How Myles Turner’s $1 million pledge can fight food insecurity in D-FW

The shelves at Empowering the Masses’ food pantry on Samuell Boulevard in South Dallas are lined with the things families need but cannot always afford: fresh produce, pantry staples and the ingredients that can turn into dinner at home.

On Tuesday, families moved through the pantry choosing what they would take home. They were not handed a preassembled box. They were allowed to choose what they needed and wanted.

That distinction is important to Tammy Johnson, the organization’s founder and executive director. 

“It’s super important for the community to have a place where they can come and shop with dignity,” Johnson said. “With dignity and care and love and compassion.”

The building itself tells part of the story. The space was once a liquor store.

“We do not need any more liquor stores, but what we do need is people to have access to healthy, nutritious foods that they can feed to their families,” Johnson said.

Now, the building has become a lifeline for hundreds of North Texas residents. About 500 to 550 families come through this location each week, Johnson said. 

Empowering the Masses has operated since 2018 and has been at its South Dallas location since 2023. 

Families can shop Tuesday through Thursday from 10 a.m to 3 p.m., while drive-through distribution operates Saturday from 8 a.m to 10 a.m.

On Tuesday, the pantry also became the setting for a commitment that could help keep the doors open and the shelves stocked for years to come.

Myles Turner, the Bedford native and NBA star, announced a $1 million commitment to Empowering the Masses through his W.A.R.M. (Work As Role Models) Foundation. The commitment will be spread over 10 years, with $100,000 going to the organization each year.

Turner said the money is about more than feeding people today. It is about investing in an organization that is addressing why families struggle to put food on the table in the first place.

“I don’t ever turn my back on the people that helped me get to this point in my life,” Turner said.

Turner grew up in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and said food insecurity was never something he personally experienced as a child. His parents provided for him, and he never had to worry about where his next meal would come from. But he saw people in his community who did.

“No child or no family should have to wonder about where the next meal is going to come from,” Turner said.

When Turner entered the NBA with the Indiana Pacers, he made a promise to himself: He would give back to the community that had given him his start.

His first partnership with Empowering the Masses came in 2021, through an initiative called “Myles Turner: Penny for Your Thoughts.”

“I made a decade-long commitment of $1 million to continue to keep watching the program grow and keep feeding the ones in our community,” said Turner, who now plays for the Milwaukee Bucks.

The Euless Trinity High School graduate said Empowering the Masses stood out to him because its work goes beyond putting food in someone’s hands for a single day.

“What I love about Empowering the Masses is that they get into the root of the problem,” he said.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, food insecurity is the economic and social condition of having limited or uncertain access to enough safe, nutritious food for an active and healthy life.

That issue can be easy to overlook in a region like North Texas, which is often celebrated for its economic growth.

Johnson said North Texas ranks fourth in the nation in the number of individuals experiencing food insecurity. 

According to a North Texas Food Bank 2025 report, Texas faces a food insecurity rate of 17.6%, representing 5.4 million people — an increase of 9% since 2022. Children make up 31% of those affected.

Johnson said about half of those experiencing food insecurity in the D-FW area earn too much to qualify for SNAP benefits. That creates a gap.

She said that people can be working, earning an income and still struggle to pay for groceries after rent, transportation, child care and other necessities.

“I think it’s just the income gaps,” Johnson said. “People are not making enough money to make the ends meet.”

That is where the pantry comes in.

“It’s a blessing for me — for our community — to have a place where we can come and get what we need,” Alfonso Tippie, a South Dallas resident, said.

Accompanied by Turner, Tippie walked through every aisle of the pantry in South Dallas and selected what he would take home to keep himself nourished in a balanced, healthy way.

In his shopping cart, he placed a whole watermelon, a pineapple, bags of rice and beans, pre‑cooked vegetables, a family‑size box of Cheerios cereal, chicken, beef, and a few toiletries.

As he exited the store, he thanked Turner for his support.

“I appreciate everything you’re doing for us,” he said as he shook Turner’s hand.

Johnson doesn’t want the people who need help to feel as though they are being reduced to a statistic. She wants them to walk through the doors and feel like neighbors

The organization’s model allows them to select the food their families will actually eat — rather than simply receiving whatever has been packed into a box. For Turner, that approach is part of why the partnership matters.

His basketball career has taken him far beyond North Texas. He has played in some of the world’s biggest arenas and built a platform that reaches far beyond the basketball court, but he said he has never forgotten where that journey began.

“Basketball has taken me all around the world,” Turner said. “But I always find myself coming back to this community.”

He also understands the influence professional athletes can have on young people watching them.

Turner said many of the people who follow him most closely come from Black and brown communities like the one he grew up in.

That is why he created W.A.R.M., he said, to put role models on the ground and show young people what is possible.

“Even if you do make it, even if you do have all these material things, there are ways to give back to the community, the people that you come from,” Turner said.

Basketball, Turner said, can offer a few hours of escape. But the problems families face don’t disappear when the final buzzer sounds.

“Players are able to provide a distraction for a couple hours,” he said. “We play every other day, but there’s still a whole world that goes on outside of that.”

Turner wants to be part of that world. He wants his impact in North Texas to be measured by more than points, rebounds or games played. His latest commitment is designed to do exactly that.

“I want to make sure I’m a part of that world, to change,” Turner said. “Especially in our communities.”