By Maija Inveiss

Through the Red and White Hunger Fight, a Badgers Give Back program, student-athletes are able to collect food for families in the Madison area during the holiday season.

The Red and White Hunger Fight was founded by a former UW women’s soccer player, Michelle Dalton. According to Abigail Money-Waldo, a UW Athletics Community Relations Intern, it was founded as a way to combine the food drive held by the homecoming committee and athletics.

Athletes can earn community service hours by filling up certain amounts of the food drive bins in each of the team’s locker rooms. The community service hours are used as a way to compete between all of the different athletic teams. They are the main people in the athletic department trying to gather and sort the donations for the Community Action Coalition for South Central Wisconsin, a non-profit organization that tries to reduce poverty and provide basic needs for those in need.

Money-Waldo believes that the athletes can impact how much attention an event receives because the community looks up to them.
“[Community service] is really important for the Badgers because they are such a vital member of this community,” Money-Waldo said. “Fans love the Badgers.”