So it’s Hunger Awareness Week at the University of Guelph.

It’s hard to deny that as soon as we hear the words ‘hunger awareness,’ our minds are filled with images of public service announcements featuring footage of hungry children in the developing world. We think hunger is far away; it’s not. Not in Canada and not in Guelph. And certainly not on the University of Guelph campus. It doesn’t affect university students, right?

If there’s any lesson that something like Hunger Awareness Week can teach us, it’s that while an invisible issue, hunger affects us locally, without a doubt. The focus of the weeklong event, a partnership between Meal Exchange and the CSA Foodbank, is to raise awareness about the effects of poverty and hunger locally. This is an admirable goal, considering the impression that seems to be shared by many on the U of G campus that hunger is not a serious issue facing university students. 

One in five people in our community deal with hunger related issues. This is a fact and the coordinators of Hunger Awareness Week placed a large ‘X’ on the back of one-in-five chairs in the University Centre cafeteria to act as a reminder to students of this fact while they go about eating their lunches. They are raising money for a breakfast program to ensure that Guelph community children have food to eat and a proper start to their day. They are running a workshop to teach students how to cook on a budget. These are all wonderful ways to raise awareness about hunger and poverty issues among students and the community. But at the Ontarion, we feel that there is a larger issue at work here.

Hunger is an invisible issue, mainly because poverty is stigmatized. It is to the point where someone in a difficult financial position is hesitant to admit his or her need, for fear of judgment. This sentiment is echoed by representatives from both the CSA Food Bank and Meal Exchange. Because for some students asking a friend to buy food for them is not a socially acceptable behavior, many find it difficult to ask for help in this way even from the social services designed to provide this kind of assistance. There is a misplaced sense of shame for some people when admitting they struggle with such a basic need. This stigma makes it easy to forget that there are so many others in the same boat, barely scraping by, and others struggling with taking that extra step and seeking out assistance.

Krista Kermer, the program coordinator for the Food Bank on campus told the Ontarion that close to 600 students access the resources available to them at the Foodbank, but many others either choose not to get help or don’t know enough about the Foodbank to seek it out.

Hunger is an issue everywhere. It affects university students, as well as community members in Guelph. Now is a particularly difficult time of the year for students financially and is a time when many students make use of the Food Bank’s resources. This week, an Ontarion editor, still struggling to catch up from the financial drain of tuition, books, and rent, turned to the food bank for help to ensure that they didn’t go hungry. This editor faced no judgment and got the food they needed to make it through the week. Not just cans but fresh fruit too. There are no fees to use the CSA food bank. They ask you no prying questions. They are open and available. More people need help in this way than you think.

But perhaps you don’t need the resources that the food bank has to offer. Maybe you have more than enough money to buy food to eat. The best thing to do is consider the message of Hunger Awareness Week, recognize that food is precious, and be thankful that you can afford it. Then, give. Give your time, give food, and give by working to eliminate the stigma around poverty. The person who could benefit from your efforts could be your roommate, your classmate, or your friend.

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