TRICKS & TREATS
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THE ONTARION
2 2 | P E RFECT PUM PK I N
24 | SUGAR-F REE CANDY
@theontarion
Meal Exchange is set for another Trick or Eat event STUDENT-ORGANIZED EVENT HOPES TO RAISE AWARENESS AND DONATIONS FOR LOCAL FOOD BANKS M AT T E O C I M E L L A R O
CURRENTLY, there are over 500 volunteers signed up to participate in the Trick or Eat event that will take place next Tuesday (on Halloween), and that number is expected to rise. Volunteers include local high school students and members of the University of Guelph student community. “At the end of the night, we will have over 280 grocery carts full of cans of food,” Celeste Lopreiato, the Meal Exchange Guelph chapter’s coordinator, told The Ontarion. Volunteers will meet at the University Centre at 4:30 p.m.,
dressed in costume, and will board buses that will be sent to nine different neighborhoods to collect donations. The event will take the form of door-to-door trick-or-treating, except non-perishable food items will replace candies. Meal Exchange Guelph is in its 18th year of Trick or Eat, and hopes to break the record for most food donated in a single event. The current record was set in 2014 when students raised over 44,000 pounds of food for surrounding food banks. Lopreiato noted that Trick or
Eat and Meal Exchange Guelph have suffered from a few “slow years” since the 2014 record, but intend to increase presence on campus through social media initiatives and community outreach. “[We’re] reaching out to different high schools, we’re putting big banners in the community […] [and] reaching out to groups that would be interested, such as Universities Fighting World Hunger, the Guelph Student FoodBank, and various other groups,” Lopreiato said.
restricted trick-or-treating for those over the age of 14 and set a curfew of 7 p.m. The bylaw states that anyone spotted wearing a facial disguise after 8 p.m. or anyone over the age of 16 caught trick-or-treating could be fined up to $200. The bylaw, even with its amendment, seems too serious. Some parents with later shifts work until 6 p.m. and may not get a chance to take their kids out before the curfew. On the other hand, it is understandable that some residents may be concerned about teenagers causing trouble late at night through Halloween pranks like smashing pumpkins, TP-ing houses, or egging cars. And, of course, some parents may be concerned that teenagers may bully or steal candy from youngers kids. While these are understandable concerns, the bylaw assumes the worst of everyone over a certain age rather than dealing with those NEW BRUNSWICK THINKS NOT who are doing something wrong — M I R A L I A L M AU L A & S O BYA JAV E D regardless of age. It should be the responsibility of the community to discourage vanON OCT. 16, the New Brunswick province also amended their Hal- dalism or bullying from occurring. city of Bathurst amended a bylaw loween curfew to 8 p.m. that bans trick-or-treating for While the bylaw may seem people above the age of 16; the s t r i c t , t h e o r i g i n a l b y l a w
Should kids be allowed to trick-or-treat after 8 p.m.?
“At the end of the night, we will have over 280 grocery carts full of cans of food.” Outside of Trick or Eat, the U of G chapter of Meal Exchange hopes to create more community engagement through student
centered initiatives like cooking classes and a speaker series. “Meal Exchange in general is changing,” Lopreiato said. “We are trying to do more events for students, more education-based events, and more student involvement events [to create] more regular volunteer opportunities for students.” Tr i c k o r Eat t a ke s p l a ce o n Oct. 31 from 4:30-8:00 p.m.
STOP! You’ve just stumbled into the middle of your adventure! Start at the beginning of your spooky story on Pg. 3, or continue if you meant to read this next part or don’t care about spoilers.
You feel a pair of eyes on you as soon as you walk into the library. You try your best to ignore it, and call out the window to your friends. They’ve been sitting on the sidewalk, waiting. One of them has started eating Halloween candy – from your trick-or-treat bag! Someone eventually calls for help and the fire department rescues you. Your friends make fun of you for the rest of the year, but you know there was definitely something or someone else with you in the library that night. The feeling of eyes watching you when you’re alone never quite goes away.