HOUSTON – For the third straight summer, employees from the Houston Rockets and Toyota Center participated in the Houston Rockets Give Back Volunteer Day at Houston Food Bank.
Several Rockets alumni, including Elvin Hayes, Rodney McCray and Allen Leavell, along with Rockets CEO Tad Brown and team employees, were on hand to help staff sort donation items and pack food supplies.
Why is support for this organization so important for the Rockets organization?
Here is what Brown had to say:
"It's been great to come put with Amy and her team. We're working hard back here. We've got two different shifts from the Rockets organization. It's important from the Fertitta family throughout the entire organization, this is one of our favorite events of the year."
"Really central to Houston and the needs within Houston. Certainly last year we had the floods, this year 10,000 meals a day in the summertime that the food bank is producing, which is just an amazing generous benefit for those in need in the city of Houston. We just love being here.
'We feel like it's a meaningful, impactful program for us, but it means so much to the city of Houston. It means so much to the people in need and anytime we can use our resources, whether they be our personnel or financial or any other resources we have at our disposal to be able to make life better for those in need here in the city it's easy for us to do.
NBA & Rockets Legend and Hall of Famer Elvin Hayes:
It's really great. You have to think about how many people are going to get fed, how many people who will have nothing if there's a hurricane or storm if there's flooding and now they will have something. Most important thing to a person is getting food in their body. I think it's great because it shows that they (the Rockets) care. They're just not taking from the city they are giving back also and this is one of those situations where they are giving back.
The Houston Food Bank is America’s largest food bank in distribution to its network of 1,500 community partners in 18 southeast Texas counties. It provides 122 million nutritious meals to food pantries, soup kitchens, senior centers and other agencies, feeding 800,000 people each year.
For questions regarding volunteering, please contact the Houston Food Bank at the Volunteer Services Hotline: 713-547-8604