After suffering a setback on the road in Boston over the weekend, the first place New York Yankees and manager Aaron Boone were hungry to return to the Bronx.
Inspired by that famished sentiment, the skipper spent his Tuesday, July 30 handing out free meals to kids in the south Bronx at the Mullaly Park Pool next to Yankee Stadium on River Avenue.
Along with a refreshing meal on a scorching summer’s day, those children lucky enough to meet and greet with Boone also received two vouchers for Yankees tickets at a later date.
“It means the world to me that I could walk over from work for a little while and share the summer with you,” Boone said in a shaded pavilion next to the park’s shallow pool.
“I look out there and see a future shortstop or maybe a second baseman or even centerfielder out there,” the manager playfully noted in a mock prospect search.
Although, after an uneventful trade deadline for the Bombers perhaps the manager should have been scouting for some bullpen support as well.
Bronx Parks Commissioner Iris Rodriguez Rosa joined Boone in explaining to the borough’s youth how important it is to access a nutritious meal.
She along with Councilwoman Vanessa Gibson explained that the Bronx has about 80 free meal sites for children 18 and under to make use of.
The program is a partnership with Hunger Free America and American Dairy to bring free, healthy meals to not only the Bronx but also New York City as a whole.
“To see some of the kids in the community that are taken advantage of get a free nutritious meal that’s so important to their development…not only physically but mentally,” Boone said.
In addition to the food and ticket vouchers, a signed jersey from the Yankee manager was distributed during the meal sharing as well.
“Hopefully that’s just an added bonus to what today can be about,” Boone added.
For the rest of August, the Yankees will be offering up free meals and ticket vouchers to a starting lineup of Bronx kids at pools around the borough.
First at Van Courtlandt Pool on Tuesday, August 6, followed by Mapes Pool on Tuesday, August 13, then Crotona Pool on Tuesday, August 20 with a stop at the Morris Houses on Tuesday, August 27.
