Cincinnati Bengals players and staff joined Fifth Third Bank employees on Monday, September 28, 2026, to assemble 4,000 Bengals-themed Power Packs, part of a new campaign designed to feed 1,000 students across 20 Greater Cincinnati schools every weekend throughout November. The packing event marked the launch of “Huddle for Hunger,” a joint effort between the team and the bank to combat childhood food insecurity in the region.
According to a WLWT report, the campaign will help feed thousands of children across those 20 schools, with the packs going home with kids on Fridays so they have enough food to eat over the weekend. Each pack includes over a dozen shelf-stable, kid-friendly food items, and Freestore Foodbank will handle sending the packs home with children in the Cincinnati area. A press announcement from the Cincinnati Bengals detailed that the 4,000 packs assembled during Hunger Action Month are meant to cover four weekends of meals for those 1,000 students.
Why the Timing Matters
Taylor Conklin, the Bengals' director of community engagement, said Huddle for Hunger demonstrates the power of teamwork to make a meaningful difference in the lives of students across Greater Cincinnati, per WLWT's report. Fifth Third Bank Cincinnati Region President Dan Feldmann echoed that sentiment in the team's statement, emphasizing that corporate participation in the campaign aims to stabilize students' access to weekend nutrition so they can focus on classroom learning.
The need behind the campaign is substantial. Freestore Foodbank's fiscal year 2026 impact report found that 90,740 children and 291,990 total residents are food insecure across its 20-county Tristate coverage area spanning southwest Ohio, Northern Kentucky, and southeast Indiana.
A Small Slice of a Much Larger Operation
The 4,000 Power Packs assembled on Monday, September 28, 2026, represent just a fraction of what Freestore Foodbank already distributes on its own. In fiscal year 2026, the food bank sent out 174,030 Power Packs across 104 partner sites, providing 520,174 total weekend meals to elementary students. The program's funding structure, published in Freestore Foodbank's guidelines, shows that a $5 donation covers one weekend pack, $200 funds a full school year for one student, and $8,000 fully sponsors an entire partner school site for a year.
Weekend packs are only part of the food bank's broader strategy for closing nutritional gaps that federal school meal programs don't cover. Beyond the Power Packs, Freestore Foodbank provided 522,075 meals across 57 permanent school and college pantries in fiscal year 2026, ensuring students have year-round, on-site access to food and hygiene supplies. The organization's Kids Cafe program also delivers more than 5,000 hot weekday evening meals each week to 13 after-school sites across Hamilton and Kenton counties, with meals prepared by adult students enrolled in the food bank's Cincinnati COOKS! culinary job training initiative.
Part of a Longer Bengals Tradition
This isn't the Bengals' first push to support Freestore Foodbank this year. Hoodline previously reported that Paycor Stadium hosted its annual “Taste of the Bengals” charity event earlier this month, bringing together local restaurants to raise funds for the food bank in a tradition that has generated millions of meals over two decades.
Freestore Foodbank is also navigating its own leadership transition as demand grows. LINK nky reported in February that the organization appointed former corporate executive Kreg Keesee as its new president and CEO, succeeding 15-year leader Kurt Reiber, placing Keesee in charge of regional hunger operations during a period of rising need. It remains unclear how participating schools for Huddle for Hunger were selected, or whether Fifth Third's sponsorship will eventually expand beyond the initial November push to cover full-year school site commitments.
