Media Advisory – Colorado State’s Cans Around the Oval Seeks to Collect 100,000 Pounds of Food Tomorrow, Oct. 14

Cans Around the Oval, the largest food drive in northern Colorado, will celebrate its 22nd year at Colorado State University on Wednesday, Oct. 14. This year’s goal for Cans Around the Oval, sponsored by CSU’s SLiCE organization- Student Leadership, Involvement and Community Engagement –is to collect more than 100,000 pounds of food, beating last year’s total of 84,000 pounds.

WHEN/WHERE:
An opening ceremony will be held at 10 a.m. on the historic CSU Oval with Blanche Hughes, vice president of Student Affairs. One of the cans team students, Jake Holsteen, will speak at 10:15 a.m. and Victoria Keller, one of the founders of Cans Around the Oval, will speak at 10:20 a.m. The first can will be placed by students from Lincoln Middle School of the Poudre School District and Keller at 10:30 a.m.

Donations will be dropped-off between 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. followed by the event conclusion celebration.

DETAILS:
The food collected at various locations and by volunteer groups will be brought to the site by volunteers throughout the day. The weight of food gathered by each group’s food drive efforts will be calculated and tallied on the Oval; various student and community groups compete for the most food.

The four-week food drive, which began Sept. 17, concludes with Cans Around the Oval, when all donated food will be weighed. Cans Around the Oval kicks off by participants placing all collected canned food along the university’s historic Oval, a tradition that shows the community’s generosity.

With the demand at food banks rising this year, Colorado State University’s Cans Around the Oval is being expanded for the first time to include Denver, Castle Rock and Steamboat Springs.

For more information about the efforts in Denver, Castle Rock and Steamboat visit: http://www.today.colostate.edu/story.aspx?id=2374.

CONTACT:
For more information about the Cans Around the Oval event, contact Jennifer Dimas at (970) 491-1543 or Keith Colton the day of the event at (970) 491-3579.
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