The Auburn Tigers didn’t just squeak out a win in Bryant-Denny Stadium this year. Auburn raised enough cans of food to end Alabama’s three-year winning streak in the Beat Auburn Beat Hunger food drive.
The total amount of donated goods increased from last year. This year, Alabama raised 218,510 pounds of food while Auburn gathered 234,116 pounds.
“My expectation was to increase donations from last year and get back over the 200,000 pound mark,” said Hillary Moore, UA Community Service Center public relations and marketing director. “I’m very proud of the job our directors did. We always want to beat Auburn, but the most important part is collecting as much as we can. We increased our totals by more than 20 percent over last year’s numbers.”
The 17th annual Beat Auburn Beat Hunger Food Drive, sponsored by the Community Service Center, kicked off on Oct. 11 and ended on Nov. 22. All of the goods raised by Alabama will go to the West Alabama Food Bank, which serves food stamps and soup kitchens in a nine-county area, Moore said.
“The 218,000 pounds of food we raised speaks volumes as to the level of commitment and support from the University and its supporters,” said Rob Maxwell, co-director of Beat Auburn Beat Hunger. “While we didn’t ‘win,’ we raised a lot more than last year at a time when charitable giving in the United States has reached historic lows.
All of the donations from Auburn will go to the East Alabama Food Bank.
“We’re thrilled,” said Karla DeBrunner, office manager for the East Alabama Food Bank. “Nearly 7 percent of Alabama households have gone hungry at some point during the last year… We have lots of need for food distribution, and obviously 234,116 pounds is a lot of food.”
UA students made contributions at multiple donation stations that were set up around campus. Many students participated through on-campus organizations they are involved in.
UA and AU students wanted to beat each other for the pleasure of beating their rival. However, students did not forget what was most important.
“I was expecting us to win,” said Miesha Hill, a UA sophomore majoring in exercise and sports science. “I’m always going for our team. But it just didn’t go our way this year. I think it was a good outcome. Even though we didn’t win I still think it was for a good cause. I just wanted to give back to the people who don’t have as much as we do.”
Quentin Torbert, a freshman business major at Auburn, said that she was a fan of good competitions.
“I am so glad Auburn won the food drive,” Torbert said. “I think friendly competitions like these help promote good, clean sports. Best of all, unfortunate families in the area get to benefit by getting meals. Although Auburn won the food competition, I think the real winners are the people who the food goes to. I think the whole Bama versus AU food drive is a very clever idea because it gets students pumped to donate. We wanted to really beat Alabama, so we were motivated even more to drop a few cans in the barrel.”
While UA students didn’t win this year, they hope to take back the crown in 2011.
“I hope that the UA community will really come out and support the drive again,” Moore stated. “It would be great to see student organizations compete with each other to see who can raise more food.”
The drive has been going on for 17 years. Since 1994, Alabama and Auburn have combined to donate over 2.5 million pounds of food.
