First General Meeting

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The University of Western Ontario Chapter

• First General Meeting
• Monday, September 29th 2008

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Overview

• Intro
• About Meal Exchange
• Our programs
• How you can get involved
• Volunteer opportunities, events, etc

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The Problem
Years since the all party resolution to end child
poverty 17. gt Change in the number of hungry
children since then 157,917

• 2.6 million Canadians Suffer From Hunger

Percentage of food banks with difficulty meeting
demand 34.5
Over 750,000 people use food banks in Canada each
month- A 99.3 increase since 1989.
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How can this happen in a country like Canada?
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• Apathy.

Stereotypes
Feeling helpless.
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Its not my problem.
39 of food bank users in Canada are children.
Its everyones problem. Its our
responsibility.
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The solution?
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About Meal Exchange

• Established in 1993 by Rahul Raj from Wilfred
  Laurier University
• First program was Skip-A-Meal
• In 1996 Raj and Saunders wrote a thesis to serve
  as a guide for Meal Exchange as a non-profit
  organization
• 1998 Meal Exchange incorporates registered
  charitable foundations
• 2008 University of Western Ontario Chapter
  established as an official USC club

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What is Meal Exchange?

• Meal Exchange is a national youth-driven,
  registered charity organized to address local
  hunger by mobilizing the talent and passion of
  students.
• Since it was founded in 1993 by 17-year-old Rahul
  Raj, our programs have been run on over 50
  campuses across Canada and raised over 2 million
  dollars worth of food or 800,000 meals to address
  local hunger.

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What is Meal Exchange?

• Our Mission Addressing hunger through student
  solutions.
• Our Vision To help eliminate the root causes of
  hunger and poverty by engaging tomorrow's
  leaders, today. ?

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Who we are

• Co-presidents Colin Suen and Patricia Hizo-Abes
• VP Promotions Kevin Banks
• VP Volunteer (Human Resources) Melanie Hudson
• VP Outreach Brandon Hone
• VP Campus Relations Denise Clegg

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Who we are

• Volunteer Executive Casey Whitelock, Kimberly
  Heaslip
• First Year Executive and Residence Liaison
  Stella Chan, Michelle Jennet
• Promotions Executive Luis Quail
• VP Finance Christine Stolarz
• VP Administration Heather Andrighetti

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Our Key Programs

• Trick or Eat
• is Meal Exchanges most successful program.
• 10 000 worth of food raised by MX-UWO last year
• 2600 collected in donations
• FUN and EASY!

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Our Key Programs

• Clear the Shelves!
• a program that encourages students to literally
  clear their
• shelves at the end of the academic year.
• allows students an opportunity to donate food,
  clothing and furniture to community members in
  need.
• Collected from students living on-campus and
  off-campus

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Our Key Programs

• Skip a Meal
• allows student meal plan holders an opportunity
  to donate a meal from their meal plan to purchase
  food at wholesale prices to support local hunger
  causes.
• All food provided to the community through Skip a
  Meal is food that would have otherwise gone
  un-donated and 100 of student donations
• generated on campus stays within their community

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What you can do to help
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Tasks for Trick-or-Eat

• Distribute door hangers
• Lots of teams of 2-4 people
• Chalk team
• 5-10 people
• Decorations and banners
• 4-6 people

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Whats in store for this year

• First Semester
• October -gt midterms
• Trick-or-Eat, Trick-or-Eat, Trick-or-Eat
• November
• Soup kitchen/food bank visits
• Get Skip-a-Meal started (2 people)
• December -gt finals, Christmas break
• Holiday train

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Whats in store for this year

• January -gt end of Christmas break
• Clubs week II
• General Meeting II
• February -gt midterms, reading week
• Hunger awareness week
• March
• Soup kitchen/food bank visits
• Executive elections
• April -gt finals
• Clear the Shelves and Snag some bags

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Questions?