If you didn’t know any better, you might think that the Kansas City Chiefs lack a true Thanksgiving tradition. In all, the team has played just nine Thanksgiving Day contests. While they did play host to the first “primetime” Thanksgiving game, one would hardly confuse the Red and Gold with the NFL’s perennial Thanksgiving hosts, the Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions. Still, traditions come in all shapes and sizes… Especially traditions based on a spirit of giving.

While the organization isn’t quite as synonymous with Thanksgiving Day as the pilgrims are, that doesn’t mean that it is without a holiday custom all its own. As quick as you can say “pass the cranberry sauce,” the Chiefs have continued a long-standing outreach during this time of year. Thanks to the continuation of these strong, longstanding initiatives the organization continues its reputation as a pillar in the community during this time of year.

Just some of the hunger-relief initiatives that the Chiefs have already or will soon take place in includes:

• Chiefs players and wives once again hosted annual pot luck dinner for 60 families at the Ronald McDonald House.
• The Chiefs Women’s Organization, led by founder Lia Edwards, fed 300 people at the Cross-Lines Cooperative Council’s Food Kitchen.
• Chiefs players, coaches and staff set a record as they raised over $25,000 for the annual Chiefs Thanksgiving Food Drive. Partnering again with the Derrick Thomas/Neil Smith Third and Long Foundation, 1,000 families received a much-need holiday basket as a result.
• WR Devard Darling has donated more than $8,000 to provide 200 Thanksgiving baskets to families at Operation Breakthrough. Each basket included not only a turkey but all the holiday fixings as well.
• G Brian Waters will be feeding 500 people for Thanksgiving in conjunction with a local church. Waters has also provided a Thanksgiving meal for 60 individuals from the Willa Gill Center. Each urban-core child will receive a Chiefs hooded sweatshirt and stocking cap complements of the Brian Waters 54 Foundation.
• T Herb Taylor is providing Thanksgiving dinner to lower-income families from Graceland Elementary. These dinners will enable the families to have a content Thanksgiving holiday.
• The Kansas City Chiefs will again partner with Lift Up America for the 5th Annual Tyson Chicken distribution. Headed by LB Derrick Johnson, more than 30,000 lbs. of protein product will be donated this holiday to 40 agencies through Harvesters.
• TE Tony Gonzalez will once again provide a holiday dinner for 600 people at El Centro. The event has become an annual tradition that the entire Gonzalez family attends.

From all of us at the Chiefs to all you Chiefs fans everywhere, we wish you and yours and bountiful Thanksgiving Day!

-CHIEFS COMMUNITY CARING, JOIN OUR TEAM-