CINCINNATI — The Joe Burrow Foundation is already taking aim at hunger and mental health issues across southern Ohio, as its first recipients are seeing the impact of the Cincinnati Bengals' star's support.
The foundation, which launched in early October, is working to meet the needs of families working to overcome food insecurity and mental illness across Ohio and Louisiana, the two states that helped shape his football career.
What You Need To Know
- The Joe Burrow Foundation aims to help families overcome food insecurity and childhood mental health issues
- The foundation has boards working in Ohio and Louisiana
- La Soupe, a food-rescue initiative, is one of its first recipients
- The kitchen will get $50,000 to help with its mission of transforming rescued food into meals for those in need
The quarterback’s parents, Jimmy and Robin Burrow, are serving as the foundation’s vice presidents.
“We feel great to have this opportunity to help families across the country,” Jimmy Burrow said.
Earlier this month, the foundation made its first large-scale donation, helping 20 Cincinnati-area families cover their medical bills for children in mental health care. In the coming weeks, Burrow said the foundation will give $50,000 to the food-rescue kitchen, La Soupe.
“Joe wanted to make sure that he was able to give back to a place, to an area, to a state that’s (important) to Joe and to our family,” his father said.
Suzy DeYoung, La Soupe’s founder, said she’s been a Joe Burrow fan since his Heisman Trophy acceptance speech, in which he took time to highlight the issue of food insecurity in his home county, Athens.
“You could just feel his sincerity of wanting to help people and recognize that he’s now in a place to help people,” she said.
DeYoung said she’s humbled the foundation selected her nonprofit as one of its first recipients.
“This is like a dream come true for me not because he’s now a celebrity but because he’s another person who cares,” she said. “He’s building a team. We’re building a team.”
DeYoung started La Soupe in 2014, looking to create a way to take food that would otherwise go to waste and through the talent of experienced chefs, transform it into high-quality meals for those in need.
In the years since, it’s grown to serve thousands and is looking to help other kitchens across the state do the same.
“The governor put us to the task of growing our model across the state so we now have La Soupe Kitchen network,” she said.
The first partner kitchen is Dayton’s Miami Valley Meals, but DeYoung hopes soon they’ll grow to touch every corner of Ohio. And as that growth gets underway, an unexpected $50,000 windfall is a big help.
“We didn’t see this on our radar, (this) kind of money coming down,” DeYoung said. “We can really do a lot of good.”
The funding will go to La Soupe’s general operating budget, and while DeYoung said she doesn’t have a specific project in mind for the money, she’s looking forward to seeing how far it can go toward helping others.
“There will be a lot more receivers from his touchdown because of his generosity,” she said.