Teams of students dressed in colorful attire cheered and chanted at the "Battle of the Chapters" Friday night.

Every year the 12 Mormon fraternities and 17 sororities at the Salt Lake University Institute of Religion host the Battle of the Chapters for a pregame project and a fun-filled night of competition.

Each chapter team competing is made up of three groups from the fraternities and sororities to provide mingling and unity between those that often do not have the opportunity to meet.



The competition includedcrab soccer, human spelling and fitting multiple bodies into a crammed space.

This year's project, which has been in the works since April, focused on the annual rivalry food drive between BYU and the University of Utah -- the weekend before the game between the two schools' football teams.

"We wanted to make the food drive the focus for bringing everyone together and unified because we have heard of the high demand for food throughout our state," said Calli Whipperman, the interchapter communications officer for the U. institute's chapters.

This year the institute's programs were able to raise 21,338 items for the food drive, triple the amount raised in last year's institute food drive of 6,853 items.

"This was a huge success and will probably be the single largest food donation to the University of Utah's donation for the rivalry food drive," said Parker Hill, interchapter council president.

All proceeds and foods collected from the annual rivalry food drive will be given to the Utah Food Bank and sent out to families in need throughout the state.

E-mail: jmiller@desnews.com