Fashion, food and football meet philanthropy

Off the Field Fashion Show
(Photo/Shara Talia Taylor)

By Shara Talia Taylor

While fashion was on display at last Friday’s victory parade in Philadelphia to honor the Eagles — Super Bowl LIX Champions — it was also on display for philanthropic causes before the game in New Orleans.

The NFL offered many events ahead of Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans not only to entertain, but also to create change in communities. One such event in particular allowed attendees to learn how their support can impact youth.

Ahead of their annual fashion show, Off the Field NFL Wives Association held a VIP reception and included the services of Café Momentum, an organization that works to reduce youth recidivism through culinary opportunities.

“My husband Anquan Boldin invited me to this Café Momentum kick-off, and I went and was blown away by the juveniles, the kids,” said Dionne Boldin, about when she first learned of the program in 2020 when she chaired the Off the Field fashion show.

Dionne Boldin with participants
(Photo courtesy Cafe Momentum)

Boldin connected Off the Field and Café Momentum for the 2025 event. Off the Field, an organization consisting of wives and significant others of former and current NFL players, holds an annual fashion show to raise money for charities. The mission of their organization is “fostering sisterhood among wives and significant others while serving NFL communities through philanthropic efforts.”

“We create and cultivate events for our members, that are not only for sisterhood, growth and development, but also for us to serve our communities,” said Off the Field president, Tenisha Patterson Brown.

Brown said they donate back to the NFL cities that served and helped them grow as their husbands played and continue to play. This year they recognized the victims of the Jan. 1 tragedy in New Orleans during the show.

“We wanted to honor New Orleans,” Brown said. “We wanted some of the [surviving] victims and family members of the victims to come out and be honored and celebrated and loved and help them in the grieving process.”

Their VIP reception before the fashion show was held at Brasa South American Steakhouse. The food and beverages provided were prepared and served at the restaurant in collaboration with Café Momentum. The event allowed attendees to learn how Café Momentum has empowered youth involved in the justice system to transform their lives and use their unique gifts and talents to contribute to society.

Café Momentum’s activities during NFL events started in 2019. Ahead of the NFL Draft in Nashville, at-risk students were provided with an opportunity to show how the culinary skills they learned from the non-profit restaurant and culinary training facility kept them from recidivism. They hosted a pop-up dinner which led to participants cooking at NFL events held during the week of the Super Bowl in the host cities in years to follow. This year was a new experience, as they teamed up with the wives of Off the Field in New Orleans.

“It created a whole new platform for us to engage in the community and continue to build advocates for our work and the change that we seek within the juvenile justice system,” said Café Momentum, founder/CEO and chef, Chad Houser.

Café Momentum offers juvenile offenders a second chance in life by using culinary training and providing them with education, life skills, and employment opportunities through the restaurant industry. The program is about a year. Participants work in a restaurant setting and learn skills necessary for operating a business, from dishwashing and bussing tables, to prep cooking and serving as a host.

Twenty-one year old Tristyn Williams, a young adult impacted by the program, attended Super Bowl activities for the first time in Las Vegas last year, when participants shared their experience at Radio Row. She returned this year for Super Bowl LIX activities. Williams was arrested and pregnant when she became involved with Café Momentum.

“It makes you feel very stupid,” Williams said in February 2024 about her experience with the school in the juvenile dentition center. “They’re telling you this is what you did, you’ll be back, nothing is going to change when you get out. There’s no one really pouring hope into you.”

Café Momentum welcomed her. They gave her a baby shower, helped her find parenting classes, provided her with health services, and helped her mother — who was sick — find housing and funding for rent. The program also helped her graduate from high school.

This year, following the fashion show event with Off the Field, Williams said that she completed the Café Momentum training and became a senior ambassador with the program. Today, she travels around the country and shares her story. Additionally, Williams is studying criminal justice and pursuing her associate’s degree.

“The Tristyn that came to the program at 15, she was very insecure,” Williams said in New Orleans. “She was just all over the place, and her priorities were not right, but now I’m on the right path. I’m a great mother. I’m doing what I can to advocate for youth justice.”

Former NFL Philadelphia Eagles Linebacker Dhani Jones joined Café Momentum participants for their activities in 2023 during the week of events ahead of Super Bowl LVII, when the Eagles faced the Kansas City Chiefs. Jones was an ambassador for Stand Together Foundation, a nonprofit organization that aims to help Café Momentum by providing access to networking and funding.

“I think the biggest story is what happens when they leave Café Momentum,” Jones said at the time. “The biggest story is that they don’t go back into the system.”

According to the CSG Justice Center, “In many states, up to 80 percent of the youth who are incarcerated are rearrested within three years of release.”

This indicates the importance and is why Off the Field showed support through their fashion show. It was inspiring.

“Just to see they had experienced some issues in the juvenile justice system, but here they are, still working, still trying to realize their dream,” Boldin said.

For more information about Cafe Momentum, visit: https://cafemomentum.org/. For more information about Off the Field, visit: https://offthefieldnflwa.org/.