Alabama fans may still be recovering from the nail biter of an Iron Bowl against Auburn.
The rivalry game may be over, but one side benefit is still helping the less fortunate. Each year Alabama and Auburn compete to gather the most donations for their local Food Banks.
Jean Rykaczewski is the Executive Director of the West Alabama Food Bank. She said the students have collected a total of 7 million pounds of food for Alabamians since the effort began in 1994.
“For both food banks the food that is collected will last us well into the spring, but it keeps it us stocked full of cans, and cereal and other items," she said. "Without that, would kind of fill the void in January, February and March, when food banks normally suffer a depletion of their items.”
Rykaczewskie said during this friendly rivalry, everyone wins.
“Both universities and both east Alabama and west Alabama win, it’s just a friendly rivalry just to kind of boost things and make it a little more fun to collect food," she said. "Both schools have had winning years so you never know, I mean it’s kind of always really exciting because you never know who is gonna win.”
While Alabama won the Iron Bowl, Auburn collected more food in the drive this year. This year the schools raised close to 700,000 pounds of food combined. Alabama gathered over 300,000 pounds and Auburn just over that.
