Campuses to duke it out through food drive

Two longtime rivals separated by one stretch of highway and two different shades of blue are set to face off again next weekend.

But for UNC and Duke University fans, the battle starts today, and the March 6 men’s basketball game will serve as the finale to a weeklong competition between the two campuses.

The Campus Y’s Beat Hunger, Beat Duke canned-food drive will collect nonperishable food items and monetary donations until next Friday for the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina.

“It’s hopefully going to be a lot bigger than last year,” said Campus Y President Elizabeth Sonntag. “We’re looking forward to it.”

To intensify the competition, Chancellor James Moeser challenged Duke President Richard Brodhead to a wager. The administrator whose school raises fewer canned donations must wear the opposing team’s clothing on that team’s campus.

Sonntag said she hopes that the chancellor’s support and the wager with Duke’s president will increase student involvement in the drive.

Last year, UNC defeated Duke in the third annual competition, collecting 10,366 cans of food and raising $2,250. Each dollar purchased three cans — a total of 17,116 cans.

Duke collected 318 cans and $4,705.55 in monetary donations, which was used to purchase a total of 14,435 cans.

But Pasha Majdi, student government president at Duke, said that even though the canned-food drive is scheduled to begin today, Duke already has placed a cap on its contributions.

“There was a cap on it at $10,000, and we raised that money in five or six days, three or four weeks ago,” Majdi said.

Majdi said that students use their food points to donate money for canned food and that they were forced to put a cap on it because of the generous support.

He said Duke students didn’t think of the competition as a rivalry between the two universities but instead as a fund-raiser to benefit the food bank.

“I find the whole thing kind of confusing,” Majdi said. “We did a canned-food drive, and then we heard about this competition. I don’t know whether we did this canned-food drive as a part of it or not.”

Sonntag said the food bank is pressed for donations this year because people chose to donate to other organizations, such as tsunami relief, and because of increased unemployment in the region.

“There are 375,000 people at risk for hunger in our service area, so every little bit helps,” said Anne Swain, special events and food drive coordinator of the food bank.

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.