True character is often on full display during the most challenging of times. As the sporting world has taken a pause from competition so the world can address the COVID-19 pandemic, true heroes have names like Fred and Anita Jones, Rob Wall, Erwin Brecher, Christine Dawson, Sheila Lopez and countless others.

These are the names of the heroes that deliver leftover food from the many hospitality units in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES.

On a typical racing weekend, these hospitality units are full of sponsors, guests, VIPs and team members. Breakfast, lunch and sometimes dinner are served to these guests prepared by talented chefs and their staffs.

When the green flag drops to start a race, another race begins as the hospitality workers gather the food that is leftover and careful package it in tinfoil containers with plastic wrap to preserve the food.

Another individual who provides the golf-carts for NBC Sports and its staff, comes by to pick up the leftover food and other items that will be donated to charity. IMS Productions has a refrigerated truck where the food is taken to keep it fresh.

In St. Petersburg, RCS Pinellas, Inc., a nonprofit providing help and hope, comes by to pick up the food and deliver it to such charities as St. Vincent De Paul and the Religious Community Services Food Bank.

This is all part of a charitable organization operated by Fred and Anita Jones of Arcadia, Florida known as “INDYCAR Cares for the Homeless.”

When Team Penske joined the Indy Racing League as a full-time competitor in 2002, Father Phil DeRea of the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. told Bob Hills, Chaplain of IRL Ministries, that this should be included in their program.

Jones worked with Hills in the IRL Ministries and handled the program through 2012. When Jones’ wife became ill, he stepped away in 2012. His wife passed away in 2016.

“At St. Petersburg in 2016, IndyCar Ministries decided they weren’t going to do it anymore,” Jones told NTT INDYCAR Mobile. “I got a call from a chef (Erwin Brecher of Andretti Autosport) asking me to come back.

“I came back and I’ve been doing it ever since.”

Typically, the food provided to the homeless is basic with canned vegetables and other donated products. But when INDYCAR is in town at various venues throughout the nation, they are treated to some high-end items such as beef tenderloin, pork tenderloin, fresh salmon, Mahi-Mahi and other items one would find on the menu of a high-end restaurant.

“Most of them call it ‘The Feast,’” Jones said. “That stuff isn’t even a day old, it’s so fresh. It’s a real blessing because the food that gets donated is so good.

“I can’t take credit for any of this, so I started a 501c3 called “Indy Cares About Homeless People.” Then, I could take contributions and go to somebody and tell them a story about it. I’m so glad and so happy and blessed because this is a great opportunity. I’ll do this every race.

“On a normal race weekend, it will be 3,500 pounds of food. At St. Pete, it was about 12,000 pounds. The people that received it gave me a guess and the chefs gave me a count of how much food they were going to prepare, and we came up with 12,000 (pounds). We had a race at St. Pete back in 2010 where the race got rained out and run on a Monday and we had 7,500 pounds of food.”

Because the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg was canceled because of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, chefs such as Brecher, Wall and others had a full stock of groceries. Many crewmembers had not prepared the first meal of the weekend.

“That was once in my whole career that this ever happened,” Brecher said. “We had to order everything at one time at St. Pete for delivering in and out because of the track situation. It was very, very unusual.

“I donated salmon, pork tenderloin and beef tri-tip. I also donated some Mahi, Mahi, some cheese and potatoes.”

Mike Zizzo, INDYCAR Vice President, Communications, and Jones provided the following statistics:

• As a result of cancellation of the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, the INDYCAR industry was able to donate thousands of pounds of perishable food to local Tampa/St. Petersburg organizations. It probably could not have come at a better time, given the continually developing coronavirus situation leading to limited food and supplies for the public across the country as well as a dearth of volunteers being available to help these food banks.

• The effort was led by the “Rescue Food” Ministry that is handled in the name of the INDYCAR Ministry by Fred Jones. The program dates to 2002 and the goal has been to take the leftover untouched foods from at-track hospitality units to donate to local community shelters and missions. Fred estimated they probably have fed more than one million people since starting the program.

• What made this situation more bountiful was the fact that the paddock had just arrived and was preparing for the tens of thousands of hospitality guests throughout the weekend. Possibly the largest donation since the program began.

• At St. Petersburg, Jones collected food from the hospitality areas of Andretti Autosport, Team Penske, Arrow McLaren SP, Rahal Letterman Lanigan, Honda, INDYCAR Paddock Club, Chip Ganassi Racing and IMS Productions/NBC. He usually collects around 3,500 pounds of food at an event, but since we didn’t have an event, they had six or seven 4x4 pallets of food that chefs and hospitality staffs had packed and packaged for the donation.

“There were thousands of pounds of food,” Anita Jones said. “One guy had a semi, a 28-foot truck, full of food.”

• In St. Pete, The Rescue Food Ministry usually donates the food to St. Vincent de Paul in St. Pete, which is not far from the track, but with the abundance of food, they couldn’t take all of it.

• The Salvation Army was contacted, and they worked with other organizations in the area to come to the track to collect food, including RCS Pinellas. RCS Pinellas is a full-service shelter with a mission “to support our neighbors facing hunger, homelessness, domestic violence, or a lack of basic needs.” They have distributed over six million pounds of food annually.

• Team Penske donated about 400 pounds of food. Andretti Autosport had prepared to feed over 400 people each day over the course of the weekend via our hospitality and crew meals. The food supply was roughly 1,200 meals and valued at approximately $8,000. Ganassi donated more than 300 meals. Rahal Letterman Lanigan donated approximately $5k of perishable food. They were expecting to feed more than 600 guests in addition to 40 team members for lunch for three days and two dinners.

• Example of the type of food donated from a single team (Arrow McLaren SP from their Club 5 hospitality): 50 pounds of grouper, 60 pounds of bacon, 40 pounds of grated cheese, 60 pounds of flank steak, 16 pounds of scallops, 40 gallons of bottled water, 45 dozen eggs, 100 pounds of potatoes, 8 cases of assorted fruit (melons, pineapples, cantaloupe), 20 dozen dinner rolls, 10 gallons of orange juice.

“We always visit these folks ahead of time to make sure they have a kitchen and don’t turn anybody away,” Jones said. “I like working with churches, because they can usually handle donations like this.

“We have fed over one million people in the last 18 years. When we first started, we had just a few teams. But once we got rolling and averaging 3,500 a race weekend, we started getting 65,000 pounds a year. This isn’t a buffet for them, it’s dipped out and given to them in portion controls so it will go a long way. The going rate at that time was $2.25, which the federal government figured could give a homeless person a meal.

“We charge them $0. All they have to do is pick it up. It’s the charity’s truck and their people. They have the responsibility of picking it up.”

Brecher is a talented chef from Innsbruck, Austria who now lives in the Seattle area. He started working for Chris Jurgensen more than 30 years ago and has prepared meals for Texaco, Ford, Mercedes-Benz, Ilmor and Andretti Autosport throughout the years.

His workday begins at the track between 1 a.m. to 4 a.m. if he is serving breakfast to the crew. He tries to have all of the major cooking items completed by 10 a.m. before the heat of the day arrives.

“It’s a good program because it makes life easier for us. We don’t have to throw it away and it’s really great that Anita and Fred do this program. That really helps that they pick up the food and organize the program. That is really awesome.”

For Jones, he is doing the work that benefits the needy, carrying on a tradition of service and charity that is the truest display of one’s character.

“This is just the leftover food,” Jones said. “They have to allow for more guests than they have. It’s always going to be there so it’s a great thing to help others.”