The KFC Foundation is awarding $200,000 in grants to 20 community-based non-profit organization projects focused on education and training. Kentucky Fried Wishes, one of the KFC Foundation’s community giving programs, invites non-profit organizations to apply for a grant to fund a project on their wish list. This year, the KFC Foundation will fund $650,000 in Kentucky Fried Wishes to 65 non-profits nationwide, with grants awarded based on different project categories throughout the year.
This cycle’s grant recipients span over 19 different states and support a variety of causes and communities, including:
City Fresh, located in Oberlin, OH, creates and promotes a more healthy, vibrant, and equitable local food system. With the support of their Kentucky Fried Wishes grant, City Fresh will expand their educational programming and sustainable farming by adding the George Jones Memorial Farm and introducing a honey bee colony.
OpenDoors Asheville, located in Asheville, NC, strengthens community by eliminating the race-based opportunity and achievement gap for students through education. With their Kentucky Fried Wishes grant, OpenDoors Asheville will outfit their office with more student-appropriate furnishings so that they may hold more afterschool programming.
Spy Hop Productions, located in Salt Lake City, UT, mentors young people in the media arts to help them find their voice, tell their stories, and effect positive change in their lives, communities, and the world. Their Kentucky Fried Wishes project is to build a Youth Media Arts Center, serving over 1,200 students annually as they explore ideas in a supportive third space through books and games.
Kentucky Fried Wishes, Cycle 1, grant recipients:
- Bridge Builder Communities International (Evans, GA)
- CASA for Hunt County, Inc. (Greenville, TX)
- City Fresh (Oberlin, OH)
- Feed the Second Line (New Orleans, LA)
- Food Jobs Work Inc. (Little Rock, AK)
- Friends of the Children – Klamath Basin (Klamath Falls, OR)
- Girl Scouts of Western Washington (Seattle, WA)
- Hispanic Outreach of Goodhue County (Red Wing, MN)
- Hope House Guthrie (Guthrie, OK)
- JASON Learning (Ashburn, VA)
- Madison House Autism Foundation Inc. (Rockville, MD)
- Mercy Education Project (Detroit, MI)
- Michigan Council on Economic Education (Sterling Heights, MI)
- OpenDoors Asheville (Asheville, NC)
- Rape and Abuse Crisis Center of Fargo-Moorhead (Fargo, ND)
- Re-Entry Alliance Pensacola, Inc. (Pensacola, FL)
- RemedyLIVE (Fort Wayne, IN)
- Spy Hop Productions (Salt Lake City, UT)
- The Center for Autism Education (St. Peter, MO)
- Young Community Developers (San Francisco, CA)
Kentucky Fried Wishes is just one way the KFC Foundation supports, empowers, and serves joy to KFC restaurant employees and communities. The KFC Foundation also provides programs focused on education, financial literacy, and hardship assistance for KFC restaurant employees, as well as a food donation program to fight hunger and food waste.
The next Kentucky Fried Wishes grant cycle runs from March 31 to April 18 and focuses on improving health and wellbeing. Non-profit organizations seeking funding for a project within that scope can learn more and apply for a grant at kfcfoundation.org/wishes.
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