The University of Alabama's Beat Auburn, Beat Hunger Food Drive collected about 50,000 more pounds of food than Auburn's Beat Bama Food Drive in the 25th installment of the annual Iron Bowl-themed food drive competition.
The University of Alabama students collected 309,194 pounds for the Food Bank of West Alabama, and the Auburn campaign collected 255,196 pounds for the Food Bank of East Alabama, amounting to the highest total in the competition's history.
"We are so thankful for everyone’s participation and that collectively Beat Bama and Beat Auburn Food Drives raises the MOST POUNDS OF FOOD EVER with 565,110 POUNDS OF FOOD!!" Beat Bama Food Drive posted on Facebook.
Auburn's total this year was the university's second-highest total in program history.
“Collectively, we raised 565,110 pounds to feed the state of Alabama,” said Martha Henk, executive director of the Food Bank of East Alabama. “There are only winners in this effort.”
The final results of the competition, which ended Thursday, were announced Friday afternoon.
The campaigns also factor in how much money was raised into the final results. Each dollar is equivalent to about two pounds of food.
The University Of Alabama's Beat Auburn, Beat Hunger Food Drive has won two years in a row. Auburn last won the competition in 2016. In total, Auburn has won 13 of 25 years. Alabama has won 12 years.
The two teams are celebrating the 25th year of the competition. They kicked off this year's event with a press conference on the steps of the State Capitol with Gov. Kay Ivey, an Auburn graduate, earlier this fall.
Besides the joint press conference, the two schools have been working on a joint video, a 25-year graphic and have made a collaborative website, which shows the competition's service-oriented nature, the program's adviser, Robert Powers, said earlier this year.
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