The Food Bank of East Alabama has kicked off its annual Beat ‘Bama Food Drive, which will run until Nov. 17.
Martha Henk, the food bank’s executive director, said its supplies are depleted and many food banks across the country are also seeing empty shelves.
“All food banks across the United States are really experiencing this severe declining aid with rising inflation, with the higher cost of groceries, with higher costs for transportation and fuel and also with less of this support from federal aid that we got during the pandemic,” she said.
Through this food drive, Henk is hoping to receive support from the community to help replenish its shelves, and of course to beat ‘Bama.
In Alabama, 1 in 5 residents is considered “food insecure.” This food drive helps address this issue and provides Thanksgiving and Christmas meals for families who struggle with food insecurity.
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“We have high hopes that this drive will bring in food for the holiday season and beyond,” Henk said.
The food bank received its first donation on Friday from Gov. Kay Ivey during the kickoff event in Montgomery.
“One of the things that I really do appreciate about this drive is that there’s absolutely no losers in it at all—it’s all winners,” Henk said. “With rivals coming together, we can do something pretty tremendous.”
For the past 28 years, Auburn University and the University of Alabama have competed with each other prior to the Iron Bowl game to see who could raise the most food for their local food bank.
This competition was founded by Craig Young, former director of the West Alabama Food Bank, who saw a way to put the intense competition between Auburn and Alabama to good use.
Henk said the drive, which began as a “small-scale” event, has grown into one of the largest food drives in the state. Since the competition started, the two food banks have collected more than 6.3 million meals, or about 333 tractor-trailer loads.
Last year, Auburn took the win over Alabama and set a new record by collecting 352,389 pounds of food. The previous record was held by Alabama with 319,437 pounds.
In total, last year’s food drive brought in 671,826 pounds of food, which is equivalent to 516,790 meals.
The Beat ‘Bama Food Drive student team has set a goal to collect 400,000 pounds of food this year.
The most needed items include canned items including fruits and vegetables, meat, beans and soup, as well as cereal, whole-grain pasta and rice, peanut butter and paper products.
Items needed for infants and children include diapers, wipes, formula, infant cereal, fruit cups, granola bars, crackers and juice boxes. Senior citizens are in need of nutritional shakes and drinks and adult hygiene products.
All donated food will be used to help with the senior programs, soup kitchens, emergency food pantries, missions and rehabilitation centers that are served by the Food Bank of East Alabama and the West Alabama Food Bank.
Collection barrels for non-perishable food items have been set up at the following locations:
Winn-Dixie: South College Street in Auburn and Fox Run Parkway in Opelika
Sam’s Club in Auburn
Kroger: At Auburn and Opelika stores
Food Bank of East Alabama in Auburn
Community Market in Opelika
Auburn University campus: Numerous locations
Produce including eggs, milk and fresh fruit and vegetables can be dropped off at the Food Bank of East Alabama.
Henk said the food bank is also in need of volunteers to sort the donated food. Volunteers can sign up on the organization’s website at foodbankofeastalabama.com.