Halloween for Hunger gets new rebranding

Laurier Food Bank’s Waterloo campus team is giving a new look to Halloween for Hunger, rebranding the event to later in November. In previous years, the event has taken place the week of Halloween, but due to scheduling conflicts has been given a new name.

Usually, the Laurier Food Bank holds a donation drive for Halloween to collect non-perishable food items to be put in parcels for students, but to ensure the event has optimal timing and volunteers, they have decided to move the event to Nov. 16 and rebrand as “Let’s Can Hunger”.

“Halloween is on a Thursday, but we usually have this event on a weekend because that’s when people are home and able to answer the door. It’s a weird mix because we would be picking up on Oct. 26 which would be really close, but we also do a flyer handout a week before, but it was reading week,” said Alison Ko, events executive for Laurier Food Bank.

“We only had a small time frame, so since the timing just didn’t match up we decided to rebrand and push it back to November to do it on a weekend instead. It’s a food drive for locals to make donations to students at Laurier, we hand out flyers to let them know we’ll be coming a week after to pick up cans.”

For this year’s Halloween event, Laurier Food Bank is holding two different events for students, the first being a parcel building event in the concourse from 11 am to 3 pm on Oct. 29 where students can build their own customizable food bags.

It’s a food drive for locals to make donations to students at Laurier, we hand out flyers to let them know we’ll be coming a week after to pick up cans.

– Alison Ko, events executive for Laurier Food Bank

The second event is a Halloween for Hunger pancake breakfast on Oct. 31. A pancake breakfast is usually held by the group on the last Tuesday of each month.

Prior to Let’s Can Hunger, Laurier Food Bank will also be hosting an event titled “Are You a Frequent Flyer”, a preliminary event in which food bank executives and volunteers go door to door handing out flyers about the event, including information on when they will be collecting food donations as well as accepting any monetary donations.

“We offer parcel service to all students, we offer three parcels per semester and each one includes foods like canned vegetables and fruits, pasta or even toiletries if they need it,” Ko said.

“It can all be done online so there’s no face to face interaction and it stays anonymous, we send them a locker code and they go and pick it up.”

Last year, the Halloween for Hunger event collected hundreds of food items from the community for those in need and the Laurier Food Bank’s hope is that with this year’s extended date they will be able to collect even more than they had previously.

“The event starts at 9 am to 4 pm, we’ll set up a sign-up sheet where we put everyone in different groups or they can sign in groups, we put them in waves and then we go out and pick up cans,” Ko said.

The Laurier Food Bank will also be moving their $5 Boar’s Head dinner that usually takes place in November to the winter semester in order to accommodate the rebranding and date change of the event.