WASHINGTON, D.C. – Travis Frederick has been named the NFLPA Week 7 Community MVP for his outreach efforts to feed low-income children through his Blocking Out Hunger Foundation.
"I am honored to be named the NFLPA Community MVP," Frederick said. "I am very fortunate to be able to leverage the support of so many of my teammates and the Dallas/Fort Worth community to help kids in need. Thank you to everyone that has helped to get my foundation and its work off the ground and running."
When Frederick was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in 2013, he was shocked to learn of the staggering statistics regarding hunger among the local population. Not only is Texas first in the country in terms of childhood hunger, but one out of every four students in Dallas is hungry or food insecure.
In 2016, Frederick set out to remedy this problem by establishing the Blocking Out Hunger Foundation. By working with nutritional experts, he has developed effective outreach programs to provide healthy meals to hungry children in Dallas.
This past week saw the fifth-year offensive lineman make great strides in his mission. On Monday, Frederick hosted more than 220 guests for his second annual Steak-Out for Hunger celebrity waiter night fundraiser. The event generated over $170,000 for his foundation and featured some of his Cowboys teammates donning aprons as servers, including Jason Witten, Dak Prescott and Sean Lee.
The next day marked the launch of Travis' Pantry at Trinity Basin Preparatory School in Fort Worth. There, the first of several branded food carts was opened within schools that will provide financially disadvantaged students with food to take home on weeknights and weekends. Each pantry features nutritional meals and fresh produce to ensure that children are remaining healthy and satisfied so that they can return to the classroom ready to learn.
More than 70 low-income students at Trinity Basin are expected to fed each week through Travis' Pantry. The food cart will be replenished every two weeks and result in over 10,000 meals being provided in a single year.
"It was awesome to get the opportunity to come in here and see all these kids," Frederick said. "Hopefully we can use some of the generosity of the people of Dallas and Fort Worth to fix this fundamental problem of kids not getting enough food to be able to focus in school so that they can become tomorrow's leaders."
The other signature program of Frederick's foundation is Nourish2Flourish, which is designed to impact kids who rely on free and reduced school lunches for their daily meals. To prevent these children from going hungry over summer and winter breaks, Frederick's program provides them nutritional meals,
with 2,000 boxes of food going to kids this past summer and a target of 90,000 more meals in the next year. In total, Frederick has impacted 53,250 individuals through his Foundation since its establishment in 2016.
In honor of Frederick being named this week's Community MVP, the NFLPA will make a $10,000 contribution to his foundation or charity of choice along with an in-kind donation to him on behalf of our supporting partner Delta Private Jets. Frederick, along with the other 2017 Community MVPs, will also become eligible for this year's Byron Whizzer White Award, which is the highest honor that the NFLPA can bestow upon a player.
The NFLPA Community MVP program recognizes NFL players who are making a positive impact in their local communities. Each week during the regular season, the NFLPA will celebrate one NFL player* who has demonstrated a commitment to giving back to his community. Please visit our website to read more about the program as well as the current and past winners.
2017 Community MVPs:
Week 0:J.J. Watt (Houston Texans)
Week 1:Colin Kaepernick
Week 2:Chris Long (Philadelphia Eagles)
Week 3:Carson Wentz (Philadelphia Eagles)
Week 4:Max Garcia (Denver Broncos)
Week 5: Ha Ha Clinton-Dix (Green Bay Packers)
Week 6:Vic Beasley Jr. (Atlanta Falcons)
