HOUSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Jan. 27, 2004–NFL heroes Donovan McNabb, Michael Strahan and John Lynch will team up with their mothers and players from Texas A&M University and Texas Southern University today to help Campbell’s Chunky soup make a one million can soup donation to food banks across the country.
The friendly competition between the mother/son duos, taking place at the George R. Brown Convention Center, culminates this year’s successful Tackling Hunger program, which has generated a donation of more than five million cans of soup to food banks nationwide during the 2003-2004 NFL season.
In the Chunky Wagon Challenge, McNabb, Strahan and Lynch along with their mothers will each pile into a Chunky-soup filled wagon. One university player will be assigned to each mother/son duo to navigate the wagon around a special course of Chunky barrels. Each “Mama’s Boy” will even have an opportunity to lasso a Chunky bull as they round the course. After each duo completes the course, the team with the fastest time will be awarded the Chunky Wagon championship and be credited with a 500,000 cans of soup donation that will go to food banks across the country on their behalf. The second place team will be credited with 300,000 cans and the third place team will have 200,000 cans donated in their name.
“This year was special for the Tackling Hunger team because we had the opportunity to work alongside our biggest fans – our moms – to help stock food banks and raise the level of hunger awareness nationwide,” said McNabb, who has participated in the Tackling Hunger Super Bowl event for three consecutive seasons. “The cans that are donated through our Chunky Wagon Challenge today, along with the five million cans the program has generated throughout the season, will help tackle hunger in America.”
Hunger continues to be a very serious problem in the United States. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, more than 31 million Americans do not always know where their next meal will come from, including 13 million children who are affected by hunger. Each year, America’s Second Harvest network of local hunger relief agencies distributes more than 1.4 billion pounds of donated food to more than 23 million hungry Americans.
Tackling Hunger 2003 Year-in-Review
As the Super Bowl celebrates a season of hard work in the NFL, it also caps off the season-long Tackling Hunger 2003 program efforts. During the pre-season, Campbell weighed some of the “chunkiest” and “hungriest” linemen from across the NFL and donated 10 times their weight in soup to local food banks. Campbell also encouraged NFL fans to tackle hunger by participating in its Click For Cans(TM) on-line food drive at www.chunky.com. At the site, fans clicked on their favorite team’s helmet and were credited with a donation of one can of Campbell’s Chunky soup in that team’s name toward a goal of five million cans of soup for food banks nationwide.
The Tackling Hunger program also celebrated the hard work of some of the NFL’s unsung heroes – the players’ moms – by recognizing 13 of the NFL’s Most Valuable Moms with the unveiling of a special exhibit at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
Since establishing the Tackling Hunger program in 1997, Campbell Soup Company has donated more than 32 million cans of soup to a variety of hunger relief charities across the country, in NFL cities and in many of the 30,000 communities of Campbell’s retail partners.
For more information on the Campbell’s Chunky/NFL Tackling Hunger program or to find a local America’s Second Harvest hunger relief agency, visit www.chunky.com. To learn more about America’s Second Harvest, visit www.secondharvest.org.
About Campbell Soup Company:
Campbell Soup Company is a global manufacturer and marketer of high quality soup, sauces, beverage, biscuits, confectionery and prepared food products. The company owns a portfolio of more than 20 market-leading businesses each with more than $100 million in sales. They include “Campbell’s” soups worldwide, “Erasco” soups in Germany and “Liebig” soups in France, “Pepperidge Farm” cookies and crackers, “V8” and “V8 Splash” juices, “Pace” Mexican sauces, “Prego” pasta sauces, “Franco-American” pastas and gravies, “Swanson” broths, “Homepride” sauces in the United Kingdom, “Arnott’s” biscuits in Australia and “Godiva” chocolates around the world. The company also owns dry soup and sauce businesses in Europe under the “Batchelors,” “Oxo,” “Lesieur,” “Royco,” “Liebig,” “Heisse Tasse,” “Bla Band” and “McDonnells” brands. The company is ably supported by 24,000 employees worldwide. For more information on the company, visit Campbell’s website on the Internet at www.campbellsoup.com.
America’s Second Harvest is the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization with a national network of more than 200 regional food banks and food-rescue programs, serving all 50 states and Puerto Rico. It distributes 1.4 billion pounds of donated food and grocery products annually. America’s Second Harvest’s network supports approximately 50,000 local charitable agencies, operating more than 94,000 food programs, including food pantries, soup kitchens, women’s shelters, Kids Cafes, Community Kitchens. These local organizations provide emergency food assistance to 23 million hungry Americans, including more than nine million children and almost three million seniors each year. For more information, visit the web site at www.secondharvest.org.
CONTACT: Weber Shandwick Worldwide Jerry Gleason, 312-988-2277 [email protected] or Campbell Soup Company John Faulkner, 856-342-3738 [email protected] SOURCE: Campbell Soup Company
