Thursday, November 5th 2009

By sam colbert

On the afternoon of Halloween, teams of Mac students beat trick-or-treaters to the streets of the Westdale and Ainslie Wood communities, going door-to-door in costume. Shopping carts in tow, they collected 3000 pounds of food from the local residents.

The students were McMaster’s 268 participants of Trick or Eat 2009, a national youth-driven food drive. The Trick-or-Eaters gathered in Twelve-Eighty on Saturday, where each team was sent out on an assigned route. All returned soon after with carts full of non-perishable food items. Their efforts and the generosity of the residents will provide 2400 meals to Hamiltonians in need.

The event was run by the McMaster chapter of Meal Exchange, a national charity initiated and operated by students dedicated to food security and raising awareness of hunger issues in Canada. A 17-year-old Wilfrid Laurier student gave Meal Exchange its start in 1993, and the organization has since raised more than $2 million in food through a number of programs. The McMaster chapter of Meal Exchange is embedded in Mac BreadBin, the campus food distribution service of the MSU.

“It’s a complex system, and you never know how small things affect the big picture,” said Kris Hughes, Director of Meal Exchange at McMaster. “So by getting youth involved at a young age and in such an active way, we really hope that will effect the social change we need to start eliminating food insecurity in Canada.”

McMaster was one of 57 universities, colleges, high schools and community centres in North America that participated in Trick or Eat 2009. Final totals from all participating groups are not yet in, but the campaign is well on its way to achieving its goal of raising 160,000 meals.

This year, Trick or Eat comes at a time when food banks and service agencies are most in need of it. Given the economic climate, the number of food bank users is increasing, while the agencies are finding it harder and harder to feed the hungry. In Hamilton alone, 19,600 people use food banks every month, and more than 8,300 of those people are under the age of 18.

“Children have no options, they’re just thrown into the situation,” said Hughes. “They are totally dependent, and they end up in a situation that so harmfully affects their future. Being hungry and being food insecure as a child really perpetuates the cycle of poverty within the community.”

Along with the positive effects of this event for Hamilton, Hughes believes students stand to benefit from Trick or Eat. Tension between local residents and students living in the McMaster community often becomes a problem, and actions of students living in off-campus housing sometimes leave neighbours with a negative attitude toward the student population. An event like Trick or Eat “shows residents another side of students that they might not have seen,” said Hughes.

“This is really a great community outreach event, because it shows students, again, effecting positive social change, doing good things in the community, supporting the community, being a part of the community, as opposed to just living in the community.”

Other events run by Meal Exchange include Skip a Meal, which occurred at McMaster in March. At that event, students could donate money remaining on their meal plans by swiping their student card at a station in Commons. It was only within the last few years that Mac BreadBin adopted Meal Exchange activities into its set of programs, but events like Trick or Eat have become annual at McMaster.

Tags: Halloween, hamilton, McMaster, meal exchange, parishable, poverty, trick or treat