By Jimmy Robertson
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The Virginia Tech football team spent part of its Sunday helping people in the greater Charlotte area by packing food into bags that will be delivered to needy children in the area.
The Belk Bowl-sponsored event called for Kentucky and Virginia Tech players to participate in packing the food at the Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina, which distributes more than 60 million pounds of food annually to 19 counties in the areas surrounding Charlotte. Approximately 18 percent of the area population lives in poverty.
Kentucky's players took the early morning session and packed 1,500 bags worth of food, while Tech players took the late-morning session and packed an additional 1,500 bags. The 3,000 bags will be delivered by the food bank and partner agencies to needy children. One in four children in the Charlotte area suffer from hunger.
"It's a super awesome opportunity for the Food Bank to have two big-time teams like that here in our facility," said Mike Oberle, child hunger programs coordinator for the food bank. "On the flip side of that, I think that they get a lot out of it as well.
"You think about these two teams and you know there's different upbringings, and I think everyone feels a connection to needing help once in a while. These guys were able to give that help here this morning. I think it impacts them a great deal."
The event meant a lot of Tech's players, especially to the 16 players on the roster from the state of North Carolina. Perhaps it meant the most to Dax Hollifield, who grew up in Shelby, North Carolina – a 50-minute drive from downtown Charlotte.
Hollifield, the Hokies' starting backer, attacked the packing with a rather high energy level, which is how he plays. But he realized that Sunday's event offered him an opportunity to help "his" people.
"It's great," Hollifield said. "Being from Shelby, which is right down the road, there is a lot of poverty. There are a lot of people that go hungry on the weekends. A lot of my friends do. It's a good feeling to come in here and give back to the community. I love doing that, but yeah, I never want anybody to go hungry. I see a lot of people on the weekends that never have anything to eat. So this makes me have a good feeling that I'm doing some good and helping out the less fortunate."
The Second Harvest Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina's partnership with the Belk Bowl not only enables the players to help with the packing, but more importantly, enables the food bank to bring much-needed attention to an issue that is relatively out of the public eye.
Joe Burrow, the LSU quarterback who won the Heisman Trophy, brought attention to the issue when he spoke of the kids who went hungry in his hometown in southeast Ohio. Almost immediately after that speech, donations poured into a local food pantry to help with the issue.
That's the type of attention that bowl games and subsequent bowl-sponsored events such as these, can bring to these issues.
"Think about it, one in four here in the Charlotte area – and the wealth and prosperity here in Charlotte – the areas outside the city are affected even more than here," Oberle said. "Everyone needs to know that there are hungry people here in America. It shouldn't be that way, but there are."
Gallery: (12/29/2019) 2019 BELK BOWL TRIP FOOD BANK