UA Collects 630,624 Pounds Of Food For Annual Beat Auburn Beat Hunger Drive

TUSCALOOSA, AL — The University of Alabama’s Beat Auburn Beat Hunger campaign says it collected a record 630,624 pounds of food this year that will go toward helping feed families across West Alabama this holiday season.

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This year's total was announced Friday morning during a celebration at the West Alabama Food Bank after the friendly contest ran from Oct. 3 to Nov. 20.

Combined with Auburn University’s Beat Bama Food Drive, which gathered 648,305 pounds, the in-state rivals raised more than 1.2 million pounds of food during the annual competition.

“We worked so hard this year and added so many new things and it really paid off,” said CC Hahn, president of Beat Auburn Beat Hunger.

All donations from UA’s drive go directly to the West Alabama Food Bank, which serves Bibb, Fayette, Greene, Hale, Lamar, Marion, Pickens, Sumter and Tuscaloosa counties.

The West Alabama Food Bank cited Feeding America, which estimates that one in six Alabamians — including one in five children — face food insecurity.

In the West Alabama Food Bank's service area, local rates range from 15% to 31%, which is far above the national rate of 12.7%.

The West Alabama Food Bank says it will convert donations from the Beat Auburn Beat Hunger campaign into meals for families throughout the holiday season and beyond.

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