UF Students in Free Enterprise is helping feed local families again this Thanksgiving with its second annual Chomp Out Hunger canned food drive competition.
The contest, which started Monday, benefits the Bread of the Mighty Food Bank in Gainesville and pits student organizations against one another to see who can collect the most cans by Friday.
Matt Kaufmann, an economics senior and the event's co-chairman, said he expects to bring in more canned goods this year by expanding the drive's scope to organizations campuswide.
Last year's competition only focused on the Warrington College of Business and raised about 1,400 cans, said Kaufmann.
About 10 groups have signed up so far, said Kaufmann, who is sharing responsibilities with fellow Students in Free Enterprise member Rishabh Das, a UF sophomore.
Kaufmann said the need for donations has never been greater in Gainesville.
The Bread of the Mighty Food Bank served about 70,000 people in the 2006-2007 fiscal year, according to Chomp Out Hunger's Web site.
That number is expected to increase by 10 percent, or 7,000 people, this year because of the economic recession, Das said.
The final tally will be announced next week, Das said, and will count toward UF's score in the Make a Play Foundation's "Food Fight," a donation competition between UF and its rival schools in Miami and Tallahassee.
