The University of Alabama's Beat Auburn Beat Hunger campaign has won the 18th annual food drive competition over Auburn, beating the Tigers by a record six-digit margin.
UA students, alumni, fans and members of the Tuscaloosa community donated 237,079 pounds of food to the West Alabama Food Bank, while Auburn University's Beat Bama Food Drive collected 134,102 pounds of food for the East Alabama Food Bank.The win marks the 8th time Alabama has collected more food than Auburn. Auburn has won the competition 10 times since it began in 1994. Alabama raised its third-highest amount of food in the history of the drive, falling short of a record 270,913 pounds raised by UA in 2008.
Charlotte Brown, a UA student and Beat Auburn Beat Hunger director, said the drive was helped by momentum from the energy of football fans and community members.
"Alabama and the entire Tuscaloosa community was excited this year about our football season and we had all come out strong from the recent tornadoes and gathered together behind one goal as a community," Brown said. "I think both of those combined to help push donations this year."
The UA Community Service Center sponsored the drive and held several events between the beginning of the competition on Oct. 10 and the end on Friday. Brown said a 5K race held for the first time had more than 200 participants.
"We had a number of student organizations that took initiative in collecting cans -- I would be willing to say the highest participation of student organizations," Brown said. "The Greek community really came out and showed their support, and the SGA, but every student organization in between really put forth a lot of effort in collecting cans this year."
Brown shared one statistic that makes a connection between the results of the food drive competition and the big game between the Tide and Tigers.
"13 out of the 17 years, the school that won the food drive went on to win the Iron Bowl," Brown said. "So we got our victory with the food drive and we're hoping for a victory on the field Saturday."
Beat Auburn Beat Hunger placed donation barrels for nonperishable food items on the UA campus and across Tuscaloosa during the competition. Monetary donations, counted as two pounds for every dollar raised, were collected at the Community Service Center, at Bama Dining locations, online at Beat Auburn Beat Hunger's website and via text.
"We're just so thrilled at the number of pounds raised, and we have every community member, student, alumni, everyone to thank for it because it could not have been done without the help of everyone who contributed, even in the slightest bit," Brown said. "They made it the total that it was."
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