By Dave Wellman
For a few hours on Saturday, September 29th, teams of Marshall University (MU) students, faculty and staff will play flag football not only to have some fun but also to do their part in helping feed their hungry neighbors.
Yes, football and fun equal food for the hungry in this special event on Governor Earl Ray Tomblin’s Day to Serve. Simply, the more people who play flag football Saturday at MU, the more food hungry families in 17 regional counties will have to eat.
The inaugural Hunger Bowl will be played from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday at Marshall’s Buskirk Field on the Huntington campus.
Teams will consist of six players and registration is $15 per team. If organizers reach their goal of at least 12 teams, they will raise $180 on entry fees alone—good enough to fund 1,260 meals, the goal for this year’s Hunger Bowl.
The Huntington Area Food Bank (HAFB), along with Marshall’s Student Government Association and the offices of Community Engagement, Service Learning, Student Activities and Fraternity and Sorority Life, will host the flag football tournament to benefit the food bank and promote Hunger Action Month during Day to Serve.
The food bank serves a client base of 96,000 food-insecure individuals through its 260 member agencies in 12 counties of Southern West Virginia, four counties of northeastern Kentucky and Lawrence County, Ohio.
In 2011, HAFB distributed an incredible 6 million pounds of food, water and cleaning supplies. In the food bank’s service area, 200,000 children are in free or reduced lunch programs.
“Schools call us because they recognize the need,” says Scott Frasure, director of development for the Huntington Area Food Bank. “We’re out there fighting.”
Marshall University is fighting, too. Elizabeth Sheets with the Office of Community Engagement was looking for something to do on the Day to Serve, as was Frasure. The two had been discussing the idea of putting a food pantry on Marshall’s campus. While talking, the subject turned to the Day to Serve and they agreed an event would be the best way to raise money. They decided on a flag football tournament.
“The response has been positive,” Sheets says. “This is a Marshall University event and the goal is to do this every year. The money is for a great cause. The food bank can do the most with monetary donations.”
Frasure says Marshall is one of the most active partners the organization has. “Their willingness and desire to be involved is a tremendous asset to the Huntington Area Food Bank, the community and the entire region,” he continues. “We’ve worked with their dietetics program and implemented a full-blown nutritional outreach program. The volunteer support from the university is just tremendous.”
For 10 years, Marshall students have raised thousands of dollars for the food bank through their annual Empty Bowls campaign. Last spring’s event raised about $19,000.
“I can’t express enough thanks to Marshall University for what they have done for the food bank,” Frasure says. “We recognize that and we go to them. It’s not always them calling us.”
The Huntington Area Food Bank will place donation barrels in the Memorial Student Center on the Huntington campus from Monday, September 24th through Friday, September 28th for those who wish to donate nonperishable foods rather than play in the Hunger Bowl.
Frasure says the overall goal is to one day alleviate hunger in the food bank’s service area.
“Yes, children do go to bed hungry around here,” he says. “The summer is the worst because only 17,000 of the 200,000 in the free and reduced lunch program participate in the summer feeding program. The other 183,000 are basically on their own. At least during school they’re getting fed every day.”
Both Sheets and Frasure realize there is a long way to go to alleviate hunger.
“You’ve got to start somewhere,” Sheets says. “This will help. Whenever you’re doing something to help put food on tables, it makes us all thankful for the food we have.”
Marshall students and staff and faculty members who want to register a flag football team for this event can do so by visiting www.marshall.edu/wpmu/community-engagement/.
About the Author
Dave Wellman is the director of communications at Marshall University. A life-long resident of Huntington, WV, he is a 1970 graduate of Vinson High School and a 1975 graduate of Marshall University where he earned a bachelor’s degree in print journalism. Before coming to Marshall in 2001, Wellman worked for The Herald-Dispatch for 25 years where he advanced from a stringer for the sports department to part-time obituary clerk to a full-time sports writer in nine months before being promoted to sports editor and later senior reporter. Wellman won numerous awards from Gannett News Service, the Associated Press Sports Editors and the West Virginia Press Association, most of which were for writing. Wellman is the father of Kacey Johnson and has two grandsons, Lincoln and Max.
