The annual Canned Food Challenge hosted by the Midwest Conference just completed its 6th year of collecting non-perishable canned goods as well as monetary donations from each of the institutions making up the Midwest Conference. This year, Lake Forest College took fourth place overall in the final standings of the Challenge, moving up one spot over last year’s standings.
Over a period of 4 weeks, each school’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) organizes the collection of canned food items and donations, and then the donations are delivered to a local food bank. In the case of Lake Forest’s SAAC, all food donations are given to the Libertyville Food Pantry.
Lake Forest College, in addition to collecting canned goods for the Midwest Conference challenge, also raised funds through the Foresters $4 for a Cause Initiative. This effort gathers donations for four different organizations and foundations. For every four dollars contributed, one dollar goes to the American Cancer Society, Lake Forest College Annual Fund, Libertyville Food Pantry, and American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
In an effort to bring in more monetary donations than previous years, SAAC and Athletic Council were able to get over 80% of student-athletes to donate to the Forester $4 for a Cause initiative this time around. All monetary funds donated specifically to the Libertyville Food Pantry (each dollar equaling 2 canned food items to the Midwest Conference Canned Food Challenge), combined with the nearly 900 collected non-perishable food items, put Lake Forest in 4th place overall with a 2,143 canned food item equivalency in the Midwest Conference Canned Food Challenge.
Collectively, the schools of the Midwest Conference combined to collect 15,286 non-perishables and $3,958.53 for the Canned Food Challenge. You can read more about the Conference’s Canned Food Challenge and the final school standings here.