EMPOWERING THE NEXT GENERATION

With the start of a new, unprecedented school year, we’re taking this moment to act and empower students across the country by launching a science-based, digital course on sustainability. Available in October, it will be offered at no cost to students, teachers and parents across the country.  

To develop the course, we worked with EVERFI, a leading digital education innovator to ensure it not only met common core curriculum criteria, but also resonated with the education community. As part of the process, EVERFI surveyed a group of teachers and nearly all (98%) were very or extremely interested in a course on environment and sustainability, specifically with a focus on individual responsibility, 21st century skills and social impacts.

Designed for fifth through eighth graders, this course shows students how their choices, big or small, can make a big impact on themselves, their community, and the planet. It’s grounded in real-world experiences and covers topics on global resource constraints, the importance of biodiversity, climate change and how to innovate for a healthy life.

We believe there’s a better way to feed our future and know how important it is to equip the next generation with information needed to build that future. We want to give students equal access to be able to make informed decisions about future-defining topics like sustainability. Additionally, as the back-to-school season looks different this year and schools are pivoting to online or hybrid learning models, now more than ever we want to make sure educators and families have the accessible, engaging remote learning tools.

EVERFI is an organization that’s close to our hearts as its founder, Tom Davidson, and Beyond Meat Founder & CEO Ethan Brown were childhood friends; both set out to build mission-driven companies and now we’ve come full circle as we team up to inspire the next generation of students. 

“Health and sustainability are core to our mission at Beyond Meat, so we’re thrilled to partner with EVERFI to bring this digital course to students across the U.S.,” said Ethan Brown, Beyond Meat Founder & CEO. “We see food as a vehicle for change; this course being an important part of that commitment, helping students to learn more about the role of diet in health and sustainability.”

“Helping children understand the importance of sustainability is critically important,” said Tom Davidson, Founder and CEO, EVERFI. “Beyond Meat is both a leader and innovator so it makes perfect sense that they would make a similar commitment to children by helping them understand the key factors related to sustainability. With this education, children will gain more clarity around the impact of their choices and may be inspired to make changes to some of their daily routines.”

The course launches in October and will be available for at-home access through the 2020-2021 school year.