The Home Plate Project is an initiative announced earlier this month to help fight childhood hunger and food insecurity. The Home Plate Project is a partnership between Garth Brooks’ Teammates For Kids Foundation and Big League Impact, which was founded by St. Louis Cardinals Pitcher Adam Wainwright and supported by Minnesota Twins Pitcher Kyle Gibson.
Home Plate Project has a $900,000 commitment, a third of which has come from MLB players. Each baseball team, led by the player ambassadors, will fund efforts with local food organizations or local affiliates of national organization to distribute non-perishable food items to children in need throughout the United States and Canada. The initiative is expected to reach at least 25,000 children.
So far, more than four dozen Major League Baseball players are involved with Home Plate Project, including at least one player in each of the 30 MLB teams. “There’s several teams that have multiple members on it. I’m just proud to be a teammate with these guys,” Brooks said.
Wainwright said he hopes those player will catch the vision that he, Brooks and Gibson have to go out into the world and use their platform to the best of their ability to make a huge difference in the world,” Wainwright said. Statistics show that one in six children may not know where they will get their next meal. “There’s so many people in this great country and around the world that they’re hungry and they don’t have access to clean water,: Wainwright said. “They don’t have access to meals. That’s not just abroad. That’s also in our United States.”
Gibson said he has worked with Big League Impact for four or five years and this is his first year as vice president. He said there are always areas even in some of the most affluent areas of the Twin Cities where there’s kids that either can’t afford school supplies or don’t know where they will get their next meal. While they are raising a lot of money for kids and for families who are in need, Gibson said they are also spreading awareness that no matter where you live, you’re probably not too far away from a family who doesn’t know where they will get their next meal. “To be able to take 30 teams and do something in each big league city is just a real honor. I think it’s something that’s going to be really cool to follow for the years to come,” he said.
LA Angels Pitcher Tyler Skaggs, who passed away unexpectedly on July 1, had expressed interest in being part of Home Plate Project. Even though they didn’t get the chance to confirm that Skaggs would be involved, he is being honored this year as a member of the project. It is a move that will honor Skaggs’ family and his passion for helping people.
Even though there hasn’t been anything officially announced concerning the minor league teams being involved in Home Plate Project, Brooks would be in favor in it. “I think the only way that this thing gets better is that it gets bigger,” Brooks said. Like Wainwright and Gibson, Brooks said none of us realize how close we are to this problem and it’s not just certain cities. “It’s in every city out there,” he said, adding that he would be all in to figure out how the minor leagues could start participating as well.
Wainwright said while being able to donate a lot of money might be really hard for minor league players, but there might be a great opportunity to serve with their time such and going into communities and serving meals. .. “Sometimes time is almost as valuable as money especially at that point in your life,” Wainwright said.
Brooks said Teammates For Kids tried for 20 years to have the fan of the actual sport come in and it gets extremely complicated on how they give and collecting those monies as well. He said he things we are better as a team and it is worth taking a look into how fans of baseball might be able to help in their own communities as well.
Brooks said hunger is not seasonal, but all the sports together are year-round. “I think it makes a lot of sense to take this on into the winter sports as well,” he said.
Brooks said he had been lucky enough to work with Former President Jimmy Carter, who made the statement that if you go to bed with a roof over your head, you are spoiled. “I’ve got to tell you if you go to bed not feeling hungry, we’re spoiled,” Brooks said. “It’s a real live problem that’s living in one of the most affluent countries in the world.”