LONDON, ONT -- It has been an overwhelming response so far for two university students who started a unique food drive.
In an idea, even they are surprised nobody thought of, the two have been collecting leftover but still sealed food for the London Food Bank.
It started about a month ago when Michael Boushy opened the kitchen cupboard with his roommate Wilson O’Neill.
“We just looked in the cupboard and said, ’We’re not going to move all this, so we might as well do something.'"
What they did was post a note online asking all soon to be departing university students to donate food. The pair then took a pickup truck around collecting the donations.
Boushy says their first big delivery to the food bank was Friday.
“I really didn’t expect this much support, and you know I think, so far, we’ve generated about 650 pounds of food. So it’s been great.”
O’Neill says the drop-off was rewarding.
“Definitely a great feeling when we finally got to drop the food and got to see some of the people we are helping out.”
Both O’Neill and Boushy believe it’s important to give back to London.
Boushy says he wanted to create a positive campaign for students in the wake of recent COVID-19 outbreaks at Western.
“We brought three outbreaks of COVID already. I think it is the least we could do, as a student-based community, and I think we kind of shook the community a bit.”
The food drive wraps up tomorrow for 2021. However, donations from departing students will be picked up through Monday.
Those who want to donate are asked to email the pick-up address to Michael.Boushy94.@gmail.com
And if you can’t help this year, the pair intends to repeat and grow the effort in years to come.
“We are going to try and see what COVID permits but try to make it even bigger and give back even more,” O’Neil tells CTV News.
Boushy even has plans to ask other schools to start similar campaigns.
“Hopefully, this won’t just be a Western thing in years to come. I mean it is only up from here, and we’ll see where it goes.”
