On Halloween, something happened. Something magical. Something wonderful. Best of all, I managed to do it while dressed up as Robin.
While most of my fellow Carleton students were still organizing their costumes, handing out candy to kids in adorable costumes, or preparing for a (well-deserved, considering mid-terms) night out, over 200 students came together to celebrate Halloween by collecting non-perishable food items in the surrounding areas for the Ottawa Food Bank.
As with every year, Trick or Eat was organized by the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) Food Centre. For those who are unaware, Trick or Eat is an event held to reach out to the communities surrounding our lovely university, asking for their help to support emergency food programs and to feed thousands of people each month (most of whom are children).
I had the great fortune of being the team leader for a Trick of Eat group. I was surrounded by a team of fantastic and committed volunteers who managed to work around my not knowing how to navigate by a simple map. Team work! If the volunteers in my group were reflective of those in the rest of the groups, Carleton students seriously showed their “A” game when it came collecting donations for the Food Bank.
With over 200 students knocking on doors, collecting the occasional lollipop from enthusiastic homeowners, admiring all the terrific and adorable costumes worn by trick-or-treaters, and getting lost (that may have just been me), in just two hours’ time, we managed to collect over 6,300 lbs. of donations for the Food Bank. Let’s take a moment to process the amount of people who will receive much-needed help in the coming weeks and months because of our collective (pun intended) efforts.
CUSA president Alexander Golovko sent out a tweet that night thanking both the Food Bank and our university for partaking in such a rewarding endeavor. For sure, all the volunteers deserve a massive shout out – but let’s take that a step further. The CUSA Food Centre’s coordinators, who organized the entire night, deserve some serious credit for the amount of work they did. Sarah McCue and Tabitha McDonald served up some Raven Pride by planning routes, handing out flyers to the neighborhood, outreaching to so many people to help achieve something of which we can, and should all, be proud. There’s no doubt: Carleton has some amazing people doing some amazing work.
Which raises the question: why is this work necessary? What are the purposes of places like the Ottawa Food Bank and the Food Centre? As simple as it might seem, these places exist because people are hungry. The reality, though, is more complex: we live in a society that allows many among us to not be able to afford enough food to feed themselves or their families. Neither poverty, nor hunger, are absent from our lives, especially as students.
Students are broke. Rising tuition fees matched with shrinking OSAP funding, multiplied by the rate of inflation, equals not a hell of a lot of money; in fact, it is often not enough to cover the basics, food included. The CUSA Food Centre has had a 300 per cent increase year-over-year in the demand of their services – students, as with our fellow community members, are hungry. We are acutely aware of poverty and hunger, and we must do our part to create a society where no one has to wonder from where their next meal will come. This is a part of a culture of food security, where sustainability, availability, and accessibility form the pillars of our food policies. Through participating in initiatives like Trick or Eat, volunteering with the GSA’s community garden or the Food Centre, and trying to live more empathetically, we students are able to do our part to combat this societal injustice.
— Benjamin Diaz,
CUSA faculty of arts and social sciences (FASS) councillor
