The Fresh Market and NBA All-Star LaMelo Ball have launched the AssistsToAssist Campaign for the 2022-23 regular basketball season. The campaign is a food donation program that provides fresh meals for families in need in the Charlotte, North Carolina, metropolitan area.
Ball and the fresh food retailer will donate The Fresh Market’s Little Big Meal meal kits to families based on the number of basketball assists that Ball makes during a home game while playing for the Charlotte Hornets during the 2022-23 NBA regular basketball season.
To jump start the program, The Fresh Market will donate $25,000 to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina on behalf of the LaMelo Ball Foundation, which will provide 145,000 meals in the Charlotte region at the start of the season. For each assist he makes during the season, The Fresh Market will provide 10 of its Little Big Meals to SHFBM on behalf of the LaMelo Ball Foundation.
The Fresh Market’s LBM can feed up to four people. Each meal kit contains a fresh protein, vegetables and other side dishes that can be cooked to provide a healthy meal for a family. With LaMelo’s current average of 7.6 assists per game, that adds up to 70 meal kits that can feed 280 people in the community each home game. Multiplied by 41 home games means there’s the opportunity for more than 11,400 people to benefit from AssistsToAssist.
“We are thrilled and proud to work with LaMelo Ball to support his foundation’s efforts to provide fresh healthy meals to families in need in the Charlotte community,” said Kevin Miller, CMO of The Fresh Market.
“He is a leader on and off the basketball court who really cares about the community and is very influential with young people with more than 9 million Instagram followers. The Fresh Market is a leader in providing quality fresh food and meal solutions and is highly committed to the communities that we’ve served for more than 40 years.”
The campaign will launch the first home game of the regular season on Oct. 21. Little Big Meals earned for each LaMelo assist will be prepared and given to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina, its food bank partner through Feeding America.
