Volunteering at the Westside Food Bank during its week-long stay in Los Angeles was always the plan for the Wisconsin men’s basketball team.
Wquinton Smith, the Associate Director of Engagement and Community Outreach at Wisconsin Athletics, described it as part of Wisconsin’s mission of “developing the holistic student-athlete.”
“It’s not just about the playing field but it’s about passions and desires outside of the sport. Community service is one way that we really develop our student-athletes and their self discovery and self-awareness,” said Smith, who planned the volunteering excursion in L.A. on Jan. 20, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
What certainly was not anticipated, by the Wisconsin team, the city of Los Angeles or the rest of the country, were the devastating wildfires that have ravaged the L.A area the last several weeks.
Some 50,000 acres of land in the area have been burned from multiple fires, several of which are still not entirely contained. Entire suburbs have been wiped out, leaving scenes that closer resemble a war zone than a neighborhood. Far too many homes, businesses and lives have been lost, leaving a city in mourning.
But Los Angeles and its people are resilient. Since the first of the fires began on Jan.7, thousands of volunteers have flocked to centers such as the Westside Food Bank, which is located in Santa Monica.
According to Shaun Dryer, Community Engagement Manager for the food bank, “Westside Food Bank belongs to a federal funded program called TEFAP (The Emergency Food Assistance Program), and it is designed to provide food for low income families.”
Food boxes are then passed out at pop-up pantries hosted by the center.
Many volunteers are simply looking to help in any way possible, and for the Wisconsin basketball team, a volunteering opportunity planned weeks prior to the fires became even more significant.
“Paying close attention to the news and seeing how devastating the fires were, we knew that the food pantry would receive an uptick in the amount of services that they needed to provide,” Smith said. “So it definitely changed the lens in which we originally went into it with.”
The Badgers’ team, staff and coaches came to California for two games against USC and UCLA. They beat USC on Saturday, Jan. 18, and lost to UCLA a few days later on Jan. 21. But on an off day between the games, Dryer said the UW-Madison team helped pack 357 TEFAP boxes for community members in need.
“I gave them a goal of 200, and they demolished that number,” said Dryer.
The impact of the experience at the Westside Food Bank wasn’t lost on the players and coaches.
“It’s a simple thing to do— put food in boxes with a bunch of guys—but leaving there, I felt a lot better about myself and our team, being able to help a lot of people that really need it,” said redshirt freshman guard Jack Janicki.
The UW-Madison roster is made up of student-athletes like Janicki, primarily from the Midwest. Not a single player this season is from anywhere near Los Angeles, so the true impact of the wildfires was perhaps unknown prior to their arrival on the West Coast.
“I think going into it, they didn’t really know what to expect,” said Smith. “But when we talked about how the California fires would affect food insecurity for a lot of individuals, that’s when I saw them going back onto the bus, and you could see they were like, ‘Wow, I didn’t know it was this devastating.’”
The acts of kindness provided by the Wisconsin team certainly didn’t go unnoticed.
“This spirit demonstrates the kind of care for others that lifts the hearts of a community in crisis,” said Westside Food Bank President and CEO Genevieve Riutort. “We are so grateful and admire them for being a model of service even when they are far from home.”
For Janicki, some things simply go beyond the sport.
“As a student-athlete, especially men’s basketball at this point in the year, it’s really easy to get caught up with basketball-related issues, and it’s so important to look at the world outside of you and realize things are so much bigger than that,” he said. “Being able to go to L.A in the middle of the season and realize how that comes second to basic human decency and helping others in need, I think it gave us a lot of perspective.”
About the Author
Sophia Ross is a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, majoring in journalism with certificates in sports communication and digital studies. She serves as the football beat reporter for her student newspaper, The Daily Cardinal, and also works for the BTN StudentU program. Through the Big Ten Network, Sophia is a student color commentator and helped to establish the first group of student sideline reporters at Wisconsin, which she is a part of. Upon graduation, she hopes to venture into the sports media realm and continue growing as a journalist.
