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Mail Services is launching its 12th annual Holiday Food Drive on the Davis and Sacramento campuses. Mail personnel will pick up foodstuffs left with outgoing mail, Nov. 1-20 (this text has been updated to reflect food drive extension to Nov. 20), and then package them up for two big deliveries to the (for Davis campus donations) and (for Sacramento campus donations).

“We make it easy for employees to donate, and we’re happy to do it. If we collected just 5 pounds of food from each mail stop, we would donate a minimum of 3,000 pounds,” said Jen Carmichael, general manager of .

Since its inception in 2005, the Mail Services food drives have netted a combined total of 19,600 pounds of food for the Yolo and Sacramento food banks.

Here’s a list of suggested items to donate: canned, ready-to-eat meals; canned meat, fish and soups; canned vegetables and tomato products; dry beans (any type); enriched rice and pasta; ramen; boxed macaroni and cheese; canned fruit (in juice); peanut butter (plastic container); iron-rich cereal (45 percent or more of daily value); powdered milk; fruit juice (100 percent, in plastic containers 48 ounces or smaller); and powdered milk formula and Similac baby food.

Running of the Turkeys

Here’s another way to help the Yolo Food Bank: Participate in the ninth annual , Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 23), a 5K run-walk event in Woodland. You can run on your own or join a team, perhaps the Running Coupling Constants of the Department of Physics.

The physics community has had a team in Running of the Turkeys since 2012, and Professor Lloyd Knox said everyone is welcome. He said the team has set a fundraising goal of $4,500 this year, and he and his faculty colleagues Richard Scalettar and David Wittman will provide a dollar-for-dollar match until hitting the goal. The match applies to registration fees paid by team members and to donations made in the team’s name.

About that name: “There’s something in physics called ‘running of coupling constants,’ which refers to the fact that their apparent value changes depending on how you are measuring them,” Knox said. “So, it was a pretty obvious choice for the team name.”

But, he emphasized, you don’t need to know anything about physics ! You can also start your own team.

Qustions? Contact Professor Knox by email.