Students from the University of Alabama and Auburn University this year continued two annual pre-Iron Bowl traditions that help feed people struggling with food insecurity and raise awareness of the problem of veteran suicide.

For more than three decades, students from the two Alabama universities have held a friendly competition to see which group can collect the most donations of food and money to benefit food banks in their areas.

This year Auburn’s Beat Bama Food Drive raised 980,928 pounds of food, while Alabama’s Beat Auburn Beat Hunger drive raised 431,120 pounds – more than 1.4 million pounds combined during the competition that ran from Oct. 4 to Nov. 21. Auburn’s efforts support the Food Bank of East Alabama, which serves seven counties, while UA’s drive benefits the West Alabama Food Bank, which serves nine.

According to Feeding America, one in six people, including one in four children, struggles with food insecurity in Alabama.

“I’m really proud of how hard our executive team, directors and staff have worked this year to host campus events,” said Kennedi Preston, president of Beat Auburn Beat Hunger. “It has been a joy to see members of the Tuscaloosa community come together to support such a worthwhile cause.”

Participants in the 2024 Beat Auburn Beat Hunger food drive at the University of Alabama celebrate collecting 431,120 pounds of food for the West Alabama Food Bank. Auburn University’s Beat Bama Food Drive collected 980,928 pounds of food for the Food Bank of East Alabama in the friendly annual competition. (contributed)

Meanwhile, a group of student veterans from UA and AU came together to trek across the state, bringing awareness to the plague of veteran suicides.

Members of UA’s Campus Veterans Association marched alongside Auburn’s Student Veterans Association in the annual Operation Iron Ruck that began outside Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn Wednesday, Nov. 27, and was to end today at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa before the annual Iron Bowl game between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Auburn Tigers.

“Operation Iron Ruck was established in 2018 to raise awareness and funds to help combat the epidemic of veteran suicide,” said Blake Schickel, president of the UA Campus Veterans Association. “We’re hoping to increase the public knowledge of this ongoing struggle while also uniting veterans within the community with a support system they can lean on. It offers a personal level of support to those who participate as well as the potential to decompress and meet others who can relate to the struggles that veterans go through.”

During the four-day trip, each student veteran hikes around 50 miles and carries 22 pounds of donated materials to represent the estimated 22 veterans who die by suicide every day.

“In the most recent report by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, there were more than 6,000 veteran suicides in 2021,” Schickel said. “In the state of Alabama, we lost 125 veterans to suicide that year, one of the highest rates in the country.”

Monetary and material donations will be distributed to Three Hots and A Cot, Mission 22, the Bill Nichols State Veterans Home, Tuskegee VA Medical Center and the Houston Project. For more information and ways to donate, visit the Operation Iron Ruck website.

Elements of this story appeared in stories written by Jennifer Brady and Bryant Welbourne for the University of Alabama’s website.