Joe Burrow Foundation Providing Support In Baton Rouge

As we near Heisman Trophy weekend, we are sharing a quick spotlight on one of our previous winners, 2019 Heisman great Joe Burrow, who has been dogged in his philanthropic efforts.

Burrow started The Joe Burrow Foundation following his moving Heisman Trophy speech that cited the massive challenges in his home area of Ohio in which he grew up. 

Here are his remarks from that night: “Coming from southeast Ohio it’s a very impoverished area and the poverty rate is almost two times the national average. There’s so many people there that don’t have a lot and I’m up here for all those kids in Athens and Athens County that go home to not a lot of food on the table, hungry after school. You guys can be up here, too.”

The foundation, set up with the help of his parents Jimmy and Robin, strives to provide hunger relief and mental health support for young people in his home state of Ohio and his adopted state of Louisiana.

The Official Heisman Trophy Podcast interviewed Baton Rouge Advocate reporter Charles Lussier this week, who covered Burrow’s foundation’s first efforts to provide help to schools in Louisiana.

You can read about the foundation’s efforts here and listen to our Heisman Podcast interview with Lussier here.

The foundation, which has already brought its food program to 15 schools in the Cincinnati area, provided a free produce market — dubbed the Power of Produce — to a local Baton Rouge school this week. It is part of the foundation’s efforts to not only provide food relief but to encourage and teach better food habits for youth.

The foundation hopes to expand its support to at least 10 Baton Rouge area schools.

Burrows parents were both on hand for the event in Baton Rouge this week. Said his mom Robin: “Expanding this program, in particular here, is really important. Childhood obesity, childhood diabetes, all of it is just skyrocketing, and (changing) that really starts with eating healthy and exercising.”

East Baton Rouge Parish Superintendent LaMont Cole said in a statement: “Teaching our students about nutrition and empowering them to make healthier choices is an investment in their future and well-being. This experience is not just educational; it’s a celebration of learning and growth that extends beyond the classroom.”