About Us
GENYOUth is a nationally recognized youth wellness organization with reach and impact. GENYOUth and its partners have a shared purpose: creating healthy school communities by empowering students and providing the resources for youth to build healthy, high-achieving futures.
Our Mission
Since GENYOUth’s founding over a decade ago, we have gone from a start-up to a leading national non-profit, raising over $200 million in grants to support our nation’s schools. Our extensive network of schools and the support of generous donors have resulted in an immediate and substantial impact, especially for the 30 million students who rely on school meals for a significant portion of their daily nutrition. But it’s not nearly enough!
GENYOUth delivers impact through a range of national initiatives including in-school programs which promote student nutrition security, physical activity, and leadership; and insights-driven thought leadership engagement via conference participation, youth surveys, issue-framing reports and white papers, and op-ed pieces.
Reach and Results
Equip
Engage
Empower
76K
GENYOUth programs boast an impressive collective reach of 76,000 schools – 69% of all schools in the U.S.
41M
GENYOUth has helped increase access to vital school meals and nutrition to 41 million at-risk students.
16.5M
16.5 million girls and boys are engaging in physical activity by participating in NFL FLAG-In-School.
Our History
Many Points of Impact!
Committed to child health and wellness in the school environment, GENYOUth was founded in 2010, the result of an unprecedented public-private partnership between the National Dairy Council – funded by America’s dairy farmers – and the National Football League.
These two organizations recognized the importance of bringing leaders in health, education, government and business together in a movement to help America’s youth achieve a healthier future – and to raise funds to help make that happen.
Our success is fueled by uniting partners with shared goals, and by empowering youth to drive change.
Highlights of our accomplishments include:
- Raised over $200M to create healthier school communities
- Generated $20 million to support over 10,000 schools during and after the pandemic through our End Student Hunger Fund.
- In partnership with Super Bowl Host Committees in Houston, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Miami, Tampa Bay, Los Angeles and Phoenix, GENYOUth has increased access to over 75 million incremental breakfasts annually to high need U.S. schools. Next up is Las Vegas.
- Named the charitable beneficiary/producer since 2021 of Taste of the NFL, the Super Bowl’s premier purpose-driven culinary event devoted to tackling food insecurity, which has increased access to hundreds of millions of school meals.
- Participated in the 2022 White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition & Health, elevating the need for physical activity programs for kids.
- Equipped over 25,000 U.S. schools with 37,500 NFL FLAG-In-School kits, engaging an estimated 16.5 million students and making flag football the fastest growing youth sport in America from 2015-2018, while holding steady in participation from 2019-2021.
- Executed collaborative efforts with U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Education and Health and Human Services, and partnered with the USDA, NFL, Fuel Up and Play 60, in awarding $35 million to help schools serve healthier meals and strengthen childhood nutrition.
- Founding member of Former First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! Active Schools program, which equipped schools with the resources/tools to increase student physical education and activity opportunities.
- Helped improve youth aerobic capacity in 32 NFL Club markets in collaboration with The Cooper Institute’s FitnessGram.
- Partnered with the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition to increase the visibility/reach/use of the Presidential Youth Fitness Program to improve physical activity in U.S. schools.
- Conducted and published 6 Youth Insights survey and over a dozen issue-framing reports.
Our Work
Nutritional Security
- End Student Hunger – GENYOUth is sounding the alarm to help the 1 in 8 kids living in food insecure households.
- Super School Meals – Our annual community initiative makes a critical impact in tackling student food insecurity in Super Bowl host markets.
- Fuel Up – Fuel Greatness with resources that can help you build a healthier and stronger school community.
Physical Activity
- NFL FLAG-In-School – Inspires and empowers boys & girls to participate in and develop a love of sport.
- Root4Her – Provides resources and motivation to make movement an important part of middle school students’ – especially girls – quest for social- emotional, nutritional and physical well-being.
Youth Voice & Leadership
- Youth Council – Our group of committed student leaders across the country helps us deliver on our credo – If it’s about youth, don’t do it without them!
- GENYOUth Insights – Forward-thinking research, based on smart insights reflecting the perspective of youth, ensures our programs deliver what youth most need now, and tomorrow.
- AdVenture Capital – Taps into the entrepreneurial spirit and creativity of students with the support of corporate mentors to solve real world problems.
End Student Hunger
One in 8 U.S. children lives in food insecurity, and for Black, Hispanic and Indigenous kids, the number is 1 in 5. 30 million students rely on school meals for their daily nourishment, and Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy research shows that children receive their healthiest meals at school. While the pandemic may be in the rearview mirror, the school nutrition landscape is nowhere close to normal. Rising food and equipment costs, supply chain issues, labor shortages, and the elimination of Universal Free Meals in many states means that school nutrition programs will continue to be in financial peril and children may go hungry. Schools need OUR HELP NOW to increase school meal participation and end student hunger.