Terrence J Partners With Maytag to Donate Fully Stocked Fridges to Boys & Girls Club of America
Access to healthy food continues to be an issue for millions of families. Studies show that food insecurity became more widespread during the pandemic with 27.5 percent of households with children battling the issue.
To help combat issues of food insecurity among children, Academy Award-winning producer, actor, TV host Terrence J has partnered with Maytag® to launch the Feel Good Fridge initiative in collaboration with Boys and Girls Clubs of America (BGCA).
As a BGCA alum, Terrence J is passionate about helping current Club kids enjoy healthy meals when together and gaining better understandings of what a healthy diet consists of.
By placing Maytag® refrigerators in select BGCA Clubs in underserved communities across the country, the Maytag® Feel Good Fridge program will help provide dependable access to healthy food for Club kids and their families.
“Being hungry, when you’re out to school is something that is very alarming. You don’t know where the next meal is gonna come from,” Terrence told BLACK ENTERPRISE.
“To join forces with a brand like Maytag, on a program like this is very near and dear to my heart, the Boys and Girls Club means everything to me, we’re going to launch these fridges out, make sure that they have the right food in them. And I’m just so excited to go on this journey and get the word out on it.”
Terrence J’s recent advocacy work for fighting food insecurity includes working with HBCUs around the country to get healthier foods and habits to students.
“I bounced around as a kid a lot. And there were certain clubs that you went through that needed more resources,” Terrence J recalled. “I remember those refrigerators were broken. And if that icebox was broken, that water was warm, you’re playing basketball, there’s no snacks, you just eat in processed food like chips or something like that, that has a direct impact on your health and your well-being.”
The HBCU alum also has an interest in reversing the “misinformation” that was passed down from earlier generations.
“When I was growing up, you remember the food chart that said drink milk every day. We’re not supposed to be drinking milk every day, you know, I’m lactose intolerant,” Terrence jokingly said. “So, the misinformation, and the information that we have now, we have to make sure that the young people in the next generation don’t have the same problems that we had.”
As part of the Maytag® Feel Good Fridge program, refrigerators fully stocked with healthy food for Club members will be donated to select BGCA Clubs across the country. So far, clubs in Los Angeles, New York, Detroit, and Grand Rapids were the first to receive Feel Good Fridges and Maytag plans to place an additional twenty Feel Good Fridges in Clubs around the country by early 2022.
The host and executive producer also teased his upcoming film “Fear” coming Valentine’s Day weekend and how it eerily resembles the current health crisis the world is experiencing. Watch the full interview with Terrence J HERE.