Sacramento State’s Rotaract Club teamed up with about 40 different organizations on campus and in the community to try and break the world record for most cans collected, providing food for Sacramento’s tent city.

Although the goal of 200 tons, or about 1 million cans depending on weight, of non-perishable food was not projected to be met by 6 p.m., the club has collected only 3,000 lbs. Senior business major Paul Dickey, who helped organize the event, was pleased with the turnout, regardless of the numbers.

Dickey, working with the Rotaract Club’s president, senior business major Joseph Ross, put the campaign together in about three weeks.

Members of the community, including Karen Vidor from Loaves and Fishes and Noam Harel from the Jewish Federation of the Sacramento Region, spoke at a press conference this morning regarding the food drive.

Vidor expressed deep gratitude to the Rotaract Club for its efforts, mentioning the economic crisis and the new faces as well as old that she has seen around the hub for the homeless community’s needs. She also addressed concerns regarding the national coverage of tent city, which has been around for 30 years.

“Newspapers from all over the world have been coming and asking us about tent city, and we’ve received zero dollars from anyone,” Vidor said.

Among other donations, Whole Foods Markets contacted the Rotaract Club and donated a pallet of soup and water.

University President Alexander Gonzalez and Roberto Torres, Associated Students, Inc.’s executive vice president, spoke at the event.

Although the club did not meet the record, it still had to pay a $595 fee to be eligible to set the record.

Guinness World Records does not have a category for amount of collected canned food, but only for non-perishable food. A Canadian city set the record with 196 tons. The record that the club looked at was for biggest structure made out of canned food, which was set by Sacramento State’s Big Sky Conference rival, Montana State University.

“The whole goal was to get food out to tent city and hopefully start a trend,” said Joe Keller, senior philosophy major. “We are real people and we’re trying to do a good thing.”

“Especially with this campus and the whole commuter campus motif,” added Terry Martin, senior government and economics major.

Anne Morrison can be reached at [email protected].