The Big Four ACC Canned Food Drive took place Feb. 1 – March 1 in spirit of March Madness.

The effort was a competition to collect food cans to replenish local food banks.

The competitors were N.C. State, UNC-Chapel Hill, Wake Forest University and Duke University. The winner was declared based on the university that collected the most donations (per capita), deeming UNC-CH the winner. “I’m absolutely thrilled that we won. Carolina has a uniquely socially-minded spirit, and it’s the reason that organizations like Nourish International and Dance Marathon flourish,” Seke Ballard, senior in business administration and leader of the effort at UNC-CH, said.

“As the largest student organization on campus, the Campus Y is one other example of how pervasive the idea of giving back is at Carolina. We have as our mission ‘the Pursuit of Social Justice through the Cultivation of Pluralism.” The purpose of this project was “to start something among ACC schools in North Carolina to help the community,” Bobby Mills, a freshman in political science and economics, and director of the effort, said.

According to Mills, an initiative called Feed Raleigh was present in the past, but had not been active in the past four years.

Mills said he hopes the project, introduced in an ACC leadership conference, will expand in efforts next year and in years to come with participation from other ACC schools, he said. As with projects like these, the leaders agree that public relations, marketing and overall organization were the hardest parts of the project.

“You can build it and they will come, but they need to know about it,” Mills said. In the years to come, he said he hopes that through easily accessible and popular tools to college students, such as AIM and Facebook, more people will know about the event and interest will increase.

To increase participation this year, each school provided small incentives for participants, such as various types of raffles. “Marketing was our main problem area, and the lack thereof was simply due to the larger lack of logistical infrastructure. With planning for the canned food drive now in place, more time is available for advertising, making next year’s event much easier to publicize,” Richard Cox, Jr., leader of the effort at Wake Forest and a senior in English and Spanish, said. At the end of the effort, N.C. State had collected 16,118.90 pounds, Duke – 21,875 pounds, UNC – 30,850 and Wake Forest – 6,451. Despite Carolina’s win, the other schools say they are not discouraged. “Wake Forest will participate next year and for years to come. Our university motto, ‘Pro Humanitate’ (for humanity) strongly influences the character of our student body as well as the individuals and organizations that volunteer tirelessly throughout our community and the world,” Cox said. “As with so many other service projects, we expect the Big Four ACC Canned Food Drive to only gain attraction and clout among students, alumni and fans throughout the Wake Forest community.” Mills said this project is a good way to help people break away from their stereotypical image of the partying, drinking college student. The project increased the rivalry among the schools, but Ballard said there is another side to it as well.

“This competition, like almost anything between the schools, increases the rivalry. What’s funny, however, is that in increasing the rivalry, we’ve also increased the bond,” Ballard said.

He pointed to students at N.C. ACC schools as being happier to see other N.C. ACC schools win if the competition extends to all ACC schools next year.

“It’s almost like the relationship I have with my brother. We’ll fight internally, but we’re unified externally,” Ballard said. The time and effort spent on this project produced satisfying results to the organizers, but they also said there is room for improvement.

The recipients of the canned foods are the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina and the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina.

ACC Corporate Food Partner played a hand in supplying each school with canned food from the received monetary donations.

Various groups on all the campuses played vital roles in this endeavor, as did many local community groups. “Our goal was to surpass last year’s total which was roughly 62,000 pounds. Unfortunately, we didn’t reach our goal and I hope that next year we’re able to overcome some of the obstacles that prevented us from doing as well this year,” Ballard said.