Marcus and Tarah Semien Reach Out to East Bay Essential Workers

Oakland Athletics shortstop Marcus Semien and his wife, Tarah, provided lunch to medical workers, public workers and East Bay transportation personnel Friday. Reliever J.B. Wendelken and his wife did the same near their Georgia home.

Lunch courtesy of a member of the Oakland A’s roster is becoming something of a regular thing in these days of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic that has most of us sheltering in place while essential workers keep things moving.

A’s shortstop Marcus Semien and his wife, Tarah, provided hundreds of meals on Friday to employees at the Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland, Oakland Public Works, five divisions of AC Transit and BART.

At almost the same time, A's reliever J.B. Wendelken and his wife, Hailee, delivered a bunch of pizzas to the sheriff's department at Bulloch (Ga.) County near his Savannah home. 

The Semiens had the meals prepared and delivered by local restaurants, including The Lunch Box, Proposition Chicken, Roux and Vine and PINX Catering.

Both Marcus and Tarah have strong Bay Area ties. They met at UC Berkeley, where Marcus was playing baseball and Tarah was playing volleyball.

“The Bay Area is our home,” Marcus Semien said in a statement. “We wanted to do our part to say `Thank you’ to everyone who is working to keep our community safe and healthy. These essential workers and frontline employees are the real hometown heroes.”

In recent weeks center fielder Ramon Laureano, right fielder Steve Piscotty and closer Liam Hendriks and their families have been part of community outreach in terms of providing meals to medical health personnel and other essential workers.

In addition, the club has reached out collectively by providing food

Quote from Marcus Semien: “The Bay Area is our home and we wanted to do our part to say ‘thank you’ to everyone who is working to keep our community safe and healthy. These essential workers and frontline employee

In March, the A’s made a $100,000 donation to the Alameda County Food Bank to support its work to fight heightened food availability issues in the East Bay as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and shelter-in-place orders.

The club, which later made a 300-pizza donation to doctors, nurses and healthcare staff at Kaiser Permanente medical center in Oakland, also launched a fundraising page – www.gofundme.com/AthleticsFoodBank – where fans can make a donation to the food bank.

Follow Athletics insider John Hickey on Twitter: @JHickey3

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