CANMORE – Local high schools are adjusting their We Scare Hunger Halloween food drive to lower the risk of something far scarier than ghouls, ghosts and witches.
Canmore Collegiate High School (CCHS) and Our Lady of the Snows (OLS) are collecting in-school food donations from students this year before hauling the loads to the Bow Valley Food Bank.
Typically, students go knocking on doors in the community to collect canned goods and non-perishable items, but there’s been a change of plans with COVID-19.
“Because we want to respect the community and keep everyone safe, we are not going door-to-door this year, but we are going to do in-class collection of canned goods and everything they’re asking us to bring,” said student Ruby Pauch-Nolin, who’s co-organizing the CCHS food drive with classmate Kierra McCaffrey.
Community members who wish to donate are asked to drop off donations directly at the food bank at 20 Sandstone Terrace, or by donating to a student from one of the schools.
“We’re kind of relying on parents and friends of students to give their cans to whoever they know at this school and those people will be bringing them into classes,” said Pauch-Nolin.
Receptacles have been set up in the schools to collect donations and each school will drop them off Friday (Oct. 30) at the food bank.
“We have already 10 quite large boxes full of donations,” said OLS teacher Sara Viveiros. "We’ve also paired with the parish in town, Our Lady of the Rockies and they’ve been collecting non-perishables as well, so we’ll pick those up and add them, and it’s still going on until the end of the week, so we’re hoping to get more.”
According to the Alberta government, trick-or-treating and handing out candy is allowed this year. The province recommends to not hand out candy or go door-to-door if feeling ill or isolating, wear a non-medical mask that fully covers your nose and mouth, use tongs to hand out pre-packaged candy to avoid handling treats, and wash hands and disinfect packages before eating candy.
Visit www.alberta.ca for a full list of recommendations.
