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PHILADELPHIA – Rite Aid Healthy Futures announced Wednesday 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.
“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.”
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.
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. 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.
- Working with and learning from the top leaders in the field of youth mental health connects 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.
- 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.
