Watermelon Bust to Raise Bulk of Fayetteville Pantry Food - The Arkanas Traveller

Watermelon Bust to Raise Bulk of Fayetteville Pantry Food - The Arkanas Traveller

Encouraged and coached by members of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity, competing teams stand on top of the house’s balcony and throw a watermelon toward their target on the ground. The greatest blast is crowned victor.

The Lambda Chi Alpha Watermelon Bust, a tradition within the fraternity and the university for the past 20 years, is scheduled for Oct. 6. Every year, the fraternity puts on a series of games for each sorority on campus to compete in including volleyball, two-legged races and the event that started it all, the Watermelon Bust. Coaches work alongside their teams for weeks in advance to practice their games for the big day, and friendships are made while everyone works together to compete and support the event’s philanthropic goal. Watermelon Bust is geared towards friendly and fun competition, but the overall goal is to give. Through the canned food drive and funds raised throughout Watermelon Bust, Lambda Chi Alpha donates to LifeSource International, a nonprofit organization located in Fayetteville.

“This is such a special opportunity for the Greek Life community to come together to ultimately raise canned food for a local food bank.” said Nick Beyer, president of Lambda Chi Alpha.

Each Greek Life organization participating in Watermelon Bust raises thousands of canned and dry goods for the food pantry, shedding light on the unity throughout Greek Life that is demonstrated in philanthropic events, he said.

LifeSource is geared to help underprivileged citizens in all aspects, offering educational, medical, mental aid and more, including their work to feed the hungry in NWA. According to the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank, 1 in 4 residents in the area experience hunger. More than 121,000 residents are food insecure, making Northwest Arkansas the most food insecure area in the state. Arkansas has the second highest food insecurity rates in the country.  The food pantry at LifeSource helps to feed about 12,000 to 14,000 underprivileged families per year, and the need continues to grow.  Jimmie Conduff, executive director of the organization, said in past years, the Watermelon Bust has raised more than 75,000 cans of food for the LifeSource food pantry, on average earning about 70 percent of food needed for the year.

“Events like these are a huge help and a huge blessing,” he said.

In the past, Conduff has attended the event to judge one of the contests and was impressed by the friendly competition driving the donations by participating sororities, he said.

Following the renovation of the Lambda Chi fraternity house, this year’s event is expected to be one of the best yet, said philanthropy chair Will Wright, who planned the upcoming Watermelon Bust. This year they are expecting to raise over 100,000 cans to donate to the food pantry at LifeSource.

The Watermelon Bust is the most popular and anticipated event among the brothers at Lambda Chi, they said, sharing their excitement to work alongside the sororities as coaches and mentors to reach their goal donations.

Zack Osiecki, alumni secretary, said that having the opportunity to help feed the hungry in the community is one of the many reasons that he is proud to be a member of Lambda Chi.  

“It is such a humbling feeling to know that our event truly has an impact on our community,” Beyer said, sharing how he constantly reminds his brothers about their lasting impact on each other, the Arkansas campus and the community which sets Lambda Chi Alpha apart as an organization.