DURHAM — Students at the N.C. School of Science and Math attempted to break the world record for the most food ever collected at a food drive Saturday.
As of 7 p.m., the drive collected 246,800 pounds of food, said Sue Anne Lewis, who works as a student life instructor at the high school and coordinated the event.
NCSSM will donate the food to the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina.
The current World Record remains at 509,147 pounds collected during a 24-hour period.
More than 500 students, parents, alumni and community volunteers collected food through individual donations brought directly to the school and donations from local companies and organizations.
NCSSM, a residential magnet high school in the UNC system, also held an online food drive in advance of the event, converting monetary donations into pounds of food the day of the food drive.
Lewis said the event developed out of a residence hall’s theme of world records.
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“If this generates some excitement to donate, then that’s all that matters,” she said.
Lewis said the school originally tried to break the world record for the most nerds in one place, but the Guinness World Records organization did not approve their request.
I think it’s because you can’t really quantify nerdiness,” said Maggie Clark, a senior at NCSSM, who volunteered at the food drive.
“This is a great way for Science and Math to give back to the community since we are paid for by taxpayer dollars,” said Clark, who has been accepted into UNC-CH for the fall, said.
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