It was late Friday night, and calls began circulating that the Illinois – Ohio State football game would not be played. Immediately phone trees were getting word to staff and vendors that their services wouldn't be needed. 

For Spectra, Illinois' official concessionaire and food supplier, the prep work had already been done. When an 11 a.m. game is scheduled, food preparation must be nearing completion on Friday to be able to meet the needs of fans, gameday workers and student-athletes so early in the morning. 

So what happens to all that food?

Brandon Smith, a shelter staff worker for C-U at Home, was manning the phone Friday evening working on in-take for men needing a place to sleep for the evening. A very unexpected call came through. Spectra Executive Chef Tim Hoch was on the other line. 

The question was 'Is this something you could use?' … With the answer being a resounding, 'Yes'.

On Saturday morning a pick-up truck arrived at the Champaign-area men's shelter with nearly 400 servings of food.

• 160 bacon egg cheese bagels 
• 25 Ham & cheese sandwiches 
• 25 Turkey & cheese sandwiches 
• 55 Italian Flatbread & pasta salad box lunches
• 35 breakfast burritos 
• 35 Ham egg cheese on pretzel bread 
• 20 chicken salad wrap box lunch
• 20 roast sirloin on ciabatta box lunch 
• 20 ham & swiss on pretzel bread box lunch 

Due to different licenses and permits, C-U at Home isn't normally a primary location for food service, but the facility had no problem distributing the meals to the more than 60 men that came through the doors to get assistance from the drop-in center during the day and the evening overnight shelter. And word of mouth helped spread the news of high-quality food at the center. Meals were also shared with their partner women's shelter, Austin's Place, putting the number of individuals served over 100. 

"We don't truly understand how people who get three square meals a day, who can feel full belly can experience help to their emotional and mental state," said Rob Dalhaus, CU at Home Executive Director. "This donation gave them a sense of feeling cared for, that there are groups that have a desire to love on these folks who are less fortunate. Feeling that someone thought of them."

C-U at Home is a year-round overnight shelter for 'friends without addresses', but it also helps with daily education and resources to get those individuals showers, a place to clean their belongings, internet/computers and a job board. While the Champaign-Urbana hasn't had a 12-month overnight shelter in more than 20 years prior to C-U at Home, the facility saw 630 different men use and 130 different women use their services from Oct. 2019 through Oct. 2020.

"Although we are all disappointed that the game was canceled, our entire Spectra team was delighted that we were able to donate food to those in need, and especially during the Thanksgiving weekend," said John Hopple, District GM, Spectra Food Services and Hospitality at the University of Illinois. "We don't always get this opportunity, so when it presented itself, Chef Tim and the team immediately took advantage of it and did what was necessary to ensure that they were able to get all food that was prepped for the canceled game to the C-U at Home shelter ASAP.  We may have lost the opportunity to host the football game, but we were all very happy that we could contribute to a local shelter here in Champaign."