Miami Heat, Arisons make $3 million donation to World Central Kitchen
The Miami Heat and the Micky and Madeleine Arison Family Foundation have made a $3 million donation to World Central Kitchen in order to help expand the organization’s Restaurants for the People program in Miami.
WCK is a nonprofit organization founded in 2010 by chef José Andrés that uses the power of food to heal communities and strengthen economies in times of crisis and beyond. The organization’s COVID-19 pandemic relief efforts have provided over 33 million meals throughout the United States and Spain.
“As a member of the Board of the NBA Social Justice Coalition and through our Heat Social Justice Pledge, we have committed to support and encourage black entrepreneurship,” Heat managing general partner Micky Arison said in a statement issued Monday by the team. “So, we have partnered with WCK to source the food from black entrepreneurs, chefs, and restaurants.”
During the pandemic, WCK has activated thousands of restaurants and kitchens to feed marginalized and vulnerable communities and medical professionals on the front lines through its Restaurants for the People program.
The Heat said in a release that its partnership with WCK “is the next step in the team’s continuing effort to use their unique platform and standing in the community to deliver on their social justice pledge and effect positive change that uplifts the Black community.”
The team also said in the release that “the goal of this program is three-fold: to feed hungry people, to keep local restaurants and their teams open and working, with an emphasis on supporting Black employment in the restaurant industry, and to spur other organizations to donate to the cause as well.”
The Heat made a social justice pledge in June to donate to organizations that are working to eradicate racial inequality, support education initiatives that serve the Black community and help more Black students attend college, provide opportunities to Black students with its company mentoring and internship programs, support voter registration initiatives that make it easier for more people to vote, give all Heat staff paid time off on Election Day to vote, designate Juneteenth as a permanent paid holiday for employees of the organization and partner with Black-owned businesses in the community.
“The pandemic has underscored that food insecurity is a severe and an ongoing crisis,” Heat president of business operations Eric Woolworth said in a statement. “We know restaurants and their staffs are struggling, so, we strongly encourage them to get involved with World Central Kitchen’s Restaurants for the People network, which can help their businesses remain open, their workers employed and their communities fed.”
