AZ Teen’s Big Heart Makes National News

A Laveen teen recently made the news. But his story started almost a decade ago. Living in Wisconsin, Trent Cason was about to turn 6 before Christmas when he had an idea. Instead of toys or a new basketball, he asked for groceries!

“I just came up to my mom. It was like, ‘you know, instead of my present this year, can I get some lunch meat, some cheese and bread to make some bag lunches?’ I wanted to give to the homeless to give them a meal, give out some blankets. It was very cold,” Trent recalls.

His mom, Mel Cason, was impressed and jumped in with both feet! The first round was 75 sack lunches. The Cason Family continued handing out more and more meals and started a non-profit called Trent Cares. Three years ago, they moved to Laveen. These days, Trent Cares shows its love with more than 5,000 meals, lots of water bottles, blankets and other necessities each year.

ABC15’s Cameron Polom and ABC World News Tonight covered Trent’s inspiring story in January!

Trent recently turned 14 and is a point guard for his middle school team at Arizona Compass Prep and on a club team. He’s good at getting his friends and teammates to join his family in helping with all the work.

“We drive around in our community looking for bus stops, parks, benches…we also go downtown—there are a lot of homeless people there,” Trent explains.

Classmates and teachers saw the news segment. The vice principal even offered to DONATE to Trent Cares. Trent appreciates the effort his parents and brothers put in. He says it’s important to put his family’s love and care into all the food that’s handed out.

“It brings tons of joy to my heart. It brings me so much positivity and so much kindness that I can spread to the world around me,” Trent points out.