Chris Duhon’s Stand Tall Foundation and Feed the Children teamed up to distribute food to families in need Thursday at Fritchie Park.

The Stand Tall Foundation bought the food from Feed the Children, and Feed the Children delivered it to the park. Also, the Stand Tall Foundation bought turkeys for the event. Each family received a turkey, a box of non-perishable food items, a box of personal items like toothbrushes and Avon donated a box of goods.

Duhon is a 2000 Salmen High graduate and currently plays for the New York Knicks. He was unable to attend the event because of his duties with the Knicks. His mother Vivian Harper talked about the distribution.

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“This our second year coming out. We did it a couple years ago at Possum Hollow Park,” Harper said. “One of our missions for the foundation is to feed the children.”

Harper said the families that had got the food had to pre-register.

“Every family (had) to have a ticket,” she said. “The tickets were distributed through the boys-and-girls’ clubs, a couple of churches and a couple of the schools. We contacted the schools and the churches and asked them to help us identify families that were in need. They gave us the list of them and we sent them a ticket to come and grab the food.”

Also the Stand Tall Foundation announced on Nov. 1 they have started a scholarship fund. Harper said it’s for all children in the St. Tammany Parish public schools.

“We’re going to award five $5,000 scholarships,” Harper said. “It’s for any kid that qualifies.”

Harper said some of the things they will look at are grade point average, community service efforts and they have to go to a four-year school.

The deadline to apply is March 31 and it’ll be awarded in May. Students can contact each school’s guidance counselor for the application.

Some of the volunteers for Thursday’s event included students from local high schools. The hours they put in Thursday can be used for the scholarship fund.