Tony and Dolly Ellis

By Ed Nicholson

 

Austin athletes unload a truckload of food to agencies of CAFB

One of the most fulfilling things about being involved in hunger relief is the opportunity to work with some fantastic partners.  We've talked a lot about our friends at  Share Our Strength and Feeding America. 
But one group that doesn't get mentioned as much is Lift Up America.  Founded in 2004, by the visionary Dave Hannah and other business leaders, Lift Up America is a coalition of influential business and sports leaders, brought together by a common goal of addressing some of society's most pressing challenges. 
In 2005, Tyson Foods began our partnership with them with food donations in cooperation with the Kansas City Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins.
Each year since then, a growing number of professional and college athletic teams have lent their support and their players' time to events in which food is donated to their local communities, but more important, awareness for the issue of hunger is elevated.  Last year, we did donations in fourteen cities across the country.
The people who comprise Lift Up America have solved some tremendous business challenges.  Very successfully. They've competed at the highest levels on the field and off.  It's a tribute to them that they are now applying their strategic skills to challenges our world faces.  
Last week, I had the privelege of being in Austin, joining a burgeoning local chapter of Lift Up America, led by highly-successful businessman, Michael Cress, in making a donation to the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas (another fabulous partner). We were joined at Southpark Meadows, who generously supplied the venue,  by members of the Austin Toros and the Austin Aztex, along with notable athletes, such as former UT football standout Will Matthews and KC Chiefs linebacker, Derrick Johnson. 
CAFB CEO, David Davenport said it well.  "Addressing hunger is a community challenge."
Thanks to Lift Up America for bringing the Austin community together for this event. 

 More photos of this event can be seen here. 

Here's a collection of video from the 2009 Lift Up America donation with the University of Arkansas Razorbacks.   89 student athletes, 39 northwest Arkansas non-profit agencies, a 35 lb. truckload of Tyson products came together on one clear, cold Ozark Saturday morning.  It was fun and rewarding.

Lieu R. Smith from Loaves and Fishes Food Pantry in Berryville, Arkansas.

Lieu is one of thousands of people who work at ground level in the fight against hunger.  His food bank feeds four to five hundred families a month.

Rodger Hunter, the Student Life Coordinator for the University of Arkansas Razorbacks athletic program is a heck of a guy. 

Rodger works hard to get student athletes involved in the community. To put them in places where they need to be, and keep them out of places they don't.

Today, Rodger helped bring an amazing 85 Razorback athletes to Don Reynolds stadium--in sub-freezing temperatures and long before they normally get up on Saturday morning--to help distribute 35 thousand pounds of Tyson products to 38 agencies of the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank.  With that much muscle and energy, it was phenomenal how quickly the product went out of the  Tyson truck and into the agency vehicles.

Props to you Rodger.  Keep on doing what you're doing, and thanks for your help today.

Other student athlete video interviews can be seen here:

Jackie Booker--UofA Soccer Goalie

Kyle Komerek--UofA Javelin Thrower

Most folks around Arkansas know London Crawford as being an outstanding receiver, and part of what has been known as the "play of the year," a 24-yard touchdown pass in the last 22 seconds, that pulled Arkansas ahead of LSU in the final game of the 2008 season.

But today, London made another outstanding play, interviewing a member of an agency of the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank, discussing the work of the agency in fighting hunger in the community. 

London was one of about 85 Arkansas athletes who came out on a sub-freezing day to help distribute food to 38 agencies of the food bank.  

This is the kind of off-the-field news that, while occurring often, doesn't get reported enough.

Kudos London.  We think you could make a great reporter.

University of Arkansas football players helping donate 35K lbs. of Tyson products at a Lift Up America donation, January 24, 2009.

David Cook, who volunteers with the Decatur Christians in Action food pantry talks about the great need in a small community.

By Ed Nicholson

 

A cold morning at Don Reynolds Stadium

Today we're live-blogging from the University of Arkansas's Don Reynold's stadium, where we're partnering with the Arkansas Razorbacks, and Lift Up America to distribute a truckload of Tyson products to agencies of the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank.

We have Tyson chairman, John Tyson, UofA athletic director, Jeff Long, Dave Hannah, CEO of Lift Up America, and a bunch of Razorback athletes and and spirit squad members, all braving the cold to help load boxes of chicken into trucks, vans and trailers going to non-profit agencies serving the needy in northwest Arkansas. 

All of this started five years ago with similar donations involving the Miami Dolphins and the Kansas City Chiefs.  This is the third year we've done this event with the Razorbacks, one of sixteen such events we've done with Lift Up America and college and pro teams this year. 

We'll be posting here as the day develops, as well as putting up Twitter messages, adding photos to Flickr, and posting videos to YouTube. 

Special shout out to Hugg & Hall for bringing out a forklift to help us get the products off the truck!

By Ed Nicholson

We had a great event in Chicago Monday, where Tyson Foods, Feeding America and Lift Up America were joined by the Chicago Bulls and the Chicago Food Depository in announcing the donation of one million pounds of Tyson products to some Feeding America food banks to help them get through the holiday season. 

That sounds like a lot of food--and it is--but it's barely a beginning to meet the need that's out there; need that never subsides, and is growing worse as our economy generates new challenges. 

With more than 36 million people at risk of hunger, it's going to take the collaborative efforts of a lot of different groups--agencies that compete for resources, and companies that compete for markets--putting aside their competitive differences  and resolving to address this enormous challenge.

It was encouraging to see so many groups working together yesterday: The CFD, which serves an enormouos and challenging population in Chicagoland.   The Bulls, a storied franchise, and incredibly powerful brand.  Feeding America, which unites the largest network of food banks in the world.   And Lift Up America, which in just five short years, has brought together some of the most influential business people in the U.S., for the purpose of effecting social change.   

Many, many people deserve personal thanks for their efforts, but we especially want to thank Dave Hannah and his crew at Lift Up America, notably Jaan Heinmetz and Ted Gandy (Here's Life Inner City); Dave Kurland from the Bulls for bringing so many things together, including players, for this event; the Chicago Food Depository, who brought together volunteers who worked cheerfully in the bitter cold to distribute food to Chicago agencies; and our own rockstars, the Tyson transportation group and drivers, who pulled this together in an incredibly short time. 

Sports teams involved in the donations include
Chicago ( Bulls)
Kansas City (Chiefs)
Miami  (Dolphins)
San Diego (Chargers)
Denver (Nuggets)
Boise (Boise State)
Detroit (Lions)
Austin (University of Texas)
San Jose (Sharks
Cleveland (Indians)
Phoenix (Suns)
Jacksonville (Jaguars)
Northwest Arkansas (University of Arkansas)
Other community donations include
Northern Illinois (St. Charles)
Texarkana, Arkansas
Fort Smith, Arkansas
Northeast Arkansas
Lincoln, Nebraska
Houston, Texas
Storm Lake, Iowa
 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Dec. 7, 2007 – Hungry people in Kansas City will get some help from Lift Up America, the Kansas City Chiefs and Tyson Foods, Inc. (NYSE:TSN) thanks to a donation from Tyson Foods at an event on Dec. 11. Chiefs players will help unload a truck containing more than 30,000 pounds of protein products to be distributed to area hunger relief agencies at an event at Kansas Chiefs Stadium at One Arrowhead Drive.  The distribution event will follow a regularly scheduled briefing by Coach Herm Edwards.
            “Our partnership and team spirit between these great organizations has a tremendous impact,” said Dave Hannah, CEO of Lift Up America. “It is truly inspirational to see so many entities coming together with such a noble goal in mind.”
  “We’re honored to join forces with such caring organizations to help the people of the Kansas City area,” said John Tyson, chairman of Tyson Foods. “We hope our contribution inspires others to participate in the fight against hunger.”
 Kris Wilson, Jeff Webb, Jimmy Wilkerson, Dimitri Patterson and Tre Stallings will distribute the protein to approximately 30 hunger relief agencies.