For the third consecutive year, the Cal Poly men’s basketball team is hosting a food drive to support the Food Bank Coalition of San Luis Obispo. This year, the women’s basketball program will be joining the men’s program for the first time.
The women’s team collected donations at the Vons supermarket on Broad Street from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday evening. The men’s team will collect donations on Wednesday at the same place and time.
“I thought it would be a good community service project for our team,” head men’s basketball coach Joe Callero said. “I was looking at it as someone (who) wanted our team to be appreciative of scholarships, and be appreciative during the season of the holidays. We’ve got to keep in mind how many are just struggling for basic needs.”
As of Nov. 20, the food drive had collected 2,784 pounds of food. Donations have come from a variety of places, including fraternities, sororities and local elementary schools. Callero highlighted that one in six San Luis Obispo County residents are food insecure and noted that the San Luis Obispo Food Bank helped feed more than 44,000 people last year. The food drive is accepting nonperishable food items as well as cash donations for the food bank.
This year, there’s double the incentive to donate. One donation provides the donator with two game tickets on Saturday, Nov. 28: one to the women’s matchup against Montana State at 5 p.m. and one ticket to the men’s matchup against University of Antelope Valley at 7:30 p.m.
“We created a doubleheader game so we could have double the feature,” Callero said.
“It’s the right time of year and it‘s the right act and I think it motivates all of those kids to keep it in perspective how fortunate any of us are to even be getting an education, let alone being able to eat and take care of our basic needs during Thanksgiving time,” he added.