Meal Exchange – A Great Cause

Here is my report regarding the trip I made into the centre of the Universe. Enjoy;

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I was in Toronto with 34 other delegates from across Canada to talk about the growing problem of food and how it affects the average university student. Esurio was hosted by a charitable organization known as Meal Exchange, which started out as a student led initiative that sought to ease the burden of hunger across Canada. Now in the full swing of their operations, Meal Exchange has chapters from coast to coast that run programs to help local charities and food banks combat the problem of hunger.

My role in this conference was slightly different that the average delegate; I was attending under the flag of a “food bank coordinator” representing the service that we offer here at the University of Lethbridge.

The conference helped me learn a lot about the situation that is facing a lot of people in Canada with regards to hunger, however, the problem of hunger on a campus is a different issue as I have learned. Our situation as students with regards to hunger is rarely a factor of the social fabric we come from. Instead student hunger seems to be a product of circumstance; the fact that large sums of money are due at certain points in time (tuition, books, rent, etc.) and then compound by restricted time due to classes and thus limited earning potential.

Esurio taught me about the need to report on the facts of our campus and the situations that we face as students. Because of this, I will be planning a student hunger survey that will be given to the general public to gauge hunger on our campus and what we as the ULSU can do to combat it. I have also made some minor adjustments to help provide a stronger service from our Food Bank that I hope our community members will notice in the near future.

My only regret with this conference is that by the end of the three days I felt as though I had attended the same seminars over and over again; a greater range of diversity of subject for the food bank coordinators would have helped a lot. Also, at times the sessions I attended did not apply to my position since they were targeting Meal Exchange chapter coordinators.

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Cheers,

Eric
VP Internal

Everyone, Meet Will

Will Allen - CEO of Growing Power Inc.

I recently returned from a conference in Toronto this past weekend and during my time there I learned about a very impressive man and his company.

This man’s name is Will Allen.

His company is called Growing Power Inc.

Will Allen’s project has bloomed into an amazing company that has truly captivated me. Growing Power Inc. is all about creating sustainable, secure sources of food for people everywhere. They do some amazing work for the community and youth. What really got me was some of the extremely innovative systems for growing and composting they use.

For instance, in the green houses, compost heats the houses during winter. In order to water the plants, a trickle-down system is used for efficiency and fish are grown in conjunction with this watering system. It sounds kinda space age, but it looks really cool.

I could go on and on about this amazing project but I think you should see more for yourself.
Check out these links:

The Growing Power Inc. Homepage
Videos from Growing Power Inc.

Cheers,

Eric
VP Internal

a haiku for eric…

Our lovely VP Internal, Eric Hawthorne is in Toronto still and we miss him. A lot.

So much I wrote a haiku about it, then wikipedia’ed “Haiku” because I couldn’t remember if it was 3-5-3 or 5-7-5, where in turn I learnt this: “Senryu tend to be about human foibles while haiku tend to be about nature, and senryū are often cynical or darkly humorous while haiku are more serious.”

Thank you Wikipedia!

So instead of a haiku about missing Eric, I wrote a senryu, which sounds like this:

Eric is not here

Just Jenn, Adam and Brodie

We are much less stoked

Jenn Prosser, VP Academic

A how-to-guide; putting Eric in a bad mood.

Warning: Incoming Rant.

I am not one to use inappropriate language or anything of that sort, but this post will have the occasional shit thrown into the mix.

Let me also say that my experiences today should not reflect poorly on any of the companies I mention. They just happened to be the location that these events occurred in/with/around, which have caused such uneasiness in my life.

A how-to-guide; putting Eric in a bad mood.

1. Start a conference travel day by feeling ill.
2. Get on a Westjet flight, with the plane feeling far too hot.
3. Insert family of incompetent parents with 3 screaming children, between the ages 2-4.
4. Rotate those children into the seat next to Eric based on when they start crying.

Step 4 Note: This is done to ensure that the other 2 children that are now sleeping on the other side of the plane from crying so hard are not woken by the current child who is screaming for tele-tubbies or whatever shit they are not getting to watch on the in flight television.

Rinse.
Repeat.
For 3 hours and 30 minutes.

5. Land the plane with a startling jolt and cracking noise.
6. Ensure that the cab driver has no idea where Eric is staying for his conference during his first trip to Toronto.
7. Hunger pains ensue in Eric’s stomach since it is almost 5pm and they ran out of food on the airplane (other than shitty cookies, which you can only have 2 packets of by the way.)

8. Eric must venture aimlessly until he finds a pub.
9. The pub must also, coincidentally, be a local spot for the entire gay village of Toronto.
10. A very inappropriate man must hit on Eric, while he is eating his chicken fingers and trying to enjoy his beer.

Gay note: I have nothing but acceptance and respect for the gay community in our country. I think Toronto is truly amazing in how they have developed a whole district where gay people are celebrated for who they are. I just didn’t need the most inappropriate things I have heard in a long time to interrupt my one good meal of the day.

Truly, the anatomic possibilities of what this man suggested to me were simply outrageous.

After completing these steps in sequential order, Eric will be in a very bad mood.

Cheers,

Eric
VP Internal