The Mary Baldwin Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) led another successful year participating in the USA South Conference annual Cans Across The Conference initiative and collecting donations for the Blue Ridge Food Bank in Verona, Va.

For the fourth-straight year, the MBU SAAC increased its contributions for the Blue Ridge Food Bank, collecting and donating 2,025 items.  Officially, Fighting Squirrels collected 1,666 food items prior to the USA South's Nov. 20 deadline.  However, a late cash donation equaling $1.00 per can increased MBU's total this year to 2,025 items, one more than last year.  All 13 MBU varsity teams participated in the collection program.  The late donation is not included in the official USA South calculations.

In the USA South Athletic Conference's 21st annual Cans Across The Conference food drive competition, each campus SAAC collected cans and other non-perishable items to benefit a local charity of their choosing. The institution with the most items collected is crowned the Cans Across the Conference Champion. 

Overall, the USA South institutions collected 59,904 items this fall (with MBU's late addition, that increased the total to over 60,000), more than double from a year ago, and the third-most in the history of the competition. On average, League institutions donated over 6,000 items per school which is the second-highest output in the initiative's history. Over the 21-year history of the program, USA South institutions have donated 719,862 items to various local organizations.

With a grand total of 20,020, Methodist University is the Cans Across the Conference Champion for 2025. The Monarchs have claimed victory for the second time in the competition's history with the first time coming when the initiative began in 2004. The Methodist total is the third-most by an institution in competition history. Additionally, the Monarchs have improved on their yearly total for four consecutive years. Brevard College collected the fifth-most items in the initiative's history, 17,694, to finish second while Meredith College's 5,051 items rounded out the top-three.

For more information from the announcement on the USA South Conference website, click here.