Contact: Jeremy C. Burton, APR, Oral Roberts University, 918-495-6649

TULSA, Okla., June 2, 2011 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Oral Roberts University (ORU) Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) team was named overall winners of the Campbell's Let's Can Hunger Challenge. The ORU team donated a total of 158,910 pounds of nonperishable food items, the majority of which went to children in need in Japan.

"The most exciting aspect of winning the 'Let's Can Hunger Challenge' is that it clearly demonstrates our business students can excel in business while actively delivering the ORU difference," said Dr. Steve Greene, dean of the ORU College of Business. "For some students across the United States, it's a once in a lifetime experience to reach out to the hungry. We know our ORU students will have a lifetime of world-changing experiences. What a joy it is to mentor such a generation of difference makers."

The team had donated 137,700 pounds of nonperishable food items to feed 444 Japanese children for a year after the country suffered a major earthquake, and 13,210 pounds of nonperishable food items were distributed to Tulsa and international charities such as Tulsa Day Center for the Homeless, John 3:16 Mission and The North Tulsa Dream Center and African orphans. See the video the students created about their efforts at the following link: bit.ly/kfBIVm

As part of their campaign, the ORU SIFE team also provided online training to help people learn their way out of poverty conditions.

"One of our focal points of the Let's Can Hunger project was to certainly provide immediate hunger relief to people in need in Japan," Greene said. "But we also wanted to help the hungry sustain the change. Sustained change means the people we feed will not need to comeback for more food in six months. We made progress by providing online curriculum to help people. The curriculum was delivered online and through Skype meetings. The ORU SIFE Team wrote and delivered the curriculum and maintains consistent contact with the people who have been served in order to sustain the change."

The team received a first-place trophy given by Doug Conant, Campbell Soup Company chief executive officer; a check for $3,000 and a Campbell executive campus visit on a future date.

The Campbell's Let's Can Hunger Challenge, sponsored by Campbell Soup Co. for the past three years, is a comprehensive hunger challenge including: raising awareness, translating awareness to action in the form of urgent hunger relief and empowering those in need to defeat the cycle of hunger.

The ORU SIFE team is in its fifth year and is comprised of over 200 students from 15 different majors. SIFE is an international nonprofit organization active on more than 1,500 university campuses in 40 countries.

For more information on obtaining a degree from the ORU College of Business, call admissions at 800.678.8876 or admissions.oru.edu. Get more information on the College of Business at www.oru.edu.