The continuing collaboration between the “Black 14” and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently led to a major food donation delivered to the Atlanta Community Food Bank in east Atlanta, Georgia.
The recent donation of 36,000 pounds of food was also made in collaboration with the College Football Hall of Fame and adds to the 1.75 million pounds of food donated by the Black 14 Philanthropy since 2020.
“One of our missions is to help the communities that need food,” Black 14 member Mel Hamilton said in a recent church news release published about the food donation event.
“We want to feed as many people as we can.”
Hamilton and his former football teammate, Tony McGee, represented the Black 14 at the April 7 food donation event. They were accompanied by representatives of the food bank and several of its partner agencies, which will benefit from the food donation.
The food donation couldn’t have come at a “more important time,” said Kyle Waide, president and CEO of the Atlanta Community Food Bank.
Who are the Black 14? Individuals invested in a ‘legacy for the world’
The “Black 14” refers to the 14 Black football players who were kicked off the University of Wyoming’s 1969 football team on the eve of a game against Brigham Young University.
The 14 players were dismissed by their coach just for considering wearing black armbands during the BYU game to protest a Church of Jesus Christ policy that was later changed.
“At the time, Black men were not allowed priesthood ordination in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” the church’s recent news release states. That church policy was changed in June 1978, following a revelation received by church President Spencer W. Kimball.
The Black 14 have since reconciled with the University of Wyoming, BYU and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are now dedicated to helping those in need.
“We’re 14 individuals that may have had a bad thing happen to us, but we’re above that,” McGee said in the church’s recent news release. “Now, what we want to do is help as many people as we can. … We’re not worried about a legacy for us. We’re worried about a legacy for the world.”
The Black 14’s surviving members started the Black 14 Philanthropy in 2019 to help those in need, and the Church of Jesus Christ began collaborating with the Black 14 in 2020 to donate supplies to food banks nationwide.
“The grace of God is all over this,” John Griffin, a devout Catholic and the team’s star wide receiver, said in 2020.
“If we didn’t have that grace in play, this probably never would have happened.”
Read more about the Black 14 and their reconciliation and partnership with the Church of Jesus Christ here.
The anticipated impact of the Atlanta food donation
The food items recently donated to the Atlanta Community Food Bank included nonperishables such as applesauce, beans, macaroni and rice. They are expected to provide “much-needed” assistance to the metro Atlanta area, per the church’s news release.
“We’re serving 70% more people today than we did four years ago,” Waide, the food bank’s president and CEO, said.
“Inflation has just caused lines to get longer at food pantries all across our community, and so we need every bit of support we can get to meet that demand. The donation today is going to help us get more food to the people who need it, and it couldn’t come at a more important time.”
The Atlanta Community Food Bank works with 700 partner agencies to serve 29 counties.
LaShawn Quinn, a representative of the Southeast Gwinnett County Cooperative Ministry, shared that the donation will “definitely impact our families not just today but for a while.”
“We are a ministry first (that) happens to be a food pantry, and this is how we show love to people,” she said. “Our clients are not just clients who come to get food; they come to be loved on.”
The recent donation marks the second time the Black 14 and Church of Jesus Christ have collaborated with the College Football Hall of Fame to donate to the Atlanta Community Food Bank.
Of the collaboration, Denis Crawford, a historian and exhibit designer at the College Football Hall of Fame, said he is inspired by the Black 14 and their desire to work with the Church of Jesus Christ to “attack the problem of food inequality head-on.”
“We’re just honored to play a small part in helping perpetuate that here in town,” he said. “It’s an honor and a privilege, really, because as one organization by itself, the Hall of Fame can only do so much. But the Hall of Fame, in combination with the Black 14 and (the church), we’ve been able to bring tens of thousands of pounds of food to the community, and that means a great deal to us.”
In February 2024, the Black 14 donated 40,000 pounds of supplies to the food bank, according to the church’s release.
This donation coincided with a Black History Month event at the Hall of Fame featuring a display honoring the Black 14 and screenings of a short documentary about the Black 14 produced by students in the BYU journalism program.
