by Erin Stewart
Loyalist College students are just some of the beneficiaries of Gleaners annual food drive, which was held Sunday.
More students are benefiting from Gleaners Food Bank each year, said Susanne Quinlan, Director of Operations at Gleaners Foodbank.
“We want to make sure students stay in school because if they quit school they will still have OSAP payments. So if we can help in any way to make that not happen then we are happy to do that,” Quinlan says.
Gleaners delivers 15 hampers of non-perishable food to the college each month.
Wednesday nights from 6:30pm to 8:30pm the Foodbank is open to students who need perishable items like bread, meat and fresh vegetables.
This program, which has been around for 10 years, has seen the number of students accessing food Wednesday nights going up every year.
“At the beginning we may have done 10 students per month but now we are more like 42 students per month,” Quinlan said.
Quinlan said that the cost of rent and transportation to and from the school is expensive. She finds this is what leaves students with less money for food.
Students just need to go with their student ID Wednesday nights.
The community came together on Sunday to provide non-perishable food to support people in need in the Quinte Region.
Quinlan says the day was a success, filling four buses full of food.
“The food just came flooding in. As of today we are at 15 tons, that will give us a little over six months of food,” said Quinlan.
Quinlan said that the community came together as a great team and helped with the event.
“Grandmothers, moms, dads, kids, teenagers, you know it, they were here sorting.”