February 4, 2021
As part of Feeding Tampa Bay, the NFL Foundation sponsored a food pickup event at a local church in St. Petersburg on February 4, 2021 to provide food to over 2,000 local families. The NFL Foundation donated $250,000 to Feeding Tampa Bay to launch, “Huddle To Tackle Hunger”.
As part of Feeding Tampa Bay, the NFL Foundation sponsored a food pickup event at a local church in St. Petersburg on February 4, 2021 to provide food to over 2,000 local families. The NFL Foundation donated $250,000 to Feeding Tampa Bay to launch, “Huddle To Tackle Hunger”.
Huddle to Tackle Hunger will use the NFL Foundation’s donation to purchase meals from local, independently owned restaurants impacted by COVID-19. These locally purchased meals will then be distributed to community members at key Feeding Tampa Bay locations.
Representatives from the Tampa Bay Buccaneer Cheerleaders were on-site, but unfortunately, Sports Philanthropy Network did not see any athlete presence whatsoever. The event, sponsored by Campbell Soup and the Dairy Council was well-organized, but would have created more buzz and been more true to its sports roots an NFL athlete presence. Among the ideas we came up with to enhance the event were:
- A virtual zoom presence to say hello to people as they drove through picking up their meals
- A pre-recorded speech on a loop on a big screen
- An athlete lending a hand in boxing up the meals
- An athlete helping hand out the meals
- An athlete putting his signature on each food box or handing out an autographed photo
- A player tossing mini-footballs to the recipients through their car windows
- And many others….
If the NFL wants to have a solid impact in creating hope and possibility through sports, the Foundation designed to fight food insecurity will have to find creative solutions to deal with the difficulties of staying safe in a COVID-19 environment while capitalizing on the names, finances, and fame of these elite athletes who would be excited to support these key initiatives.
