Generosity Overflows at Annual Stuff the Cat Tran Event
UA President Ann Weaver Hart and other members of the campus community came together on Tuesday to "stuff the Cat Tran" with canned goods, peanut butter, cereal and other nonperishable food items for the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona.
The sixth annual Stuff the Cat Tran event – hosted by Parking and Transportation Services, the UA Staff Advisory Council and UA Office of Community Relations – marked the culmination of the UA's annual community and employee food drive, UA4Food, which launched on March 3. At the event, held on the UA Mall, not one but two Cat Trans were needed to hold all of the donations.
At the end of the day, the donated food was delivered via the Cat Tran shuttles to the food bank.
"I think the best way to describe today is it started out a little slow, but it picked up and now we're moving on to the second bus," said Staff Advisory Council President Melanie Tornquist, UA Department of Medicine program coordinator for infectious disease, nephrology and rheumatology.
Last year, UA4Food collected 22,827 pounds of food and $23,623. Since its inception, the campaign has collected 171,827 pounds of food and raised more than $275,368.
Although the exact amount of food and money raised this year event won't be available for another week, Sheila McGinnis, director of outreach and community partnerships in the Office of Community Relations, said this year's event seemed to be bigger and better.
"I'm really excited about how this year's event went," McGinnis said. "It seems like we have more food and cash donations than last year. The College of Medicine showed up big time with a six-seat cart filled with donations. That was a very happy start to our day."
Michael McDonald, CEO of the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona, said the donated food will be used to create food boxes for individuals and families in need.
"This is just tremendous," McDonald said. "What a phenomenal food drive it's been."