Coyotes, Tempe Diablos & United Food Bank Team Up to 'Feed the Need'

There are plenty of things to worry about as the holiday season gears up, but for hundreds of families in need in Tempe, Thanksgiving dinner won't be one of them.
The Tempe Diablos partnered with the Arizona Coyotes, Tempe Elementary School District, and United Food Bank to host their 'Feed the Need' food drive at McClintock High School in Tempe, Ariz. on Saturday. The event provided 300 families with Thanksgiving meal baskets that included green beans, corn, stuffing, and - of course - a generously sized turkey.
Recipients were selected after the school district administration worked with principals and counselors in each of the district's 26 elementary schools to identify those most in need. From there, the Diablos partnered with the Coyotes and United Food Bank to fill boxes to the brim with all of the time-honored fixings that families have grown to love around the holiday season.

Rob Personale, Chairman of the Outreach Committee for the Tempe Diablos, said the food drive morphed from a fundraiser the past two years to the drive-thru event that was held on Saturday morning.

The end result is one that will likely make it a memorable Thanksgiving holiday for hundreds of families in Tempe.
"Thanksgiving is all about getting together, having family around the dinner table, watching football, and what better way to impact the community?" Personale said. "You think about our mission about Tempe Diablos is to promote and to give back to the community of Tempe. What better way?"
To help out, the Coyotes held a food drive within their front office - and also before their game against the Dallas Stars on Nov. 3 - and ended up raising hundreds of pounds of food that will be housed and distributed to families in need throughout the holiday season.
The team's mascot, Howler, was also in attendance to help load cars on Saturday.

Coyotes Chief Impact Officer and Executive Director of Foundation and Community Impact, Nadia Rivera, said partnering with the Diablos gives both organizations the opportunity to multiply their respective impacts within the community.
"The Diablos, they're so incredibly important in our community, and they bridge businesses, they bridge business leaders and the community, and they bring along other organizations like ours, where our missions align. Supporting each other can really augment our contributions to the community," Rivera said. "That's what this is about. This was about two like-minded organizations, both committed to the community here in Tempe, and coming together to do something impactful because we can do more together."
The partnership between the team and the Diablos for the event has been months in the making, and Nick Staloch, the Coyotes' Senior Coordinator of Foundation and Community Impact, said the response from both the team and the community was inspirational.
"We had a great turnout, one of the best drives we've done from a staff perspective, and that food is going to some deserving families this holiday season," Staloch said. "The food is going to go to the families at a time of great need around the holidays."
Personale said the impact of the Diablos' event will even be felt beyond those who received their dinners on Saturday, considering how many families get together for the holiday itself.

This is also not the first time the Diablos and the Coyotes have teamed up.
The charitable organization, which was founded in 1968, hosts multiple fundraising events that benefit the Tempe community throughout the year, including its 'Excellence in Education' program. That initiative offers $2,000-per-year scholarships to 30 new students each year at Arizona State University, and also honors some of the best teachers in the district.
"Last year, the Coyotes were very gracious and sponsored one of our teacher awards," Personale said. "It's all about giving back, and the Coyotes are great at that too. It's all about community."
Rivera agreed.
"Now you see that this event spanned in so many directions beyond the people you see here, and that's the really cool part about these kinds of partnerships," she said. "Seeing the families drive through here today, and seeing Howler, it just brings it all together.
"It's really nice to be able to contribute to them having a wonderful holiday that's hopefully a little more stress free now."