, compounded by alarming rates of related childhood diseases, Rite Aid Healthy Futures works with children’s hospitals and local organizations to support neighborhood-rooted programs, such as urban agriculture, community gardens, food distribution, hunger screenings, nutrition education and disease-prevention programs.
Rite Aid Healthy Futures has also continued its funding in 2024 to leading youth mental health organizations, joining the response to a generational crisis that has ravaged communities and highlighted the need for increased investment and attention. More than one in six children and youth in the US, ages 6-17, tallying in the millions, experience a mental health condition, such as anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation. The grants and programs support the youth mental healthcare continuum, spanning from awareness, education and prevention to support, crisis care and recovery services.
“Children and families living in far too many communities face daunting realities daily given the effects of escalating and colliding societal crises centered on poverty, hunger, health and racism,” said Matthew DeCamara, executive director of Rite Aid Healthy Futures. “We are emboldened to act with purpose and urgency given these conditions and inspired by the courageous leadership, critical services and innovative programs of so many charitable organizations on the front lines that create local sovereignty and build healthier communities.”
Highlights of Healthy Futures’ grants, partnerships and communities in 2024 include:
Funding into its Connecting Communities and Strengthening Cities’ initiatives to address the rising rates of hunger in America, with an emphasis of funding in California, New York and Pennsylvania, states with a significant presence of Rite Aid stores.
Grant recipients include 37 children’s hospitals, with funds ranging from $25,000-$300,000 and totaling $3 million, led by support to Penn State Children’s Health, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, New York-Presbyterian, and Cohen Children’s Medical Center (NY). Children’s hospitals treat the profound effects of hunger and associated diseases every day, and their community-based programs seek to stabilize food systems and improve community health.
Healthy Futures continued its work in six American cities – Baltimore, Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Fresno and Philadelphia – by providing a total of $3 million in grants to 26 organizations on the front lines addressing food insecurity for children and families. More than 50 leaders from this group convened and contributed to Healthy Futures’ second Strengthening Cities Summit, held in Cleveland in September. Healthy Futures also published a report – “Nourishing Neighborhoods: A Multi-City Approach to Confronting Childhood and Youth Food Insecurity” – to spotlight the challenging conditions and impactful strategies and programs delivered by these organizations in the six cities.
Working with and learning from the top leaders in the field of youth mental health, Rite Aid Healthy Futures provided more than $1 million in funding across Active Minds, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, McLean Hospital in Boston, The Steve Fund and The Trevor Project. The grant programs connect kids of all backgrounds with relevant mental health care resources, including learning programs, peer groups, crisis hotlines and clinical care.
Through its Empowering Children initiative, Rite Aid Healthy Futures provided $3.1 million to support a wide range of causes, communities and organizations addressing several of the toughest health challenges in Rite Aid communities, such as child abuse, youth homelessness and childhood diseases, to ensure continuity of critical services, plus to restore hope and provide a sense of belonging to kids and youth. Funded organizations include homeless shelters, food banks, foster care shelters, educational centers and therapeutic care facilities in diverse and low-income communities, aligning with the overall goal of Healthy Futures to address racial inequities and health disparities.
Rite Aid Healthy Futures continued national partnerships totaling $1.5 million to two leading missions and networks focused on children’s health. Girls on the Run inspires girls to be joyful, healthy and confident, and Healthy Futures provided mini grants to local Councils across Rite Aid’s footprint to increase the diversity of participating girls and coaches, plus support the national organization to launch a new curriculum for its 3rd-5th grade program. SeriousFun Children’s Network empowers children with serious medical conditions and their families through inclusive and life-changing experiences that inspire confidence and joy. Healthy Futures supported a range of camp-based programs for children and families, plus medical, safety and diversity initiatives for the network.
About Rite Aid Healthy Futures
Rite Aid Healthy Futures is a public charity that strives to improve the lives and futures of kids in Rite Aid communities through partnerships that help build healthier, more equitable neighborhoods. Launched by Rite Aid in 2001, Healthy Futures supports causes, initiatives and organizations that help kids live long, happy and healthy lives. Grants are made possible through the generous donations of customers who round-up their purchases at Rite Aid through the KidCents program. Visit RiteAidHealthyFutures.org to learn more.
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