Maroon buys lunch for St. Louis heroes; Dubois gets food for 23 families

Pat Maroon stepped up to help heroes in his hometown continue the fight against COVID-19.

The Tampa Bay Lightning forward teamed with a St. Louis-based nonprofit to purchase lunch for the South County Police Department and Mehlville Fire Department in Missouri.

Pat Maroon scored the game winning goal for his hometown team during double overtime in the second round of the Western Conference Finals - that's the day Pat became St. Louis' Hometown Hero. But today, he's our hometown hero for a whole new reason.Pat wanted to find a way to show his support for local first responders and everyone on the front line right now, so he came to us and hopped on our mission to Feed the Front Lines & support local businesses at the same time.Thanks to Pat & Francesca's generosity, they purchased enough food from beloved local Oakville spot @blarneystonepubsd to feed the South County Police Department (@stlcountypd) & Mehlville Fire Department lunch today 🙌🏼💙❤ Thank you Pat & Francesca again for going out of your way to give back to your hometown & support our first responders. We're stronger together 👊🏼#FeedingOurFrontline #heroeshelpingheroes #STLStrong #beahero #helpahero #stlouis #lgb](https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-15/e35/s612x612/929236142557042321312054779978597429241092n.jpg?ncht=scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram.com&nccat=109&nc_ohc=Qw4jgz8chdIAX-8ntqA&oh=9892f5a40e201f4145fb814edf9b67fa&oe=5EC06AF1)

Maroon teamed up with St. Louis Hero Network to send food to first responders battling the novel coronavirus through its Feed the Front Lines initiative. The Network helps first responders and military veterans by supporting their local businesses. Maroon purchased food from local eateries The Blarney Stone Pub and TJ's Pizza on Monday and delivered it with his fiancee Francesca Vangel.

Maroon's lunch purchase wasn't the only generous act committed by an NHL forward this week. According to CBC, Pierre-Luc Dubois of the Columbus Blue Jackets arranged grocery delivery for families, including his grandparents, in 23 housing units in the Residence Julie-Viger in the Saint-Basile-le-Grand, Quebec.

"I wanted to send them something that could maybe help them out a bit, and I thought why not include everybody in the building?"

While the rest of his family decided to ride out the pandemic together in Winnipeg, his grandparents had to stay put because traveling was too risky, and he wanted to do more than just call to check up on them every day.

"Everybody has either family or friends that they can't see right now due to the circumstances," he said. I just wanted to send a message to them that we're thinking of them."