Trick or eaters to canvas for canned food

On Halloween night, 300-400 students will be roaming the streets, helping to “take a bite out of hunger” with Trick or Eat.

The event, run through St. Thomas University, is one of the most popular campus events of the year, attracting hundreds of students, staff and faculty members. Participants go door-to-door in the community, from as close as the College Hill area to New Maryland, canvassing for non-perishable food items.

Trick or Eat is a campaign of Meal Exchange, a charitable organization devoted to students eradicating hunger in their communities. Every October, universities across the country take part in the campaign, raising tonnes of food for local food banks and soup kitchens.

Emily Bosse, event coordinator for Trick or Eat, said 10 tonnes of food were raised in last year’s event alone; a total monetary value of $42,000 worth of food.

Bosse said some students who are unfamiliar with the event may not be as likely to take time away from their evening for it.

“I think students who don’t know what it is sometimes can be pretty reluctant to give up their night of partying. When we go into classrooms we explain that (the event) is done by 8 p.m. and what this is for and how it works, people certainly begin to get excited,” she said.

Emotions run high the night of the event, Bosse said. The buses used for shipping participants across the city are typically filled with cheering, costume-clad students excited to begin canvassing.

“All the students that we have there are always really, really excited to go out into the community. It’s amazing. You’re on the buses and people are cheering and it is pretty incredible and I think people enjoy it. You see people from all corners of the campus community, from profs to people from athletics, clubs and societies, theatre, really, anywhere on campus are all pulling together towards a common cause.”

Bosse said the event is well received by the Fredericton community. Now that the event has been running for a number of years, Trick or Eat is established in the community and residents have come to expect canvassers.

Bosse said the event helps to dispel perceptions that students are just partiers and don’t contribute to the city.

“A lot of the time, when students are featured in the media, it’s something like couch burnings on Graham Street. And to have a lot of stories running at the same time and awareness of a huge amount of students mobilizing for a cause for the better is a change in how students are presented in the media and in the community and certainly, I think it puts forward a positive perception,” she said.

Staff at the local food banks, both the student one on STU campus and the food bank downtown, are ecstatic when tonnes of food begin to pour in. Trick or Eat is designed to fill the lull in donations between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The event begins at 5 p.m. in James Dunn Hall on the St. Thomas campus with registration, sorting and shipping students across the city in cars and on buses. Students return to James Dunn at 8 p.m. to celebrate with free pizza and candy.