Rockefeller Foundation Supports Brazil-Led Food Solutions To Nourish People at COP30

Invests US$5.4 million to support regenerative ecosystems connected to Brazil’s school meal programs

Collaborates with 12 organizations to improve biodiversity and soil health while supporting family farmers, rural economies, and nourishing children

BELÉM, BRAZIL | November 12, 2025 — During the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Belém, Brazil (COP30), The Rockefeller Foundation announced more than $5.4 million to help strengthen the resilience of food systems across Brazil and globally, while providing nourishing and locally-sourced food to children through school meals. The philanthropic organization, which has been investing in the region for nearly 100 years, will support 12 organizations to mobilize finance for small and mid-size farmers connected to school meal programs, providing technical support and enabling cross-country learning from these programs. The Foundation is providing grant funding to Instituto Comida do Amanhã, Instituto Clima e Sociedade (ICS), Digital Green, Instituto Arapyaú, Centro de Apoio a Faculdade de Saúde Pública-Ceap, Welight Institute of Socio-Environmental Innovation (IWIS) — Projeto Amana, Fundacion Ambition Loop, the Word Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD), along with the Global Alliance for the Future of Food (via fiscal sponsor Panorama Global), Transformational Investing in Food Systems (TIFS, a fiscally sponsored project of EarthShare), and GDI Solutions to advance regenerative agriculture solutions that serve people in Brazil and beyond.

“Supporting farmers and unlocking finance is foundational to our big bet on regenerative school meals — one of the world’s most powerful tools for improving children’s lives, building local economies, and sustaining the planet,” said Elizabeth Yee, Executive Vice President, The Rockefeller Foundation. “Brazil has led the way in designing a school meal program that feeds children, increases demand for locally farmed and regeneratively grown crops, and fosters economic growth. With these investments, our partners can enable more farmers to adopt regenerative practices–bolstering long-term economic stability for their families while contributing to stronger food systems.”

Brazil’s National School Feeding Program (PNAE) is one of the largest school meals programs in the world, with procurement policies that were developed to address rural poverty, especially amongst smallholder farmers. The national policy, which provides Universal School Meals, already requires 30% of federal funds to go towards the purchase of food from smallholder farmers, with preference given to local suppliers, and this will increase to 45% as of January 2026. Additionally, its procurement policy incentivizes for agroecological production of food, but many farmers lack the resources, training, and incentives to transition to regenerative and sustainable practices.

To support smallholder farmers and rural economies, improve soil health, and adapt to a changing climate, while feeding children, The Rockefeller Foundation is collaborating with organizations to support farmers in their adoption of regenerative and agroecological farming practices through technical assistance and financing. Additionally, it is supporting the World Food Program’s Brazil Center of Excellence to share examples from these pilots with other countries looking to develop locally- and regeneratively-sourced school meal programs. These grants include:

• Instituto Comida do Amanhã. To support a pilot that leverages the national school meals program to catalyze regenerative transitions in 11 Brazilian municipalities as part of the PNAE Agroecológico program. These 11 municipalities, selected through a competitive and inclusive process, are designing three-year pilots leveraging PNAE to promote a shift to agroecological practices in their landscapes.

“We are co-creating, together with a vanguard group of Brazilian municipalities, pilot projects that test possible pathways to promote an agroecological transition in a structured and lasting way. Our goal is to understand the incentives needed in each territory to strengthen school feeding programs, so they can be supplied by local family farmers using agroecological practices. The idea is that this framework can also be applied in other municipalities in Brazil and even in other regions of the Global South, expanding the initiative’s impact.” — Juliana Tângari, Director of Comida do Amanhã Institute

• Instituto Clima e Sociedade (iCS). This project builds on an existing multistakeholder platform called “Seeds of Change” to expand smallholder farmers’ access to PRONAF – a key subsidized rural credit program for smallholders worth $12bn per year — and connect them to Brazil’s National School Feeding Program (PNAE). It will train youth and women advisors to access PRONAF, engage financial institutions that operate the fund to prioritize bioeconomy enterprises, and support cross-learning to greatly increase access by agroecological smallholder living on the frontlines of climate change.

“This partnership with The Rockefeller Foundation affirms iCS’s view that regenerative and inclusive agriculture is the path to uniting public policy, innovation, and climate finance. By expanding access to PRONAF credit and linking it to school meal programs, we’re proving it’s possible to align food security, income generation, and the agroecological transition at national scale.” — Kamyla Borges, Senior Agriculture Specialist, Institute for Climate and Society (iCS)

• Centro de Desenvolvimento da Agroecologia do Cerrado. To support Brazil’s CEDAC to pilot “Brasil Mais Agroecológico — Municípios em Rede” in six Minas Gerais municipalities — co-creating municipal agroecology plans, expanding 100% agroecological school meals and public procurement, establishing an Agroecological Warehouse, and delivering technical assistance to 150 family farmers.

“The desired impact of the project is to co-create and strengthen the municipalization of agroecology to serve as the basis for the food system in municipalities, from public procurement to private markets, thereby implementing the agroecological transition on a territorial scale in family farming. The pilot project in six municipalities in Minas Gerais serves as a laboratory and model to demonstrate that the agroecological transition in large-scale family farming is possible, generating lessons that can be replicated elsewhere in Brazil.” — Alessandra Karla da Silva (Executive Coordinator of CEDAC)

• Instituto Arapyaú. To support Instituto Arapyaú’s Kawá Public Procurement & Technical Assistance Expansion in Bahia and Pará States — providing regenerative-agriculture technical assistance and credit to 1,200 smallholder cocoa farmers, building data systems to optimize operations, track outcomes, and link farmers to Brazil’s National School Feeding Program.

“Through the Kawá Fund, Instituto Arapyaú seeks to help smallholder cocoa farmers overcome financial exclusion and become part of the regenerative transition. By strengthening local value chains and promoting inclusive rural development, we aim to contribute to a more sustainable, low carbon and climate-resilient future for Brazil.” ― Renata Piazzon, CEO of the Instituto Arapyaú

• World Business Council for Sustainable Development. To support the business case and global corporate adoption of holistic regenerative agriculture metrics, as part of the Action Agenda on Regenerative Landscapes (AARL) and its Landscape Accelerator-Brazil (LAB) starting with the Amazon and Cerrado biomes, to strengthen transparency, accountability, and investment in regenerative and equitable food systems ahead of COP30.

“Co-financing resilient agricultural value chains and de-risking the transition for farmers requires value chain collaboration and alignment on outcomes and metrics across producers, agri-food businesses, investors, governments and civil society. Rockefeller Foundation support is critical to advancing this work in Brazil and beyond.” ― Diane Holdorf, Executive Vice President, WBCSD

Additional support will go to Digital Green, TIFS, GDI Solutions, Projeto Amana (a fiscally sponsored project of Welight Institute of Socio-Environmental Innovation ― IWIS), and Fundacion Ambition Loop, Centro de Apoio a Faculdade de Saúde Pública-Ceap to support farmers and align philanthropies and private sector partners in support of the regenerative (agroecological) transition in Brazil and five regions of the world.

“The Rockefeller Foundation is proud to support some of the most effective organizations in the region as they advance sustainable farming techniques while nourishing children through Brazil’s national school feeding program,” said Lyana Latorre, Vice President of Latin America and the Caribbean at The Rockefeller Foundation. “Together with our partners, we are working to harness the power of regenerative agriculture and school meals to support climate mitigation and adaptation, strengthen local economies, and help communities thrive.”

This new $5.4 million investment in Brazil and globally is part of the more than US$220 million that The Rockefeller Foundation has committed to food systems transformation initiatives. Building upon initial work in Brazil and Kenya, this includes US$100 million to reach 100 million children worldwide with more nutritious, locally grown, and regeneratively-sourced foods by supporting more than a dozen countries’ efforts to expand and further develop their school meal programs. The Rockefeller Foundation is also investing US$100 million to advance Food is Medicine solutions in the United States and over US$20 million for the Periodic Table of Food Initiative, which is providing standardized tools, data, and training to map food quality of the world’s edible biodiversity.

About The Rockefeller Foundation

The Rockefeller Foundation is a pioneering philanthropy built on collaborative partnerships at the frontiers of science, technology, and innovation that enable individuals, families, and communities to flourish. We make big bets to promote the well-being of humanity in food, health, energy, and finance, including through our public charity, RF Catalytic Capital (RFCC). For more information, sign up for our newsletter at www.rockefellerfoundation.org/subscribe and follow us on X @RockefellerFdn and LinkedIn @the-rockefeller-foundation.

Additional Statements of Support

“Utilizing the power of procurement through school meal programs can not only improve nutrition, education, and development outcomes for children, but can also support local farmers to produce food through nature-friendly farming. Brazil is leading the way through its National School Feeding Program, and the cross-learning from these new pilot programs will help many other governments and non-state actors around the world identify similar opportunities for locally tailored, holistic strategies.” — Gonzalo Muñoz, Ambition Loop

“Projeto Amana is conducting stakeholder gatherings, capacity building workshops, school mappings and knowledge exchange visits to strengthen PNAE access and functioning in 5 municipalities in the Amazonian region of Tomé-Açu, State of Pará, mobilizing over 30 smallholder cooperatives and associations representing 1,500 families. The initiative also includes groundwork to implement up to 10,000 hectares of regenerative palm-oil agroforestry in the region and mobilize R$ 100 million in long term investment by 2030.” — Marcelo Cwerner, Lead Coordinator of Projeto Amana (via fiscal sponsor Welight Institute of Socio-Environmental Innovation)