Sodexo partners with Liberty University on 3,148-pound food donation

Every year at Thanksgiving, Liberty Dining by Sodexo hosts a food drive on the Liberty University campus to benefit the Lynchburg community through the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank (BRAFB).

This year, Sodexo reached out to the fifteen campus-based schools and colleges, and additional university entities, with an invitation to partner on the food drive.

Sodexo matches the collected donation amount up to $2,000.

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“Since the pandemic, it’s been hard to get a good turnout of donations on the campus, understandably so due to safety concerns,” said Marketing Manager Shelby Burton. “We had high hopes of being able to ramp up donation support this year through this partnership.”

Participating entities included the School of Behavioral Sciences, School of Nursing, the Graduate School, the College of Applied Studies and Academic Success, School of Education, School of Aeronautics, the College of Medicine, Jerry Falwell Library, School of Business, and Liberty University Marketing & Enrollment.

The food drive was announced on October 14 to the entire university and then held from October 17 – November 15.

Sodexo distributed barrels from the Lynchburg BRAFB and helped promote the food drive by supplying weekly emails to partners for distribution and drumming up awareness through social media platforms.

While the food drive was open to the university, each partner was encouraged to hold their own incentives to help drive support within their own school/college/department.

For example, to coordinate with the Sodexo food drive dates, Jerry Falwell Library moved their “Food for Fines” drive where they forgive $2 of fines for every donated can of food up to $30.

The School of Business held a competition within their own clubs to see who could donate the most cans, and the Graduate School had an inter-office competition to see which floor could donate the most.

At the end of the drive, Sodexo collected thirteen overflowing barrels of donations to deliver to the BRAFB. A total of 1741 lbs. of food was collected. Sodexo matched up to $2,000 worth of donations so that equaled 1407 lbs. of product making the final donation weight 3,148 lbs.