Twenty-five universities will be going stomach-to-stomach this week as round one for the search to find the hungriest students across the country begins.
JUST-EAT Canada, the online takeaway food delivery service and the organizer of the competition, “likes to do things a little differently from most consumer brands,” said Luke Sheehan, marketing director at JUST-EAT.ca. The idea was conceived over lunch when one of the interns made a bet that she could eat an entire pizza in two minutes. This led to the launch of the first ever Campus Chompionship. “[We thought] it would be a lot fun to discover who Canada’s best student eater was, and the extreme lengths they would go to prove it,” said Sheehan.
Sheehan joined JUST-EAT in January 2011 in the UK and moved to Canada the following year to lead the marketing team. Sheehan’s a competitor himself. Nicknamed “The Intestinator,”, he was born into a life of food; his mother went into labour whilst queuing for shawarma and he says that since then he “has feasted at every available opportunity.” Sheehan and Takeru Kobayashi, a Japanese major league eater who holds several records, will be among the judges.
This ‘chompionship’ is no joke, but a highly organized three round competition. Surviving the post-contest tummy ache may not be easy, but joining is a piece of cake. Students create a profile on chompchompchomp.ca and collect as many votes as possible. Sheehan suggests campaigning to your student body to get them to support you.
Round two is titled “Video Showdown” in which 25 semi-finalists will be challenged to create a 60-second video for YouTube. The five person judging panel will then look for and grade the following criteria: the desire to compete, a visually compelling video, and the innovative use of takeout food.
On Oct. 28, semi-finalists will head to Toronto to compete against each other, and special guest Kobayashi, in a three minute eating competition. “The hungriest finalist — that is, the one who consumes the highest number of square cheese pizza slices — will win bragging rights as the 2013 Campus Chompion and $25,000 in prizes,” explained Sheehan.
“Not only does the prizing benefit the entire student population,” said Sheehan, “the competition drives friendly rivalry amongst schools.” A cheque for $5,000 will be presented to the winner and the affiliated university will win $20,000 worth of prizes delivered to the campus by a JUST-EAT truck over five days in November.
JUST-EAT invites Concordia students with an appetite to join in. It’s a fun way to earn cash and a possible opportunity to beef up your resume with a 2013 Campus Chompion title. Visit chompchompchomp.ca for more information.
