Alabama wins food drive

For the first time since 1999, the University has topped Auburn University in the annual Beat Auburn Beat Hunger Food Drive competition, raising 241,336 pounds of food - beating Auburn's 183,017 pounds.

The West Alabama Food Bank announced the results Friday morning.

Wilesha Taylor, public relations coordinator for the Community Service Center, said hearing the news was exciting after waiting for so long.

"I think it's a good feeling because [the University and Auburn] have all come together and achieved the goal of not only raising 400,000 pounds, but raising even more for the community," Taylor said.

Lindsay Griffith, a senior majoring in psychology and Spanish and a student coordinator for the food drive, said when she found out about the victory, she was thrilled.

"We were all so excited Friday [when we found out] just because it has been so long, and the fact that we won by kind of a lot makes us just thrilled," Griffith said.

She said that this year they received much more community and student participation than they have in the past.

"I don't know if it's because we've lost for so long," she said. "But especially the last day we were getting donations from places we hadn't even contacted about it."

She said as coordinator for the event she started working as early as possible, which may have contributed to the success.

"Even though we can only collect food during that month, we contacted a lot of people before," she said.

Griffith also said a lot of the local schools got involved. She said the drive received a lot more interest from elementary schools, middle schools and high schools than it has received in the past.

"This year we offered a pep rally [to the winning school] with Big Al and Alabama athletes," she said.

Griffith said the winner will be determined once they are able to go through the results of who donated and how much they gave.

The Beat Auburn Beat Hunger Food Drive, which was created 14 years ago, has been an annual "fight" against Auburn University and the East Alabama Food Bank. It is sponsored by the Community Service Center, the SGA and the West Alabama Food Bank.

The event takes place during the four weeks leading up to the Iron Bowl football game between the University and Auburn.

According to a press release, the University and Auburn University have raised more than 1.2 million pounds of food since the event was created in 1994.

The University and Tuscaloosa area beat last years' donations of 150,414 pounds - nearly 91,000 pounds more.

Last year, Auburn beat the University by raising 172,492 pounds.

Valerie Phillips, the Community Service Center director, said in a press release the CSC is proud to have this tradition as one of its signature projects.

"The Community Service Center thanks all student organizations, UA offices and departments, professors, staff members, local businesses, local schools, civic organizations and religious organizations who helped to make holiday meals possible for many needy families in West Alabama," she said.