Hawks announce date for sixth annual Million Meal Pack
The Hawks will build 1 million meals for families in Atlanta for the sixth consecutive year. On Wednesday, the team announced its plans for its largest annual service initiative of the year, the Million Meal Pack.
The event, which will take place Sept. 26 at State Farm Arena, brings together more than 5,000 volunteers to package 1 million meals in one day. The meals will go directly to communities across metro Atlanta, with distribution supported by U.S. Hunger, a hunger relief organization with numerous programs to help feed people facing food insecurity.
“Over the last six years, we rallied over 26,000 volunteers and passed over 5.1 million meals,” Alex Roe, vice president of community impact for the Hawks and State Farm Arena, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
According to the Atlanta Community Food Bank, 1 in 8 people and 1 in 6 children in the Hawks’ service areas face food insecurity.
“For us, it’s really important that we highlight and create, amplify this challenge that our city experiences, so that everyone can understand that we all have a role to play in supporting it,” Roe said.
The Hawks will run five 90-minute shifts, each with roughly 1,000 volunteers operating in teams. These teams will assemble thousands of meals over the course of the day. Each meal will have a nutritious, shelf-stable dried jambalaya mix — carefully formulated to provide six hearty servings per package when prepared.
Since the initiative’s inception, volunteers have included Hawks legend Dominique Wilkins, as well as current players like Dyson Daniels and Jalen Johnson.
The Hawks have also leaned on influential members of the community to help pack meals, like former Atlanta City Council President Doug Shipman. They’ve also had celebrities like Mariah the Scientist, Roscoe Dash and Young Dro, along with many others, lend their efforts.
But the Hawks don’t plan to reveal this year’s group of volunteers until later.
“So this is always something that we like to keep as a surprise,” Roe said. “We want the people to show up and see who they’ll be now packing alongside.”
Registration to volunteer opens Wednesday, and the public can fill out a form at hawks.com/mealpack. But there’s opportunity to do a little more volunteering beyond the event.
“We’ve seen people sign up for all five shifts,” Roe said. “(Or) after their 90 minutes, they go out and they’re celebrating along State Farm Street Fest.
“And at State Farm Street Fest, there are microvolunteer projects with the local nonprofits that are recipients of the food. They’re also getting information from them on how to sign up to volunteer throughout the year. So I think beyond the event, we’re also highlighting a platform for the nonprofits to also showcase how people can support outside of the event.”