Read this amazing letter from Meal Exchange volunteer, Erin Kaipainen, in Calgary.

Dear friends and colleagues,

As many of you know, I work throughout the year getting our students involved in the community through course projects and non-credit service-learning projects in an effort to help students develop more complex understandings of the issues facing our world, as well as to help them discover how they can contribute to their communities. 

A small part of what I do involves supporting the University of Calgary Meal Exchange chapter. Meal Exchange is a national youth-led organization that empowers youth leaders to raise awareness about food (in)security, and to take steps to address local hunger. Our events, like Trick or Eat on Halloween or 24-for-Hunger, or service projects with the Food Bank and Brown Bagging it For Kids are all organized by students for students. My role is to facilitate and prepare students to initiate these projects and to think critically about food security in Calgary. So I am usually on the sidelines watching, mentoring, coaching as our students raise money for the Food Bank or volunteer with a local organization. But this week, my husband and I will learn first hand about emergency food in Calgary as we participate in "A Week In Their Kitchen." Along with several other Calgarians, we are living off an emergency hamper from the Calgary Interfaith Food Bank for the week, and contributing to a blog for this initiative. The goal is to raise money for the Food Bank, and raise awareness about hunger. 

Today I waited in line as a client would at the Food Bank, registered as a first time client without a referral from an agency, and picked up our hamper. Tonight, I'll sort through the food and try to figure out what we'll eat this week. While I have lots of food to eat it's an assortment of things that don't really go together, and certainly things I wouldn't normally eat (like 100% beef weiners, as I'm a veggie, bubblegum and cotton candy pudding, and produce that is in my opinion, past due). 

This is only the second time a campaign such as this one has been run in North America. The first was run by The Stop in Toronto (and Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis were two of the participants!). I'm thrilled to be involved and hope that you will follow our experience on the blog, or through my Facebook page. Your comments on the blog are welcome and encouraged, as are donations to the Calgary Interfaith Food Bank! 

To read the blog, follow: http://weekintheirkitchen.wordpress.com/
To make an online donation (no pressure!!) to the Food Bank follow (of course, if you live elsewhere, I encourage you to make the donation to your local food bank): http://calgaryfoodbank.akaraisin.com/Common/Event/Home.aspx?seid=2121&mid=8&Lang=en-CA 

Thanks for reading!

Erin