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Rudd Foundation Programs

Integrity. Leadership. Making an impact.

Ever passionate about giving back and philanthropy, Leslie Rudd established the Rudd Foundation in 1994 to make an impact in areas that were important to him.

Rudd Roundtable Scholarship for Master Sommeliers

The Rudd Roundtable is a scholarship training program for wine professionals preparing for the Master Sommelier Exam. This two-day workshop is a unique educational experience that brings twelve of the country’s best and brightest sommeliers together and provides them with an intensive and intimate learning environment as they study to become Master Sommeliers. The Roundtable is hosted by the Rudd Center for Professional Wine Studies at the Culinary Institute of America’s St. Helena Campus in California’s Napa Valley.

About Rudd Roundtable

Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health

The Rudd Foundation seeded funding for the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University. The goal aimed to support research and education to fight against obesity and weight discrimination. Recognized for its forward-thinking research, the Center merged in 2015 with the Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention and Policy (InCHIP) at the University of Connecticut to become what is now known as the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health.

Today, its work to pioneer solutions addressing food insecurity, poor diet quality and weight bias through research and policy continues.

About Rudd Center

League 42 Leslie Rudd Learning Center

The Rudd Foundation invested capital funding in the Leslie Rudd Learning Center, expanding the mission of the League 42 Foundation located in Wichita, KS. League 42, originally founded to provide Wichita’s urban youth with an opportunity to play baseball, has grown to a league of nearly 600 players. In addition to providing the avenue for kids to play a team sport, the League 42 Foundation aspires to instill its core values of commitment, hard work and personal responsibility. With contributions from the Rudd Foundation, League 42 is now able to provide after-school activities, learning opportunities and Rudd Scholar mentors for young children and youth.

About League 42

Upward, New York Initiative

The Rudd Foundation supports the UJA Federation of New York through a multi-year commitment to help fund the Upward, New York Initiative. The Jewish initiative supplies food pantries throughout New York City and offers an array of life-changing human services that can alter the trajectory for people experiencing poverty.

About UJA Federation NY

Rudd Scholarship

The Foundation’s flagship program, the full-ride Rudd Scholarship, began in 2017 with an inaugural cohort of 20 students. The scholarship supports Pell-eligible students in Kansas who exhibit our strong, Midwestern core values and the drive to achieve their long-term goals. Designed to keep Kansas’s hardest-working talent within the state, the Rudd Scholarship offers personal and professional development summits, networking opportunities and building lifelong friendships. Today, Rudd Scholars entering the workforce are making a difference through tenacity, perseverance and generosity.

Current Rudd Scholarship Winners

As a Rudd Scholar, I was given countless opportunities to grow and develop as a leader, a professional, and a person. I would have never landed my dream internship or a job that I love without the support of Rudd. Before Rudd, all I saw was a low-income and dead-end job lifestyle. Now, I’m living proof and a role model for my family and those who come after me that hard work, grit, and determination pays off.”

–Abby Rowden

Rudd Foundation Core Values

It's the common ground that drives us.