FORTCAST, ATS/CIRA top last year’s Cans Around the Oval donations

ATS and CIRA donated 86 pounds of food and $624 for a total impact of 3,206 pounds for this year’s Cans Around the Oval campaign. The local drive is spearheaded by FORT Collins Atmospheric ScientisTs, or FORTCAST, local chapter of the American Meteorological Society (AMS). Last year ATS and CIRA collected 72 pounds of food and $415 for a total impact of 2,147 pounds. This year’s efforts bested last year’s contribution by 14 pounds and $209 for a total impact difference of 1,059 pounds.

Cans Around the Oval is an annual CSU tradition, where students, faculty and staff partner with community members, local media and area businesses to raise awareness about the issue of hunger, as well as raise food and monetary donations. This event is Larimer County’s largest single-day food drive. There is also a friendly competition based on which participating group has the largest total impact of monetary and food donations. The following formula is used to determine a group’s total impact:

• $1 in cash = 5 pounds
• 1 pound of food = 1 pound
• Total impact = (dollar amount x 5 lbs) + pounds of food

CSU as a whole raised over 42,293 pounds of food and over $56,349 this year, compared to 41,670 pounds of food and $57,714 last year.