Tristan's Blog

On Halloween, guess how much candy I got trick-or-treating. Not as much as you! Why? Because I participated in Halloween for Hunger.

Now you’re probably wondering what this is. It’s where you trick-or-treat for food donations for the food bank instead of candy. Lots of people need to use the food bank in Canada including my community. 1 in 6 families in my country don’t make enough money to pay for groceries. 28% of the Canadians who use the food bank are kids and 51% of people are families with children. Halloween for Hunger was created by Free the Children which is a Canadian organization that wants to help those in need who can’t afford to have a home, feed their families, and buy other things most of us have. Lots of people in Canada can’t have these things because they live in poverty. Yes, poverty exists even in Canada. Free the Children also helps people all around the world.

I went to We Day 2011 which is hosted by Free the Children. When I was there, I learned about how many people in the world need things I can afford. I am very lucky to have a home, food, video games, a bed and shelter. When I accepted that ticket, it didn’t just mean I could go to We Day, it meant I would commit to doing local and global actions to make the world a better place because everyone deserves to have their basic needs met. Participating in Halloween for Hunger is a local action because it helps people on Vancouver Island.

When I started my Halloween for Hunger trick-or-treating, I wasn’t really sure I wanted to do it because let’s face it I was worried about my candy supply, but as it filled up I became more confident about doing this. It felt great helping those in need and I was so proud of the full wagon. After the wagon filled up, I was allowed to trick-or-treat for candy, but I said “no” because I didn’t feel like it. I was happy with what I did and I already had some candy because some people gave it to me anyway because they liked what I was doing.

If you’ve done a local/global action your proud of please leave it in a comment.