Former Tennessee basketball guard Jahmai Mashack does not get many days off, particularly as the beginning of his second NBA season with the Memphis Grizzlies approaches. However he selected to spend considered one of his uncommon free weekends in Knoxville, volunteering for the Second Harvest Meals Financial institution of East Tennessee.
Mashack spent Aug. 29 following the meals donation course of work in its entirety. He handed out recent meals to native households and signed autographs and took photos with followers within the morning. Then he traveled to a farm partnered with Second Harvest to assist produce the meals that goes to these going through starvation in Tennessee.
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“Starvation does not actually have a face, however it may be any person that is your neighbor, it may be any person that , it may be any person’s youngsters that ,” Mashack stated. “And I feel studying this course of and studying how (Second Harvest goes) about issues was essential for me.”
Mashack was a three-year starter for the Vols who was drafted by the Houston Rockets in 2025.
He spent the morning at Girls of Charity, a company situated in north Knoxville that donates meals, private care gadgets and different provides. Alongside greater than 20 volunteers, Mashack handed out recent produce like corn, tomatoes and watermelon from native farms, then went to Hickory Nook Farm in Speedwell, Tennessee.
He realized about Second Harvest’s “Harvesting Hope” program, which helps farmers in East Tennessee by shopping for immediately from them and distributing it to hungry individuals in the neighborhood. Harvesting Hope attracts from greater than 50 farms throughout 18 Tennessee counties.
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“I am able to see it, see the way it all works out,” Mashack stated. “I feel for me, I used to be focused on the entire course of behind it and what goes into every part like this. And actually, it is an opportunity to study one thing new, so I am excited for that.”
Charity has been part of Mashack’s life since he was rising up in southern California. Mashack remembers the Christmas mornings when his mom, Meika, would convey the household out to assist feed individuals of their group.
Shortly after he arrived at UT in 2021, Mashack started donating his cash to Second Harvest. He most well-liked to maintain his charity work quiet, however Second Harvest CEO Rachael Ellis needed him out in Knoxville, assembly the individuals he was serving to.
“Jahmai is so type, so beneficiant. He is additionally extraordinarily humble. And it took some time for me to get him to return out and let individuals see that he’s that beneficiant,” she instructed Knox Information.
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Mashack visited the Second Harvest facility in Maryville for the primary time in 2022 and ever since, he is helped in occasions that serve Second Harvests’ mission of addressing meals insecurity in East Tennessee.
“It is a totally different expertise if you find yourself in there passing it out to individuals, if you’re assembly the individuals which can be wanting for these provides … and also you’re attending to know their personalities, you are seeing these smiles. I feel it impacts you otherwise,” Mashack stated. “For me personally, I really feel prefer it was essential for me to be out right here.”
Mashack additionally took photographs relived his profession at UT with Vols followers.
Mashack is on a two-way contract with the Grizzlies and battling to make the NBA roster full-time.
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“I do not see it as a transaction of simply 4 years. It is for a lifetime,” Mashack stated. “And I feel it is essential for me to present again to the crew, get again to the group and actually, simply give again to the relationships that I constructed.”
Stephen Thompson covers Tennessee Volunteers males’s basketball. E mail him at stephen.thompson@knoxnews.com and observe him on X @stephenethom.
This text initially appeared on Knoxville Information Sentinel: Why former Tennessee basketball guard Jahmai Mashack was again in Knoxville
