Corpus Christi FC, the Coastal Bend’s first professional soccer team, and Bella’Aroma Café teamed up to give back to the community that supports their businesses

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — With the holiday season underway, many organizations across the Coastal Bend are finding ways to give back. On Tuesday, the Coastal Bend’s first professional soccer team partnered with a local café to make sure hundreds had a warm meal for Thanksgiving.

RELATED: H-E-B Donates $75,000 to Corpus Christi Meals on Wheels, Largest Gift in Program’s History

Corpus Christi FC joined forces with Bella’Aroma Café to hand out nearly 200 thanksgiving meals to residents who may not know where their next meal is coming from. For Bella’Aroma owner Monica Mangiarulo, it’s a simple act that carries deep meaning.

“Everybody deserves to have, like, a warm meal,” she said. “Sometimes the simple things in life that we miss is, like, having a warm meal is such a simple thing that sometimes because we have it, we forget that there’s other people out there that are not as fortunate.”

Mangiarulo said giving back feels like an obligation to the community that has supported her family’s business from the beginning.

“Us as a small business, we are blessed enough to have grown in three years to three locations,” she said. “I feel for us, it’s natural, and it’s almost a responsibility to give back… We gotta give back to this beautiful community that shows up for us. We’re gonna show up for them.”

For Corpus Christi FC, the partnership was a chance to connect with a community they’re still getting to know. The club has existed since 2017, previously competing in a pre-professional league, but is now taking a major step forward by joining USL League One, a fully professional league with teams competing nationwide and players on full-time contracts.

CCFC Communications Director Eran Hami said Tuesday’s event shows what the club wants to represent as it enters a new era.

“I think you saw what it meant to these people who may not get a quality meal at all times, and we just want to show that we’re here for the community,” Hami said. “We’ve been around since 2017, but people haven’t known about us.”

He added that community outreach will be a constant focus moving forward.

“We’re going to be here in January, February, March — every single month of the year. Christmas, we’ll be doing stuff as well,” he said. “You’re going to be seeing our faces a lot more… We’re not just going to have an impact on the field. We’re going to be a force in the community to help people out in any way we possibly can. Today, it just happened to be making a whole bunch of turkey meals and giving them away.”

At the heart of that mission, Hami said, is reflecting the values of the city they now represent professionally.

“Our team is going to reflect the values of Corpus Christi, and those are familial values, and that’s what we want to show people.”

Even in the offseason, both organizations say there are plenty of beautiful ways to unite a community through the power of “the beautiful game.”