Rishan Patel 

What do burgers and sports equity have in common?

First, let’s talk about youth sports. Participation is on the decline in low-income families, largely due to the cost of equipment. That in and of itself is an issue but now compound that with a recent study that drew a direct positive correlation between playing sports and academic performance. Middle and high schoolers that played sports had higher grades – up to 9% higher! That’s the difference between passing a class and not passing and maybe even going to college or not. The evidence is clear - youth sports are immensely important (and joyful!) and we must work to increase access and equity.

Now, back to burgers. While recently watching “The Founder” the innate entrepreneur in me was soaking in how McDonald’s grew from a single location to serving over 300 billion burgers! As I internalized how implementing standard procedures and supplies led to increased output, I had the proverbial “lightbulb moment.” While one-off projects through my non-profit were helping more kids play sports, I had a nagging doubt that we might not be able to scale further.

So, I found the answer in burgers. Specifically, in modeling Alley-Oop Kids after the world’s biggest burger franchise. Alley-Oop Kids would be the “franchisor” and students would be “franchisees” who didn’t sell burgers but, instead, would make sports equity a reality.

“Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people...” Personally having been lucky enough to experience the life-changing joy of playing sports since I can recall, these words from Nelson Mandela ring true and are a reminder of why sports equity is critical.

The Lending Locker tackles two important issues. First, the lockers systematically and effectively help communities reuse sports gear (that is often wasting away in garages) to increase access to sports – while reducing landfill. Addressing the prohibitive costs of sports equipment in a scalable and systematic way will help increase playtime which has been shown to increase academic performance among other intangible benefits. It’s important that there’s a standard process that’s scalable and sustainable in contrast to the one-off gear drives and donations that don’t have a lasting and continual impact.

Second, the Lending Locker empowers students from all backgrounds to learn how to run a business, hopefully inspiring them to see how they can use entrepreneurship to accomplish personal goals and help their community. There are not many opportunities for youth to be business leaders, especially not social entrepreneurs. This can be a model for how we might empower a new generation who will use business for social good.

The Lending Locker is a storage unit that is installed at an under-resourced school by a Locker Captain (student “franchisee”). Here’s how it works:

• Alley-Oop Kids partners with under-resourced schools that need a locker. We are currently partnered with KIPP, Summit, and Aspire Schools.
• Alley-Oop Kids recruits student captains and pairs them with partner schools.
• An explainer video is used to recruit captains and partner schools!
• Alley-Oop Kids provides the following standard supplies to captains:
  • a locker,
  • signage, and
  • a donation bin.
  We hold an annual 3-point contest fundraiser to fund all of these supplies.
• Captains wholly own the relationship with their partner school.
• Captains lead communication with their partner school to finalize locker installation logistics and type of gear the school needs based on grades served and sports programs offered.
• Captains install lockers and fill them with gear for schools to lend and give to their students. Captains meet and greet the excited students at this point!
• Captains maintain a year-round supply of equipment in lockers through sports gear donation drives in their community at least twice a year. Alley-Oop Kids can supply additional gear, if needed, through our partnership with Good Sports.
• Captains communicate with partner schools at least every 3 months to see if a refill/clean-up is needed.

Endorsed by Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas, my non profit, Alley-Oop Kids , has a track record of impacting kids positively. I am leveraging what I’ve learned and partnerships I've forged over the years to pivot from single projects to make a more lasting and sustainable impact through the Lending Locker’s systematic approach to increasing sports equity.

Our pilot program of five lockers is complete (including one in India), and has allowed us to really see how it’s working in action, evaluate its feasibility, and to make adjustments and improvements. The ball is now rolling with additional 10 partner schools and captains ready to go! By following our standard procedures, continuing to generate partner leads, and holding our annual 3-point shootout fundraiser in the spring, I envision installing 50 Lending Lockers world-wide by the end of 2023 and 100 by the end of 2024.

Saniyah (13) and Sai (10) are siblings who love sports, love to dance, and love to play board games together. You would never know they have been surrounded by drug dealers and prostitutes their entire lives. That’s what comes with living in a motel that your family runs in one of the poorest parts of Oakland. You would never know it because they have a loving family who instills in them the importance of community, education, and of giving back. Saniyah and Sai are not recipients of the Lending Locker gear, they are captains. They are inspired by Alley-Oop Kids to become social entrepreneurs who want to tackle sports equity together by being Lending Locker Captains at Aspire Lionel Wilson College Preparatory Academy in Oakland. They are empowered to give to their community in a way that’s meaningful and enriching.

My sincere hope is that we inspire more social entrepreneurs from all backgrounds, including the underserved schools we partner with.