House of Victory athletes across a handful of sports teamed up with the Dream Center in Echo Park over the past several weeks to impact thousands of local individuals in need. Through this series of NIL engagements, athletes helped prepare and serve lunch during the Dream Center’s meal service, assisted with the Dream Center’s Outdoor Pantry and brought smiles to the faces of so many who they interacted with. 

The Dream Center is a resource center focused on providing support to those affected by homelessness, hunger, and the lack of education through residential and community outreach programs.

“It’s a blessing, it's a wonderful feeling to give back to the community and see the smiles on their faces,” said junior safety Kamari Ramsey. “It’s just a different opportunity to bless people’s lives.” 

Ramsey is one of dozens of athletes across the Football, Men’s Basketball, Baseball and Beach Volleyball teams who served lunch in the Dream Center’s kitchen. Over the course of these meal periods, House of Victory athletes served more than 2,500 free lunches to those in need. Through its hot meal program, the Dream Center serves thousands of free meals every day across breakfast, lunch and dinner to anyone who needs them, including Dream Center residents, community members and local homeless individuals. 

“We just got done working here at the Dream Center, having fun serving lunch to about 500 people,” said sophomore defensive lineman Jah Jarrett. “We were able to work in an assembly line and get things done quickly.” 

Sometimes too quickly, as Dream Center staff reminded the athletes working the food service line: Don’t work too far ahead to make sure that everyone coming in gets the freshest lunch possible. Despite the reminders, there was always a competitive edge though, to see which group would be able to serve the most lunches throughout their shift. After all, these are world-class athletes.

Beyond the tangible impact of the number of meals served, the impact that these athletes had on the energy in the kitchen was special. Their presence made a noticeable impact. From dancing and high-fiving other volunteers in the kitchen and on the service line, to striking up conversations with those grabbing food and everything in between, kindness, laughter and smiles were also being served.

“We are so grateful for the 60-plus House of Victory athletes that have volunteered with the Dream Center over the past few weeks,” said Rylee Doyle, Dream Center’s Volunteer Coordinator. “These volunteers have served over 150 total hours with the Dream Center Kitchen, serving hundreds of meals in our soup-kitchen style environment, and with the Dream Center Outdoor Pantry, providing hundreds of families with free resources such as diapers, groceries, and hygiene supplies.”

In addition to lunch service, several Football athletes worked at the Outdoor Pantry, and over just two pantry shifts, supported more than 760 individuals who visited the pantry to receive much-needed supplies. The pantry provided a more relaxed environment for the athletes to connect with local community members and to assist in distributing a wide range of supplies: everything from personal hygiene kits, diapers, non perishable foods, reusable bags and more.

“Events like these provide a massive influx of volunteer labor to our nonprofit partners, but they also provide an incredible opportunity for our athletes to make a very specific and tangible impact on their local community,” said House of Victory Executive Director Spencer Harris. “We’ve loved getting to work with the Dream Center and seeing our athletes have such a great time with their teammates while participating in these NIL engagements.” 

The personal connections, the acts of service, all build up to be greater than the sum of their parts. House of Victory will continue to explore volunteer opportunities for athletes with the Dream Center and to support additional Dream Center resources and programming where help is needed. Given the fun that everyone had throughout these events, it’s safe to say the feeling is mutual. 

“We would love to have the House of Victory athletes return anytime to volunteer with us again at the Dream Center,” said Doyle.

For more information about events like this one, follow House of Victory on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X. If you’d like to make a charitable contribution to support the work of House of Victory student-athletes in the community at events like this, you can make a tax-deductible contribution here.