Television personality and fitness and wellness advocate Laila Ali has placed her focus on giving back to the community.
The retired professional boxer teamed up with Feeding America to donate spices to the community during a recent Volunteer Day. According to an interview with Black Girl Nerds, Ali shared her involvement with the organization. She donated hundreds of her nutritious and balanced organic spice blends as part of her efforts to uplift the community.
“With my name and likeness, there
are opportunities to get involved with different organizations. But I get involved with the ones that are most natural for me and I feel connected to,” she said. “I’m looking at families that may not have been struggling last year but are struggling this year, and it really inspired me — now that I’ve relocated to Georgia — to connect with some of the food pantries. I wanted to donate some of my spice blends, and they just made it happen. They hadn’t had spices specifically for a long time, so everyone was very appreciative.”Ali’s six spice blends include the Garlic Goddess Seasoning, G.O.A.T. Seasoning Blend, Sassy Seasoning, Soulful Seasoning Salt, Spicy Pepper Blend, and a Perfect Taco Seasoning Blend.
Ali holds anything pertaining to kids and kids’ suffering dear to her heart, so she is always connected to organizations such as Feeding America, which has provided service to nearly 50 million needy people across the U.S. through its network of 58,000 pantries, meal service programs, and other resources.
“We all know that there are people that need assistance; I’ve known that since I was a child. But I was astonished at the number of families here in our country that need help,” Ali said. “Feeding America estimates that at least one in five people turned to charitable food assistance in the United States in 2020,” which Ali noted is a 50 percent increase from the previous year. “The numbers keep rising. This is something that is sad to see, especially with so much waste that we all have,” she added.
At one point, Ali was unaware of such statistics until she connected with Feeding America to help spread awareness. “I think a lot of times people just don’t realize how many people need help. If we all chip in, more people can be fed. We can also have gratitude for what we have and stop wasting as much as we do,” Ali shared.