Maddie Carr
A Can the Bods donation box sits on the front desk of the Student Life Office. Donation boxes can be found around campus.
Emporia State kicked off its annual Can the Bods food drive Monday. The drive, put on by Associated Student Government, is an annual competition with rival Washburn University to stock up campus food pantries to help fight food insecurity. All donations at ESU go directly toward funding and stocking campus food pantry Corky’s Cupboard.
ASG is accepting monetary donations and physical donations of nonperishable food and baking items, hygiene products and school supplies. Students can drop donations off at donation boxes around campus. Those wishing to provide monetary donations can donate at this link.
The drive, respectively called “Can Emporia” by the Ichabods, will run through Nov. 3 at midnight.
ESU has triumphed over the Ichabods for the past three years and ASG aims to keep the winning tradition going, said ASG President Azwad Zahraan. This year’s goal is to raise $10,000 in monetary donations and 15,000 physical cans and other items.
The total number of cans collected is calculated on the metric of every dollar donated equating to two cans. This has been updated from last year’s metric, which was every dollar equating to three cans. Using the previous metric, a total of 36,893 cans were raised in last year’s “Can the Bods” drive.
While both universities benefit from the collection of supplies and money for their pantries, there is a reward for the winners of the competition. Every year, the student body president of the winning school has the opportunity to publicly deal a pie-in-the-face to the student body president of the losing school. This year, the same opportunity will be afforded to the respective vice presidents as well.
ASG Vice President Josh Manahan said that if ESU wins the contest, he and Zahraan will also jump into Wooster or King Lake as long as it is safe to do so.
To reach their donation goals, ASG is reaching out to many campus and community organizations. Other than RSOs, they have partnered with the Student-Athlete Advisory Council, Fraternity and Sorority Life, The Emporia State Foundation and the City of Emporia. ASG has also brought back the competition between ESU’s schools to see who can collect the most donations. The winning school will have their name engraved on a plaque outside of the Senate Chambers.
“We invite you to help us support students and show—not only Washburn, but to the entire state—our commitment to fighting food insecurity,” said Zahraan in an email to The Bulletin. “We recently learned that ESU was the first KBOR institution to establish a campus pantry, and we’re proud to continue that legacy.”