In a last-ditch effort to support local food pantries this Thanksgiving, the Make a Play Foundation developed a sure-fire plan to get people involved: exploiting a heated college rivalry.
The organization's inaugural Thanksgiving Rivals Challenge: Food Fight ended Friday. Tallahassee won the head-to-head food drive competition against Gainesville.
Whether it was goodwill or team spirit, Gator and Seminole fans donated about 22,000 pounds of non-perishable food items at Publix stores in each city, said Alecia Pynn, the foundation's executive director.
Although Tallahassee won the competition, Gainesville participants still managed to donate almost 7,000 pounds of canned goods and nearly $1,200 in a little more than a week, Pynn said.
All donations will remain in their respective cities, she said.
Deborah Talbot, development coordinator for the Bread of the Mighty Food Bank, which the competition benefited, said a year of inflated food prices and national economic crises has taken a toll on local charities.
By the end of October, the food bank's shelves were nearly empty. But a surge of donations in November made it possible to send 400 holiday food boxes to needy families in Alachua County, Talbot said.
Part of that surge came from UF's second annual Chomp Out Hunger food drive, which collected 800 pounds of canned goods from competing student organizations between Nov. 17 and Nov. 21.
The Student Finance Group donated the most with 263 pounds, said Matt Kaufmann and Rishabh Das, the food drive's coordinators.
Chomp Out Hunger was sponsored by Students in Free Enterprise and counted toward UF's total in the Make a Play Foundation's Food Fight.
Both organizations said they plan to hold the competition again next year.
