A local charity has a new program at Humber College’s food emporium to tackle global famine. Twenty-five cents will be donated to WE charity when specified food items are purchased.
The marketing and student engagement manager at Humber College, Veronica Trask said that the youth is the perfect audience to educate and introduce to the global community. She said it pushes the students to empathize with the world. It exposes students to worldly issues, understand it’s implications and on a perosnal level attempt to help the ones in need of food, shelter, and other basics of life. The marketing department is currently advertising through booths and food sampling with WE posters and flyers all aroundthe cafe.
Walter Da Silva, the district manager at Compass said, “many students are passionate about global issues and ways to work through them. I think this is something they were introduced to, prior to coming to college and this would be the next step in progression.”
The food service is looking forward to introducing pre-ordering through the Boost app. According to the app’s website, it is a free of charge mobile ordering app. Boost allows its users to order ahead of time from any of their favourite stations on campus. This is the first time Humber College has initiated a charity program this substantial. It will enable students to save and select a suitable time for their pick-up and donate at the same time, said Da Silva.
Justin Ley, a student at Humber College who was indecisive of his choice of meal said, “I love this move and the variety of food. Maybe double the donation. I am glad to contribute to a good cause of helping feed the hungry by just getting myself a meal.” However, Natasha Inniss who bought a WE-special meal, chicken souvlaki with salad, said that she would prefer having the option to donate. “Food prices are sky high. I want to pay minimum for my food and donate when I have enough to do so,” she said. She raised her concern about the possible large profit margins that the food company has, that helped them accommodate some amount to be donated to charity without having the customers to pay extra. She said she would instead prefer paying twenty-five cents less each time she bought a meal.
WE has collaborated with Chartwells to spread this program across several universities and colleges in Canada. According to Compass Canada’s website, Chartwells is a branch of the Compass group that provides nourishing meals for students and young adults across the country from kindergarten to colleges and universities. Ten thousand meals were purchansed in the first week and the goal is a million meals within three years nationally, according to Da Silva. He also said that each meal bought is a meal donated to someone in Asia, Africa or Latin America. He also said that Chartwells is working towards building a committee of students to advertise for WE initiating in the month of October.
According to WE charity’s website, formerly known as Free the Children, the organization has been working towards youth empowerment since 1995. It aims to inspire and enable people to do good though their everyday choices. WE had been partnering with elementary and high schools, now moving forward to colleges and universities.
The customers can see the difference their contribution is making with every WE special meal, through WE’s Track Your Impact initiative. WE gives out a simple code to the customers that help them track the journey of their donation right from their purchase of the meal to the community it is supporting.