DE Cullen Jenkins hauls a couple crates of soup onto a food pantry truck on Thursday at Lambeau Field.
The Packers have won this contest for six years running, and food pantries in Wisconsin certainly appreciate it.
More than 13,000 cans of Campbell's Chunky soup were distributed to 15 Wisconsin area food banks in the parking lot of Lambeau Field on Thursday, the result of Packers' fans registering more than 2.5 million votes in the annual "Click For Cans" online food drive.
Food pantries came from as far as a couple hundred miles away to collect approximately 880 cans apiece. Their trucks and transport vehicles were loaded by Packers players Brady Poppinga, Cullen Jenkins and Noah Herron, along with strength and conditioning coaches Rock Gullickson, Mark Lovat and Brandon Johnson.
The full donation represented the weight of the official Green Bay Packers' roster in soup cans, which will benefit those in need in Wisconsin. An additional 1,000 cans were split between two Brown County pantries.
"This means we'll be able to give a greater variety of food to our patrons," said Debby Pizur, interim co-director of Project Concern of Cudahy-St. Francis, near Milwaukee. "They're appreciative and they're excited. It's something new, something different."
Pizur said this was the first year her organization received a donation after being nominated by Hunger Task Force, which selected all the recipients. She said the donation would last approximately two weeks.
With six straight wins in the annual contest, Packers' fans have won nearly 80,000 cans of soup for local food banks. This year's 2.5 million votes more than doubled last year's total, which had set a voting record.
Since 1997, Campbell's Chunky soup has partnered with the NFL through the Campbell's Chunky/NFL Tackling Hunger program to help fight hunger in American by generating much needed food donations. Over the past 10 years, Chunky soup has donated more than 35 million cans of soup to hunger relief charities across the country, including one million cans of soup for food banks nationwide at Super Bowl XLII in Phoenix.
Following is a list of food banks receiving soup:
Salvation Army Fond du Lac Food Pantry
Centro Hispano Food Pantry (Dane County)
Edgerton Community Outreach Food Pantry
Couleecap Food Pantry (Sparta)
Beaver Dam Food Pantry
Project Concern of Cudahy-St. Francis
Indianhead CAA Food Pantry (Ladysmith)
Lakeshore CAP Food Pantry (Sturgeon Bay)
Menominee Food District
NEWCAP Oconto Food Pantry
Northwest CSA Food Pantry (Superior)
Racine Community Action Food Pantry
Iowa County Food Pantry
Three Lakes Christian Food Bank (Oneida County.)
Wrightstown Community Food Pantry
Salvation Army Green Bay
Paul's Pantry (Green Bay)
