Sodexho plans to break world record for food drive

Pitt students and faculty can fight the war against hunger and help Sodexho earn a spot in the… Pitt students and faculty can fight the war against hunger and help Sodexho earn a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records at the same time today.

Cans Across America, a food drive run by Sodexho, will be held from 12:01 a.m. to 11:59 p.m, in all Pitt dining facilities.

The goal of Cans Across America is to beat the official Guinness World Record for the most non-perishable food donated in a 24-hour period. The previous record of 221,028.85 pounds of food was held by the Regina District Food Bank in Regina, the capital of Saskatchewan, Canada.

The event, organized by the national Sodexho Foundation, was started in 2006.

Last year, the nation-wide college campus dining facility fell just short of its goal to collect more than 221,028.85 pounds of food. Todd Shoenberger, director of operations for Sodexho Dining Services, said that Pitt contributed $700 worth of food to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank last year.

“Smaller universities try to contribute about 500 pounds of food,” Kim Workman, the marketing director for Sodexho’s Pitt office, said. “I set the goal of 1,500 to 2,000 pounds for this year.”

During the Cans Across America event, every dining facility on campus will have bins available for students and University employees and faculty members accepting donated canned goods.

The checkout registers will also accept Dining Dollar, Panther Fund, credit card and cash donations for people who can’t run out to a grocery store for food but still wish to donate, Workman said.

At the end of the food drive Sodexho takes an amount of canned goods out of its storerooms equivalent in price to the amount of money donated. Sodexho will sort the canned goods that were donated throughout the day and send the food to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, Workman said.

The food bank then distributes the food to 380 member agencies in 11 Western Pennsylvania counties, said Iris Valanti, the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank’s public relations coordinator.

The actual weight of the food is calculated into the monetary amount of food collected. The weight of any additional packaging does not go into Sodexho’s total amount of pounds donated, Workman said.

Although Sodexho donates all perishable food that was not purchased by students at the end of each day to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, Workman hopes that the 24-hour food drive will urge students to donate to those who are less fortunate.

“It’s the holiday season,” Workman said. “You read articles on families who don’t have enough food. If you can help a family fill their pantry this Christmas, it’s a good thing.”

The world record appears to have already been broken on Oct. 22. According to the website for the Regina Leader-Post, the Canadian city of Winnipeg in the neighboring province of Manitoba beat Regina’s efforts by collecting 176 tons, or 352,000 pounds, of food in its 24-hour food drive.

How did Sodexho respond to the news?

“We’ll beat that,” Shoenberger said.