Olympic medalist and Gator alumnus Ryan Lochte traded in his swimmer’s cap for a hairnet to serve meals at Grace Marketplace Wednesday morning.
Between his Olympic practices, he volunteered at Grace Marketplace’s Cafe 131, located at 3055 NE 28th Ave., as part of his recent partnership with the company Piñata, a rent membership payment service where users can log in, pay their monthly rent and get rewards such as free coffee, said Piñata President Dimitri Falk. He said he partnered with Grace Marketplace, so in the future, it will buy a homeless person’s meal every time people pay rent.
Lochte moved back to Gainesville from Los Angeles with his wife and two children to prepare for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, he said.
“If I want to get another shot at the Olympics, I gotta go back to where my swimming career started, and it was here at the University of Florida,” Lochte said.
However, training more than 25 hours a week doesn’t discourage Lochte from giving back to the community.
Lochte is feeding the homeless to celebrate this partnership. Piñata will track the number of people who pay its rent through the app on their website and donate meals to Grace on a monthly basis, said Justis Mendez, the business developer for Piñata.
Lochte plans to return back to Grace to volunteer while he is in Gainesville and said that this opportunity he had to interact with the homeless and see them smile was fun and rewarding. He said he will show his 2-year-old son the pictures when he gets older so he can learn to give back to the community.
Despite Lochte’s scandal at the last Olympics in Rio, the company thought he was the perfect person to represent the idea of unlocking your truest potential and becoming the best you can be, Mendez said.
Jon DeCarmine, the executive director for Grace, said he is excited to partner up with Piñata and work with them to end homelessness.
Piñata’s partnership with Grace is long-term, and its goal is to help the homeless find temporary work and teach them computer skills, Mendez said.
“Anything that might help inspire other folks to come out to be a part of the solution is valuable to us,” DeCarmine said.
Contact Valentina Botero at vbotero@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter @lvbotero_.
Ryan Lochte, 12-time Olympic medalist and American competitive swimmer, serves food at Grace Marketplace, a homeless resource center in Gainesville, Wednesday morning.
Ryan Lochte, 12-time Olympic medalist and American competitive swimmer, serves food at Grace Marketplace, a homeless resource center in Gainesville, Wednesday morning.
