NYU’s graduate and undergraduate Sports Business Societies raised hundreds of dollars for food insecure New Yorkers on Friday after transforming the Palladium Athletic Facility’s basketball court for the Goalsgiving Cup, a 5v5 charity futsal tournament that helps fund The Bowery Mission’s Thanksgiving food drive.

The students overshot their $200 goal, raising more than $550 and funding over 150 meals for the food bank. Each player paid a $10.50 entry fee — the equivalent of three Thanksgiving meals for those in need — entering as a free agent or with a team to contribute to the cause. 

“At its core, the event was about uniting our community, celebrating togetherness and using sports as a vessel to give back to the larger community in lieu of the SNAP benefits being retracted,” Luke Cheung, president of the undergraduate Sports Business Society, told WSN. 

Around 1.8 million New Yorkers lost their SNAP benefits on Nov. 1 due to the government shutdown, exacerbating food insecurity for 20% of the city’s population. Though the benefits have since been restored, many are still at risk of losing them permanently due to the Trump administration’s budget cuts. 

Ahead of Thanksgiving, students from the Sports Business Societies sought to offer relief for their food-insecure neighbors. Cheung told WSN that when picking which charity to support, The Bowery Mission was an easy choice.

Twenty-eight players showed up for the festive tournament, before dividing into five teams to compete for prizes. The groups fought for JomBoy Media “Go New York” tees, Sweetfeet NYC socks as well as tickets and on-field passes to Brooklyn Women’s Football Club matches.

“We want people to engage with the community in a way that’s meaningful and service-oriented,” Cheung said. “Sport is a uniting force that helps bring people together to create meaningful things like this event and create meaningful impact on others as well.”

Over 35 students, professors and even the dean of NYU’s School of Professional Studies helped arrange the tournament — all hoping to give back to the university’s surrounding communities, with The Bowery Mission’s Tribeca location within minutes of Lafayette Hall. A few of NYU’s varsity athletes got in on the action as well.

Cheung said that spring semester’s events will include a broader range of sports such as dodgeball, softball, baseball and basketball. But for this year, organizers landed on futsal, small-sided soccer on a hard court, citing that they wanted to maximize attendance and that “soccer is the game of the world.”

“We wanted to create an environment where peers, friends and organizations who might not normally cross paths could connect over something positive, build new relationships and rally around a shared cause,” Cheung said.

Contact Jenny Qian at [email protected].