W&M Takes Home Attorney General's Cup in "Legal Food Frenzy"

For the first time in the competition’s history, William & Mary Law School took home the Attorney General’s Cup after its students collected 4,961 pounds of food for those in need during the eighth annual Legal Food Frenzy.

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, challenged members of Virginia’s legal community to see who could collect the most food for food banks in their local communities during a two-week competition in April.

“We are very pleased to have a winner within our service area,” said Karen Kramer Joyner ’84, chief executive officer of the Virginia Peninsula Foodbank. “With the need for emergency food assistance being so great across the Greater Peninsula, we appreciate the help the students provided. As a graduate of William & Mary, I am particularly pleased with the outcome.”

Representatives from the VBA Student Council at William & Mary Law School attended a reception at the Executive Mansion in Richmond earlier this month where Governor Terry McAuliffe and Attorney General Mark Herring presented them with the Attorney General’s Cup.

"William & Mary should be proud of a huge team effort for an urgent cause,” said Phil Harvey, president of William & Mary’s VBA Student Council. “The child food insecurity rate is consistently much higher in Williamsburg than statewide. I hope next year we can continue to help the Peninsula Foodbank ensure that kids in our backyard don't go to school hungry."

The cup will reside at William & Mary Law School until next spring, when it will return to the Attorney General’s Office pending the determination of its new recipient—or its return to Williamsburg—following the ninth Legal Food Frenzy.

University of Richmond Law School won the cup during the Legal Food Frenzy’s previous five years, and Regent University Law School took home the prize during the food drive’s first two years.

The competition was divided into categories, pitting the state’s law firms, government and public service legal agencies, and law schools against their fellows in hopes that the rivalry would induce the already competitive legal community to give even more than in previous years. With over 1.4 million pounds of food raised this year, and over 11.4 million pounds raised throughout the Legal Food Frenzy’s history, those in need across Virginia are the real winners.

“Our heartfelt thanks to the legal community who has once again provided much needed food and funds to their local food banks at a very critical time,” 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 almost 137 million pounds of food and grocery products to individuals in need of food assistance.