University Times

Pitt and Carnegie Mellon University haven’t played each other at football since 1943, when the Panthers shut out the Tartans, but CMU has been winning at another game for the last 24 years, all by itself — staff council food drives.

The University of Pittsburgh Staff Council hopes to end that streak by holding its first food drive Oct. 30-Nov. 14, creating a friendly council-to-council competition to see which university can bring in the most food and monetary donations for the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.

“We’re really excited to be a part of this quest this year,” said Staff Council President Andy Stephany at the group’s Oct. 18 meeting.

Monetary donations will be accepted via the competition’s CrowdRise page and food donations will be collected in blue donation barrels located in key campus locations, including Benedum Hall, the Cathedral of Learning, Salk Hall, Craig Hall and the William Pitt Union. Departments may also request their own smaller food boxes for collections by contacting Robyne Ivory, co-chair of the external relations committee, by email at robynel@pitt.edu.

Together, the universities hope to raise $10,000 for the cause.

Food bank community fundraising coordinator Kate Laubacher, who spoke at the meeting, noted that her organization distributes almost 33 million meals’ worth of food every year throughout 11 Southwestern Pennsylvania counties. Half of their clients are children and seniors, she said, with hunger affecting one in seven families in the region.

Laubacher said that the most in-demand items include non-perishables like diapers, laundry detergent, paper products, pasta and sauce, dried or canned beans, peanut butter, rice and instant mashed potatoes.

While the food bank gathers food from grocery stores, farms and other donors, cash contributions go the furthest, she added: Even a $1 donation allows the agency to distribute five meals.

New Executive Vice President Elected

In other Staff Council news, Clayton Steup from the School of Medicine was elected executive vice president to replace Matthew Richardson, who departed the University shortly after starting in office on July 1.

Contact:
Marty Levine, martyl@pitt.edu, 412-758-4859