Students’ Association helps wrap up the term with Food Cupboard fundraiser

The Students’ Association offered a gift wrapping station at the Holiday Market in the Student Commons on Nov. 29 to raise money for the campus Food Cupboard.

“This year we hosted our second annual Holiday Market and had the idea to set up a gift wrapping station alongside the event,” said Amanda Logan, events programmer for the Students’ Association, in an email. “The holiday season is also a giving season, therefore we thought this was the perfect opportunity to collect donations for our Food Cupboard.”

The gift wrapping station offered a fun way for people to donate canned goods, as well as clothing items and monetary donations in exchange for having their presents wrapped.

“It’s a gift wrapping drive so students, faculty or anybody can come and make a donation to the Food Cupboard, either a monetary donation, a clothing item or a food item,” said Matteo Mongroo, an events assistant for the Students’ Association and a student of the commerce marketing bachelor’s program.

The new initiative came as a surprise for many students.

“It’s been busy so far. A lot of students that came today didn’t know that this was going on, so they didn’t have anything to donate. Like for example, not a lot of people carry cash. If we were doing debit or credit people would be able to donate,” said Mongroo.

Eventually, anyone could get a gift wrapped without making a donation.

“We kinda switched it now so anyone who wants to can come by and just get (presents) wrapped,” said Mongroo.

Veronica Sanchez, event assistant for the SA, was excited about the opportunity to help wrap gifts for students.

“I love it, I think it’s very useful,” said Sanchez. “I think most people struggle with wrapping presents for Christmas, or it’s the annoying part of giving a present. Maybe you don’t know how to wrap it correctly, so having somebody who has an idea, is very helpful.”

“Also it’s for free and it’s for a good cause, which is the Food Cupboard. We’re really happy to help the Food Cupboard and the students at the same time,” she added

“Honestly it’s great,” said Mongroo. “Like me personally, when I used to wrap gifts I was terrible at wrapping. I would shove it all together and put them under the tree. So there are people that are still like that out there. So it’s kind of a great opportunity for them to get their gifts wrapped almost professionally I would say, while still supporting a good cause right? So it’s like a win-win situation.”

“Overall, we are quite happy with how the gift-wrapping station went. We won’t have another this year, but we will consider bringing it back for next year,” said Logan.