Over the past month, students, faculty, and staff in the Faculty of Human Kinetics brought in canned goods and other non-perishable food items to donate to the Downtown Mission. This year, 5,587 items were donated, more than doubling the target of 2,000 and shattering the previous record of approximately 3,000 items.

More than 4,000 of the donated items came from the classes of two faculty members — Paula van Wyk and Dave Andrews.

Drs. van Wyk and Andrews promoted the food drive as promoting the values of outreach, community, and service embedded into the fabric of the kinesiology faculty.

“Even though not every student donated an item to the food drive, I encouraged them to find their own way to do something selfless for someone else as the act and the associated feeling can be contagious,” said van Wyk.

Andrews told his first-year class that they will probably forget a lot of the course content, but “they will always remember the tremendous good that they have contributed to — as a group — through their involvement in the food drive this year.

“Their outstanding generosity has unified and empowered them as a class, and they have helped an incredible number of people in the process.”

Andrews also put his money where his mouth is, pledging 10 cents for every item donated.

Head of the kinesiology department, he added that he is “beyond proud” of what the student body has accomplished with the food drive this year.

—Ryan Donally