LSU and the University of South Carolina competed in a “food fight” to raise food and money donations for each university’s food pantry during homecoming week.
Jennifer Cristina, Campus Life’s manager of operations and the LSU Food Pantry, said that in addition to the SEC Food Fight in the spring, which includes all 16 SEC schools, most universities also have a one-on-one rivalry with another in-state school. LSU did not have an in-state rival, so Cristina said she reached out to South Carolina, who also did not have a one-on-one competition planned.
The two universities collected food and money from Oct. 1-12. Each food item donated equaled one point and each dollar donated equaled one point.
LSU volunteers placed donation bins for food all around campus. The pantry encouraged donations like canned meat, canned vegetables, peanut butter, jelly, pasta and pasta sauces. For monetary donations, South Carolina hosted a donation page that kept track of how much each school had raised.
The Food Pantry heavily relies on volunteer work.
“The volunteers are the backbone of our food pantry,” said Kate Russell, the pantry’s graduate assistant. “Without them, we do not have enough manpower to fully operate just with our student staff.”
Every morning, volunteers assist on food runs to local grocery stores like Walmart, Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods. They help unload items, weigh and sort the food as well as stock the pantry shelves and fridges. Volunteers also help oversee the pantry and check out the shoppers, Russell explained.
Another Food Pantry graduate assistant, Jacqueline Boyd, emphasized the pantry’s need for volunteers.
“We switched to a different, more volunteer-heavy system this year,” Boyd said. “We’re focusing on training a reliable set of volunteers that will take initiative.”
Russell said as a graduate assistant she is in charge of outreach and training volunteers. Outreach includes partnerships like Friends of the Pantry or Pantry Pals. Friends of the Pantry is for anyone who wants to be a part of the community built around the Food Pantry. Pantry Pals is for student organizations that want to partner with the pantry.
Boyd manages the Food Pantry’s operations and logistics. This includes overseeing the food runs, ensuring that everything is stocked and weighing and tracking donations.
The pantry also has some student director positions under the graduate assistants, Boyd said. Each position had a role in making the Homecoming Food Fight happen.
Cristina said that the pantry volunteers and staff began counting the food donations Monday and reported back to South Carolina Tuesday. LSU raised $15,484 for the pantry and donated 17,883 food items. These donations, plus 226 tallied volunteer hours, earned LSU 33,593 points in total. South Carolina earned 53,738 points.
While LSU always strives to be number one, Cristina said both schools ended up winning this particular competition by fighting hunger.
“We were excited to partner with South Carolina to promote both schools and try this whole thing out together,” Cristina said.
