Football rivalries help food pantries

Cooperative Christian Ministry

The Kannapolis-Concord football rivalry has combined tradition and competition in the Battle of the Bell every football season for 80 years.

The passion behind the rivalry accomplishes far more than hometown pride. For many of those years, the rivalry has also produced thousands of pounds of groceries in a food drive competition that takes place in conjunction with the game and each school’s Spirit Week leading up to the game.

“The good will and community spirit that comes from the food drive competition is just too great to overlook” said Ed Hosack, executive director of Cooperative Christian Ministry, an agency that provides crisis assistance and manages food pantries throughout Cabarrus County.

When all eight schools in Cabarrus County combined to form one athletic conference, the wheels starting turning with an idea to capitalize on the football rivalries. The idea developed too late for the 2009 season, but this year ministry and school officials started planning early.

On Friday night, the 2010 Football Food Drive FANtastic culminated with four football games featuring all eight local high schools. At halftime of each game, the totals were announced to reveal the food drive winners of each game and the school with the most food collected. All together, the effort collected 28,137 food items for local food pantries.

Retailer Best Buy provided a grand prize for the school with the highest number of food items collected based on school population. A.L. Brown High School in Kannapolis won the grand prize.

“We hope this can become the same kind of tradition as the Bell Game,” Hosack said. “It is this kind of caring community spirit that makes Cabarrus County a great place to live.”