Rowan Kavner
LOS ANGELES – It’s become so ingrained in the community now that the Feed the Community event isn’t just an annual occurrence for Mortimer Jones, the executive director of the Salvation Army Siemon Family Youth and Community Center.
To him, it’s more than that. He said what the Clippers players and the L.A. Clippers Foundation do, providing food and personal care items for 1,200 families in need in South Los Angeles, has become a steadfast tradition.
“We look forward to it every year, and the community looks forward to it every year,” Jones said. “Back in the day, we’d let the schools know. We no longer need to do that. Our clientele is huge, and these are clients we have a relationship with.”
The Clippers Foundation partnered with Feed the Children and participating sponsor Vita Coco to put on the event, and DeAndre Jordan, Jamal Crawford, C.J. Wilcox, Austin Rivers, Luc Mbah A Moute and Branden Dawson all came to hand out boxes full of necessary items to the families.
The minimum one family would receive is four boxes – one for canned food and dry goods, one for personal care items such as toiletries, one for Avon Products and another for Vita Coco products.
Jordan said it’s fun for players to be able to use their pedestal as basketball players to give back, and attending events such as this one make him thankful for all he has.
“Coming from a single parent home, and I have three younger brothers, it was tough at times,” Jordan said. “I see my family in a lot of these families coming up, so it definitely touches home a little bit.”
The Clippers players joined season ticketholders, staff members, Vita Coco and personnel from the U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Coast Guard as part of the NBA’s Hoops for Troops program to distribute packages to the pre-selected families.
“We all like talking to each other, seeing what each other does, said Coast Guard Lt. Dan Ippolito. “It’s always a good time to get together and serve together. We don’t get that opportunity too often.”
Ippolito said it means a lot to the community and to the military members in attendance to see Clippers players being the ones handing out items and interacting with the families and children.
It also means a lot to the players to see the difference it makes.
“It’s 1,200 families, not 1,200 people, but 1,200 families that everybody’s helping out,” Crawford said. “I think it goes a long way. They’re very appreciative, and you can really feel that. You sense that talking to them and interacting with them.”
Having played for six different teams during his NBA career, Crawford has experience in what the NBA does to help out various communities.
But he believes the Clippers, especially, go the extra mile.
“It’s easy to sometimes do things because it looks good,” Crawford said, “but they do it because it’s the right thing to do and they’re passionate about it. It’s a totally different feeling, and you get that from them.”
The Clippers Foundations’ mission is to make a positive difference to children in L.A., while Feed the Children exists to create a world where no child goes to bed hungry.
The Salvation Army Siemon Family Youth and Community Center serves one of the most troubled urban regions in Southern California, supplying living assistance to low-income families, providing growth and learning development for infants to 5-year-olds and providing academic, artistic and athletic activities for students of all ages.
The Feed the Community event continues the Clippers Foundation’s tradition of providing a strong and positive presence in the South Los Angeles community, and Jones sees how far it goes for the families who get to participate.
“They can take the little money that they have and use it for something else,” Jones said. “It could be school supplies for a child, it could be just clothing, it could be shoes for a kid to go to school.
“You can’t really price it, because it brings more than more money in your pocket – it brings a little sigh, a burden you can take off your shoulders.”