Foster Farms Bowl will promote brand, help hungry

Players in the Foster Farms Bowl know the drill, and it goes beyond blocking, passing and tackling. They also will be handing off food-laden trays to people in need.

Saturday night’s game in Santa Clara, sponsored by the Livingston-based poultry company for the second straight year, will pit UCLA against Nebraska.

Players will spend part of Christmas Day helping to feed guests at Glide Memorial Church and St. Anthony’s Dining Room, both in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco. Ticket sales will raise money for these and other anti-hunger efforts.

ESPN will carry the game live to a national TV and radio audience, providing wide exposure for a company that mainly serves the West with its chicken and turkey products.

The Foster Farms Bowl involves teams from the Pac-12 and Big Ten. It is not among the glamour games on the end-of-season schedule – the Bruins are 8-4 and Cornhuskers are 5-7 – but these schools have long football traditions.

“UCLA vs. Nebraska is the type of matchup we dreamed about when we made our agreements with the Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences,” co-founder Gary Cavalli said in a news release. “Nebraska was the hard-luck team of 2015, with five losses in the closing seconds, but they’re also a team no one wants to play.”

The game will be at Levi’s Stadium, where the San Francisco 49ers play. About six weeks later, it will host the Super Bowl.

Pregame events for the Foster Farms Bowl started Tuesday and have included dinners, a luncheon and tours of San Francisco sights for the teams.

Earlier in the fall, the company held auditions for singing the national anthem at the game, starting with video submissions from the Central Valley and Bay Area. The winner was the Maria Carrillo High School Jazz Choir from Santa Rosa.

Foster Farms has a three-year agreement to sponsor the game, with an option to renew. It has not disclosed how much it is paying.

The game has had several names since it started in 2002 at AT&T Park in San Francisco. The first two years, it was the Diamond Walnut San Francisco Bowl, sponsored by the Stockton-based nut processor. The same company called it the Emerald Bowl from 2004 to 2009 to promote its snack brand. The game was the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl from 2010 to 2012 and the Fight Hunger Bowl in 2013.

This story was originally published December 24, 2015 at 12:12 PM with the headline "Foster Farms Bowl will promote brand, help hungry."