Saint Francis recently participated in the Northeast Conference’s annual Food Drive.

The Food Drive is sponsored by the NEC each year and is a competition between member schools to collect canned and non-perishable food items for the needy.

The drive concluded on Nov. 14. Monetary donations were also accepted during the drive.

Last year SFU won the competition, collecting more than 6,000 cans and non-perishable food items. This year’s winner will be announced by the NEC soon.

All schools competing in the NEC have one week each fall semester to collect as many canned goods and non-perishable food items as possible.

The collected goods at SFU will be donated to the Dorothy Day Outreach Center, which will distribute the donations to area families during the upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons.

The NEC has sponsored the competition since 2015 and SFU has won several times. In the last three years alone, SFU students have collected more than 13,000 items for the DDC.

“While it is a competition among NEC schools, and it is fun to win that competition, at the end of the day the ones that truly benefit from it are those that use the services of the Dorothy Day Outreach Center,” said John Krimmel, Senior Associate Director of Athletics for Student-Athlete and Leadership Development.

The SFU team with the most cans and non-perishable goods collected earns Frankie Cup points.

“We are very happy that we are able to help people in need with our donations, and it is nice to see all the teams on campus competing for a good cause,” said senior Sean Smolyn, a captain of the Red Flash men’s soccer team.

The men’s soccer squad collected the most items in the 2021 Food Drive.