Michael Jordan may be one of the most famous athletes on the planet, but Monday he was the "dessert guy" at the Stratford-Richard YMCA on West Boulevard.

For 45 minutes, the basketball icon wore plastic gloves and served grapes, sliced fruit and cookies with a dinky plastic spoon to 250 kids.

They made him work, too.

"Grapes: We need more grapes!" Jordan said, as the line went from one dozen to three dozen kids in 5 minutes. "We're about to have a problem.

"Does anybody want cookies instead?"

It was among many humbling moments for a man who set out Monday to prove that his team, the Bobcats, are sincere in wanting to be good community partners.

The Bobcats planned the day as the formal kickoff of Cats Care, a charity program that has operated behind the scenes for months. It represents a push by the team to increase its charitable impact through focusing on three specific areas of need: education, wellness and the fight against hunger.

The day included a $250,000 gift to Second Harvest Food Bank and acts of volunteerism by players and staff at schools, shelters and soup kitchens.

It's estimated the team provided more than 6,000 people with food at afternoon events, including hundreds of families who lined up at Time Warner Cable Arena.

Jordan showed up at 1:45 p.m., igniting wails and shouts of "Michael! Michael!" from many of the women in line.

Some families had waited over four hours.

"Thanks to Michael Jordan, some of us unfortunate folks will have a meal today, maybe our only meal," said Sandra Faison, 61, among the first in line. "God is working through Michael Jordan today."

Kay Carter of Second Harvest Food Bank accepted the $250,000 check at the arena.

Half the money is for food and the other half for a refrigerated truck that will serve as a mobile pantry, she said.

Carter cried a little during the presentation, noting the truck will allow her to feed an additional 100,000 people each year, many of whom live in surrounding rural areas.

"If that doesn't make you emotional, then there is something wrong," she said.

As for Jordan, he smiled and laughed throughout the day, giving autographs, posing for photos and shaking hundreds of outstretched hands.

A few women cried.

One man asked Jordan to sign an Air Jordan that he'd been wearing for four years. Jordan signed the shoe, but pointed out good naturedly that his name was already on it.

The most moving moment may have been when Jordan quietly walked in the back door at the Stratford-Richardson YMCA and hundreds of kids in the gym burst into applause.

You'd never have known he retired from basketball before many of them were born.

"It says a lot about Michael Jordan that he would roll up his sleeves and be part of the community at a grassroots level," said Anthony Walters, executive director of the Stratford-Richardson YMCA. "We feel blessed. He didn't have to come here."