Hundreds of volunteers filled the East Premium Bunker Club inside the Caesars Superdome across two two-hour shifts on Friday, packing thousands of meals bound for families across Louisiana. New Orleans Saints owner Gayle Benson joined the effort, telling volunteers that when circumstances are at their worst, we have the ability to be at our best.
The gathering, held on the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, was organized in partnership with 9/11 Day and Volunteer Louisiana, according to event details listed on Eventbrite. As reported by WDSU, the New Orleans Saints and hundreds of volunteers gathered at the Superdome for the 9/11 Day Meal Pack, with the meals packed during the event set to go directly to families in need across Louisiana.
A Ceremony Rooted in Remembrance
The event began with a moment of silence, according to the station's report, followed later by a performance of America the Beautiful and a ring of remembrance. Benson reminded volunteers of the unity displayed by the country after 9/11, per the same account, and also invoked the resilience shown by New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina as she addressed the crowd.
That Katrina reference carried particular weight given the Superdome's own history. The stadium served as a shelter of last resort for roughly 30,000 evacuees during Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 before undergoing extensive remediation and reopening in 2006, according to the New Orleans Saints. Organizers said the event commemorates 9/11 through unity, service, and common humanity, framing the meal pack as both tribute and community response.
Part of a Nationwide 25th-Anniversary Push
The Superdome gathering was one piece of a far larger national campaign. The 2026 9/11 Day effort mobilized an estimated 50,000 volunteers across more than 50 U.S. cities to pack 18 million shelf-stable meals for hunger relief, according to 9/11 Day. Major professional sports organizations, including teams from the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, and MLS, took part in similar meal-packing events across the country this September, as noted by the NHL.
September 11 has been a federally recognized National Day of Service and Remembrance since President Barack Obama signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act into law in April 2009, per GovInfo. The nonprofit 9/11 Day itself traces back to 2002, when it was co-founded by David Paine and Jay Winuk in memory of Winuk's brother, Glenn Winuk, an attorney and volunteer firefighter who died while rescuing people during the World Trade Center collapse, according to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.
Meals Head to a Food Bank Under Strain
The meals packed at the Superdome will go to Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana, an organization founded in 1982 by Archbishop Philip Hannan, Bishop Roger Morin, and Gregory Ben Johnson that now distributes food across 23 parishes in South Louisiana, according to Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana. The need is significant: the food bank reported in 2024 that one in six South Louisiana households faces food insecurity, with child food insecurity in Orleans Parish reaching 31.8%, per the Clarion Herald.
That need has grown harder to meet. Second Harvest faced a $9.4 million deficit and a 14% workforce reduction in 2025 following federal funding cuts and canceled USDA food shipments, Hoodline previously reported. Benson has backed the food bank before: in March 2019, she donated $3.5 million through the Gayle and Tom Benson Charitable Foundation, the largest single monetary gift in the organization's history at the time, according to WWL-TV.
Volunteers packed meals for Second Harvest throughout both shifts at the Bunker Club, translating a national day of remembrance into a direct, local response to hunger. The Superdome event stood alongside other 9/11 Day meal packs held this month in cities nationwide, part of an initiative organizers describe as turning an anniversary of tragedy into sustained, tangible service.
