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Selkirk students trick or treat for food bank

Selkirk College students went out trick or treating on Halloween to collect donations for the student union food bank.
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Selkirk College students went out trick or treating on Halloween to collect donations for the student union food bank.

Selkirk College students braved the blustery weather on Halloween night to raise awareness for student poverty and collect food bank donations.

The food bank is run by the Selkirk College Student Union.

“The Selkirk College has a food bank, because there's a need here for students. Some of them have some issues being able to afford school and have food, so we have a food bank here to kind of alleviate the problem,” said Robin Legere, organizer for the Selkirk College Students' Union.

In March 2014, 1.8 per cent of those who accessed food banks or meal programs in BC were post-secondary students. That's 1,753 students in BC alone for one month.

Nationally, 26,918 post-secondary students accessed a food bank or meal program in March 2014, and that's only counting the Canadian food banks and meal programs that participated in a national survey conducted by Food Banks Canada.

In addition to running a food bank, the Selkirk College Student Union also advocates to lower student debt, which leads to students being unable to afford food in the first place.

“[A campaign that the student union has] is trying to squash student debt or alleviate interest on loans or increase funding to institutions, and you know, have more grants and that kind of stuff for students,” said Legere. “So they're not stuck in the position of having to pay a whole bunch of stuff out of pocket and then not be able to afford to have food.”

Thanks to generous donations from the community, Selkirk students collected approximately 200 lbs of non-perishable goods on Halloween.