Family Love Foundation's 2024 Softball Tournament

When neighbors help neighbors, not just the stomach is fed — the soul is, too. The ninth annual Family Love Foundation softball game was a literal hit, and raised food donations for hungry people in Lakeview and Malverne.

The near decade-long tradition all started with a barbecue. Michael Walker, of Lakeview, organized an annual cookout and softball game for the neighborhood to enjoy. He then decided to make it into a charity.

“Just to help the community,” Walker said. “I came from poverty myself. So just to reach back and help others.”

One of the biggest obstacles that prevents hungry people from getting help is the stigma that surrounds struggle, Walker said. People don’t want to admit when they’ve been knocked down, and could use a helping hand to raise them back on their feet. That’s why Family Love Foundation always keeps their services anonymous.

“That’s one of the things that people won’t tell you, if a person is hungry” said Chris Tucker, who collaborated with Walker to organize the event and also regularly holds food drives of his own. “A lot of people deal with pride. And everybody isn’t raised the same way. So you have some people that may ask, but the majority of people won’t say that they’re hungry. So rather than make anybody uncomfortable, you just feed everybody.”

“A lot of people are ashamed, because they feel like that’s something small,” Walker said. “But to get a meal, I think that’s something really huge.”

The event raised around 60 cans of food, which are kept at the Power of Prayer Evangelical Ministries Church, and at Family Love Foundation members’ houses, if they have deep freezers to spare.

Walker has been organizing events like this for more than 25 years, and often collaborates with Tucker. Earlier this year they created the Family Love Foundation with the goal of expanding their events. The name came from the motto they’ve lived by for the past 25 years.

“Family and love is the foundation,” Tucker said. “So we try to govern ourselves that way — take care of the families, and just show love in the community.”

The event also serves as a reminder that, even if people move away, Lakeview will always be a home to them.

“It was done to just provide something healthy for the community to do,” Tucker said. “It also brings the community together. People come in from out of town, everyone comes back to the table.”

“We can get people together, because that’s what it’s really about,” Walker said. “And that’s what Family Love is about. That’s why I named it Family Love — because we all want to feel part of something. And the best structure, I think, is family.”