On Sept. 16 at P&G MLB Cincinnati Reds Youth Academy in Roselawn, Ohio, the Freestore Foodbank distributed 40,000 meals to roughly 2,000 local families in need, thanks to a partnership with Feeding America and Tiller & Hatch.

Each family or individual that drove through the Academy received several frozen meals, as well as a box of assorted produce from the USDA’s Farmers to Families Food Box program.

The event was hosted by the Reds Community Fund, which has partnered with the Freestore Foodbank on many events dating back to the Reds Youth Academy’s opening in 2014.

“We’ve done a lot of work together and we were very honored that they called and wanted to partner with us,” said Charley Frank, executive director of the Reds Community Fund. “The Academy was an ideal location with how the parking lot lays out and how we’re in the center of the community. It’s not easy to figure out a place where you can distribute 2,000 packages in five hours, so we’re very pleased that we have the ability to assist them. Everyone is so eager to do something to help, and this allows us for a day to really be a part of something meaningful.”

Members of the Ohio National Guard, who have been stationed at the Freestore Foodbank since mid-March when the COVID-19 pandemic began, helped facilitate the distribution process. In addition, Reds employees, volunteers from the Freestore Foodbank and local law enforcement were on hand to help coordinate the event and load the boxes of food into each car.

“The Reds have been so great to us and we’ve done so much work over the years here at the Academy,” said Trisha Rayner, chief development officer and vice president of external affairs of the Freestore Foodbank. “We’ve done packing events here with MLB when the All-Star game was in town, some folks have been out to the Giving Fields over the years, all the mascots have been to the warehouse and the neighborhood that we’re in too is an underserved part of the community. So just as the Reds want to serve kids in the inner city and teach them baseball, we want to make sure that their families have food.”

With September being Hunger Action Month, Tiller & Hatch, a brand of nutritious, chef-developed frozen meals, pledged to donate 1 million meals across America in a partnership with Feeding America® member foodbanks, including the Freestore Foodbank. Cincinnati is one of 17 cities to host a part of the Million Meal Donation Tour this month, supported by Tiller & Hatch co-founders, country music artist Brad Paisley and actress Kimberly Williams-Paisley. The tour kicked off Sept. 8 in both Detroit and New York City and wraps up Sept. 18 in Dallas.