Taco    Bell    Foundation    for    Teens

is committed to addressing the alarming number of high school dropouts in the U.S. by providing at-risk youth with mentors and real-world experiences that will motivate them to stay in school and graduate. We leverage Taco Bell Corp.’s passion, creativity and relentlessness to the cause as well as its customers, franchisees, employees and partners to support organizations that are crucial to ending the dropout crisis.

The Foundation is also a major supporter of the Mark Wahlberg Youth Foundation, a non-profit organization founded by brothers Mark and Jim Wahlberg to improve the quality of life for inner city youth. Together, the Foundation and Mark Wahlberg Youth Foundation are funding youth programs across the country and have launched a national awareness campaign to bring attention to the nation’s high school dropout crisis.

To date, the Taco Bell Foundation for Teens has donated more than $30 million to support programs that:

• Stress the importance of graduating from high school and receiving a diploma
• Encourage youths to volunteer and make their communities better places to live; studies show teens who do so perform better in school, are more likely to graduate and become active citizens
• Inspire teens to pursue higher education, increasingly critical in helping them succeed in the real world
• Provide vocational training that helps teens find jobs, develop skills and identify career interests – which has been proven to help them stay engaged and in school
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