Men's Basketball Offers Helping Hands to Local Newark Community

The NJIT men's basketball team took off from its summer workout schedule and made a short trek within the Brick City to help two different entities provide service to those in need.

On July 27, seventh-year Head Coach Brian Kennedy took his whole staff and team down to the corner of Broadway and Third Ave. as each member of the program offered their assistance passing out lunch and toiletry items, working with both the City of Newark's Food Pantry Relief Drive and Scout and Scavenging.  

The Food Panty Relief Drive is spearheaded by Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and his Chief of Staff Amiri Baraka and has provided more than two million meals to those in need. Scout and Scavenging, which was started by New Jersey native and NBA scout Daniel Marks in 2020, challenges those in sports to collect unused hotel toiletries in season to donate to local community organizations. 

"I'd like to thank Coach Kennedy for bringing his entire team out to Wednesday's drive," said Marks. "It's great to see a coach not just pass his student-athletes a message that community service is important, but actually bring them down here to partake in the action."

Kennedy and several members of the NJIT men's basketball staff have offered their help to the drive in the past, but this marked the first, and definitely not the last, time the whole program took part in the efforts. 

"It's always a fun, loose atmosphere," added Marks. "It's also great to see different local programs that compete against each other on the court every winter join forces for a good cause."

For more information on Scout and Scavenging, and future opportunities to help, follow @ScoutScavenge on Twitter and Instagram.