For the fourth year in a row, Enactus Okanagan College has won the Enactus national exposition and was crowned the country’s 2013 Help Hunger Disappear champion.
The Okanagan College entry is the only Enactus team in Canada to win the challenge, which was created four years ago with support from Campbell Company of Canada.
The team collected its award Tuesday night in Toronto, where they are vying for three additional national honours in the entrepreneurship challenge, EcoLiving green challenge and top overall national team.
“The Enactus Okanagan College team stood out again this year for their continued teamwork and commitment to lasting hunger solutions in their community,” said Mark Childs, vice-president of marketing, Campbell’s. “Their boundless energy, passion and creativity continue to impress – they are truly role models for us all.”
The Okanagan College team was recognized for its work to raise more than 54,000 pounds of food for food banks throughout the region. Creating and delivering 11 hunger relief initiatives, the Enactus students implemented projects in Salmon Arm, Vernon, Kelowna and Penticton.
Their projects ranged from the Farm Bag Fundraiser, in which the students work with local farmers to distribute local produce, making farming more viable and sustainable through a franchisable model, to MOMentum, which empowers single mothers with information about how to cook healthy and affordable meals and connects them with financial skills to better manage their lives.
“Everyone at Okanagan College is extremely proud of the good work our students are doing to transform their communities,” said college president Jim Hamilton.
“It is certainly an honour to win this award for the fourth year in a row, but more important than the award is the collaboration and support our students receive from the many organizations, schools and non-profits they work with to develop their hunger relief projects. Partnerships of this kind are incredibly important to their education and to creating sustainable long-term change in our communities.”
