A long-time tradition of University of Guelph students walking door to door on Halloween collecting non-perishable food for local food banks will not happen this year, says a spokesperson for the Guelph Food Bank.
The Trick or Eat initiative was run through the University of Guelph’s student union, where students fan out to all areas of the city to collect food on Halloween, bringing in between 20,000 and 40,000 pounds of food on that one night alone, said Pauline Cripps, marketing and communications coordinator for the Guelph Food Bank.
Many of the students would dress up as they went door to door collecting food.
The Guelph Food Bank received an email last April from the U of G Central Student Association executive saying that the initiative would not be happening this year and had that confirmed over the phone earlier this week.
This would have been the 20th year for Trick or Eat in Guelph.
GuelphToday reached out to the CSA several times but has not yet received comment.
Thanksgiving food drives by the Guelph Food Bank help to stock the shelves until Thanksgiving, said Cripps. The shelves are restocked for Christmas in part by the Trick or Eat initiative.
Cripps noted that Trick or Eat is run through the university’s student union, the Central Student Association.
Paper bags for the Thanksgiving food drive go out in the local newspaper a few weeks prior to Halloween. Cripps said many people fill those bags and save them for the students to pick up for Trick or Eat.
“Instead of bringing those into the fire halls or grocery stores or to our location during food drive, they hold it until then — but that’s not happening this year,” she said.
Cripps said she is concerned that people will still be expecting U of G students to show up at their doors on Halloween to collect food.
“To have somebody start and recruit all of the volunteers ahead of time and from the university side — that’s the issue and we can’t really run Trick or Eat without that,” said Cripps.
The Guelph Food Bank does not have the resources to go out and pick up the bags and Cripps said it is too late to organize a new city-wide event from scratch.
The only exception this year will be at Village by the Arboretum, said Cripps. Volunteers from the Guelph Food Bank will come by the retirement village on November 1 to pick up the donations.
“We are going to make sure that one runs because it’s a very confined village and we don’t want to lose the support of that area,” said Cripps.
She hopes the people of Guelph will bring the donations to the Food Bank directly or to the local fire halls and grocery stores that have donation bins.
“Our biggest concern is that people will hold on to them until Trick or Eat and that’s not going to happen,” said Cripps.
The need for the food bank has increased steadily over the past year, said Cripps.
Between June of 2018 and June of 2019, the Guelph Food Bank experienced an increase in both visits and individuals served. A total of 1,638 unique individuals used the service this past June, up from the 1,409 that used in the same month last year.
Through that increase, Cripps said the Guelph community has been amazing.
“We have not run out of any single item this year, we have been able to keep a variety on our shelves, which is great,” she said. “This community has been awesome.”
