In sight of it’s 10th anniversary, the Aztecs Rock Hunger campaign is striving towards it’s most noteworthy fundraising goal yet, which is more significant than just it’s number.
Associated Students launched the beginning of their campaign with a kickoff event on Oct. 22 to reveal this year’s slogan and goal: 619 for the 619.
The goal to raise 619,000 pounds of food is not only a nod towards the county’s area code, but was also set to represent the cooperation within the San Diego community.
This year, the campaign is going further than partnerships with Aztec Shops and Starbucks. The AHR team has worked with local businesses in the College Area, such as Cheba Hut, Woodstock’s and Corbin Q’s to collect donations and hold fundraiser events.
Speech, language and hearing sciences junior Courtney Parks joined the AHR team after being on the A.S. Community Service Commission. She said the AHR team is aiming to reach out to more organizations on campus as well.
“This year, we’re really trying to reach more broadly across campus and target groups that we haven’t in the past and in the College Area business district,” Parks said. “It’s a huge push this year to get them more involved, and they’ve shown us a lot of support already.”
The money raised goes towards the Jacobs & Cushman San Diego Food Bank, which is associated with the food pantry held twice a week on campus. The San Diego Food Bank has been in collaboration with the campaign since the first year in 2009.
One dollar donated generates six pounds of food, according to A.S. Vice President of Financial Affairs Dustin Adkins.
While most donations go to the food bank, 20% of the monetary proceeds go towards SDSU Economic Crisis Response Team, which helps students in need of food or housing help. A portion also goes towards the campus food pantry.
“We use how much we raise as a credit line with the food bank, and then we use that to get food for our food pantry,” Adkins said. “So last year we used 111,000 pounds for our own food pantry on campus.”
James Floros, president and CEO of the San Diego Food Bank, has been instrumental in the effort of having a food pantry on every college campus in the county. The food bank, which serves over 350,000 San Diegans a month, has one very clear goal: to break the cycle of poverty.
“Hunger is a significant problem in our community,” Floros said. “We have 177,000 children that are living in poverty that are not eating food, and if they do, it’s not very nutritious, so it’s affecting academic outcomes, and it’s just a vicious cycle.”
President Adela de la Torre attended the event, sharing words of encouragement to students and the campaign team.
“The partnership with the San Diego Food Bank to address hunger in the community really speaks to the leadership that we share here,” de la Torre said. “One of the wonderful things about SDSU students is that they go beyond campus to the community to make transformative change.”
This year’s campaign will run from Oct. 18 to Nov. 10. If the goal is achieved, it would generate over half a million meals, according to Floros.
Red bins will be placed throughout campus to collect non-perishables, which will contribute directly to the campus food pantry. Monetary donations can be made through Venmo or at any Aztec Shops location. To get involved, visit the Aztecs Rock Hunger website.
