For decades, Indigenous communities across the United States have fought to reclaim control over their food systems, languages, and lands often with minimal outside support. Now, a landmark $25 million grant from the Newman’s Own Foundation is set to accelerate that work. The donation, announced this week, will fund initiatives led by Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian organizations focused on food sovereignty, youth leadership, language preservation, and land stewardship. “This isn’t charity,” said Nell Newman, daughter of actor Paul Newman and president of the foundation. “It’s justice. It’s returning resources to those who have stewarded this land since time immemorial.” The gift marks the largest single commitment in the foundation’s history to Indigenous-led efforts.
Unlike many large-scale philanthropies that route funds through intermediaries, Newman’s Own is distributing the entire $25 million directly to Indigenous-led nonprofits and tribal governments. Recipients include the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance, the Alaska Native Heritage Center, and the ‘Aha Pūnana Leo, a Hawaiian language immersion network. The foundation worked closely with an advisory council of Indigenous leaders to design the initiative, ensuring decisions about where and how money is used remain in community hands. “We’re not asking them to fit into our boxes,” Newman said. “We’re following their lead.” This approach aligns with growing calls across the philanthropic sector to shift power not just dollars to historically marginalized groups.
At the heart of the initiative is food sovereignty the right of peoples to define their own food and agriculture systems. For many Indigenous communities, colonization severed ties to traditional crops like bison, wild rice, salmon, and heirloom corn. Today, food insecurity rates on reservations are more than double the national average. The grant will support seed banks, community gardens, fishing rights advocacy, and youth apprenticeships in traditional foodways. In Alaska, funds will help restore salmon habitats critical to subsistence diets. In Hawaii, they’ll expand ‘āina-based (land-centered) education. “When we grow our own food, speak our own languages, and care for our own lands, we heal,” said a representative from the Intertribal Agriculture Council. This Indigenous Philanthropy model treats culture not as heritage but as infrastructure.
The announcement comes amid heightened scrutiny of corporate philanthropy. Just weeks ago, Novo Nordisk pledged $250 million over five years to address obesity and diabetes in underserved communities including Native populations but with conditions tied to promoting its GLP-1 drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic. Critics argue such gifts blur the line between public health and marketing. In contrast, Newman’s Own imposes no product promotion, no branding, and no strings. Profits from the sale of Newman’s Own salad dressings, pasta sauces, and snacks have funded more than $630 million in grants since 1982 all given away, as Paul Newman once said, “because it’s fun.” This latest gift reaffirms that ethos: giving not to extract value, but to restore it.
For many Indigenous leaders, the significance lies not just in the amount, but in the trust embedded in the gesture. “They didn’t ask for a 50-page proposal,” said one grantee. “They asked, ‘What do you need?’” That simplicity is revolutionary in a funding landscape often burdened by bureaucracy. As climate change, economic disparity, and cultural erosion intensify, this infusion of flexible, long-term support offers more than relief it offers resilience. And in honoring Indigenous knowledge as a solution not a deficit it sets a new standard for what ethical philanthropy can look like.
This $25 million won’t erase centuries of harm. But it will plant seeds in greenhouses, in classrooms, in rivers, in stories that may one day grow into forests of self-determination. While other institutions debate whether to acknowledge Indigenous rights, Newman’s Own has chosen to invest in them. In a world hungry for quick fixes, this gift dares to believe that the oldest wisdom might hold the best answers. The Land Remembers. Now, So Do We.
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