The Alan Shawn Feinstein Foundation announced last week that $1 million is being earmarked to schools in the Feinstein Leadership program.

Alan Shawn Feinstein, who leaves a legacy of urging and rewarding children for doing  good deeds for others, is now 92 years old. He said this year’s leadership program may be the last he directs although the work of the foundation will go on. 

The $1 million would be split among 205 Feinstein Leadership Schools in Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts.

The program is designed, according to Feinstein, to pay roughly $500,000 annually, reaching the $1 million mark after two years.

“We figure that we can afford approximately half a million dollars per year,” Feinstein said in an interview Thursday. “We anticipate, hopefully, that this program is going to continue on for many, many years.”

Sixteen schools in Warwick are considered Feinstein Leadership Schools- all 13 elementary schools, both middle schools and St. Peter School.

“Being a Feinstein Leadership School means our students and staff are held to a very high standard when it comes to character,” Frederick Schweizer, principal of Cedar Hill School, said in an email. “We live as a community that strives to help others, both in school and outside in the world.”

According to Schweizer, Cedar Hill has seen the impact of the Feinstein Foundation in the school’s culture, and his message in students being proactive in trying to find ways to help their local community.

Christopher Costa, Feinstein Foundation program director, said that Feinstein Foundation funds have supported the creation of many food pantries. He said about 180 Feinstein Leadership Schools have established pantries in their schools.

“As you can imagine, with 205 schools, the needs of the communities we serve are very different,” Costa said. “We encourage the schools to fill them with whatever best represents their community’s needs- food, clothes, even cleaning supplies.”

Recently, according to Costa, the foundation has funded a larger number of outdoor spaces as well, including outdoor pantries.

“Obviously, with COVID, it’s become a little bit more important,” Costa said. “We have schools now building these spaces for kids to have assemblies and learn.”

The current program, Feinstein said, would take up a lot of his remaining funding, and in his age, would likely be one of the final major projects he oversees.

“I plan on staying as long as I can, but I’m 92 now, and obviously I don’t have much more time in front of me,” Feinstein said. “Luckily, I’ve got a great staff, and my daughter will be heading the foundation after me.”

Feinstein’s daughter, Leila Feinstein, recently worked as a TV anchor for KTLA in Los Angeles.

Building community and showing students that they can make a difference, according to Costa, were two values that closely aligned with the Feinstein Foundation’s vision, and as such, were “very worth” funding.

Feinstein said announcement of the $1 million in funding was in part to bring new schools into the Feinstein Leadership Schools program.

“The benefit to this is twofold,” he said. “It consists of funds- not much, but funds- to each of our schools, and a message to their students that they can make a positive difference in the world, and that every time they do something for somebody else, they make the world a better place.”

Additional grant programs run by the Feinstein Foundation include the Golden Ticket program, which involves the foundation giving out $5,000 grants to schools with a student chosen in a weekly raffle, and an additional $500 to a charity or nonprofit of the winning child’s choice, as well as the Kindness Tree program, where students write good deeds to hang up in the school.

Established in 1991, the Feinstein Foundation has since provided more than $50 million in funding, mainly towards local schools and food agencies around the country.

Feinstein, a former teacher, said that he was grateful to the teachers and administrators who have supported programs such as this one.