Statement on the passing of Eleanor Josaitis

Many of us at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation were proud to have known, and were made better by knowing, Eleanor Josaitis, co-founder of Focus: HOPE, who passed earlier this week. Eleanor singularly and gracefully embodied the intent and spirit of our foundation’s founder; we were honored to assist her with Focus: HOPE’s mission since 1988. Among other noble endeavors, the Kellogg Foundation will continue to support Eleanor’s dream to empower inner-city and underserved children in earning technical educations as they work to better themselves, their families and their communities. We honor Eleanor’s philosophy of “teaching men how to fish” with the hope that our philanthropic efforts might take seed and blossom into the kind of leadership and self-sustaining sufficiency that restores dignity to those born with less, such that they might leave us with more. Eleanor did just that.

-Sterling K. Speirn, President and CEO, W.K. Kellogg Foundation