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SEC Championship teams Prep, Soup Kitchen on Wheels...

APR

Both Alabama and Florida Football teams are going through their final preparations for tomorrow's SEC Championship. APR's MacKenzie Bates is at the Georgia Dome and has this preview...

The Crimson Tide is 11-1 on the season while the Gators are 10-2. A win for Alabama likely puts the Tide in the College Football Playoff. This is the fifth title game in eight years for the Tide under Coach Nick Saban. He's won three titles leading up to tomorrow. To make it a fourth... Saban says his defense has to play well against Florida's dual threat quarterback Treon Harris...

"Everybody’s got to do their job. We can’t make mental errors. We’ve got to do a good job of tackling good skill players and our front has got to do a really good job of controlling the line of scrimmage and the quarterback in the pocket. And if we can get some turnovers, that would probably be very helpful as well."

Alabama ranks of second in the country in total defense while Florida's offense is 104th. Kickoff is set for 3 pm on CBS. For APR News, I'm MacKenzie Bates at the SEC Championship in Atlanta.

If you have a ticket to the SEC Championship, be ready for longer lines at security checkpoints. Officers will be checking bags at the stadium and at the Dr. Pepper SEC FanFare event, and there are limits on what kinds of bags are allowed in. Game organizers suggest no bags be taken at all. But, checkpoints will allow clear plastic bags about the size of a one gallon kitchen freezer bag. Ladies can bring in a small clutch without a strap. Exceptions will be made for medications after a careful search. Gates will open thirty minutes earlier than normal to allow extra time for bag checks.

Whoever said there’s no free lunch might want to talk with owners of two restaurants in Tuscaloosa. APR student reporter Lauren Fuller has more on a food truck with a mission…

The non-profit group is called American Lunch. The owners of Chuck’s Fish and restaurant Five in Tuscaloosa operate the food truck which delivers free meals to low-income neighborhoods. The operation works with volunteer labor and donations from the public. American lunch volunteer Tara Spath says the idea is one of a kind and its growing…

“we’ve acquired two other trucks so our locations now are Tuscaloosa, Knoxville, Tennessee and Chattanooga, Tennessee.”

The menu includes items like red beans and rice and chicken noodle soup. The American Lunch food truck makes deliveries three days a week. It’s called the only mobile soup kitchen in the country ?

Musician Taylor Hicks will be on hand for today’s official lighting of the state of Alabama’s Christmas Tree. The thirty eight foot tall Eastern Red Cedar comes from Bullock County. It was donated to the state by Feathers Plantation in Fitzpatrick. Work crew put the tree at the top of the Capitol steps on the building's west side, facing Dexter Avenue. Today’s tree lighting ceremony is set for 5:30. The tree contains forty thousand LED lights, ornaments, and sixty seven stars representing all of Alabama’s counties. An open house at the capitol will follow the ceremony from 6 to 7 p.m. ?

Pat Duggins is news director for Alabama Public Radio.
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