Fiesta Bowl foes partner to volunteer at Phoenix food bank

PHOENIX – Ohio State and Notre Dame joined forces for a service project hosted by the Office of Student Life as part of the 2016 Fiesta Bowl. A delegation of university leaders, students and Ohio State football coaching staff families were joined by Notre Dame coaching staff families to sort and create emergency kits at the St. Mary’s Food Bank Alliance in Phoenix.

Volunteers assemble food kits.

With special visits from the Ohio State University Marching Band and Brutus Buckeye, the group created more than 5,000 food kits for Arizona families. The kits contained donated items from the food bank, along with Cheryl’s Cookies donated by Kroger in honor of the Brutus 50th Celebration scholarship. 

Organized teamwork.

Ohio State also provided tomato seeds engineered by the College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences to include in home gardening kits to promote sustainable food sources.

Shelley Meyer and Paqui Kelly, wives of Ohio State and Notre Dame head coaches, respectively, and their families led the two opposing team schools side-by-side as friendly supporters.

This is the fourth time Ohio State has performed bowl game community service at St. Mary’s Food Bank Alliance, and in 2002, Ohio State was the first university to host a bowl game service project with the food bank. Ohio State’s Office of Student Life has planned bowl game community service for 18 years, always extending an invitation to the opposing team.

This year's pre-bowl activities also featured an Ohio State University Alumni Association community service event. More than 100 alumni came together to support the cleanup efforts of Old Town Scottsdale, helping beautify the neighborhood.

They were joined by special guests Andy Gurd, Archie Griffin, the Alumni Club of Phoenix and Mayor of Scottsdale Jim Lane.