Local food pantries benefit from Football Frenzy Food Drive

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — It’s a touchdown for local food pantries as high school football season kicks off and WOOD TV8 heads onto the field each week for the Football Frenzy Tailgate and Food Drive.

The Daybreak crew will visit nine schools during the regular season, encouraging students to donate nonperishable food and toiletry items throughout the week leading up to their tailgate. Thanks to the station’s partnership with Feeding America West Michigan, all the food will stay in the community where it’s donated.

“We’ll weigh the food from each school and at the end of the season, the school with the biggest number will get a banner to hang in their building, showing they are the winner of our Football Frenzy Tailgate Food Drive competition,” Daybreak anchor Teresa Weakley explained.

If last year’s totals were any indication, the competition will be fierce. Kalamazoo Central High School students blew the contest away , donating an impressive 27,386 pounds of food, and helping the 2023 Frenzy Food Drive bring in 57,341 pounds of food over nine weeks.

Catch the Daybreak crew on Thursday morning at Plainwell High School for the first Tailgate and Food Drive of the season and tune in later in the day to find out how many pounds of food the students donated.

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