Instead of collecting candy this Halloween, Innisfail children are going to be visiting the ol' community haunts and neighbourhoods to collect non-perishable items for the Innisfail and Area Food Bank this fall.
“A lot of households are home and a lot of households are going to be handing out candy anyways,” said Megan Cote, the Town of Innisfail's Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) event planner. “Families are going to be home and we will be handing out flyers, so families will be expecting the trick-or- treaters to come.”
It's all about lending a helping hand with a national Trick or Eat initiative before the holidays hit, she added, with a partnership between Innisfail Middle School (IMS) and Meal Exchange. Trick or Eat participants are going to be asking the community for canned foods to donate to the food bank instead of collecting candy.
In fact, Trick or Eat is asking citizens across the country to collect $550,000 worth of food and $50,000 in online donations to support more than 100 food agencies across Canada on Oct. 31.
But the Innisfail and Area Food Bank is considered by town officials as the community's biggest priority.
“It helps us feed the people we need to feed,” said Carole Sim, volunteer coordinator at the Innisfail and Area Food Bank. “We do have several food drives coming up because it's getting close to Christmas, but our community is extremely generous so we've been extremely lucky.”
She added the food bank needs canned veggies, fruit, meat, soup, pasta, toilet paper and school snacks the most.
“This is a great way to help the food bank out and promote volunteerism among youth, and to get them aware of the issues around food insecurity,” Cote added. “It's also to get them engaged and start caring about the issue of food insecurity.”
The fundraiser is going to start off with a surprise spooktacular kickoff event at IMS, which is being planned by the IMS leadership class. FCSS has asked students to return to the IMS gymnasium at 6 p.m. to get collection bags, maps and detailed instructions about which area each group of students is being asked to collect from. It also includes a discussion about the importance of volunteerism for food banks and shelters.
“On Halloween night, youth will be going door to door collecting food for the food bank,” explained Cote. “Households that will be visited will receive flyers requesting they have non-perishable food items ready to be picked up on Halloween night by the Trick or Eaters.”
Youth wishing to volunteer for Trick or Eat may get an application form from their school or contact FCSS at 403-227-7744. Adult volunteers are needed to transport the food collected and may contact FCSS to sign up.
For more information about Trick or Eat, visit http://www.trickoreat.ca/.
