The fiercest rivalry in northwest Ohio is being fought this month with canned chicken, cereal and ramen noodles. The University of Toledo Athletics Department announced on November 6 that it is once again teaming up with Bowling Green State University for the MAC Food Drive Initiative, part of the Battle of I-75 rivalry — a friendly competition to stock the campus food pantries that feed students at both schools, according to UToledo Athletics.
Toledo’s collections support the Rocket Food Pantry, which provides food assistance to University of Toledo students, UToledo Athletics said. Fans were first asked to bring nonperishable food to Savage Arena on Saturday, November 7, when the Toledo women’s basketball team hosted Michigan State. Two collection dates remain: Tuesday, November 10, when the men’s basketball team hosts Wright State at 7 p.m., and Saturday, November 14, when Toledo women’s volleyball hosts Bowling Green at 7:30 p.m. — the rivals meeting on the court while the drive wraps up its Toledo events.
Fans who cannot make a game can still take part: donations are accepted daily at a collection point in front of the Rocket Athletics Ticket Office inside Savage Arena. The priority items are canned chicken, canned tuna, cereal, oatmeal, ramen noodles, jelly, pasta, rice and instant potatoes, and non-perishable household items and dollar donations are also accepted, according to UToledo Athletics.
UToledo Athletics framed the initiative as a competition that extends the Battle of I-75 beyond the playing field, demonstrating the positive impact the two athletic departments can make in their respective campus communities. On the Bowling Green side, donations support the Falcon Food Pantry, in Central Hall 109, where any BGSU student, faculty or staff member can pick up a free bag of groceries once a week with a BGSU ID and no proof of need, according to Bowling Green State University’s Falcon Food Pantry FAQ. The pantry is open Mondays and Thursdays from noon to 3 p.m. and Wednesdays from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m., with pre-packed bags also available at the Jerome Library front desk.
The need behind the rivalry is real. A 2024 survey by BGSU’s Office of Institutional Research found that 35 percent of BGSU students reported experiencing food insecurity — no reliable access to affordable meals — and a national Hope Center study found nearly 40 percent of college students face food insecurity each year, according to BG Falcon Media, BGSU’s student media outlet. The Falcon Food Pantry, launched in 2021 through a collaboration between BGSU’s Office of the Dean of Students and its Center for Public Impact, offers free groceries, hygiene products and nonperishables, and a campus report found pantry users stayed enrolled at a higher rate than non-users, BG Falcon Media reported.
The scale of the work is substantial. Falcon Food Pantry director Shannon Orr, a BGSU political science professor, told BG Falcon Media the pantry receives weekly deliveries of 3,000 to 7,000 pounds of food from Feeding America warehouses in Toledo, and that student athletes and campus groups have been running food drives for it. One pantry user, BGSU junior Lauren Sharrock, told BG Falcon Media: “I felt embarrassed at first. But once I saw other students in the same position, I realized I wasn’t the only one. It was a real lifesaver to me.”
This year’s drive follows last fall’s second annual “Clash of the Cans: Rockets vs. Falcons Food Drive,” organized by Toledo’s Student Athlete Advisory Committee, in which the school collecting the most cans won; Toledo’s Rocket Fuel pantry recorded 4,184 student visits in the 2024-25 school year, according to UToledo Athletics’ October 2025 release about that drive. Then-SAAC president Olivia Gang, a Toledo cross country and track athlete, told UToledo Athletics at the time: “Coming together to support Toledo students in need, as well as beating That Team Down South, truly embodies the heart of Team Toledo. My hope is that we have more donations than we have space for.”
The food-drive rivalry is part of a busy service season in northwest Ohio. Readers can also see how Findlay students and neighbors collected 300,299 pounds of food for Hancock County — a separate community effort in a different county — and how UToledo is inviting veterans to a free breakfast and resource fair on November 11.
The two schools, about 25 miles apart on Interstate 75 in Lucas and Wood counties, have already met once this month: Toledo volleyball’s reverse-sweep win at BGSU’s Stroh Center on November 3 clinched a MAC Tournament berth, and the football edition of the Battle of I-75 follows on Friday, November 20, on ESPN2. The food drive gives fans a way to win something that outlasts any of those scores.
What happens next: the second Toledo collection is Tuesday, November 10, at 7 p.m. when men’s basketball hosts Wright State at Savage Arena, and the final listed collection is Saturday, November 14, at 7:30 p.m. when women’s volleyball hosts Bowling Green. Daily drop-offs continue at the Rocket Athletics Ticket Office inside Savage Arena. UToledo Athletics did not announce a date for declaring which school collected more; the winner, as ever in this rivalry, will be claimed loudly by both sides until the count is final.
Photo: JonRidinger, CC BY-SA