Colin Kaepernick has made a $50,000 donation to Meals on Wheels, a program that delivers food to hungry seniors. The move has been seen by some as a direct insult to president Donald Trump, whose budget threatens to slash federal funding for the program.
As CBS Sports reports, Kaepernick made the donation , as well as another donation to a Somali aid group, earlier in the week after pledging to donate to charities and communities in need.
#ColinKaepernick Just Did a Lot More Than Take a Knee For #MealsOnWheels >> https://t.co/8wKUFKNeg2 << pic.twitter.com/QNyCtGzhpI
— James Reader (@JamesReader_RP) March 22, 2017
Although the Meals on Wheels donation is getting far more attention, Kaepernick also made a substantial donation to Love Army For Somalia, an aid group that is raising money to send food and water to the war-torn region.
Kaepernick, as you may know, has been one of the NFL’s more controversial figures this season, ever since photos emerged in the preseason of the then-49ers quarterback taking a knee during the national anthem.
Trump Takes Shot At Colin Kaepernick Over National Anthem Protests https://t.co/UYImOPfzTE pic.twitter.com/JXO4B9aqEZ
— Boston Informer (@boston_informer) March 21, 2017
As ESPN reported at the time, Kaepernick said he was doing so in protest of injustice and police brutality , particularly against minorities.
“At what point do we do something about it? At what point do we take a stand and as a people say this isn’t right? You have a badge, yes. You’re supposed to be protecting us, not murdering us, and that’s what the issue really is and we need to change that.”
Soon, Kaepernick’s protest extended to other NFL players, then to college and high school players, not just in football but in other sports as well. Kaepernick, for his part, was deeply vilified for his actions by some, as were other athletes who followed his lead. By season’s end, Kaepernick had been benched by his old team and then lost his job; he is now a free agent.
Donald Trump, for his part, credits himself for Kaepernick’s unemployment.
“But there was an article today, it was reported that NFL owners don’t want to pick him up because they don’t want to get a nasty tweet from Donald Trump. Do you believe that? I just saw that. I just saw that. I said if I remember that one I’m gonna report it to the people of the Kentucky. Because they like it when people actually stand for the American flag.”
Although what role Trump plays in the matter is debatable, it’s obvious to one NFL general manager, who spoke to CBS Sports on condition of anonymity, that Kaepernick is persona non grata in the NFL thanks to his national anthem stance.
“[NFL teams] genuinely hate him and can’t stand what he did.”
Meals on Wheels, the Arlington, Virginia-based charity that has delivered meals to hungry senior citizens since the 1950s, has been in the news this week after it emerged that Trump’s budget outline would cut federal funding for the program. Specifically, according to the San Jose Mercury News , the budget cuts $3 million from a Community Development Block Grant program within the Department of Housing and Urban Development, costing the program 3 percent of its funding.
That, of course, means claims that Trump’s budget is eliminating Meals on Wheels is exaggerated at best. Nevertheless, Fortune notes that in addition to Colin Kaepernick’s donation, Meals on Wheels has received a “surge” in donations ever since news of Trump’s budget cuts broke. Besides receiving 50 times what they would normally get in a day on the day after Trump’s budget was revealed, the charity also saw a 500 percent increase in volunteers signing up.
Do you believe Colin Kaepernick’s Meals on Wheels donation was a direct insult to Donald Trump?
[Featured Image by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images]
