The community that eats together stays together

  • 31 March 2020

SAIT donates 10,000 pounds of food to Calgary charity

We’re living in an unprecedented pandemic. No one has ever experienced anything like it, and most of us are navigating each day as it comes. At SAIT, we’re gathering our collective forces to stand together, even when we’re apart in these of uncertain times.

After on-site classes were forced to suspend as a response to COVID-19, SAIT culinary instructors were looking at 10,000 pounds of unused food sitting in fridges.

“It was bad enough to have to close up shop, but when your shop has 10,000 pounds of food – what do you do?” says Andrew Hewson, chef and Professional Cooking instructor.

Hewson had a relationship with Leftovers Foundation as SAIT’s culinary program has been donating food to the charity for more than three years. It all goes back to the instructors’ emphasis on teaching students where food comes from and food sustainability — from an on-campus garden-to-plate program and keeping a bee colony on the roof of the John Ware building to partnering with Brown Bagging for Calgary Kids to provide lunch to local high school students.

“Vulnerable people need our help now more than ever,” Hewson says. “Donating food was a way we could give that help.

“We’re working on how to continue the Brown Bagging for Calgary Kids program while practicing social distancing, but donating what we already had in the fridges was something we could do quickly. The food is going to people who can use it, and that’s what matters — when we’re faced with difficulty, we come together and do what we can for one another.”

Find out more about SAIT’s everyday heroes – the front-line alumni, instructors and students using their skills to make a difference. Visit sait.ca/bettertogether.