It wasn’t long after Minnesota closed its schools for at least the next few weeks that Detroit Lions center Frank Ragnow’s mother, Marty, wondered aloud over dinner how the closure would affect children at Pioneer Ridge Middle School, where she works.

Pioneer Ridge, like many schools, offers free or reduced-price meals to qualifying families, and with the doors closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, it struck Frank just how many kids would be going without.

“I can’t remember the specific percentage, but a pretty high percentage,” he said. “That one really hit me. And I live in a school district that isn’t in the worst place financially, so I couldn’t imagine in the inner city and some other places. I just can’t imagine.”

Ragnow already knew he wanted to help.

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He watched Minnesota governor Tim Walz issue a stay-at-home order on TV; he saw teammate Matthew Stafford, New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees and others make sizable donations to their local communities. He decided to do the same.

Ragnow, the Lions’ first-round pick in 2018, is donating $30,000 to provide meals to those in need at five groups in the three communities closest to his heart.

In Minnesota, he donated $3,000 to Eastern Carver County Schools’ Angel Fund, which is used to help families, like those at Pioneer Ridge, who need assistance providing meals for their children. He also donated $7,000 to the PRISM Marketplace Food Shelf, a nonprofit group that helps homeless and hungry families in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

In Arkansas, where he went to college, Ragnow made $5,000 donations to the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank and the University of Arkansas’ Full Circle Food Pantry.

And in Detroit, he donated $10,000 to Gleaners Community Food Bank, a gift spurred by a fundraiser started by Lions running backs coach Kyle Caskey. Caskey has raised more than $12,000 through his virtual food drive.

“Minnesota, where I grew up, which raised me, my home forever. Arkansas, completely shaped me. A lot happened right there. Took me under their wing when I lived through some tough times and some great times. And Michigan, Detroit, a place that’s completely embraced me and did nothing but support me,” Ragnow said. “Three amazing communities that have completely impacted me in a way that I don’t think I’ll ever be able to express and be able to give back how I feel they’ve impacted me, so I just thought the least I could do is help people out.”

Giving specifically to food banks seemed appropriate, considering his line of work.

As an offensive lineman who needs 4,000 calories and 300 grams of protein a day to keep weight on his 310-pound frame, he said “thinking of people going meal-to-meal, it just makes me sad.”

“I’m an offensive lineman. I’m eating good,” he said. “But just imagining having to go meal-to-meal like that just blows my mind. And even with kids not being able to go to school, so they’re struggling to eat and there’s families struggling to feed their kids, I just thought the least I could do was help all of these food banks, all kind of in the communities that I love — I mean, love — to be a part of.”

Stacy Averill, senior director of community giving for Gleaners, said Ragnow’s donation will help provide 60,000 meals across southeast Michigan.

“I’m so proud of him,” Ragnow's mother said. “He just has such a big heart and he just always thinks of others first, I feel like. He’s somewhat quiet about that, but I know that he really worries and thinks about others first.”

Ragnow said the pandemic has altered his daily life some, though the changes are minor compared to what others are dealing with.

He spends most of his time at his suburban Minneapolis home playing board games with his mother, siblings and fiancée. He has been able to get workouts in to stay ready for football, and the group is taking turns cooking dinner.

Last week, Ragnow found a recipe on Pinterest for a deep-dish Italian sausage pizza he said he knocked out of the park. He made both the sauce and dough from scratch, and after five hours in the kitchen, he said, “my back was killing me.”

“Let me tell you, Pinterest is low-key the best app,” he said.

As for the coronavirus, Ragnow said his friends and family are healthy, though his fiancée's sister lost her job in the restaurant industry and he has seen business owners he knows struggle to keep their doors open.

All of that made him want to give back, too.

"There’s no Frank Ragnow without these communities," Ragnow said. "I just think it was the least I could do to help them out because what they have done to mold me into who I am today."

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett. Read more on the Detroit Lions and sign up for our Lions newsletter.