Organised by Adam Kinneen, Matt Rodrick and Luke Barrett, approximately 50 students spent the evening knocking on doors around Jesmond and Heaton to collect canned or non-perishable goods for Heaton’s Newcastle East Foodbank, which is part of the Trussell Trust network. Goods were additionally gathered at a collection point in the Students’ Union.
The students were supported by Tesco in Gateshead who also placed a trolley at the counters where people can donate to foodbank.
“More food gets wasted on Halloween than any other day of the year other than Christmas Day – in fact, it’s about 18,000 tonnes on that one day every year.
“That’s really shocking when there are people with nothing to eat. We wanted to use the night to highlight this waste and do something positive and trick-or-treating for the foodbanks seemed like a good opportunity.”
Matthew Rodrick, President of the Helping our Homeless Society, added:
“There’s a real enthusiasm from Newcastle students to get involved and give something back to the city which we’ve all adopted as our second home.
“We just wanted to take the traditional trick or treating which is all about asking for sweets for yourself and turn it into something really positive that would benefit those who really need help.”
Discussing the generosity of local residents, Adam Kineen said:
“The attitude toward helping others in this city is second to none and the response from people who have heard the idea has been unbelievable. It’s quickly turned into a much larger idea because of the support from everyone across the city and now it’s quite the operation.”