Elementary and high school-aged kids weren’t the only ones trick-or-treating on Oct. 31.
Non-profit organization Meal Exchange organized their annual Trick or Eat event across Ontario. The drive asks university students to go door-to-door to ask for food donations, which go towards local community organizations and students in need of food.
The campaign may limit students’ need to use food banks on university campuses for meals. This issue is becoming more prevalent as the years go on and tuition fees steadily rise, according to Meal Exchange’s website.
“Trick or Eat means getting out of the university bubble and doing something good for the community,” said University of Western Ontario organizer Alex Prong in a press release from Meal Exchange. “It means working with fellow students and being a part of a national event that is making an actual difference on a country-wide scale.”
The main goal of the event is to raise awareness regarding “food insecurity,” according to Sarah Archibald, the event’s director of communications.
Food insecurity is not having reliable access to enough affordable food.
Meal Exchange surveyed roughly 4,000 students from five universities earlier this year on the topic of food insecurity, including Dalhousie University, the University of Calgary, and Ryerson University.
The survey found nearly four in 10 Canadian university students don’t have sufficient access to food, or the means to get it.
More than 30 per cent of students reported experiencing “moderate” food insecurity, with another eight per cent experiencing “severe” food insecurity.
Over 50 per cent of students in the survey said food costs and tuition fees are significant barriers to accessing food, while rising housing costs were a close third. The report also said the cost of food continues to rise faster than the inflation rate.
Archibald said students are taking notice and getting involved in programs like Trick or Eat.
“There’s a peak in interest around this time,” she said. “They’re learning about social justice, they’re learning about food insecurity, environmental sustainability, and they want to take action.”
At Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, the number of students who experience food insecurity is higher than 40 per cent. About half of the students surveyed by Meal Exchange at Lakehead said they lack food security, according to official data from the study.
In Thunder Bay, there are less options available for food, according to Maclean’s. However, Archibald said the problems are just as prevalent in urban areas such as Ottawa.
“I honestly feel like it is quite equal,” she said. “In bigger cities, we have many different smaller campaigns which sort of add up and equal the one or two larger campaigns in smaller towns.”
Archibald said Meal Exchange has seven different campaigns in Halifax, and 10 different ones in Toronto.
Meal Exchange runs other programs throughout the school year as well. They run events such as Share a Meal, which encourages students to shift their tuition money from dining halls to local food agencies.
