THE WESTERN PROVINCE YEAR IN REVIEW GALLERY
"Together Assisting People" from Berkeley, California to Washington D.C.
M embers of the Berkeley (CA) Alumni Chapter, San Jose (CA) Alumni Chapter and the Bay area Partnered with Brother Chris Rogers, the Executive Director of Together Assisting People (TAP). TAP was founded over 10 years ago in response to the need for helping youth create a promising future. In addition to working directly with youth, TAP has been able to provide access to family meals during the holiday seasons, pro- vided healthy foods in food deserts, and contributed to environmental justice through planting trees in underprivi- leged communities. Furthermore, TAP has become a leader in COVID-19 relief through conduct- ing multi-state free food distribu- tions. Their work has been featured in multiple publications including the The Washington Post and The FOX 6. Kappa and TAP have provided over 1 million pounds of fresh produce to over 100,000 families in Oakland, CA, San Jose, CA, Baltimore, MD, Washington, D.C., and Montgomery and Birming- ham, AL. Each of these localities have been sig- nificantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, communities in these areas reported high numbers of positive cases, deaths related to COVID-19, and soaring unemployment rates. TAP used an innovative approach to ensure the safety of all volunteers and also ensure that impacted com- munities were provided a first-class experience.
Jackson (Seattle Seahawks), and Bobby Humphrey (Denver Broncos) contrib- uted their time to the distributions. The municipal government support was also critical--specifically, the City of Oakland, CA, the City of San Jose’s CA Mayor’s Office, the City of Birming- ham’s Mayor’s Office, the City of Balti- more’s Mayor’s Office, and the District of Columbia’s Mayor’s Office. It's because of progressive planning as well as the development partnerships like these that the impacts to the com- munities we serve have impacts that can be felt well into the future.
Support was garnered by Kappa Alpha Psi local chapters, notable NFL play- ers, local politicians, community advo- cates, and local high school and college football teams. The sacrifices of all volunteers did not go unnoticed and were pivotal to the achievement of these endeavors. Participating chapters included Berke- ley (CA) Alumni, Washington D.C. Alumni, Baltimore (MD) Alumni, and Birmingham (AL) Alumni. In addition, Mark Ingram (Baltimore Ravens), Quinnen Williams (New York Jets), Daron Payne (Washington Football Team), Andre Smith (Balti- more Ravens), Kendrick Bourne (San Francisco 49ers), Jimmy Moreland (Washington Football Team), Darrell
78 | SUMMER 2021 ♦ THE JOURNAL
VIRTUAL 85 TH GRAND CHAPTER MEETING
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