As Halloween approaches, youth are getting friends together, designing their costumes and strategizing the best trick-or-treating route. Only this year, thousands of Free The Children trick-or-treaters aren’t looking for the greatest haul of junk food, they’re looking to end hunger in their local communities.

Students at St. Thomas More Catholic Secondary School running Halloween for Hunger climb their mountain of food—over 30,000 pounds.

Through the Halloween for Hunger campaign, youth are turning trick-or-treating on its head. On Halloween, colourfully-costumed young people will take to the streets collecting canned food for local food banks instead of candy.

On October 31, the Youth in Action Group at St. Thomas More High School in Hamilton, Ontario will tackle Halloween for Hunger for the seventh year in a row! St. Thomas More’s annual campaign to end local hunger has brought in more and more food each year. Teacher John Morelli recounts, “We've grown exponentially—the first year we gathered a little over 1,500 pounds of food for our local food bank, but last year blew all of our expectations away with over 30,000 pounds!” St. Thomas More is encouraging neighbouring schools to get involved in Halloween for Hunger, creating the opportunity for even more enormous successes!

This Halloween, join the students at St. Thomas More and groups across North America in the fight against hunger as part of the Halloween for Hunger team. Learn more and register your team online!