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Shania Twain’s Most Personal Mission Yet

By Ray Mocioiu | Celebrity Heroes

Long before she became a global superstar, Shania Twain was a child navigating poverty in rural Ontario. Much of her childhood revolved around keeping up appearances so that no one would know that her family life was far from perfect. In between days of going to school hungry, with no lunch packed, and days where hunger would drive her to skip school altogether, she made a vow that if she made it someday, she would make sure to find a way to give back to kids like her so they would have access to the support that she so desperately needed as a child.

“I remember what it was like to grow up hungry—it made my school years so difficult,” she shared. “Food insecurity is a very sad reality that can negatively impact a child’s learning and mental wellness. I made a promise to myself a very long time ago that someday I would support others who were facing the same barriers I did as a child. A child’s dignity is so important.”

With more than 100 million albums sold worldwide, five Grammy awards, and a catalogue of songs that have become part of the soundtrack of countless lives, Twain has spent much of her career making good on that promise.

When she launched the Shania Twain Foundation in 2010, the goal was to help children and families facing poverty through programs focused on food security, education, mental wellness, and essential community services, all based out of schools full of children like her.

But a lot can change in 15 years—for one thing, food insecurity rates have climbed tremendously across Canada and the United States. An estimated 9.8 million Canadians, including 2.4 million children, experience food insecurity. As the scale of the issue climbs, so too does the Foundation’s approach. The only thing that hasn’t changed is Twain’s commitment to her childhood promise.

In summer 2025, Twain brought that promise on tour.

As she performed in cities across North America, the Shania Twain Foundation made direct donations to food banks and food rescue organizations in every community on the tour, providing the equivalent of one million meals across both small towns and big cities.

“Food insecurity is such a critical issue for so many families, and rising costs are just making things harder. Supporting food banks and food rescue helps make sure local communities are ready to offer support. When things get tough, I don’t want anyone to be left behind.”

In Canada, the Foundation partnered with Second Harvest to help rescue and deliver food for hundreds of thousands of meals in Calgary, Moose Jaw, Québec City, Ottawa, and Toronto. Additional support went to the West Prince Caring Cupboard in Prince Edward Island, extending the impact to communities facing food insecurity across the province.

In the United States, the Foundation worked with venues to identify local food banks in each tour stop, supporting organizations in Montana, New York, Maine, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Florida. Each performance was connected to a local food program, directly impacting the communities where Twain played.

“Many of the cities we played in 2025 were smaller towns, and we found that many of those communities don’t have large food banks and rely on community fundraising for support,” she said. “We heard that too often their shelves were empty, so we decided to help with that.”

Fans noticed. Twain shared that the Foundation has received countless messages from people sharing their heartfelt thanks for donating to the food banks they rely on. Really, this is what it’s all for—in every city, there are countless families like her own. Statistics are one thing, but firsthand experience is quite another. In the same way that Twain knows what it’s like to go to school hungry, she knows that there are real families, neighbours, and friends behind each statistic. Helping them means that they get to breathe a little easier when they need it most.

“The moments that I think stay with me the most are when I hear a family didn’t have to choose between paying a bill or buying food,” she explained.

For families living paycheque to paycheque, that choice is all too familiar. A rent payment. A hydro bill. Groceries. When resources are stretched thin, something has to give.

“What’s even better is that I’ll often hear of a family that is back on their feet and donating at the very food bank that supported them. It tells us the work in the community is working, and that’s very fulfilling.”

When asked what it means that every city on the tour received direct support, Twain said: “I can only say that I hope our donation helped fill those shelves, and we still have a lot of work to do.”

Beyond helping families, there’s a larger issue at hand. One in four people in Canada does not know where their next meal is coming from. At the same time, millions of pounds of perfectly edible food are wasted every year. What’s the solution to such a far-reaching problem?

Second Harvest, one of the Foundation’s most significant partnerships, has an answer that approaches hunger from a different angle: rescuing surplus food before it goes to waste. The scale of the challenge surprised even Twain.

“Forty-six and a half per cent of all food in Canada is wasted,” she said. “Almost 42 per cent of this food could be redirected and put on tables instead of in landfill.”

Last year alone, Second Harvest rescued more than 95 million pounds of food and supported 6.8 million people through a network of thousands of nonprofit partners.

Twain also serves as an ambassador for Second Harvest and recently joined 100 public figures participating in the organization’s national Race to Rescue campaign, an ambitious effort aimed at funding one million rescued meals in just 100 hours.

“What I look for in a partner is impact,” she explained. “Partnering with a national organization like Second Harvest ensures that our donations go a lot further. When they asked me to join Race to Rescue, I didn’t have to think about it. I’ve seen what they do. They take perfectly good food that would end up in a landfill and get it to people who need it.”

Sometimes, creating change means supporting the systems that make food rescue possible. That was the case in Winnipeg, where the Shania Twain Foundation provided funding for a refrigerated storage container during a period of heightened need following Manitoba’s devastating wildfires.

At first glance, a refrigerated container may not seem particularly exciting, but in practice, it’s proven transformative. Within months of its installation, more than 200,000 pounds of food had been rescued through the program, helping provide the equivalent of more than 160,000 meals. The initiative now supports more than 30 agencies throughout Winnipeg and helps hundreds of people access groceries every week!

And it gets better: By keeping edible food out of landfill, the project has helped avoid an estimated 350 to 400 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, roughly equivalent to taking 75 to 85 cars off the road for a year.

Community partners are now exploring how similar models could be expanded into additional regions, including remote and northern communities where food storage and transportation remain ongoing challenges. There’s a major lesson here: it’s about investing not only in food itself but also in the infrastructure that helps communities feed themselves over the long term.

Not every Foundation initiative begins with a truck, a warehouse, or a food bank. Some begin in a garden—and this newest initiative is the most colourful one yet.

This year, Twain’s name took root in a new way with the debut of the Shania Twain™ rose, a hybrid tea rose developed in collaboration with Rosen Tantau, the renowned German rose breeder, and April & Ashley, a U.S.-based luxury rose grower.

The rose, personally selected by Twain, features pink-and-yellow blooms, a light fruity fragrance, and strong performance across several growing regions. More importantly, a portion of every sale supports the Shania Twain Foundation.

“We were introduced to Rosen Tantau, a rose breeder in Germany,” she said. “I worked with them to select the rose, and they took it from there. It is about a two-year process to breed the plant to ensure it will grow and flourish in different regions. Now it’s here, and it’s a beautiful rose.”

Having a rose named in her honour is meaningful on its own. Having it connected to the Foundation makes it even more special.

“As a rose grower myself, it is an honour to have a rose with my name,” she said. “And that it gives back to the charity is just wonderful.”

Even as Twain prepares for a busy season of performances overseas, including appearances in London and Ireland, the Foundation’s work continues to grow.

Future initiatives include efforts with Second Harvest to bring fresh food from Alberta farms into Calgary communities, as well as programs focused on providing lunches for children at camp in the Greater Toronto Area. The projects change and expand, but Twain’s mission stays the same: Every child, every family, every community deserves access to nutritious food and support when times are tough.

“I know what it feels like to go to school without breakfast,” she said. “That never fully leaves you.”

As the Queen of Country Pop and one of the best-selling female artists of all time, Twain is known by millions for her music. But the legacy she is building through her Foundation may prove just as enduring: helping ensure that no child, no family, and no community is left behind.

Donate at shaniatwainfoundation.com today to help combat food insecurity—every dollar makes a difference.

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