Like a rally car in an endurance race, participants in this weekend's Interfraternity Council/Panhellenic Dance marathon required fuel. But in this case gasoline was not the means of motivation; the driving force was food.

The organization responsible for supplying the edible energy is the Thon social committee. The committee provides food and beverages for roughly 700 dancers, 200 captains, as well as the bands and sound people involved.

"Basically anyone that provides a service, we feed them," said Alison Zambito, overall social chair.

Zambito said that many businesses help out year after year. One such business is Subway, which has been helping for over 15 years, she said.

For 48 straight hours, Thon participants had to stay on their feet, and keep their legs churning. But not only the dancers had be fed.

Committee and family members also needed sustenance, and in an effort to help the participants, restaurants throughout the community came out in full force.

Harrison's, 1221 N. Atherton St., donated lunch on Saturday for the captains, as well as food for the corporate sponsors reception.

Kit Henshaw, co-owner and manager of Harrison's, said that her business was happy to help out for Thon. "It is a really well done event," she said.

Henshaw also said that although Harrison's is relatively new to the area, they would continue to help out with the dance marathon.

"We look forward to doing it in the future," she said. Pizza Hut , 760 S. Atherton St., also aided in the hunger halting process.

Jerry Weaver, restaurant general manager, said that his store donated 80 pizzas Friday night, 80 Saturday afternoon and an additional 175 coupons for personal pan pizzas.

Weaver stated that Pizza Hut wanted "to be more involved in the community, and to help a worthwhile cause."

The committee has implemented several measures to make sure that when the weekend ends nothing that was donated will go to waste.

In an attempt to conserve any food that was not consumed over the weekend, Zambito said that Meals on Wheels, would be picking up all left over food and beverages.

Meals on Wheels is a non-profit organization that provides delivery of free meals to elderly and disabled persons who can not cook for themselves.

In addition, all bottles and cans that were used throughout the weekend will be recycled. Although recycling was done somewhat last year, this time it will be done on a much greater scale, Zambito said.