Contact: Heather Benning, Executive Director, 920-430-0934

GRINNELL, Iowa - Over the past two months, Midwest Conference member institution Student Athlete Advisory Committees collected non-perishables and cash donations for local organizations in an effort to address food insecurity in their communities.
 
This is the fourth year for the Conference-wide initiative known as the Midwest Conference SAAC Canned Food Challenge. It is organized as a friendly competition between league schools. Non-perishable items have an equivalency factor of one, whereas each dollar donated has an equivalency factor of two. Ultimately, an Annual Challenge Winner is declared and the school with the highest equivalency number receives a banner to proudly display in their athletic complex.
 
The program’s first winner was Ripon College (2014), while it was the Knox Prairie Fire who outpaced league foes in 2015. The record for collections is held by Illinois College, the year three winner. Last year it won the competition by collecting 1,462 “cans” and $701.50 for an equivalency number of 2,865.
 
This year’s Challenge was tightly contested, with several “most improved” participants in the field. Making the biggest jump from last year’s finish to this year’s place is the 2017 Canned Food Challenge Runner-up -- Lake Forest College. Last year the Foresters finished in 8th place, but jumped six spots this year for a No. 2 finish! Heading into the final week of the challenge they were in the 10th spot, but through creative marketing campaigns and generous gifting, the Foresters collected 489 non-perishables and $506.50 in the final week to conclude with an equivalency number of 1,635!
 
The second “most improved team” is the 2017 Canned Food Challenge Champion - Lawrence University! Each of the past two years the Vikings have improved significantly on the previous year’s results. In 2015 Lawrence finished in 7th place with 388. In 2016 it nearly tripled is number for a total of 1,129 and 6th place. This year the Vikings collected 703 non-perishables and $515.75 for 1734.50 and 1st place!
 
Monmouth College finished 3rd with 1285 “cans” and $144.50 for an equivalency of 1574. St. Norbert, the school collecting the largest number of non-perishables (1403), also showed significant improvement from last year, advancing from 7th place to 4th with a total of 1467.
 
Fifth and sixth place are separated by a mere 27, with Illinois College slightly edging Grinnell College, 1430 to 1403.
 
The Knox College Prairie Fire finished seventh with 1236, while Ripon finished eighth with 947. While it didn’t show as big of jump in overall place, the effort of Beloit is noteworthy. After collecting a total of 92 non-perishables in the first three years of the Challenge, the Buccaneers employed new initiatives and sparked giving to conclude the 2017 Challenge with a total of 515 - that is a five-fold improvement! Rounding out the Challenge with a total of 505 is Cornell College.
 
Affirmed by the league SAAC at its October 2017 meeting as an on-going project, friends and families of Midwest Conference schools can expect the kickoff of the 5th Annual event in October of 2018.
 
Congratulations to all participating Student Athlete Advisory Committees and THANK YOU to everyone who donated to our Challenge!