The official cruise line of the New Orleans Saints – Carnival – has partnered with the NFL franchise and Second Harvest Food Bank in New Orleans to fight hunger this Christmas season through a contest for area schools. Kids will be encouraged to bring in canned goods and donations and receive prizes as fun incentives.
Carnival will reward the five schools collecting the most donations with a pizza party for the entire school. The five schools will also receive a Carnival cruise for a family of four and signed footballs from the Saints to award via a drawing. The top class in each of those schools will win a field trip to attend a party aboard Carnival Triumph, which will be arriving in New Orleans in April.
The next ten schools making the largest donation to the Holiday Food & Fund Drive will also receive a pizza party for their school from Carnival. The winning schools will be announced at the Saints vs. Lions game on December 21.
To celebrate the conclusion of the contest, Carnival will construct the world’s largest cruise ship made out of canned food in Champions Square. It’s being designed by the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the cans used to build the ship will be donated by Carnival to Second Harvest Food Bank. It will ultimately provide over 75,000 meals to the community. Volunteers from the AIA, Carnival, and the Saints will begin construction on the morning of December 21, and will finish just before the Saints’ match-up with the Detroit Lions on ESPN’s Monday Night Football.
To participate, K-12 schools can sign up at no-hunger.org/schoolmealdrive and initiate the drive through December 17.
