KFC, Taco Bell, Habit Burger & Grill and Yum! Brands award $20 million in educational scholarships

Image provided by KFC.

Siena Laws, Krystal Salmeron and Jenna Barada have never met, and their dream jobs vary from firefighter to accountant to chef. But each of their futures is funded by one of Yum! and its brands' many scholarship initiatives.

Since its founding in 1997, parent company, Yum!, and its brands, KFC, Taco Bell and Habit Burger & Grill, have donated millions of dollars to the educational endeavors of their fans and restaurant team members. It's part of Yum!'s broader Food & Futures strategy, which aims to create greater access to jobs and career growth, strengthening communities and expanding possibilities around the world, in addition to expanding access to meals for people who need them most.

Siena Laws received a $25,000 Live Mas Scholarship from the Taco Bell Foundation in 2025; she plans to work in first response as a firefighter or use her nursing degree to work in an intensive care unit or as a flight nurse. That same year, the foundation gave over $14 million in scholarships to individuals like Laws, mostly funded by Taco Bell's round-up program in which fans choose to round up their check to the nearest dollar. The scholarship remains one of the few that requires no academic test scores or grade point averages to apply, fueling the doers, dreamers and cultural rebels who know how to Live Más.

"The Live Más Scholarship is designed to recognize young people for who they are and what they're passionate about - not just what shows up on a transcript," said Morgan Tabor, executive director of the Taco Bell Foundation. "Thanks to the generosity of Taco Bell fans, we're able to help remove financial barriers and support the next generation of creators, leaders and changemakers as they pursue the futures they imagine for themselves."

Krystal Salmeron, a KFC shift supervisor in Moses Lake, Washington, and the aforementioned accounting student, aims to be the first person in her family to earn a college degree. She attends Gonzaga University as a dual degree student, completing both her high school education and associate's degree at the same time, while still graduating with her bachelor's degree in four years.

"KFC restaurant employees work incredibly hard, both in their restaurants and toward the goals they have for their futures," said Emma Horn, executive director of the KFC Foundation. "We're so proud to invest in students like Krystal and help make the path to a college degree a little easier."

The KFC Foundation awarded $2 million in scholarships to over 330 restaurant employees across the United States this year, and 11 of those students (11 being a nod to the Colonel's 11 herbs and spices) were awarded $20,000 each for their resilience, determination and drive to build a better future. This is on top of the over $4 million the brand gave in educational funding in 2025.

Last year, the aspiring chef Jenna Barada competed in ProStart, a culinary arts and restaurant management program for high school students. Not only did she take home a medal, but she got to spend a day inside Habit Chef Jason Triail's Innovation Kitchen and received $4,000 to put toward her continuing culinary education.

"We are profoundly honored to support scholarships that empower our youth. By fostering the talent, passion and potential of these young individuals, we are investing in their educations to help build a stronger, more vibrant community tomorrow, and we couldn't be prouder to stand behind them," said Stacy Hua, Habit Social Purpose team chair.

Habit supports educational scholarships through both industry partnerships and local community fundraising. As a state sponsor of ProStart in California and Arizona, Habit helps open scholarship opportunities for top-performing student teams through the program's competitions. At the local level, individual Habit restaurants partner with school districts, PTAs and universities to host scholarship fundraising nights, donating 20% of net sales from those events directly to school scholarship funds.

"It's inspiring to see the commitment that our global brands and markets have to making education accessible and affordable for the next generation of leaders," said Kat Abner, Yum! Community Impact Center of Excellence head, citing many examples.

KFC Costa Rica gave over $6,500 in 2025, and one of its scholarship recipients now manages a restaurant. KFC Trinidad & Tobago provides $5,000 in bursary support to two students at The University of the West Indies each year. Past recipients have pursued degrees in food innovation, agriculture, finance, business and restaurant entrepreneurship. While this aid pays for housing, tuition and books, KFC T&T also donates food through its Harvest program for students who cannot afford regular meals.

"At its core, our approach is about creating access and reducing some of the barriers that can make completing a university education more difficult," said KFC T&T Brand and Harvest Lead Trisha Baksh. "We also see value in supporting areas of study that can contribute to Trinidad & Tobago's future talent pipeline, including food, agriculture, business and entrepreneurship."

KFC Thailand has provided over 300 high school juniors and seniors with free academic courses, mentorship and free college tuition through its Youth Academy program. And in South Africa, KFC's Ikusasa Lethu (or "Our Future") Scholarship Programme funds tuition for qualifying children of employees at Curro schools across all nine provinces, removing financial barriers to quality education while also providing mentorship and specialized tutoring support. Each year, around 25 students benefit from the program, and to date, 12 graduates have completed matric and progressed to tertiary studies, with 51 total years of education made possible through the initiative and a 90% pass rate.

The list goes on, Abner said, including one initiative in Yum!'s home in Louisville, Kentucky.

At the University of Louisville, the Yum! Center for Global Franchise Excellence has the only undergraduate certificate program in franchise management in the U.S. This is a stackable credential within any degree program. This year, a PhD focused on franchising was added, and in 2025, the company gave $1 million to fund the education of its Yum! Scholars, 20 undergraduate students whose franchising education is supported through the program.

"As Yum! is 98% franchised, the company is heavily invested in funding this form of entrepreneurship," said Kathleen Gosser, who has a doctorate in Educational Leadership & Organizational Development and is the center director and associate professor at the UofL College of Business.

The Yum! Scholars, like thousands of others across the globe, are feeding their futures with Yum! and its brands' sponsored scholarships. Whether supporting a future first-generation college graduate, a nursing student with dreams of serving her community or the next generation of franchise leaders, Yum! and its brands are investing in people whose ambitions can help strengthen families, workplaces and communities for years to come.