UK’s leading Mexican food brand Old El Paso™ is bringing back its #MessFreeChallenge campaign in support of FareShare, the UK’s largest charity for fighting hunger and food waste. The previous challenge saw Old El Paso partner with leading sports stars in a social challenge to donate 20,000 meal kits to vulnerable people across the UK last year and over 100,000 donations worldwide  

Switching courts from tennis to basketball for its second iteration, the new Slam Dunk #MessFreeChallenge kicks off this summer with a basketball-themed and social media-centric activation supported by a pop-up billboard complete with a basketball hoop. The activation took place at London’s Westfield Stratford in the summer of 2021. 

Fans at Westfield were invited to grab a free Old El Paso Tortilla Pocket™ from the Old El Paso food truck and show off their best slam dunk – all while keeping the pocket-free of spillage (made easier by its revolutionary sealed bottom) which will be captured on a special dunk cam. Set to take on the challenge will be Diversity Dance Troop members and basketball-loving brothers

Ashley and Jordan Banjo

, who will be promoting the challenge through Instagram to their

combined audience of 1.5M+.

Every dunk scored allowed Old El Paso™ to donate 10 meal products to FareShare, and fans further doubled the donations by sharing their dunk cam moments on Instagram with the #MessFreeChallenge hashtag. Fans who could not be at Westfield also shared their own challenges from their homes and local courts, any of which will be eligible for 10 donations from Old El Paso. Through the initiative, the brand is hoping to donate over 35,000 products to support UK families in need.  

Just like the previous campaign, the Slam Dunk #MessFreeChallenge is part of a global initiative that uses social influence for good to help fight food insecurity. Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios, who is a well-known basketball fanatic, once again partnered with Old El Paso™ to lead the campaign on social and raise donations for Food Bank Australia with his NK Foundation. Kyrgios kicked off proceedings few days after his return to tour on the grass courts of Wimbledon by performing his own ‘mess-free Slam Dunk’ on the basketball court, before calling out the basketball community to get behind the challenge 

In direct response to Nick’s Instagram post, several basketball stars across generations have picked up the challenge, including legends like Tony Parker from France and Andrew Bogut from Australia. Popular Swiss star Thabo Sefolosha as well as current players like French Olympian Sandrine Gruda and New Zealand Breakers and Tall Black Tom Abercrombie – all of whom have pledged donations to their local food banks while encouraging their followers to get behind it and challenging their peers. UK’s basketball community representation is being fronted by Britain’s only ever WNBA champion Temi Fagbenle, who also represented Team GB in London 2012 who will be pledging 4,000 donations to Fare Share for her challenge. 

So far, nearly 80,000 Donations have been made to food banks across the globe with the basketball community as part of the challenge, with Old EL Paso™ setting out a goal to double its donations globally to reach 200k by the end of the challenge.