The Buffalo Bills announced Friday that the Food Bank of WNY has received 12,000 cans of Campbell's Chunky Soup courtesy of Buffalo Bills fans everywhere. The Bills, Campbell's Chunky Soup and the NFL donated the cans to the Food Bank of WNY in recognition of the Bills second place finish in the Campbell's Chunky soup "Click for Cans" Championship.
Bills wide receiver James Hardy, tight end Derek Schouman and safety John Wendling were present to show their support and assist with the soup can delivery at the Food Bank of WNY today.
"12,000 cans of Campbell's Chunky soup is an incredible donation and we are thankful that the Bills fans cared and clicked online enough to make this happen," said Food Bank of WNY marketing and public relations director, Michael Billoni. "We are happy to distribute this food to our partner agencies and continue to help the less fortunate in the Western New York community."
For the past nine years, Campbell Soup Company has invited NFL fans to harness their competitive team spirit for a good cause…tackling hunger in America. As part of Chunky soup's "Click for Cans" online food drive, fans earned soup donations for their local community food banks. Fans were encouraged to log on to www.chunky.com every day for 17 weeks, where they clicked on the helmet of their favorite team to register.
This season featured weekly team matchups mirroring those of the NFL's regular season. After the regular season match ups, the teams with the top four 'Click for Cans' records from each conference battled it out in bracket-style playoffs that culminated with the championship match between the Green Bay Packers and the Buffalo Bills.
The Bills and Packers were undefeated and cruised through their playoff bracket to square off in the Championship which assured a 12,000 can donation to both team's food banks. The Packers fans nipped the Bills fans in the final voting to receive an additional 5,000 cans. All remaining NFL squads received a 1,000 can donation to their local Feeding America food bank.
The fans of the Bills and Packers supported the contest with greater numbers than any others in the NFL. "I would like to congratulate the Green Bay Packers and Buffalo Bills on a fantastic 'Click for Cans' season," said Doug Brand, Campbell's Chunky soup Brand Manager.
Each month, about 95,000 hungry Western New Yorkers turn to soup kitchens, food pantries, and other emergency food providers - 40% are children and 11% are seniors! The Food Bank of WNY
hels to make sure that the soup kitchens, pantries and other providers have enough food to feed the hungry. The Food Bank ships about 1 million pounds of food every month to about 360 member
agencies to help feed the less fortunate in Erie, Niagara, Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties.
The Food Bank of WNY solicits food donations from farmers, wholesalers, retailers and other members of the food industry. Additionally, community groups hold food drives to collect canned goods and other non-perishable food for the Food Bank. The WNY Community is also very supportive in providing cash donations to the Food Bank. These funds are used along with government grants to purchase food very efficiently. About 94 cents of each dollar goes directly to providing food to the less fortunate.
Campbell Soup Company has donated more than three million pounds of food to Feeding America food banks nationwide over the past year. For more information on the Campbell's Chunky/NFL Tackling Hunger program, please visit http://www.chunky.com/Happenings.aspx.
