Royals participate in Thanksgiving food drive

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KANSAS CITY — The Royals’ giving season is in full swing, and this week they once again teamed up with Kansas City businesses to help feed as many families as possible this Thanksgiving.

“Türkiye Tuesday,” an annual food drive led by The Know Joey Foundation which has been working to feed families for 16 years, was held Tuesday at the Royals Urban Youth Academy. And on Wednesday, more than 700 Thanksgiving meals will be distributed to families who have pre-registered and come to UYA. “Win Wednesday” will include not only food distribution, but also physical and mental health resources for families and individuals.

Families wishing to pick up food on Wednesday must register here to ensure they are connected to the right resources. The event starts at 10 a.m. at UYA.

“It’s an opportunity to come in, have a meal and make their lives a little easier,” UYA Principal Donease Smith said. “Anyone can come in, open to all, as long as we have turkeys left.” I’m told it goes pretty quickly. This is another important part of what we do here. Not only can we teach baseball and softball, but we can also partner with businesses in the community and make an impact around Kansas City.

“16 years ago we saw the need for this,” added Joey Thomas, founder of the Know Joey Foundation. “In many ways, it’s even bigger now. As we grow, the needs increase. »

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 17 million U.S. households (12.8%) were food insecure in 2022, an increase of 3.5 million households from 2021. This means that the Food insecurity is now at its highest level since 2014. This report stated that “families who responded to the survey indicated that they feared running out of money before purchasing the food they needed, that they were unable to afford nutritious meals and had to reduce the amount of food they and their children consumed due to lack of food. limited resources.”

Harvesters, a Kansas City food bank that partnered with Know Joey and the Royals for Turkey Tuesday this year, estimates similar increases in the Kansas City area.

“The need is extremely high,” said Matt Hamer, Harvesters communications manager. “Donations are also down for the same reasons the need is high. But we are still optimistic about our ability to help the community. Events like this remind us that the community continues to fight for each other. We’re lucky to be a part of it and partner with organizations like Know Joey and the Royals, who are very passionate about the same things we are.

The Royals have supported Turkey Tuesday for several years and have hosted a food drive at UYA for the past two years. The organization has been collecting food items from Kauffman Stadium employees over the past few weeks to donate as part of the Community Impact Department’s giving season. The Royals also contributed to this initiative by volunteering at the Girls on the Run 5K in early November and spending time packing apples at Harvesters to send to families in Kansas City. According to Harvesters, the Royals – including manager Matt Quatraro – packed 7,110 pounds of apples.

In December, the Royals will send volunteers to team up Lead to read KCa literacy program that supports students’ social, emotional, and reading skills.

Girls on the Run and Lead to Read are groups that focus on the Royals’ pillars of community impact: literacy and physical activity.

“They’re two big groups, but we’ve set key performance indicators for each of them that we want to see in five years to say, ‘Hey, all this work we’ve done has allowed the kids of Kansas City to “be 35% more physically active than before, and that we now lead the state in literacy growth,” said Luis Maes, Royals director of community impact. “There has tons of causes that we will continue to support, but these are two big areas that our department needs to think about and focus on.”

Turkey started it all on Tuesday. And the work done by the Royals, the Harvesters, Know Joey and everyone who donated gave Kansas City families something to be grateful for Thursday.

“The great thing is we work with different parts of the community,” Thomas said. “On Tuesday, we work with people who are able to give. And then on Wednesday, we work with a group of people who are in need. It’s about combining these two worlds and ensuring that everyone gets the services and resources they need.