Students and volunteers took part in the annual Halloween food drive in Brandon on Sunday and collect more than 2,000 pounds of non perishable food items.
Food collected goes to students at Brandon University and Assiniboine Community College. The food is used to stock the shelves of food banks that service the campuses.
Matthew May is Executive Director of the ACC Student Association and he said last year the drive only brought in 500 pounds because of the pandemic and the challenges it presented to canvassers.
“I think it went well. There were two donation sites one at BU and the other at Samaritan House where ACC students get their food hampers every two weeks. The student association brought in 768 pounds of donated food and BUSU brought in 1,670 pounds for a total of about 2,440 pounds.”
May says the food drive is important because students at both BU and ACC often don’t have the ability to work a full time job while they are going to class and it can be tough to make ends meet. The donations go into food hampers that go out on a bi-weekly basis.
“I’m not sure how many hampers go out at BU but about 15 percent of the food hampers that go out through Samaritan House are going to students from Assiniboine Community College and some from Brandon University.