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Sixers’ Josh Richardson, Lineage Logistics team up to provide 500,000 meals

“I am blessed to be able to provide support during this unprecedented time,” Richardson said.

The Sixers' Josh Richardson is stepping up to help the community amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The Sixers' Josh Richardson is stepping up to help the community amid the coronavirus pandemic.Read moreTIM TAI / Staff Photographer

Josh Richardson is one of the latest 76ers to make a donation amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The shooting guard has teamed up with Lineage Logistics to provide 500,000 meals to families in need in support of Lineage’s “Share a Meal” campaign. The company provides temperature-controlled food logistics. The donation was made through Feeding America to support Philly-based food bank, Philabundance.

“I am blessed to be able to provide support during this unprecedented time,” Richardson said in a statement released Friday. "The city of Philadelphia, the people and the community have welcomed me with open arms and I will continue to do whatever I can to help as we get through this together.”

Lineage president and CEO Greg Lehmkuhl spoke about the challenges of moving, storing and distributing food on a large scale amid the pandemic.

“At Lineage, we’ve built a business dedicated to shepherding food all over the world, and that experience puts us in a unique position to help overcome these challenges," he said. "We’re thrilled to partner with Josh Richardson on our Share a Meal campaign and to provide meals to families facing hunger in the Greater Philadelphia area.”

Around 26 million people have filed for unemployment benefits in the past five weeks. More than 4.4 million applied for jobless aid last week.

Globally, there have been around 2,736,900 COVID-19 cases and 196,000 deaths. There have been around 911,000 confirmed cases and 50,000 deaths in the United States.

The NBA’s regular season was suspended March 11 after Utah’s Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19. Commissioner Adam Silver announced the next day that play would be halted for at least 30 days.

The new expectation is the NBA might not resume until July, if at all. Silver told TNT on April 7 that the league won’t have enough information to make a decision until May at the earliest. Last Friday, he said there’s no cutoff date in regards to canceling the reason and returning on preparing for the 2020-21 campaign.

But the league and the National Basketball Players Association agreed to reduce players’ salaries beginning with their May 15 paycheck in the event of permanently canceling the season. While Silver won’t give a timeline, there’s a sense the league could know by June if and how many games will be canceled.