Sodexo organized a national food drive with 600 of its clients and collected nearly 370,000 pounds of food in November through its annual “Cans Across America” program. In its third year, the program doubled its results from last year. The result is enough food to feed 250 families once a day for an entire year.

The collected food was distributed to food banks, including those in partnership with the Sodexo Foundation, which has a mission to stop hunger and its root causes.

Most of the Sodexo client collection sites participating in this year’s “Cans Across America” drive were college campuses — several of the more than 500 schools earned distinction by collecting especially impressive amounts of food. For example:

* Curry College in Milton, Massachusetts, the top collector, gathered nearly 50,000 pounds of food.

* Western Illinois University in Moline, Illinois, hosted “stuff the bus” events where several city buses were filled with more than 15,000 pounds of food.

* University of Findlay in Findlay, Ohio, gathered more than 12,000 pounds of food.

In addition, up to 200 senior centers and hospitals served by Sodexo participated.

Charitable Giving, News