The UA is hosting the annual UA4Food Stuff the CatTran event today on the UA Mall to fill a shuttle with nonperishable food items, which will be donated to the Community Food Bank of Arizona.

“All nonperishable foods are being collected,” said Christina Rocha, Stuff the CatTran event chair and accountant at the Arizona State Museum. “What’s needed the most is peanut butter, pasta, canned tomato products, cereals, all bars, canned meats, and canned vegetables or fruits. Every dollar donated will provide four meals for a family.”

Rocha said UA4Food launched in 2004 and is a campaign that starts at the beginning of March and peaks in donations at the end of the month. UA4Food ambassadors place food collection bins around campus to make it easy for UA students and faculty to donate.

“If anyone wanted to know where those collection boxes are, they could call the Office of Community Relations,” Rocha said, “which is the UA department on campus, and they would be able to find out what box is closest to them.”

Sheila McGinnis, director of outreach and community partnerships for community relations at the UA, said UA4Food has raised $275,000 and almost 172,000 pounds of food since 2004. She said people make monetary donations and give to the food bank year-round in addition to the four-week food drive in March.

“Last year alone … we got 23,000 pounds of food donated,” McGinnis said. “Stuff the CatTran is just the end of our big push to help the food bank replenish their shelves after the holidays are long over.”

McGinnis added that last year, around 3,000 pounds of food was collected at the Stuff the CatTran event and that UA4Food would love to exceed that number during the food collection event this year.

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