What’s better than when three great local organizations come together and collaborate?
How about when they come together and collaborate, and the result is generous and meaningful and improves the community?
That’s what happened when Menomonee Falls-based Cousins Subs joined efforts with the Milwaukee Bucks in an anti-hunger campaign called "Block Out Hunger" that benefited Hunger Task Force and food pantries throughout Wisconsin.
In its first year, the campaign took a dynamic, two-pronged approach. Initially, in a statewide food drive, Cousins invited diners to donate three nonperishable food items at any of their locations; then, for every shot the Milwaukee Bucks blocked during the 2015-16 season, the Cousins Make It Better Foundation made a donation to Hunger Task Force to support emergency food supplies at pantries across Wisconsin.
In total, 3,267 pounds of food were collected during the statewide drive – 1,765 pounds from Milwaukee – with the donations going to more than 40 local pantries for distribution to families in need; $10,000 was raised through the Bucks’ blocked-shot campaign.
"The goal of ‘Block Out Hunger’ was to address food insecurity and to collect food for those in communities throughout Wisconsin," Justin McCoy, vice president of marketing at Cousins Subs, said in a statement. "With combined efforts from Hunger Task Force and the Milwaukee Bucks, we were to achieve that goal by providing healthy and nutritious meals throughout our local communities."
According to a release, Cousins and the Bucks decided on Hunger Task force as the beneficiary of "Block Out Hunger" because it is Milwaukee’s only free and local food bank. Wisconsin’s foremost anti-hunger organization collects more than nine million pounds of food every year and, free of charge, delivers it to a network of pantries, soup kitchens and homeless shelters.
"A huge shout-out to Cousins Subs and the Milwaukee Bucks for helping feed families in communities statewide," said Sherrie Tussler, executive director of Hunger Task Force. "The ‘Block Out Hunger’ campaign was a big success. It not only put food on tables, but raised awareness about hunger in Wisconsin."
Added Matt Pazaras, the Bucks’ senior vice president of business development and strategy: "Cousins Subs is a fantastic partner of ours. Together we’ve demonstrated that our relationship goes beyond basketball to truly make a difference in the community.
"We’re thrilled that our collective focus measurably drove awareness around an important cause and benefited a fantastic organization, Hunger Task Force. We look forward to working with Cousins to build on this great campaign in the years to come."
If you want more details and a closer look at how Cousins and the Bucks joined together to "Block Out Hunger," click here.
Born in Milwaukee but a product of Shorewood High School (go ‘Hounds!) and Northwestern University (go ‘Cats!), Jimmy never knew the schoolboy bliss of cheering for a winning football, basketball or baseball team. So he ditched being a fan in order to cover sports professionally - occasionally objectively, always passionately. He's lived in Chicago, New York and Dallas, but now resides again in his beloved Brew City and is an ardent attacker of the notorious Milwaukee Inferiority Complex.
After interning at print publications like Birds and Blooms (official motto: "America's #1 backyard birding and gardening magazine!"), Sports Illustrated (unofficial motto: "Subscribe and save up to 90% off the cover price!") and The Dallas Morning News (a newspaper!), Jimmy worked for web outlets like CBSSports.com, where he was a Packers beat reporter, and FOX Sports Wisconsin, where he managed digital content. He's a proponent and frequent user of em dashes, parenthetical asides, descriptive appositives and, really, anything that makes his sentences longer and more needlessly complex.
Jimmy appreciates references to late '90s Brewers and Bucks players and is the curator of the unofficial John Jaha Hall of Fame. He also enjoys running, biking and soccer, but isn't too annoying about them. He writes about sports - both mainstream and unconventional - and non-sports, including history, music, food, art and even golf (just kidding!), and welcomes reader suggestions for off-the-beaten-path story ideas.
