THE COLONY, Texas — Dallas Cowboys center Travis Frederick hosted his third annual golf challenge Tuesday at Topgolf to benefit his Blocking Out Hunger Foundation.
The All-Pro center considers providing meals to underserved families his mission since Dallas drafted him in the first round of the 2013 NFL draft from Wisconsin.
"It was important for me when I first saw the need and how much generosity there is in the area to create a new conduit to give," Frederick said. "When you look around and talk to the people that are at the charity galas and things like that they want to be helping, they want to be doing things and sometimes, believe it or not, it’s difficult to find a place to do that. There’s so much need and so much generosity it’s hard to connect those. That’s what we did with Blocking Out Hunger Foundation was create that conduit."
Frederick doesn't see his efforts as being in competition with other nonprofits with the same mission. Rather, he sees them as teammates that work in concert for a common goal, much like how five offensive linemen coordinator to protect the quarterback or open up running lanes.
"We try to let everyone do what they’re currently doing because everyone is doing good work," Frederick explained. "We’re not trying to compete with anybody. Everybody, hopefully, is working in parallel. All we want to do is get food to kids who need it. We just try to follow those lines. The kids who are already taken care of we let them go and then we try to find kids who are really struggling over the summer and try to get them food."
One of Frederick's initiatives is the "Travis' Pantry" program, which are in certain Dallas-Fort Worth area schools and allow children access to food near the end of the week to take home in backpacks.
Said Frederick: "This is a really important time because during the school year kids are able to get that food for breakfast and lunch. Once that ends, they lose access to that. So that’s one of the things we do. over the summer, we also have programs in the spring and the winter, we provide food to those kids that lose access to that. Last year we serviced about 3,000 kids during the summer, and luckily enough we’ve had success at our events and we’re doubling that amount this year. 6,000 children over the course of the summer will receive food for those 11 weeks."
Getting involved in food provision and starting his own foundation was significant to Frederick because he wanted to have a hands-on approach to community outreach, not simply attach his name to a good cause.
"It’s really easy to go into a food bank and sponsor one of their programs and you’re just paying for the stuff that is already going to happen, all of that good is already going to go to those children and you’re just sponsoring, but what we do is we go into areas where there is not any food available to kids and give them food," Frederick said. "That’s something I’m very adamant about in all of our stuff and that’s part of the reason I branched out as well to help give more kids more food."
Over 20 of Frederick's teammates were present at the event, including quarterback Dak Prescott, running back Ezekiel Elliott, and un-retired tight end Jason Witten.
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