Beat Bama Food Drive continually takes down Auburn's biggest rival, while simultaneously fighting to end food insecurity. BBFD brought home the bacon in a two-week-long drive competing against other SEC schools from March 31 to April 13.
According to BBFD President Justin King, "BBFD rose to the challenge, and hosted eight events to raise funds and awareness for the Auburn University Campus Food Pantry. Events included the ‘Inaugural Beat Bama Boutique’, two benefit nights at local restaurants, a Pickleball Tournament and Neighborhood Can Drive plus more."
Schools that participated in this drive included Texas A&M University, the University of Alabama, the University of Georgia, the University of Kentucky, the University of South Carolina, the University of Tennessee, the University of Missouri, the University of Mississippi and the University of Texas.
Not every SEC school participated "due to timing and/or capacity to facilitate the competition." However, King said they look forward to growing the competition in the future.
Sarah Grace Kaschak is the coordinator for Auburn Cares and directly oversees the Campus Food Pantry. The Campus Food Pantry partnered with BBFD during the SEC Food Fight where the donations and food raised went directly to the University's pantry.
"We reached out to them for the first SEC Food Fight and asked for their support because they really are experts at what they do," Kaschak said about BBFD.
Kaschak said that the SEC Food Fight is also a really fun way for people from the community to get involved that may not know about the food pantry otherwise.
Auburn hosted the SEC Food Fight the past two years.
King described that hosting the SEC Food Fight gave Auburn the responsibility to coordinate the communication between all schools, organize Zoom meetings, share marketing and collection strategies and work with all of the teams to ensure success on their campuses.
Collectively, the SEC Food Fight raised over 113,000 items and dollars benefitting campus food pantries across the SEC.
Jackson Wells, freshman in biomedical science, is the VP of communications and marketing for BBFD. He attributed Auburn's continued success in the SEC Food Fight to "the generosity of the Auburn family and Auburn students that wanted to give back."
"There's a points system that totals up pounds of food and money brought in, and whoever has the most points at the end of the two weeks wins," Wells said.
Auburn alone collected 72,849 points throughout the two weeks it was held.
The second highest amount of points raised was from the University of South Carolina with 14,638 points, meaning Auburn nearly quintupled the second highest scoring school.
Auburn has won the SEC Food Fight three years in a row, and BBFD is already looking forward to next year.
Kaschak said the SEC Food Fight is an annual event and BBFD is looking to see if another school would host next year's event.
"If not, I think Beat Bama is on board to host again," Kaschak said. "They know how to do it now and could probably do it in their sleep. We're very lucky for them."
Wells mentioned that BBFD will be at Camp War Eagle to recruit incoming freshman and will also start releasing information about their main event in the fall over the summer. Their slogan going into the main event is, "Auburn: yes we can."
Wells urged students that want to get involved with BBFD to check out their Instagram page, @beatbamafooddrive.
"We are honored to be a vessel for the Auburn community to pour into our campus and provide such flourishing support and resources," King said. "Furthermore, I would like to thank every member of BBFD for their immense passion in the fight against food insecurity on our campus and beyond."
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Harlee Meydrech, senior in public relations with a minor in business, is the assistant managing editor at The Auburn Plainsman.
