18 Avalon Circle, Birmingham, AL 36354
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
American Football Federation to Deliver Thanksgiving Meals to Less Fortunate
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (Oct. 26, 2019)- It is hard to imagine Thanksgiving without turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and green bean casserole. Birmingham Saturn linebacker Ben Stern grew up without any food on Thanksgiving.
Stern wanted to make it his mission for everyone to be blessed with a Thanksgiving meal. He has teamed up with all 28 AFF teams to accomplish his goal, “Feast From AFF.”
The American Football Federation (AFF) is a highly respected sports league. It has been around for 81 years and is America’s top pro-football league. The 28-team league’s commissioner is Beau Bates.
Each team’s players and coaches will cook turkeys, mac n cheese, sweet potato casserole and green bean casserole to be delivered to their city’s homeless and high poverty areas.
“My Thanksgiving growing up is something I would never wish on anyone. As most of you know, my dad was not present, and my mom worked as many jobs as she could to keep the bills paid. A Thanksgiving meal was just never a feasible option for my family,” said Stern.
Starting in 2017, the league decided to give every team a bye-week during the week of Thanksgiving. This head started Stern’s decision to give back to those that could not have a proper Thanksgiving meal.
“As soon as the league decided to give us Thanksgiving off, I knew I had to use the opportunity to help others,” said Stern.
Publix, Kroger and Whole Foods will be donating turkeys and ingredients for the mac n cheese, sweet potato casseroles and green bean casseroles.
Stern set up a GoFundMe page where anyone can donate. The donations will go toward purchases for turkeys, to-go boxes and the other ingredients. Individuals can donate turkeys or ingredients themselves.
“I am overjoyed about this incredible gift of kindness to our city. On behalf of the city of Birmingham, we are so thankful for this opportunity to give to those less fortunate,” said Mayor Lenny Barton.
The downtown Birmingham industrial building will house all of the cooking. Cooking will begin at 5 a.m. on Thanksgiving morning. Meals will be delivered until all of the food is gone.
“It is my duty with the platform that I have been blessed with to make sure no one goes hungry on Thanksgiving. This idea took several years to happen finally, but I am so fulfilled that it is finally coming to fruition,” said Stern.
According to WBRC News, Birmingham has about 1,500 homeless people within the city. 57,730 of 205,203 residents live below the poverty line according to Welfareinfo.org.
Stern said he hopes and prays the delivery will reach all of the homeless and as many of those in poverty as possible.
All of the coaches, players and other staff members will be doing both the cooking and the delivery. The players and coaches will split into groups. Each group will be in charge of either the turkeys or any of the sides. Everyone will be on delivery at different time shifts.
“Ben is an incredible man, and this organization is so proud of him. It is amazing that Ben wants to help others since no one did it for him growing up. We expect this to be a huge success,” said Saturn head coach Mark Wren.
The players and coaches are welcomed to bring friends and family to help volunteer. Stern hopes the project grows in the coming years.
“If this project is a success, the next step would be to have volunteers from outside of the AFF. We could see this becoming a Thanksgiving tradition for families in the future,” said Stern.
Information on how to donate turkeys or ingredients can be found at www.feastfromaff.com.
The GoFundMe to donate for turkeys, to-go boxes and other ingredients can be found at www.GoFundMe/feastfromaff.com
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