We Scared Hunger. Yes, we did.

We Scare Hunger was such a big success! Some of my friends and I organized Free The Children‘s Halloween themed food drive, We Scare Hunger, at our school and I launched it at my karate dojo, Energy Karate. What I loved about this campaign was that it was about our local community – the food that we collected will make a difference in the lives of families right here.

What was amazing is that we all did this together. My friends at school on the Positive Climate Committee helped to organize our food drive by sharing information and spreading awareness about hunger and food banks in our community. We made posters that hung in the hallways of our school that shared facts and information, other posters had lists of the donations we were collecting, we created a We Scare Hunger centre where food was dropped off and boxes were in each classroom. We used morning and afternoon announcements to give reminders to the whole school to bring non-perishable food items.

My friends at Energy Karate were really supportive and ready to help. I wrote a letter that was included in an email to all of the students and families of the dojo. They also hung up posters and made announcements at the end of every class. Every few months they do a “Parents Night Out” where they run a program for kids with activities, pizza and a movie. This month, for admission to this special night, they asked for food donations.

This is a photo of the first pick-up of donations from Energy Karate:

As a blogger and a change-maker I have learned that knowledge is power.  We Scare Hunger was not just about collecting the canned goods for the local food bank, it was also about spreading awareness about the needs in our community. When we launched We Scare Hunger at school, we shared information that made people want to take action. Knowledge is always the first step. When students went home and shared with their parents what they learned about hunger in our community, they helped to spread awareness. The knowledge and awareness adds up to actions and donations.

On stage at We Day in Calgary, Amanda Lindhout said something that really stood out to me:

With awareness comes responsibility and choice.

What this means to me is that when we learn and become aware of what is happening in the world, we become responsible for that knowledge. The choice is what we do with that responsibility. The first choices are do something or do nothing. If we choose to do something, the next choice is what are we going to do? What kind of action can we take? For me, We Scare Hunger meant creating awareness about hunger in our community and motivating my peers at school and at my dojo to take action with me.

Today I had the privilege to drop off the food that we collected at Energy Karate to our local Longos who has made plans with the Vaughan Food Bank to pick it up from them. We filled two huge shopping carts with donations of food that included soup, pasta, rice, cereal, toothbrushes and more.

We were so happy that people dug through their cupboards to find canned goods that they bought for themselves and they were donating it people in our community who don’t always have enough food for 3 meals a day. We know from statistics that food banks often run out of food and I am proud that the donations we made will keep them full.

I want to thank my Principal and Positive Climate Committee at my school, and Anna, Pablo and my senseis at Energy Karate for supporting We Scare Hunger. I also want to thank Longo’s (especially one of the Managers at the Richmond Hill store, Randy) for being such awesome partners of this campaign and for organizing the drop-off and pick-up for our local food bank.