By Natalie Ginos
The results are in and BYU had another successful competition with the University of Utah in collecting food and money donations from students, faculty and members of the community.
The BYU v. U of U Food Fight started on November 12 and continued through November 24. The food fight was a competition designed to see which school could collect more food and money donations for Community Actions Service and Food Bank. The goal of the food drive this year was to beat last year''s totals of 63,900 pounds of food and $13,700.
Both schools reached and surpassed the goal. BYU collected 104,100 pounds of food. The U of U fell short of BYU''s total with 81,000 pounds of food collected.
'The winner of the contest is the community,' said Curtis Isaak, advisor of the Student Alumni Association.
Isaak said it is good that BYU usually collects more pounds of food than money because the food collection includes more student involvement.
'We did really well on the gathering food,' Isaak said.
In the past BYU has always beaten the U of U at collecting food. However, the U of U always collects more money. Another goal of the food fight this year was to collect more money than the U. BYU came close, collecting over $20,000. However, the U collected over $25,000 in monetary donations.
Isaak said BYU out-did the money gathered last year. He said the reason the U of U usually collects more money is because they have a greater number of wealthy people donating.
Heather Hawkins, human resources vice president for the BYU Student Alumni Association, said she was nervous at the beginning of the food drive because there wasn''t a running total. She didn''t know how the end result would be, but she said it turned out 'very alright.'
'That''s more money than we''ve ever collected before,' Hawkins said.
She said something that made the drive successful was going door to door to collect food. There were many students who wanted to donate but forgot to bring food to campus. She said the students appreciated people coming to them to gather the food so they could still have an opportunity to donate.
'We''re looking to improve that next year,' Hawkins said.
Hawkins is happy for the members of the community who will benefit from the donations and she appreciates all who made donations, she said.
Myla Dutton, executive director of Community Actions Service and Food Bank, said the food and money collected would make a difference for the 1,500 families served by the center each month. She said the overall goal for the entire holiday season is to gather 800,000 pounds of food.
'It really does make a difference,' Dutton said.
She also said BYU has always done a good job in the past of collecting food. She said they put a lot of effort into making this a success.
'The Alumni Association is so committed, and so dedicated to this,' Dutton said.