PRINCE GEORGE – Tucked away in the offices of the Northern Undergraduate Student Society is a food bank geared to students.
“The campus is partially closed because of COVID. The food bank here in the main NUGSS office is still operating,” explains Jingyu Chen, President of NUGSS.
There at students living in residences that avail themselves of the food bank. But with in-person classes set to resume in September, that usage is expected to rise, though not likely immediately in September. Typically students started to need help in October and November and again after Christmas.
The NUGSS food bank has a very unique relationship with the Salvation Army’s food bank.
“Essentially whatever you end up taking, every week may be different based on what they get in” explains Doug Minaker, General Manager of NUGSS. “And then, everything gets weighed and a certain amount of weight requires a certain amount of volunteer hours to be re-paid. Which is basically, you go an work in the food bank sorting the stuff that comes in.”
The student society does an annual fundraising called “Fun Drive.” It was cancelled last year, but the home is to resurrect the event on May 27th.
“So basically what we do is we collect donations. So if you’re trying to clean out your cupboards, your closets et cetera, it can be clothing, it can be books, it can be binders, office supplies, it could be dishes, cutlery, whatever.”
NUGSS will accept the donations at their offices on campus or on the reciprocity shelf in the NUGSS building. Whatever they collect gets loaded up and taken to Value Village and they give the students’ society a certain amount of money per pound.
