Food banks and community service organizations often notice a stark decrease in the number of donations they receive from January until the end of spring. Many local nonprofits attribute this to the post-holiday lull; from Thanksgiving to Christmas, people are usually more inclined to give back to the community and spread holiday cheer. Last year, Solanco Neighborhood Ministries (SNM) in Quarryville introduced an initiative to combat this slow season: the Full Court Food Fight.

The basketball-themed program is a competition that encourages local businesses to join the fight against food insecurity by receiving nonperishable food donations from March 18 until Monday, April 8. At the end of the donation period, SNM will weigh the total amount of contributions made by each business. The businesses that have donated the highest number of food items will have an opportunity to compete in a basketball shooting contest on Wednesday, April 17.

While receiving donations, participating businesses may refer to SNM's list of 16 items its food bank in Quarryville is most in need of. The "Sweet 16" list highlights goods such as canned chicken, Spam, granola bars and juice boxes.

SNM will divide the businesses that qualify for the basketball shootout into four brackets: Cinderella Story, which involves collecting 50 to 99 pounds of food; Long Shots, for contributions that weigh in between 100 and 199 pounds; Fan Favorites, for total donations between 200 and 299 pounds; and The Dynasty, which includes businesses that collect 300 pounds of goods or more. Participating businesses will be placed into each bracket based on their size and collection ability to allow smaller companies to compete with larger businesses.

"We had a great response last year, so we wanted to do the Food Fight again," said Todd Capitao, director of programming at SNM. "It had an incredibly positive reception from the community, and (collecting businesses) even got pretty competitive toward the end." After a fierce competition last year, JP Automotive claimed the traveling trophy, which SNM will award to the victor of the 2024 shootout.

In addition to resupplying the inventory of SNM's food bank, donations collected for the Food Fight will help the organization sustain its Student Weekend Eating Program (SWEEP). Through the program, SNM provides weekend meals for qualifying students between kindergarten and eighth grade to take home. Each bag includes enough food to make two breakfasts, two lunches and two dinners, as well as a few snacks. SNM currently supports 290 students per week through SWEEP, a noticeable increase from the 220 students it served per week in 2023. SNM also offers a summer SWEEP program, which serves a lower number of local students.

The basketball shootout will be held at Huffnagle Park, 20 Oak Lane, Quarryville. SNM plans to hold a similar competition in June for local churches.

For more information, visit https://solanconeighborhoodministries.org or email programs@snministries.org.