You might talk about that great dinner you made last night, or the best place on campus to grab a bite to eat, or even the latest food trends, like the cronut or the ramen burger. But how often do you talk about hunger?
That’s the topic that the Food Banks of Canada wants to bring to the table during their Hunger Awareness Week, which will be held from Sept. 21 to Sept. 25.
Hunger Awareness Week first began in 2008, and was formed because “there was a real desire and need to increase the awareness of other Canadians across of the country about the need for food banks and for people to understand why there was hunger in what is a prosperous country,” according to Katharine Schmidt, the executive director for Food Banks Canada.
“You wouldn’t expect that there are so many Canadians going hungry,” added Schmidt.
“It started as a [single] day because we wanted people to stop and think about those who are hungry, and it has grown—it’s been a week for a couple of years now. Every year we try to do things a little bit differently to try to make sure that people are more aware of a solvable issue.”
Since Hunger Week began, hunger in Canada seems to have become even more of a concern: just last month, food costs rose 3.6 per cent overall, including a 6.3 per cent increase in meat prices. These changes in the economy make the 800 food banks and 2,900 affiliated agencies across the country all the more important.
“We’re seeing 850,000 Canadians every month right now at the food bank, and that’s 28 per cent higher in 2008 when the recession hit,” said Schmidt. “And food banks are still, every day, trying to hustle enough to support people in their community. And they’re not getting a break; those high numbers sadly continue to increase.”
This year, food banks across Canada aim to garner some of this support by releasing a 30-second video that illuminates the issue of hunger. They are also running a Twitter campaign through @CanadianHunger and #TweetsofHunger.
“We know that close to 10,000 Canadians use hashtags like #food, #nomnom, #foodie, but you only see about 400 or so that are actually talking about hunger through social media like Twitter,” explained Schmidt. “So we’re going to interrupt their thinking and obsession with food to realize that there are those in Canada that go hungry: To just take a pause and be aware of the reality.”
Schmidt hopes that the use of social media will bring awareness of the issue to more young people.
“We think it’s really important that the younger generation gets involved,” she said. “We know that at food banks the volunteer bank is aging, so we really want to engage the younger generation to understand the issue and to mobilize their passion and energy for our cause. Just please share the video and join the conversation at #hungerweek.”
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The Ontarion publishes independent, student-produced news, opinion, and commentary for University of Guelph students so that they can make informed decisions in their lives. To do this, The Ontarion provides learning opportunities and training in journalism, media production, leadership, board governance, and other aspects of nonprofit news.
The Ontarion is the University of Guelph’s independent student newspaper. It began in 1951 as part of the Ontario Agricultural College and then began to represent the entire University of Guelph once it amalgamated in 1964. The Ontarion incorporated in May 1970 as The Ontarion, Inc., a not-for-profit corporation registered with the province of Ontario.