A change is coming to the food bank collection process at Canadore College.
After nearly 20 years of operating on its own, the campus food bank has now formed a partnership with the North Bay Food Bank.
Shawn Chorney, vice president of enrolment management, Indigenous and student services, says the food that’s collected on campus will be evenly split with the North Bay Food Bank.
Chorney says Canadore students have used both facilities over the years.
He says provincial figures show that 40 per cent of post-secondary students are food insecure.
Chorney also says about 1,800 students at Canadore are on OSAP or financial assistance.
“So it’s not hard to fathom that at some point they’ll miss budget or are between disbursements and run out of money,” Chorney said.
“We see every year several hundred students access our food bank and they access the food bank in the community. I was at first struck by (the 40 per cent) number but when you consider other factors, it certainly rings true.”
Chorney says it’s not the case that students will miss a meal if the college knows about their situation.
He says the last thing Canadore wants is malnourished students or to see members of their family become hungry since some students have children of their own while going to school.
“If a student is hungry or a member of their family is hungry, they’re in duress,” he said.
“So we try as much as we can to remove barriers.”
Chorney says the school’s food bank program also sets Canadore apart from many other institutions and he hopes other places follow suit.
There is no deadline for the partnership between the college and the North Bay Food Bank.
Chorney says Canadore is starting with 20 blue boxes spread across the campus and sites include offices, the cafeteria and Welcome Centre.
For now Canadore only wants non-perishable food.
However Chorney says it’s looking at possibly adding a refrigerator down the line so that dairy products and produce can also be collected.