The fight against the coronavirus pandemic has been challenging for all of us, but it has been most challenging for those suffering from the illness and those working on the frontline.
“It just makes me realize we’re all going through a lot of the same things, but my wife and I are so fortunate with the lives that we live and me being able to play football and to get paid to do something that I absolutely love doing,” said San Francisco 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk. “We live a great life and we’d like to be able to help other people that are sacrificing for us to give us that opportunity to stay healthy and live such a good life.”
Juszczyk and his wife Kristin did just that, teaming up with Meals 4 Heroes to donate a week’s worth of meals to frontline workers in New York City.
“This is the first off-season that my wife and I are away from the facility and we bought a house out in Long Island,” Juszczyk said. “I wanted to get involved with something close to our new home. Just kind of as an introductory to the community. With everything that’s going on with COVID-19, I wanted to help the people that are on the front lines, help all the people that are working in the hospitals. They have much longer hours now and Meals for Heroes has the local restaurants provide meals for those people on the front lines, so I wanted to be a part of that.”
Before that, Juszczyk worked with SAP on a Virtual Take Your Child to Work Day.
“SAP was teaming up with our coordinators, EDU, and they were promoting the Virtual Take Your Child to Work Day,” Juszczyk said. “I got to talk with [Director of 49ers EDU and the 49ers Museum] Jesse Lovejoy about just all the different things that 49ers EDU does and all the cool fun, engaging ways that they use football to teach math and engineering and all sorts of different things.”
My wife and I were inspired by SAP’s generosity, so we decided to partner with @meals4heroes to donate a week's worth of meals from local NYC restaurants to feed frontline workers fighting COVID-19. Thank you for all your hard work and sacrifice to keep us safe! pic.twitter.com/hgQvhrgE0C
— Kyle Juszczyk (@JuiceCheck44) April 29, 2020
The Juszczyks have also added a member to the family in the form of their puppy, Mozzarella, which is a big deal, as Juszczyk has not always been into dogs.
“I always grew up as a cat guy,” Juszczyk said. “I had a cat since when I was five to 23. My rookie year, she came to Baltimore with me as a single guy living with my 17-year-old cat.”
At this interview began, Juszczyk was on YouTube checking out videos on how to train his new pup. Dogs have that effect.
“My wife showed me some pictures of these Samoyed dogs and just instantly I fell in love,” Juszczyk said. “I just thought they were the cutest things ever, which is very odd for me…I have never been into dogs before. We started seeing a bunch of them around Santana Row and every time we would see one we go chase after the owner and say, ‘Can we please pet your dog?’ and just ask a million questions. We absolutely fell in love. Then with the quarantine, we thought we had so much time that this would be the perfect time to train and get to spend time with my puppy, and this is the longest time that I’ve ever been really in one spot where I’m not going from coast to coast. Just everything worked out perfectly that we got her now.”