Jan. 24, 2013
UCF Athletics Social Media Directory
By Hannah Sedigh
UCFAthletics.com
When the UCF men's and women's basketball teams hosted games in the UCF Arena in mid-December, fans were encouraged to bring in non-perishable food items as part of the Allstate Food Drive. Allstate had committed to donating $2,500 to the Knights Helping Knights Pantry if fans donated enough food to exceed the weight of the men's basketball team roster (2,755 pounds).
Knights Helping Knights Pantry is a student-run initiative that provides food, toiletries and clothing for members of the local community in need.
When UCF Alumnus and Allstate employee, Scott Rose, read about the need for donations he came up with a way to make sure that the goal was met, with the help of his wife and daughters. Rose decided to celebrate his 40th birthday at the men's basketball game on Dec. 20. Instead of gifts, he asked his guests to bring non-perishable items for the food drive.
Donations came rolling in from Rose's friends and family and a number of UCF supporters, including UCF men's basketball coaches Donnie Jones and Shawn Finney.
It was exciting to see so many friends and family show up while being able to support the Knights Helping Knights Pantry, said Rose. It was great to see UCF men's basketball coaches Donnie Jones and Shawn Finney show up with a couple bags of food, too.
Rose's efforts netted more than 5,000 pounds of non-perishable items, helping bring the total weight collected to more than 6,500 pounds.
For the Knights Helping Knights Pantry, the donation from the Allstate Food Drive meant the pantry would be completely stocked with non-perishable goods for the entire semester.
With the donations we received from the community at the women's and men's games, along with the donation from Scott Rose, we were able to open our doors for the spring and not have to shop at Second Harvest to fill our shelves, said Nicole Preston, Community Outreach Coordinator for Knights Pantry. We are able to provide Knights in need with a variety of items.
UCF Student-Athlete Advisory Council Takes Part in "Let's SAAC Hunger"
Conference USA has announced the results of its Let's SAAC Hunger program. Ten C-USA schools - including UCF - collected more than 2,000 pounds of food donations for the program, run through each school's respective Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC).
UCF's SAAC donated its 3,787 pounds of food to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida. UCF's food drive took place from Oct. 29-Nov. 4.
Each C-USA school worked within their respective communities to conduct a campus-wide canned food drive for one week during the fall semester. All student groups and alumni were encouraged to participate. Each institution selected a local food bank to receive their donations.
More than 33 tons of food totaling more than 66,375 pounds was collected conference-wide. That equates to more than 55,000 meals. The total was an increase of more than 6,000 pounds from a year ago.
The C-USA SAAC was formed in 1998. Its committee consists of 12 members (one from each institution) with one member serving as chair and one member as vice chair. The committee meets five times a year, including one in-person meeting.