Our 7th Annual Food Fight Against Hunger has finished! SAL chapters from around the country joined together to make a difference by feeding the hungry in their local communities through food drives. For the previous six years, SAL members had collected over 112,000 non-perishable food items and had raised approximately $40,000 to combat hunger.
SAL utilizes the Feeding America (www.feedingamerica.org) food bank locator to identify local organizations where chapters can donate their collected items and also volunteer by serving meals or stocking food pantry shelves as a group. Chapters worked so hard this year to collect 5,592 items and raise over $702 to fight hunger all across this country and, for one chapter, internationally too. Every item collected and every dollar raised makes a huge difference! Feeding America’s website says that $1 can feed 11 people. That means that this year, our monetary donations alone fed 7,722 people. According to FFA’s Hunger Math website’s formula, our items collected fed 4,660 people. Altogether this year, SAL members were able to provide 12,382 meals! SAL members, you are making a HUGE difference!
The winners for this year are:
Small Chapter: El Centro College
Medium Chapter: Virginia Tech
Large Chapter: Clemson University
Fundraising Chapter: Murray State University
Honorable mentions based on effort and creativity go to University of Louisville and University of Oklahoma.
The majority of chapters did a fantastic job utilizing chapter meetings as a time for members to drop off donations. University of Iowa, University of Alabama Birmingham, and Virginia Tech took advantage of Halloween by going out to Trick-or-Can. Virginia Tech also hosted a Friendsgiving dinner for SAL members and friends to bring donations. Clemson University utilized Greek Life connections and created a way for a sorority to earn service points by donating to SAL’s food drive. They also went out into the neighborhoods around the university to ask for donations by leaving bags with letters explaining our food drive. They went around another day to collect the filled bags. Western Illinois University took their food drive to the neighborhoods in the community as well.
University of Louisville hosted a percentage night at Buffalo Wild Wings and offered a very creative “Pie a Presidential Candidate” event where SAL members dressed up in Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton attire and masks. People passing by could pay to pie one of the candidates in the face. Brave members at East Carolina University let other students pay to pie them in the face (unmasked). Both schools were incredibly successful in their food drive.
Florida International University gave SAL members a rice bowl to collect money in for a month. The money raised was sent to feed hungry children living in Africa. Emporia State University held a bake sale to collect donations and the University of Georgia sold donuts. California State University Fresno, in addition to caroling for cans, tabled outside of a local supermarket. Murray State University, University of North Carolina Wilmington, and University of Oklahoma were a few of the chapters who did the same.
Cassidy Wion, University of Oklahoma’s Chapter President, summed up the FFAH campaign well: “This event was a huge success in our eyes as we were able to bring joy to others during the holiday season. Food Fight continues to be the event that every SAL member and officer is excited to participate in each year.”
Thank you to all of the following schools for your participation:
Small Chapters (1-150)
East Carolina University – 266 items
El Centro College – 1471 items
Murray State University – 434 items
New Mexico State University – 236 items
Purdue University – 207 items
University of Iowa – 152 items
Western Illinois University – 62 items
Medium Chapters (151-250)
Arizona State University – 10 items
Binghamton University – 45 items
California State University Fresno – 127 items
Eastern Michigan University – 13 items
Emporia State University – 289 items
Kansas State University – 10 items
Northern Arizona University
University of Alabama Birmingham – 104 items
University of Louisville – 187 items
University of Maryland Baltimore County – 51 items
University of North Carolina Wilmington – 38 items
University of Oklahoma – 351 items
University of Pittsburgh – 15 items
University of Southern Mississippi – 10 items
University of Texas Arlington – 217 items
University of Wisconsin Whitewater – 112 items
Virginia Tech – 417 items
Large Chapters (251+)
Clemson University – 420 items
Colorado State University – 98 items
Rowan University – 69 items
Texas Tech University – 123 items
University of Louisiana Lafayette – 32 items
University of South Florida – 26 items
Fundraising
Binghamton University – $123
East Carolina University – $38
Murray State University – $257
University of Alabama Birmingham – $30
University of Georgia – $28.54
University of Louisville – $221
University of Southern Mississippi – $5
