Law School again leads state in annual VBA food drive

First Place Honors: Attorney General of Virginia Mark Herring (center) presents the 2015 Attorney General's Cup at a Sept. 28 reception to Tommy Lukish, J.D. '16, W&M VBA Student Council vice president, and Lacey Coppage '16, W&M VBA Student Council community service chair. Photo by Graham Bryant, J.D. '16

by Graham Bryant, J.D. '16 | October 9, 2015

For a second year in a row, William & Mary Law School brought home the Attorney General's Cup after collecting more food and donations for Virginia's needy than any other law school in the state during the ninth annual Legal Food Frenzy.

During a two-week competition in April 2015, faculty, staff, students, and friends of William & Mary Law School collected 4,938 pounds of food in cash and food donations, all of which will go to help the Virginia Peninsula Foodbank.

The Legal Food Frenzy, a collaboration between the Virginia Attorney General's office, the Young Lawyers Division of the Virginia Bar Association (VBA), and the Federation of Virginia Food Banks founded in 2007, challenged members of Virginia's legal community to see which organizations could raise the most food for food banks in their local communities.

"It was an honor to again partner with the legal community and the Federation of Virginia Food Banks for this fun and important project," said Attorney General Mark Herring. "We pushed the Food Frenzy all across the state this year and communities from Roanoke to Northern Virginia to Richmond to Hampton Roads will benefit from the commitment and generosity of the Virginia legal community."

Members of the William & Mary VBA Student Council responsible for organizing the Law School's participation in the Legal Food Frenzy attended a reception at the Virginia State Capital Rotunda in Richmond where Attorney General Herring presented them with the Attorney General's Cup.

"William & Mary is proud to have won the Legal Food Frenzy two years in a row," said Lacey Coppage, J.D. '16, community service chair of the William & Mary VBA Student Council and lead coordinator of the Law School's Legal Food Frenzy effort. "It is amazing to see students, faculty, and staff band together for such a great cause. We are already gearing up for another huge food drive in Spring 2016 at William & Mary Law School."

Prior to William & Mary Law School's back-to-back wins, University of Richmond Law School took home the Cup during the Legal Food Frenzy's previous five years, and Regent University Law School won the prize during the food drive's first two years.

The Legal Food Frenzy was divided into multiple categories, including large, medium, and small firms; government and public service agencies; legal departments; and law schools. The competition paid off, as the statewide effort resulted in over 1.3 million pounds of food being collected for Virginia's hungry.

"The legal community has once again provided much needed food and funds to their local food banks at a very critical time, raising the equivalent of over 12.7 million pounds of food in the last nine years across the Commonwealth of Virginia," said Leslie Van Horn, Executive Director of the Federation of Virginia Food Banks, a partner state association of Feeding America. "Last year, Federation members distributed over 142 million pounds of food and grocery products to almost 1.2 million individuals in need of emergency food assistance."

Note: Pounds of food noted above were calculated by both food and cash donations where one dollar equals four pounds of food.