By Cheryl Jahn

CNC’s student food bank growing in need

Dec 14, 2023 | 3:45 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – The Christmas trees line the Gathering Place at the College of New Caledonia. Each one represents a different department and each one has a basket beneath it. It’s the Christmas food drive at the college, and it’s badly needed, especially post-COVID.

“Prices of goods have gone. Living costs are high, rate of inflation is high. So the experiences of students of ten years ago are not the same experience now,” explains Leila Abubakar-Depenau, Executive Director of the CNC Students’ Union. “There are a lot more limitations to things. So a big thing within the campus and also in the community in general is food insecurity. So that made the food bank a big focus for us.”

The Trees of CNC campaign has been around for more than a decade, and this year there has been a spike in donations, which shows an acknowledgment of the need. And the number of students accessing the food bank is on the rise.

“Before, when it started, we would only need to fill up our food bank maybe once a day,” says Abubakar-Depenau. “And now we have a two-hour limit. Every 2 hours, somebody is going up to fill their food bank, and every 2 hours the food bank is empty. So it’s a need. And we’ve definitely seen an uptick in students needing to utilize that service.”

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And that’s the reason the college would like the food bank to move beyond just a Christmas campaign.

“We want to be consistent across the whole school year in being able to support and help students that are in need. We know, it’s growing and it’s peaks and valleys,” says Shelley Carter-Rose, Vice President of Student Affairs. “We want to stay in the peaks. We want to be able to provide some, you know, some options that are maybe not available right now. So maybe some healthier choices.”

The community has stepped in to help as much as it can, but demand is coming from all corners. But anyone can pitch in.

“Oh, a hundred percent! We actually have lots of members of the public who just come in and drop off food, and food items. A lot of them is faculty and staff within the college because they know it’s available. So we take food items and then mostly nonperishable all year round. We actually just had a member of the community who’s growing lettuce now and that donating it all because they got a grant from the government.”

And the students’ union does get some outside support from the likes of Cobs Breads and the Salvation Army, but more would, naturally, be welcome.