11,200 pounds of food netted in YSU drive

By Harold Gwin

YOUNGSTOWN — Two local social-service agencies will get to share 11,200 pounds of nonperishable food collected in a monthlong food drive put together by Youngstown State University and Sodexo Campus Services, YSU’s food-service provider.

The food will go to the Rescue Mission of the Mahoning Valley and Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley, said Tom Totterdale, Sodexo general manager of YSU food service, as the donated food was weighed on campus Thursday.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol brought in a set of portable truck scales to do the official weigh-in, announcing that the result was more than 5.5 tons.

It was better than Totterdale had hoped. His goal was to surpass the 10,000-pound mark, he said.

The local effort is part of a larger Sodexo attempt, Helping Hands Across America, to set a Guinness World Record mark for the largest food drive by a noncharitable organization in a 24-hour period at multiple locations. The current record is 388,381 pounds.

Kim Bacchetti, representing Sodexo marketing/support services, said the company has drives running simultaneously at 900 college and university campuses across the country. Final totals on the record- breaking attempt should be available by the end of the week, she said.

Although the local effort was centered at YSU, it quickly branched out into the community, Totterdale said, expressing surprise at the amount of support the effort received.

He credited Ramona Moton, a Sodexo employee, with spearheading the effort and getting the community involved.

John Young, YSU’s associate director of the Kilcawley Center, said a number of local schools joined the effort.

Liberty High School, St. Christine School, Columbiana’s Dixon Elementary, Lowellville Elementary, Harding Elementary in Youngstown and the Wickliffe schools near Cleveland all helped, he said.

“It was nice to see the enthusiasm, especially from the students,” Young said.

Tottderdale said Harding Elementary alone collected 2,000 pounds of food for the drive.

Bacchetti said the class in each school that collected the most will get a pizza party with the pizza delivered by YSU’s Pete the Penguin. The mascot was on hand Thursday to help oversee the weigh-in.

Some social-service agencies also participated, she said.

Young pointed out that the Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Sigma Chi and Theta Chi fraternities also got involved on campus.

Most of the campus contribution, estimated at 3,000 pounds, came from students living on campus. Some of them donated points off their campus dining food cards toward the cause, he said.

The program was designed to raise awareness of those less fortunate and to evoke a spirit of community service.

gwin@vindy.com