BATON ROUGE — The LSU Student-Athlete Advisory Council is currently holding its annual Thanksgiving Food Drive, which collects non-perishable food items for the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank, as part of the Shaquille O’Neal CHAMPS/Life Skills Program.
Barrels from the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank are located in the Athletics Administration Building and at the Cox Communications Academic Center for Student-Athletes. Members of the community, faculty, staff and students are encouraged to drop off non-perishable food items until Nov. 17, when the food bank will collect the filled barrels and return them to their facility.
The Thanksgiving Food Drive kicked off last Thursday at the ninth annual Halloween BOOzar, where families attending the event donated food items on their way into the event. The participants at the BOOzar were successful in filling several barrels for the food bank.
The Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank exists to service short-term food needs of individuals through existing or social service providers, churches/synagogues and other organizations. The food bank provides food to agencies in 12 parishes, including East and West Baton Rouge, free of charge and helps 4,200 people each day. In 2002, the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank distributed over eight million pounds of food valuated at more than $8.6 million.
The Thanksgiving Food Drive is organized each year by the Student-Athlete Advisory Council as part of the CHAMPS (Challenging Athletes Minds for Personal Success)/Life Skills Program. The CHAMPS program was designed by the NCAA to help student-athletes realize higher academic achievement, increase likelihood of graduation and enter a chosen profession with a higher level of vision, knowledge, motivation, self-responsibility and greater overall success. In Spring 2003, the CHAMPS/ Life Skills Program at LSU was named in honor of Shaquille O’Neal, one of the Tigers’ most memorable graduates.