By Dorothy J. Gentry
Sports Editor
There’s more relief from families suffering from the economic fallout of COVID-19.
The Texas Legends – the Dallas Mavericks’ NBA G-League affiliate in Frisco – have joined with Kia to “Accelerate the Good” with a week-long food drive benefiting Frisco Family Services at the Comerica Center beginning April 27th.
Frisco Family Services experienced a 58% increase in applications for assistance in the month of March and provided more than 5,000 additional meals. In order to assist with meeting those needs, the Legends and Kia will host a drive-up collection of non-perishable goods.
“Frisco Family Services assists our community year-round but like other social service agencies, they’re kicked into high gear right now,” said Legends President/General Manager Malcolm Farmer. “They’re serving more people while working with a skeleton staff, so we just wanted to find a way to come alongside them and help ensure those going through a tough time are getting what they need.”
“Our staff get[s] to play and work in basketball for a living, so we know how blessed we are regardless of the current climate,” Farmer said. “Our responsibility in that is to use this platform to take care of others around us, so that’s what we’re here to do.”
The drive is open 9 am-6 pm Monday-Friday with the Legends’ Mission of the Month bin available at the Northeast corner of the Comerica Center. The bin will be put out at 9 am and brought in at 6 pm every night for those wanting to make donations, and the bin will be manned by a Legends staff member one hour of each day for those who want to make a donation that will be taken inside immediately. The full schedule is Monday/Friday 5-6 pm, Tuesday/Thursday 12-1 pm, and Wednesday 9-10 am.
While they would welcome any non-perishable food items, the most urgent needs of Frisco Family Services currently are canned meats (like tuna, chicken, Spam), oatmeal, meal helpers, cooking oil and spaghetti sauce.
For more information on the drive or other Legends’ outreach opportunities contact Britney Wynn (bwynn@texlegends.com).
