Beat Auburn Beat Hunger’s University of Alabama team is well on its way to beating Auburn but is still below its goal of collecting 250,000 pounds of food for the West Alabama Food Bank.
BABH Student Director Andres Mendieta said Alabama has raised 127,000 pounds of food to Auburn’s 100,000, but the University’s current total has yet to factor in money donations or barrels of donated food on and off campus and at Tuscaloosa schools. Each dollar donated will provide two pounds of food. BABH has until Friday, Nov. 16 to reach its goal.
“There is no limit to what we can raise,” Mendieta said. “We would love as many students and organizations to do can drives and anything else to help.”
BABH began in 1994 when the Community Service Center and the West Alabama Food Bank urged students, faculty, staff, alumni and community members to help “fight” hunger and poverty in West Alabama.
To do this, they challenged Auburn University and the Food Bank of East Alabama to see who could collect more non-perishable food to help the needy.
In the nine counties served by the West Alabama Food Bank, 61,056 families live below the poverty line.
Although BABH is run out of the Community Service Center, it is primarily student-led and organized.
Andrew McPhail, a UA senior and BABH food bank logistics chair, said the competition is a way to continue the work he began in high school.
“I volunteered at a food bank my senior year of high school,” McPhail said. “I started because I had to do it for community service. It turned into volunteering at the food bank three days a week. It turned something I had to do for community service into a passion.”
With their 250,000 pound goal, BABH hopes to surpass last year’s winning total of 237,079 pounds. The University has beaten Auburn four out of the last five years.
Haley Clemons, public relations director for the CSC, said the University has once again shown its support for the program.
“Everyone has been very supportive toward the efforts,” Clemons said. “It is a testament to the type of community we live in.”
Clemons said there is still time to contribute in the final week of the competition. Donation barrels are located around campus and the Tuscaloosa community, and students can text ‘BAMA’ to 27722 to donate $5 to the West Alabama Food Bank, which translates to 10 total pounds of food.
“We encourage everyone to get involved in one of our upcoming events and be a part of what we hope is another victory,” Clemons said.
