50/50 food drive delivers

50/50 Food drive co-ordinator Joey Butkevich sits in a van full of food headed to the North Bay Food Bank today.

Times are tight for students at the Education Centre as the end of the semester approaches and the recent city-wide '50/50 Food Drive' could not have come at a better time.

Food drive co-ordinator Joey Butkevich, says several factors contributed to the drive being hugely successful. The first factor is that the food gathered was divided equally between the Nipissing University/Canadore College Food Banks and the North Bay Food Bank. The second factor is that the student shelves are stocked once again.

“Both food banks are in need, ” he says.

“And this is a chance for us to give back to the community.”

In light of recent happenings on campus, the young student said that it was important to show the community that there is more to the campus and student life than just politics.

He also noted that the response from the community was so overwhelming that he hopes the drive becomes an annual event.

“It choked us all up when we got back on Friday after the blitz … just looking at all the food.”

“You couldn’t walk in the board room … it was piled up about 4 feet high.”

Butkevich credits the significant increase in student usage of the campus food bank to this year’s rise in tuition. He says that tuition, rent, books and bills, coupled with a lack of student employment, is causing students to rely on both food banks just to make it through the year.

The sad reality is that after the blitz the shelves were stocked, but when Butkevich checked on Tuesday the shelves were half empty again.

“It clears out real fast,” says Sean Feretycki, NUSU President.

“And that is very frightening.”

Currently in Ontario over 330,491 access a food bank each month.