Bucks donate $150K worth of food for those in need

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- The Milwaukee Bucks and Fiserv Forum are partnering with Feeding America and 30 local restaurants to feed thousands of people during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin picked up 10,000 pounds of food Thursday morning, May 21, that would have been used for Bucks' games. The Bucks are donating $150,000 worth of food for a two-week operation. 

In an ideal world, the Bucks would be racking up wins in the playoffs right now, but COVID-19 has halted that dream. 

"We’ve got all this excessive food that was going to be used for games, but now quite honestly it’s going to be used for an even better effort," said Bucks Senior Ice-President Alex Lasry. 

That effort is donating $150,000 worth of food to the community through Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin. 

“Making sure that folks have food on the table and they are able to continue working to provide resources to their family,” Rayna Andrews of Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin said.

Chef and Owner of "The Tandem" restaurant Caitlin Cullen, is leading the charge along with 30 restaurants. Cullen has already provided nearly 3,000 meals a week since the pandemic started. 

"We’ve been doing this based on the donations, private foundations from individuals and organizations and we have a current partnership with the World Health Kitchen,” Cullen said. 

The plan is to make four shipments of about 10,000 pounds of food each over the next two weeks.