NCSSM Food Drive Aims to Break the World’s Record

On Saturday, March 20, 2010, the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics will be attempting to break an amazing record. They won’t be jumping rope or eating hot dogs. The record they’re looking to break is the Guinness World Record for largest food drive in 24 hours at one location. To do this, they’ll have to collect more than a half million pounds of non-perishable food and they’ve got a whole community standing by to make it happen.

I found out about the drive the way I find out about a lot of great things, through fandom. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a big TV fan and I believe in the power of celebrities and fans working together to get things done. So I’m calling on the Supernatural and One Tree Hill fans to help NCSSM meet their goal and then some. You have to hurry though because Virtual Donations end Monday (and sorry, but you can’t win any of the raffle prizes).

Food drive coordinator Sue Anne Lewis took some time out of her insane week, to talk to me about the event.

Why did you decide to go with a food drive and how did trying to break the record come about?

Our school is a public, residential high school for juniors and seniors across the state of NC. Every year, the Residential Life Assistants (which are senior leaders) have to pick themes for the halls. My RLAs decided it would be fun to have ‘World Records’ as our theme, and every girl on hall would have a record as her door decoration. During the RLA training week, we decided that it would only be fitting to attempt a Guinness World Records record this year. Our first idea, the largest gathering of nerds, was denied by Guinness. However, it had a community service component of donating a canned food item in order to get into the event to donate to our local food bank. My supervisor, Kevin Cromwell, suggested we take the community service part a step further and see if there was a record for the largest food drive. I did some research and found that there were two food drive records. There is a record for ‘The largest food drive in 24 hours at multiple locations by a non-charitable organization’ or the record that we have chosen ‘The largest food drive in 24 hours at a single location by a non-charitable organization’. And here we are today.

Once you have all this food, how will it be distributed and to whom?

Since our students represent every congressional district in the state (and almost every county), we have chosen the Food Bank of Central & Eastern NC to be the recipient of our food. They serve 34 counties in the state including Durham County, which is where the school is located. Once they receive the donation, they will divvy up the food as they choose.

Can you talk a little about the supporters of the program. How has the community come together to make this a success.

The support we have received has been so amazing. Honestly, I never thought the event would have gotten as big as it has, and we can’t believe the support we have gotten from different area organizations. Our lead sponsor is Food Lion and they have been amazing! They have provided funding for volunteer t-shirts and they paid for the Guinness World Records trademark and logo usage. They will also be making a food donation to our effort and providing two tractor trailer trucks to help the Food Bank truck food to the warehouse as the day goes on.

We have also received sponsorships from several other area businesses. I would like to thank the Forest at Duke Retirement Community for all that they have done to support the Food Drive. Today, myself and several of our students were presented with a check to go towards the virtual food drive for the amount of $7,000 that they collected in a week to support our cause. Now the focus is to collect a bus load of food to deliver to NCSSM on March 20th. They have been amazing in supporting us and we could not be more thankful for all that they have done.

A local school, The Durham Performance Learning Center, has taken the food drive under their wings as well. From what I have gathered from speaking with their representative is that their students are students who usually would have dropped out of school because of outside challenges. They are part of the Communities in Schools program and are partly funded by Bill Gates. They have been telling everyone they know about the event and working with their partners to help collect food and get volunteers for the event. They have approximately 25 volunteers who will be working 6 hours at the school during the event.

You also received support in the form of raffle items from some local sports and TV celebrities. including Danneel Harris of One Tree Hill and Jensen Ackles of Supernatural. Since it’s their support that brought your event to my attention, can you tell me how that came about?

Danneel got involved with the event through an effort to Tweet different celebrities in hopes that they would respond back and be willing to donate an autographed item to our raffle. We will be raffling different items during the day to encourage people to donate more food on site. For coming to our event, donors will receive 1 ticket and then will receive an additional raffle ticket for every 10 lbs of food donated. Senior, Dustin Burleson from Wake Forrest, NC, joined the Tweeting effort and began Tweeting different celebrities one of which was Danneel. He was very excited when she responded back and even more excited when she said she would be willing to donate an autographed item to our event and that she would get Jensen to do so as well. She sent us a ‘One Tree Hill* Season 5′ autographed vest, and Jensen sent us a ‘Supernatural’ autographed trading card along with a sealed set. (*One Tree Hill films in North Carolina)

I see you have a virtual option – can you tell me more about that?

Of course! The virtual food drive is a way for those who cannot make it to NCSSM on March 20th to be able to support the Food Bank and our efforts to fight hunger. The site is managed by the Food Bank and all donations go directly to them. Through their buying power, they are able to purchase approximately 5 lbs of food per dollar donated, and then they will have that food delivered to NCSSM on March 20th. In order for the Food Bank to order the food to be delivered there is a cut off date and time of 8am on Monday, March 15th (our Eastern time) to allow them time to make sure it is able to be delivered to us. To date, we have raised over $14,500 towards our efforts excluding the $7,000 from the Forest at Duke. This has been a great tool for us as it has allowed us to see where we are in terms of pounds prior to the event.

I have to ask. What is the current record and who holds it?

The record is currently held by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in partnership with the Calgary Inter-Faith Food Bank in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and stands at a jaw dropping 509,147 lbs of food. As much as we are excited over the thought of being a Guinness World Records record holder, the more important thing for us is to help the Food Bank. Should, I mean when, we break the record, the Food Bank has told us that the food that we donate will not even last one week in the warehouse before it is distributed to the nearly 500,000 residents in those 34 counties who go hungry each night. So for us, the record is merely a perk, a bonus to what we are doing and what we have done to this point.

Are you in the Durham, North Carolina area? Make plans to stop by the event next Saturday.  If you’re reading this before Monday at 8 am EST, please make a virtual donation at the NCSSM website.

WHERE: 1219 Broad St. / Durham, NC / 27705
WHEN: March 20, 2010
WHY: To benefit the Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC

For More Information: Visit the NCSSM Food Drive website.