For the second year in a row a group of student-athletes showed their Christmas spirit by going door-to-door to collect donations for a pair of local food banks. On December 8th the St. Thomas University Student-Athlete Council organized a food drive with donations going to the STU Food Bank and the Fredericton Food Bank at Greener Village.
“The day was really good, and it was very nice to see so many student athletes out helping and collecting food for the food drive, especially during exam time,” said 4th year women’s basketball player, Lainy Dow. “We ended up collecting a lot of food. It’s nice to know students and families will receive this during the holiday season.”
Fredericton Nissan and Home Fashions provided the roughly 30 student-athletes with four vehicles to help go door-to-door to collect donations. Throughout the day the volunteers collected nearly 1,700 non-perishable food items, half of which went to the Fredericton Food Bank at Greener Village and the other half to the STU Food Bank.
“As student-athletes, we are lucky to receive the amount of support from fans within our community, so it is really important to us that we do what we can to give back to the community that gives us so much,” said Taylor Cook, President of the Student-Athlete Council and a member of the women’s hockey team. “A special thanks to Fredericton Nissan and Home Fashions for providing the trucks for the collection.”
“The Food Bank experiences a spike in demand at the end of the school term when students are short on cash, so this food drive is really meaningful to us,” said Campus Minister Vivien Zelazny, who administers the STU Food Bank. “It simply means that some students who would otherwise go hungry are getting fed. We're deeply grateful for the efforts of our student athletes in conducting this food drive.”
The food bank at STU is open to all students and is located in George Martin Hall, near the Great Hall. It is open during business hours and is completely anonymous. Any student is welcome to go and take what they need.