CHSAA and Feeding Colorado joining forces to dunk hunger in the state

AURORA — Colorado’s high school basketball teams will use the final week of the state playoffs March 12-14, to help collect food for the thousands of hungry and food insecure in the state, the Colorado High School Activities Association has announced.

Feeding Colorado is a collection of the state’s largest five food banks’ and include Food Bank of the Rockies, Care and Share Food Bank for Southern Colorado, Community Food Share, Food Bank for Larimer County and Weld Food Bank. All four championship sites — CU Events Center, Colorado Mines, Budweiser Event Center and CSU-Pueblo — have opened their doors to help, as well.

“The numbers of Coloradoans that are food insecure and in need of food assistance in any given week is staggering. Our CHSAA schools have long been the support system for their communities and this gives them yet another chance to help out people in need right in their own communities,” Commissioner Paul Angelico noted. “The food raised by the program will be distributed across Colorado.”

Here are some pertinent stats around hunger in Colorado:

1. There are slightly more than 750,000 Coloradoans that are food insecure and in need of food assistance on any given week
2. The five Feeding America Food Banks in Colorado provide and distribute over 100 million pounds annually to nearly 1,600 food assistance programs in Colorado
3. Feeding Colorado touches each of Colorado’s 64 counties at least once each month
4. Nearly 1 in 4 children in Colorado are food insecure
5. Combined, Feeding Colorado has more than 33 trucks delivering and/or picking up food on any given day and in any given part of Colorado

In order to facilitate the food drive, the CHSAA has developed two approaches to the activities during Championship Week. One, food raised by the school will remain in their community, and the second is to drive donations from those attending the games each day of the championship tournaments.

Each school that qualifies for the state tournament will be challenged to see which school can raise the most food over the first three days of that week. It will be weighed and the team that raises the most will win $1,000 from the Foundation for Colorado High School Student Activities to donate in that school’s name to Feeding Colorado. The winners will be announced during one of the state championship games on March 14. Any food raised by the schools will remain in those communities to help fill their local pantries’ shelves.

The second part of the Food Drive revolves around those attending the games. Collection bins will be placed at the front doors of the facility for fans to drop off food items as they enter the facility. To entice donations, each person who donates will receive a raffle ticket for a chance to win a prize during that session of the tournament. Prizes to be given away include items from the Broncos, Rockies, Nuggets, Avalanche and Rapids, along with the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame and Mile High Sports Magazine.

Additional information will be forwarded as the playoffs progress.