Constellation Donates 500 Hall Admissions to Akron/Canton Regional Foodbank

CANTON, OHIO – Five hundred football fans with a connection to the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank will tour the Pro Football Hall of Fame with no admission charge thanks to the generosity of Constellation, the official energy provider for the Hall of Fame.

Constellation, an Exelon company and a leading competitive energy provider, recently donated to the Foodbank this year’s allotment of 500 admission tickets. The company receives the tickets annually as part of its sponsorship agreement with the Hall.

Staff at the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank distributed the tickets to the first 100 cars to drive through a recent on-site food distribution at the facility in Akron. They also gave tickets to each member of the Ohio National Guard assisting at the distribution as a thank you for their service.
“I’ve been a Canton resident all of my life, and I’ve never visited the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Thanks so much for the tickets!” U.S. Airman Keith Zachary wrote in a thank you note to the Foodbank and Constellation.

“Volunteers and frontline workers are the glue that holds our communities together, especially during these challenging times,” said Mark Huston, President of Constellation’s National Retail Business. “We’re grateful to be able to team with the Hall of Fame to offer this experience to those individuals and other deserving local families.”

The Foodbank has relied heavily on National Guard personnel to help its staff meet the tremendous demand for food handling — collection and distribution — in 2020. Of the families visiting pantries within the Foodbank’s network this year, approximately 31% are new, meaning they never had needed to ask for help until feeling the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dan Flowers, president and CEO of the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank, said 42 members of the Ohio National Guard have been working in the Foodbank’s warehouse, making deliveries and serving alongside agencies in the field since late March.

“These young men and women have been, without question, the greatest gift of support we have received,” Flowers said. “Early on in the pandemic, we closed for volunteers. It was just our staff and ONG here packing thousands of food boxes into the evenings and on the weekends, making deliveries and working food giveaways. These soldiers came ready to work, jumping in on any and every task to assist us.”

David Baker, President & CEO of the Hall of Fame, said seeing so many tickets end up in the hands of Ohio National Guard personnel is “a great way to say, ‘Thank you for your service.’ And as we get closer to the Thanksgiving holiday, we also can give thanks to Constellation for paying it forward with their donation and give thanks to the Foodbank for all the wonderful work they do every day.”

At a drive-thru food distribution last month, the Foodbank served more than 980 families — or about 2,800 individuals. Those numbers illustrate what the national organization Feeding America is seeing across the Foodbank’s eight-county service area: a roughly 20% increase in the demand for food as families struggle to rebound from the pandemic.

Feeding America projects a 43% increase in the number of children facing “food insecurity” in the service area that includes Stark (home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame), Carroll, Holmes, Medina, Portage, Summit, Tuscarawas and Wayne counties. That translates into 1 in 4 children struggling with hunger.

“These may have been the worst of times on many levels, but I believe this has also been the best of times in terms of the heroic response of our network, donors and the community that support us,” Flowers said, while extending his thanks to Constellation for recognizing those efforts with its gift of tickets.

Constellation is a sponsor of Hall of Fame Village powered by Johnson Controls. That deal includes naming rights for the Constellation Center for EXCELLENCE, a key component of the multimillion-dollar project. Ground was broken on the center about six weeks ago as part of Phase 2 of the development.

CONTACTS:
Rich Desrosiers, Vice President of Communications and Public Relations
Rich.Desrosiers@ProFootballHOF.com; 330-588-3622

Rachel Gutting, Director of Communications and Strategic Initiatives
Rachel.Gutting@ProFootballHOF.com; 330-588-3671

ABOUT THE PRO FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME
Located in Canton, Ohio, the birthplace of the National Football League, the Pro Football Hall of Fame is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit institution with the Mission to Honor the Heroes of the Game, Preserve its History, Promote its Values, & Celebrate Excellence EVERYWHERE.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. AAM accreditation is national recognition for the museum’s commitment to excellence and the highest professional standards of museum operation and public service.

Hundreds of thousands of fans from across the globe travel to Canton annually to experience “The Most Inspiring Place on Earth!” that chronicles America’s most popular sport. Fans can also enjoy the Hall of Fame Store at the Hall, and online at www.profootballhof.com/store, for merchandise from all 32 NFL clubs plus the Hall of Fame. Proceeds from the Store support the Hall’s Mission.

Construction on Hall of Fame Village powered by Johnson Controls, a mixed-use development project, is under way in Canton to transform the Hall of Fame’s campus.

ABOUT CONSTELLATION
Constellation is a leading competitive retail supplier of power, natural gas and energy products and services for homes and businesses across the continental United States. Constellation's family of retail businesses serves approximately 2 million residential, public sector and business customers, including three-fourths of the Fortune 100. Baltimore-based Constellation is a subsidiary of Exelon Corporation (Nasdaq: EXC), the nation's leading competitive energy provider, with 2019 revenue of approximately $34 billion and more than 31,000 megawatts of owned capacity comprising one of the nation's cleanest and lowest-cost power generation fleets. Learn more at Constellation.com or on Twitter at @ConstellationEG.

ABOUT AKRON-CANTON REGIONAL FOODBANK
The Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank is a nonprofit organization with a vision of a thriving community free of hunger. This year, 1 in 6 people in Northeast Ohio, a 31% increase caused by COVID-19, will face hunger, and the Foodbank will be there to help. The Foodbank is the source of emergency food for 500 food pantries, hot meal sites, shelters and other hunger-relief programs that directly serve individuals and families in Carroll, Holmes, Medina, Portage, Stark, Summit, Tuscarawas and Wayne counties.

The Foodbank, with its supporters and partners are leading the fight to end hunger in the communities they serve. In 2019, it helped provide access to food for 25.2 million meals to its network of hunger-relief partners. To join the hunger-relief efforts, please visit AkronCantonFoodbank.org or Facebook.com/akroncantonfoodbank