{"id":20723,"date":"2021-03-09T09:00:14","date_gmt":"2021-03-09T17:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=20723"},"modified":"2021-03-08T10:41:46","modified_gmt":"2021-03-08T18:41:46","slug":"camosun-cares-hampers-program-continues-to-help-students-in-need","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2021\/03\/09\/camosun-cares-hampers-program-continues-to-help-students-in-need\/","title":{"rendered":"Camosun Cares hampers program continues to help students in need"},"content":{"rendered":"

As economic issues exacerbated by the pandemic continue, many students are struggling to buy basic necessities. In the first week of March, the Camosun Cares hamper program began its second round of delivering supplies to students. Weekly deliveries will be made for nine weeks; the hampers will include fresh local produce, food prepared by Camosun\u2019s Culinary Arts program, hygiene products, and canned goods.<\/p>\n

Camosun International assistant to the director Miki Speirs, who is helping to organize the hampers, says it\u2019s all about helping students, many of whom have lost their part-time jobs or are working on reduced hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a student, too,\u201d says Speirs. \u201cI know how hard it is to survive every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The idea behind the program, says Speirs, is to help students who need it so that they can focus on studying.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t have done this on my own. Everybody really came together; all the faculties\u2026 [are] delivering using their personal time, using their personal vehicle[s] to deliver hampers to students on their own time. It\u2019s really speaking to the value of Camosun,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A look inside a Camosun Cares hamper (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Speirs says that without the help of the Camosun College Student Society (CCSS), the hampers couldn\u2019t be happening. The CCSS donated $10,000 to the program initially, and made an additional donation of $7,000 for this round of hampers.<\/p>\n

CCSS external executive Quinn Cunningham says food is quintessential when it comes to learning.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t be learning on an empty stomach. It\u2019s been shown in studies that it\u2019s not effective,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s why there\u2019s all sorts of programs for primary [and] secondary schools, but in university, it\u2019s also a concern. With the kind of financial insecurity that this pandemic has exacerbated, this sort of programming allows Camosun students to focus on their studies and not have to worry about how they\u2019re getting their next meal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The program is run on a first-come-first-serve basis, and Speirs is hoping to raise more money in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis time, I do see a lot of demand\u2014160 applicants in the first week\u2014so I do believe the demand could be a little bit more as the pandemic might progress… Or it might calm down a little, but I do believe the demand is going to go up,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

If the demand is there along with the funds, Speirs says she is hoping to extend the program to be longer than nine weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m constantly asking community members for donations,\u201d she says, adding that there are no restrictions on who can donate. \u201c[I\u2019ve been] asking [the] public to spare $45 for a hamper. Donations keep coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speirs says that she has noticed this time around they are getting more donations from community partners.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo most of the year, we didn\u2019t actually have to purchase the goods anymore,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was all donated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speirs says there are good quality products\u2014local produce and Fatso peanut butter, for example\u2014in the hampers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s exciting to see how many communities just really reached out to us,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s all about helping students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students can sign up for the hampers here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As economic issues exacerbated by the pandemic continue, many students are struggling to buy basic necessities. In the first week of March, the Camosun Cares hamper program began its second round of delivering supplies to students. Weekly deliveries will be made for nine weeks; the hampers will include fresh local produce, food prepared by Camosun\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20724,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-webexclusive","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20723"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20725,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20723\/revisions\/20725"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}