The posters are all over the BC campus promoting the AmeriCorps first annual canned food battle.
The event began Nov. 1 and ends Dec. 1.
The battle puts the students against the faculty along with the administration and staff in what will be an interesting situation in AmeriCorps effort to make a difference in the community.
The idea was put forth by student volunteer coordinator Ray Vargas, who along with the rest of staff and AmeriCorps members got together for a lot of meetings on how to go about what they hope will be an annual event.
So far there are seven teams competing. These teams are Counseling, Food Service, Renegade Rip, Outreach Ambassadors, Admissions and Records, Graphics Department and the MECHA Club.
There is hope that this will bring awareness to the fact that a lot of people will not have enough to eat this holiday season and that a lot of people are not prepared for a disaster should one occur.
Theresa Rodriquez, team leader for food service, said, “all of the cans and other foods come from their homes.” They think they have a good chance of winning and they understand that it’s for a good cause.
Food Service is going to be hard to beat judging from what they have already collected.
The rules of involvement meant there had to be a prize, or prizes, that would appeal to all who might participate. And the prizes are a catered lunch, meeting, or tickets to Disneyland.
For Counseling, the team leader is June Charles, who said, “between now and Dec. 1 the team is going to go all out and they are going to win because the tickets to Disneyland are what they hope to get.”
Isabel Castaneda, AmeriCorps Alert program assistant, said, “We are not trying to end hunger but help people to be more aware of hunger in the community and disaster preparedness.”
She also stated that, “one half of the proceeds go the Salvation Army and the other half will go to help seniors start their disaster kits.”
There’s still time to get into the battle. Information is available at the AmeriCorps office in Campus Center 3 or by calling Castaneda at (661) 395-4839 or e-mailing her at [email protected].
Interested groups will be supplied with a box for the cans, and teams consist of five to 10 people to donate canned food for the group.
“The canned food battle is going to be just that, a battle.” This is from June Charles, team leader for the group at counseling.