This week the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity is hosting Watermelon Fest, the fraternity’s annual philanthropy event, and is aiming to donate 1,000 pounds of canned goods and at least $300 to the Capital Area Food Bank.

According to the chapter’s Web site, Watermelon Fest features Olympic-style competitions between sororities at GW and other D.C. area schools.

Watermelon Fest events include a relay race, a tug-of-war, a watermelon seed spitting contest and a canned food drive competition. The fraternity’s goal to donate 1,000 pounds of canned food is 200 pounds more than the donation Lambda Chi Alpha made last year, said junior Will Maden, the fraternity’s philanthropy chair.

“(Watermelon Fest supports) a good cause because it is helping people right here in Washington D.C.,” said junior Matt Vazquez, president of Lambda Chi Alpha. “It’s the chapter’s way of giving something back to the city and trying to help out the homeless population.”

The Capital Area Food Bank, founded in 1980, is the largest, public non-profit hunger and nutrition education resource in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan area, according to the organization’s Web site. The CAFB distributes 20 million pounds of food each year.