By: John David Barnett
Student Involvement Student Writer
Auburn University celebrated the 30th anniversary of its largest student-run organization’s famous annual food drive. Beat Bama Food Drive (BBFD) is a service juggernaut, making profound waves in the surrounding community. The bulk of the organization’s time is spent preparing for the prominent food drive, which puts Auburn and Alabama head-to-head in a race to see who can raise the most donations. The central goal of the drive is to fight food insecurity within Auburn’s community and the surrounding areas, and the culmination of both universities’ efforts came together at the annual donation reveal on November 17, 2023.
November 17 marked the day Auburn crossed the finish line of the 30th annual food drive victorious. This Iron Bowl of service saw Auburn and Alabama raise a collective 1,013,451 pounds of food. Donations from Auburn made up 686,807 of those pounds, far exceeding the 516,611 pounds raised last year. BBFD reached their bank-breaking goal showing Auburn what a community can do when it comes together.
The passion that goes behind such an impactful project is valuable, and deserving of a closer look at how it all is accomplished. This milestone year offered the perfect chance to look at the organization’s 30-year evolution and its current thriving state. The Office of Student Involvement had a chance to speak to a couple of leaders within BBFD before the drive ended, and they offered key insight into the culture and growth of BBFD.
Jackson Wells, a sophomore in biomedical sciences on the pre-med track and VP of Marketing and Communication for BBFD, spoke about the huge milestone. “This is our big 30th drive, and we are pushing that really hard,” Wells said. “It’s been 30 amazing years of working with the Food Bank of East Alabama and Auburn’s community to fight food insecurity.”
This year, BBFD pushed their purpose with the help of a new theme: YES WE CAN. “For a canned food drive, I guess it’s a little tongue-in-cheek,” Wells said. “But it’s really important to keep this ‘yes we can’ mentality. The Auburn Family can come together and fight this battle against food insecurity, despite all the odds.”
BBFD has grown exponentially since its founding in 1994, standing alongside the University of Alabama’s Beat Auburn, Beat Hunger (BABH). Wells described how BBFD was “sort of a special project within SGA’s Cabinet” at first and now it’s “the largest organization on campus” with a team of over 600 people. “Just in my perspective from last year to this year, we’ve skyrocketed,” Wells said. “We’ve beaten the [AU donation] record three years in a row and we’re looking to beat it again this year.”
Justin King, senior in law and justice and BBFD’s President, added that the organization’s growth has been “like a bird leaving its nest.”
In the organization’s first 29 years, BBFD has collected over 4 million pounds of food for families struck by food insecurity. The Food Bank of East Alabama serves a significant region of including seven nearby counties, and because of BBFD’s constant donation efforts, this region has had a dependable line of support for decades.
That support continued even through the hardships of the pandemic. King, who was a freshman during the 2020-21 academic year, talked about how in-person event limitations were a challenge that year.
“The thing about food insecurity is it doesn’t stop when things like that happen,” King said. “If anything, it gets worse.” Despite the limited roles on campus organizations could play during the pandemic, BBFD held strong for its community and continues to set higher standards for itself each year.
In its 30th year, BBFD has set the bar for student-run service organizations across campus and across the state of Alabama. The seven-week-long drive kicked off on September 29 and ran full throttle since until it’s final day on November 16. BBFD has held several engaging events on the concourse since kickoff, almost too many to count.
Their Dunk on Hunger event gave students the opportunity to send their favorite campus leaders into a chilly plunge with an accurate throw. BBFD’s Cow Day celebrated National Agriculture Day on the concourse, and means of celebration was found in one of their brave team members dawning an inflatable cow costume to spread joy and laughter. Finally, the debut of BBFD’s brand-new can-shaped mascot, Canny, captured the attention of every student who passed by. With events like these and more, BBFD managed to continually impress the student body. In return, they hoped the student body could add to the growing pool of donations.
One of the largest contributions to the hype surrounding the drive each year is the competitive aspect. Since the drive’s founding, BBFD has partnered with the University of Alabama to make what would be a simple food drive into a competitive race, vying for the bragging rights of raising the most donations. Getting a win in the Iron Bowl of service is certainly something to be proud of. “Obviously you hope for a victory,” King said. “But that’s not what it’s all about.”
Each university’s respective food bank holds their own donation reveal, where the school and community can see how many pounds of food they raised. This climactic donation reveal is a moment the Iron Bowl walls fall down, the schools celebrate their hard work and members can see the direct result of the drive’s efforts.
“We go to the food bank, sit with their staff, and they’ll read out the amount of food raised by both us and Bama,” King described. “You can see and feel the impact of everyone’s combined efforts throughout the year that day.”
“Being in the food bank and seeing the pound total increase number by number,” Wells said. “Seeing the food actually get distributed and into people’s hands; it’s my favorite part.”
This moment of celebration BBFD enjoys each year has only been possible because of the dedicated and driven team behind the face of the project. While the drive is just seven weeks, the rest of the year is spent with planning and preparedness at the forefront. BBFD has even participated in opportunities outside of their normal drive, keeping the team busy year-round.
A recent effort that has engaged campus food pantries and student service organizations across the South Eastern Conference, has been the SEC Food Fight. The Food Fight, which Auburn has won for the past three years, is a joint drive of participating SEC universities held in the spring semester.
The Auburn Campus Food Pantry has enlisted the help of BBFD in spreading awareness and collecting donations for the Food Fight. While BBFD isn’t the exclusive donation collector for this drive, King described BBFD’s participation as a “practice” for what they do in the fall. The transition of their team and members from year to year falls not long before the Food Fight, offering BBFD an opportunity to build comradery with one another and exercise their service muscles.
The drive’s conclusion on November 16, and the reveal on the following day, marked another successful year of BBFD giving their everything for the community. Food insecurity is and will continue to be a serious problem in the future, and it’s a difficult thing to combat. However, just like Wells said, “The Auburn Family can come together and fight this battle against food insecurity, despite all the odds.” This mentality, emphasized by BBFD’s “yes we can” motto, gives Auburn the hope that BBFD will thrive and grow for years to come.
Photos: Elaina Eichorn | AUinvolve & Noah Hinton Photography