In the midst of final exams, first year Western Mustangs Men's Hockey Team member Michael Boushy decided he wanted to give back to the London community. The second-year finance student originally from South Africa, but more recently from Oakville, and former forward for the London Nationals GOJHL, started a food drive aimed at collecting donations from students in the London area who were planning to move out. This proved to be an instant success.
The 2020-21 season was the first year for Michael on the Mustangs Men's Hockey Team, but given the circumstances of the past year, the season had looked vastly different than he had anticipated. Nonetheless, he developed the Mustangs team spirit quickly. "I wanted to do something within the community, and when brainstorming ways to help out around London, I realized that students have a lot of leftover food from when they move out at the end of school year. I consulted with fellow students and found out that most of them weren't planning on taking their extra food home with them", stated Michael. This was when he began to form what he calls the "Cabinet Clean-out".
Thousands of students leave London to head home each summer, and Michael wanted to make good use of the extra food that students have lying around their houses when they leave or move out of London after graduating. He not only started making plans for getting it to the London Food Bank, but also began to spread the word to his friends and fellow students, "don't throw out your excess canned goods, because there are people who are in dire need around the London area."
When figuring out the logistics of collecting and donating food, Michael explained that he utilized social media to create awareness for his food drive. "I put out information on my social media accounts and asked anyone to message me who was able to donate. My roommate Wilson O'Neill, who is on the Western Track & Field Team, was my housemate and let me use his truck for the drive and helped with pickups which was great. I've been collecting for the past month now, working around my final exam schedule. Usually, I would just get a message and coordinate a pickup time to get the food items, or some people were able to drop off their donations at my house."
He expressed that, "here at Western we have a lot of students who are very fortunate, and I think that is very underutilized. Amidst the COVID-19 outbreaks in London (some of which occurred in residence at Western), and the pandemic in general, it is the least we can do to give back to the community we live in during our time at university. It was really cool to see the Western community come together, and I have been really impressed with support I've gotten thus far."
When speaking on how other student athletes can get involved in their communities, Michael is modest about his contributions, "the one thing I took away from this experience was how easy it is to make an impact. It really didn't take much for me, it was a quick phone call to the London Food Bank, and they gave me some information on what type of donations they were looking for. I asked my friends to help spread the message, and you can see the impact it has made thus far. It has been really cool to see how this has taken off."
Michael took the time during a busy exam season to think of others; and to not only spread the word but to coordinate and make pick-ups and deliveries to the Food Bank himself. And Michael already has plans to coordinate this initiative again next year. "For sure I hope to do this again in London next year; and because of the traction this has gained, I want to try to expand it as well," he stated. "I know a bunch of guys on hockey teams at Laurier, Guelph, and elsewhere, so it'd be great to see if they could get that started on their campuses as well. I think that would be cool. Even this year I had people reach out from other universities to give monetary donations."
With his last delivery made earlier this week to the London Food Bank, the 'Cabinet Clean-out' raised and donated a total of 740 lbs of food! While Michael's initiative has now concluded for this year, the London Food Bank is still accepting donations. Visit their website for more information on how you can help or donate: http://www.londonfoodbank.ca
To read more about this story:
Western Mustang hockey player's moving-out collection scores for food bank | London Free Press (lfpress.com)
Western News - Western students support food bank with end-of-year drive (westernu.ca)
