Arizona State safety Xavion Alford was looking for a way to give back to the communities closest to him this Thanksgiving, and he had the idea to donate turkeys.
Former ASU running back D.J. Foster — a Scottsdale native who’s now a player development manager — was already teaming up with the St. Mary’s Food Bank, so the two plans became one.
What started as small donations became $13,550 in total, equating to 543 turkeys that players helped distribute in a drive thru-style pickup on Monday.
Alford’s original idea was to give out 50 turkeys in Tempe and 50 back home near Houston, so the team effort was well beyond what he initially hoped to accomplish.
“Definitely a blessing to be able to do … with obviously my teammates as well.” Alford told Arizona Sports. “This place has done a lot for me in the three years I’ve been here, so it definitely wouldn’t hurt to give back to the community that’s embraced me since I got here just through everything, my career, my story, my injuries, things like that.
“What other way to show that than to give back, especially on a holiday like Thanksgiving?”
He said a link was set up where players could donate, and ASU head coach Kenny Dillingham made his own sizable contribution.
When it came time to distribute, ASU football had its own station where cars would roll through with signs indicating how many of which items were needed. Those ranged from turkeys to bags of potatoes to canned goods and more.
When fans who recognized the players dropped by, Alford said the most common thing they heard was “beat U of A” ahead of the Territorial Cup on Friday.
Dillingham said the players’ part in the turkey distribution fell right in line with his stated goal for the program of being good people first and foremost.
“It’s awesome that those guys wanted to raise money for the organization and then not only raise money … go physically do the act of passing out the turkeys to everybody,” the coach said. “Winning and losing games is great, but I think these guys becoming good people and growing up as people has always been a priority for me.”
Prior to his arrival ahead of the 2023 season — which he was forced to sit out due to now-outdated transfer rules — Alford had never set foot in the state of Arizona. He was in the transfer portal for a second time and searching for a place he could call a second home to Texas.
He believes he’s found that in the Valley after the support he felt in the year he sat out as well as missing most of this season due to an undisclosed injury.
“I didn’t know what to expect but once I got here on that visit, I never left,” Alford said. “To be able to go to the playoffs and play in the Peach Bowl, (win) the Big 12 championship in the first year in the conference and do something that the university hasn’t done in a while to give people around here hope and something to cheer about.
“And then all the way until now even though it didn’t go as planned, just seeing all the support from everybody online … it’s obviously something that will carry on for years and years and years until I’m gone, and it’s definitely a place I can see myself settling in.”
You started the change t.co/4iyloDoZ4l
— Coach Dillingham (@KennyDillingham) November 23, 2025
It’s why he felt the need to give back.
While the timing didn’t work out to allow for a turkey drive in Houston, Alford said he plans to make up for it with a toy drive around Christmas with the goal of giving away 100 items.
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