By Shannon Young
Families in Utah County benefited by the tremendous amount of food donated by BYU during the food drive against the University of Utah.
'This year the students and the community together raised the most food that has ever been raised in the food drive by BYU or University of Utah,' said Troy Simpson, program administrator for the Alumni Association.
BYU collected 30,096 pounds of food and raised $10,236 compared to Utah''s 13,600 pounds of food and $12,000.
Simpson said there has been a controversy of who has actually won the food drive over the past few years. He would rather focus the attention on the community who receives the blessings of the food.
'The Alumni Association is not concerned who wins or loses, we are only concerned that we collect food to feed the hungry,' Simpson said.
He is thrilled to see the excitement of generating food for the community and the wonderful good it does.
The Alumni Association thanked the students for bringing the food and buying the Y marks, said Sam Glanzer, student alumni association president.
'Students did a great job,' Glanzer said. 'They stepped it up and came through in the end to push us over the canned foods donated last year to help the lives of the people in Utah County.'
The Alumni Association did not state who won the food drive after they received the final results from Utah.
'No matter how long it takes Utah to report their numbers and no matter how much they fudge them, for BYU it''s about donating food to the community,' Glanzer said. 'Let the numbers speak for themselves.'
Kim Gardner, student alumni association vice president said the increase in the number of cans shows the spirit of BYU students and their commitment to helping their community and looking outside themselves for opportunities to serve.
'I really was impressed,' Gardner said. 'Every can I picked up, I thought somebody had to either take this out of their cabinet, knock on somebody''s door, carry it all the way to campus and put it in the bin. It says a lot about a person who is willing to give without a reward.'
The Alumni Association encouraged students to continue to find opportunities to serve in the community.
'Even though the food drive is over, be on the look out for additional opportunities to serve in the community during this holiday season,' Gardner said.