Outside Isle Hall, volunteers worked quickly counting cans on Oct. 30 for the Community Canned Food Drive.

Bob Anderson, director of the EWU bookstore and PUB operations, said the canned food drive has been an annual event run by the EWU bookstore for the last 15 years.

“It started out as a bookstore and resident hall drive,” said Anderson. “Then it got incorporated into Spirit Week. It has become more of a campus event that way.”

For Spirit Week, residence halls compete against each other to see who can collect more food items per person. To figure this out, the total amount of food items donated from each hall are divided by how many people live there. This rule was created because some residence halls are larger than others.

The incentive for winning the event was a 25 percent discount on EWU apparel at the bookstore for the rest of the year for everyone in the winning hall, and the chance to display the traveling trophy.

Anderson said Pamela Parks, associate athletic director at EWU, donated the trophy in 2012.

Kristin Polley, an EWU bookstore employee, said volunteers for the event came from the EWU bookstore, Eagle Entertainment, Alumni Advancement, SAIL and the Office of Community Engagement.

“The groups that donated food also helped count their own food,” said Polley.

They began counting at 1 p.m. and finished at 2 p.m. after getting a large last minute donation from Dressler Hall.

Anderson announced Brewster Hall as this year’s winner, making this the third year in a row the hall has won.

Devon Tinker, associate director of the EWU bookstore, said Brewster donated 619 cans and had a 4.84 item per student ratio.

Dressler Hall was a close second.

Tinker said Dressler donated 1,405 food items, the most food from any one source, and had a 4.50 item per student ratio.

In total, 4,066 cans were collected for the Cheney Food Bank.

This is a decrease in donations from previous years.

According to Tinker’s records, 7,702 cans were donated in 2013 and 12,607 cans were donated in 2012. The last time the total amount of cans collected was lower than 4,066 was in 2008, when 3,516 cans were donated.

Those in charge of the event were grateful to those who participated.

“Thank you everyone for donating food and for helping count,” said Anderson.