A day off is golden.
After the violence and exertion of a National Football League weekend, players have one truly off day per week. On a typical week, that’s Tuesday. So where did Eagles edge rusher Haason Reddick spend his day off?
With his mom, of course.
Reddick and mom Raelakia spent his off day between the Eagles home game with Washington and their trip to Los Angeles to face the Rams a few blocks east of the stadium in South Philly volunteering at Philabundance, preparing boxes of food for needy Philadelphia-area residents as part of the nationwide Campbell’s Soup Chunky Sacks Hunger campaign.
“We are out here with Philabundance today to help donate some food,” Haason Reddick said. “We came out here with my mother today and we’ve been packaging up some produce, some food products, getting them into boxes and getting them ready to be shipped out and sent off to somebody who really needs it.”
The Reddicks took a tour of the Philabundance facility, with its vast storage areas for boxed and canned dry goods, refrigerated produce and frozen items. They met with fellow volunteers. They took photos with fans and members of the long line of vans, trucks and community members who distribute the food collected by Philabundance each day.
Then they went to work on the assembly line, putting together the packages that are a literal lifeline for the less fortunate in the city.
“I’m very proud what Haason does on the field, but I am extremely proud of what he does off the field,” Raelakia Reddick said. “He is a football player, but I’m more proud of the things that he does off the field. It shows you, as a man, how he loves to give back in various ways. I’m very, very proud of him.”
The Chunky Sacks Hunger campaign has a long history across the country and with the Eagles in particular. Donovan McNabb and his mother were a part of the campaign. Jason, Travis and Donna Kelce are part of the current version of the effort.
The Reddicks might even make more sense for the collaboration. Like Campbell’s Soup itself, the Reddicks are Camden natives. Haason graduated from South Jersey’s Haddon Heights High School. Haason’s literal job is to sack quarterbacks. And Raelakia is a longtime employee of Campbell’s Soup.
“I did not imagine that I would be standing here right now in this position,” Raelakia Reddick said. “I’m actually still with Campbells but, no, I never imagined that this would be happening. I’m so happy that it is. I’m very excited about it. I definitely didn’t see this one coming.”
Haason Reddick has become a fixture on the area’s charitable season. As much as his days off are treasured, Reddick sees them as an opportunity to give back to the area.
“This is a wonderful thing,” Haason Reddick said. “It’s a beautiful thing to be here with my mom. She’s a big reason that I am who I am. To have her out here today helping me do something like this, helping her get involved in the causes that I like, it’s a wonderful thing. I’ve been blessed growing up and my mom was a big part of that.”
