The Triton College women's basketball team gave approximately 250 Proviso Township residents something to be thankful for as the team partnered with the Hooper/Johnson (HoJo) Family Assistance Program to giveaway roughly $10,000 worth of food Nov. 30 at the Maywood Boys and Girls Club.

Led by Trojans head coach Marques Hatch and his staff, the team helped unload the truck, organize the food tables, hand out food, load food in vehicles and cleanup the room provided by Maywood Mayor Edwenna Perkins and the village once the giveaway was completed.

"There are so many people to thank for making this food giveaway possible and making it run so smoothly," Hatch said. "I appreciate the work of the Hooper/Johnson Family Assistance Program, Maywood Mayor Edwenna Perkins, Trustees Isiah Brandon and Kimyada Wellington, our women's basketball team, Randall McFarland and a host of generous volunteers who helped made this a success."

Hatch reached out to his high school basketball teammate at Proviso West Timothy Hooper, one of the co-founders of the HoJo Family Assistance Program, a non-for-profit organization based in Chicago about bringing a food giveaway to central Maywood which lacks a full-service grocery store.

The mission of the HoJo Family Assistance Program is: "To assist families in low income areas with the tools necessary to reach maximum potential. Through the use of resources, job placement, youth mentorship, and grocery assistance will be available to those in need."

"Being able to talk to residents about how grateful and thankful they were to have something like this brought to our community means everything to me." Hatch said.

Maywood Trustee and Triton College graduate Isiah Brandon echoed the same sentiments.

"It's great to see Triton so involved in our community," Brandon said. "What the women's basketball team has done to make sure that no one is forgotten during the holiday season and our residents have the necessities they need to make a basic meal for their families will have a lasting impact."

Hatch hopes the food giveaway will be something the team can do on an annual basis. But most importantly wanted his players to know how valuable giving back to the community can be.

"I wanted to show my players that donating time for a good cause is very important and the feeling of helping out a community in need is extremely rewarding," Hatch said. "Basketball is what we play. But succeeding in life is the ultimate goal."

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