‘Tis the season of giving and the Miami Dolphins have made it their prerogative to ensure that nobody goes hungry during the holiday season.
On November 23rd through 25th, the Dolphins partnered with local food commodities to distribute more than 17,000 Thanksgiving meals and fed more than 21,000 individuals throughout South Florida. During a year full of isolation and financial insecurity, the Miami Dolphins acknowledge the value of community and giving back.
The three-day event began at Hard Rock Stadium on Monday, November 23rd in partnership with Football UNITESTM and Sunshine Health. The trio distributed 850 meals to families with households of 4-6 people, containing turkey, fresh produce, and side dishes.
The impact of the Dolphins off the field has been crucial to the South Florida community. Over the course of the pandemic, Miami Gardens and its surrounding communities have been notoriously categorized as a hotspot, which has shut down numerous businesses and impacted thousands of families.
For a community that thrives off tourism and commercial success, the Miami Dolphins have strived to help their community and their employees who have faced hardship. Leslie Nixon, The Senior Director of Community Affairs and her team have been hard at work since June 1st.
“The program has three goals: First, to impact those who are in need. The second goal is to reemploy people at the stadium who aren’t employed given the fact of COVID we had to shut down because we had no events. Putting people back to work at Centerplate, as well as our guest services and parking that help us with our daily distribution. Our third is when we do external distributions, when we do things on the weekends or outside of the stadium.”
On day two, the Miami Dolphins Foundation Food Relief Program partnered with Centerplate and Sysco South Florida to distribute 6,200 meals to those who have found themselves food insecure due to the rise in COVID numbers. This partnership continues its year-long commitment to providing meals to the South Florida community, as well as employing guest services and security staff at the stadium that have been affected by the COVID-19 event cancelations.
Nixon added how their initiative is also committed to helping out minority businesses and is working with numerous local restaurants to help prepare the food.
“We are helping our restaurants bridge the gap until this unknown becomes a little bit normal again.”
The Thanksgiving festivities concluded with the Miami Dolphins Thanksgiving Blitz event, in partnership with United Way. Using a COVID-friendly drive-thru system, veteran’s families, active duty, reserves, and members of the National Guard were distributed hot meals prepared by local restaurants.
An hour into the event, 1,000 meals were distributed, but thanks to the Miami Dolphins they were able to acquire an additional 250 meals.
These three days were a small feature in how the Dolphins have been working to combat food insecurity. The multi-million-dollar gift is committed to providing a minimum of 1,000 meals a day up to a 12-month period to families within the South Florida community.
So far, the Dolphins have distributed over 250,000 pounds of food, partnered with 72 restaurants, and served over 100 organizations.
The Dolphins continue to show why they lead the NFL in volunteerism and community service. To learn more about how you can get involved you can email [email protected].
