A Notre Dame leprechaun named Riley missed his first kick, then made his second one count on ESPN's College GameDay last Saturday, sending a chunk of change toward the Greater Chicago Food Depository at a moment when the organization says it badly needs it. The mascot's successful second-chance field goal came during the show's weekly charity kicking competition, with Fighting Irish icon and NFL Hall of Famer Joe Montana watching from the sideline as the ball sailed through the uprights.
Exactly how much of the day's winnings landed with the Chicago nonprofit is murky. According to Block Club Chicago, citing ESPN, Riley won a total of $500,000 for charity, with $200,000 of that specifically earmarked for the Food Depository. A separate account from Front Office Sports, however, describes the full $500,000 as the charitable prize that went to the Food Depository after Riley missed his first $200,000 attempt. The two reports don't agree on the final number, and neither Hoodline nor the available sourcing could independently confirm which figure is accurate.
Notre Dame student Michael Milano also competed Saturday, winning $1 million off his own kick, which pushed the day's combined College GameDay winnings to $1.5 million. The segment has become a weekly fixture of the broadcast, with students attempting field goals for cash prizes as part of Pat McAfee's recurring kicking contest during NCAA football season.
Where the Donation Is Headed
Whatever the final figure, the Food Depository says the money will go toward buying more food and covering transportation costs for its 65-truck fleet, which moves supplies across the Chicago region. The funds are being supplied through Guinness Gives Back, part of an established partnership between Guinness and the food bank; the beer company's Open Gate Brewery, located at 901 W. Kinzie St., already donates 10,000 loaves of bread to the organization every year.
The timing matters. Jim Conwell, communications director for the Food Depository, said the organization has been strained in recent months by rising prices and federal cuts to safety-net programs including SNAP, the report notes. Conwell said the donation will help meet rising community need for food assistance, even as he cautioned that philanthropy cannot fully replace government programs like SNAP. He also urged leaders to work on reversing policies enacted during President Donald Trump's second term, per the same account.
SNAP Losses Mount Across Cook County
The scale of the strain shows up in the numbers. Roughly 225,000 people in Cook County have lost their food assistance benefits since SNAP cuts began being implemented last year, according to the Food Depository. The organization distributes about 128 million pounds of food annually and was on pace to exceed that total in 2026, Conwell said.
A broader picture emerges from the Greater Chicago Food Depository's 2026 Hunger in Chicago Report, compiled with NORC at the University of Chicago and based on a June survey of 1,200 Chicago residents. The report found SNAP enrollment in Cook County fell 23% between July 2025 and June 2026, with nearly 196,000 residents losing access to the program compared with a year earlier. About one in three Chicago households are food insecure, the report found, and nearly one in two households with children face the same struggle.
Those hardships aren't spread evenly across the city. A companion analysis from WTTW found the same report put food insecurity at 36% of Chicago households overall, or about 417,000 households, with 47% of households with children affected compared to 30% of households without kids. The South Side logged a 51% food insecurity rate, the West Side 45% and the Southwest Side 41%, far outpacing the Northwest Side's 27% and the North Side's 20%, according to that outlet's reporting.
A Season of Big Kicks and Bigger Checks
Riley's moment is part of a season that has turned into something of an arms race in charitable giveaways. In September, Texas freshman Connor Kecena-Merrell missed a $1 million first attempt but made his second kick worth $1.2 million, with Kirk Herbstreit and Matthew McConaughey each kicking in an extra $100,000 so that Kecena-Merrell and his designated charity each walked away with $600,000, according to Sports Illustrated.
Other weeks saw even bigger swings. Tennessee's Colby Lamb converted his second kick in Week 4 for $1 million plus $500,000 to charity, and BYU freshman Carter Smith set the contest record in Week 7 by hitting his second kick for $3 million, per Sports Illustrated's reporting. Through the first 10 weeks of the season, the kicking contest had awarded $10 million to students and charities combined, according to Front Office Sports.
