THUNDER BAY – Students and staff a Lakehead University will have a one-day parking-ticket amnesty of sorts.
At the same time, they’ll be helping students in need by stocking the Lakehead University Student Union food bank.
On Wednesday, students and staff with outstanding parking tickets handed out on campus can have one of the $25 tickets voided, in return for a $6 fee, $5 of which will be turned over to the food bank to help feed a growing number of hungry students.
It’s a win-win situation said school director of security Lorne Clifford.
“After the winter Christmas break, students are suffering a little bit from paying tuition, buying a parking pass, buying books,” Clifford said. “There might not be enough money left around to make sure there’s enough food in the refrigerator, so we’re willing to help that.”
Clifford said anyone wanting to take part in the amnesty program should come to the security desk and provide proper identification.
“At that point in time we will cancel one ticket when they pay a $6 fee. A $1 fee will go to an administration cost and $5 will be donated directly to the food bank.”
Clifford said they’ve got a couple of thousand dollars in unrecovered parking tickets owed and this is a way to help them clear a number of them off the books.
LUSU vice-president of finance and operations Farhan Yousef said he thinks it’s an excellent idea.
“I think it’s going to help our food bank a lot and definitely students are very excited too. Once we posted it on social media, we had a lot of feedback, asking, ‘When is this?’ and ‘Can we only do one ticket or more than one ticket?’”
Yousef said the Lakehead University bookstore is also taking part.
The bottom line is the program helps students who have tickets save about $20 and helps those who might go hungry have food in the cupboard.
“As you can see, we have empty shelves in the background, and with this donation the food bank will be able to purchase more food and definitely help students,” Yousef said.
The food bank serves about 100 students a month, including a number of international students, though the number fluctuates, with the need the greatest later in each semester as student loan money begins to run out.
