St. Thomas students crowded James Dunn Hall dressed as Furbies, Hogwarts students, superheroes and a devilled egg on Halloween night.
STU students’ union members Craig Mazerolle and Mary-Dan Johnston directed the students with enthusiasm.
“Hello everyone, happy Halloween. The buses are in the Vanier parking lot ready to be loaded up. Everyone get into your groups and go to the bus that has been assigned to you,” yelled Johnston over a megaphone.
The students weren’t dressed up go trick-or-treating for Halloween candy.
Instead, they were participating in Trick-or-Eat, the largest youth-led food drive in Canada.
This year, about 130 students collected 77 boxes and 57 bags overflowing with food donations, which were piled into a Fredericton Food Bank truck. Holy Cross House had the best turnout from the residences.
Ninety per cent of the donations will go to the Fredericton Food Bank, while the remainder will go to the campus food bank.
Emily Bosse has been involved with Trick-or-Eat for several years and said the STU group in 2009 collected the most food in the Atlantic region, with 10 tonnes of food from 430 volunteers.
“Trick-or-Eat is extremely important,” Bosse said. “It is the last line of defence before people go hungry and the only resort.
“Students have been using the food bank a lot more this year and 34 per cent of recipients are children.”
It is important for STU to be involved in Trick-or-Eat because it brings students together as a community and creates a positive influence, she added.
There are set routes for each group to cover during Trick-or-Eat.
STUSU vice-president student life Alex Vietinghoff was taking charge of the event and filling boxes and bags with donations.
“I had 150 routes to cover, and all of the maps were used tonight. The turnout was great,” Vietinghoff said on Monday.
Trick-or-Eat-ers were separated into groups to cover their routes. STU student Katie Cameron was in one of those groups.
“I think that a lot of people were congratulating us on participating in the food drive. My group had said there were a lot of people very giving and willing to donate food,” she said.
Dario Anselmo said most people in Fredericton seemed to know about Trick-or-Eat and wanted to help out.
“Several houses gave you five or six items each, not one person has not donated.”
