With Thanksgiving coming up and Christmas right around the corner, students at the donated cans and non-perishable food items to the Covenant Soup Kitchen in Willimantic and the Manchester Area Council of Churches.
The largest donations came from where spectators brought in cans of food with their tickets raising over 1,500 cans. Overall, 2,531 cans were raised throughout the week and students competed with the cans raised to create structures which were judged by UConn staff.
The student organizations that competed against each other were the office of Community Outreach, Disney at UConn and HuskyTech, the student run technology service.
“We thought the contest would be a fun and interactive way to donate food,” said Jillian McCann a junior at UConn and the program director for MACC (Manchester Area Council of Churches).
The program was sponsored by the office of Community Outreach and run by students, McCann and Aseel Eid, a senior and program director for UConn’s Food Recovery program.
“It’s really rewarding to see such a good turnout from faculty, staff and students this year,” said Eid. “We raised almost three times the amount of cans this year than we’ve had in the past.”
The winning title went to HuskyTech for the iPhone 4 they made out of cans. “I’m happy we won,” said Jon Moore, the manager at HuskyTech. “But I’m mostly proud of the students for putting this together.”
