A different kind of trick-or-treat

While most children will be collecting candy this Halloween, Mitzvah Corps will instead be collecting canned goods.\nStarting today, Mitzvah Corps, a volunteer organization sponsored by the Helene G. Simon Hillel Center, in collaboration with Hoosier Hills Food Pantry, are collecting non-perishable food items in a fund-raising effort titled Halloween for the Hungry. \nMitzvah Corps will be putting out boxes at Mr. D's, the Kroger at College Mall, the Kroger on Second St., all the Village Pantries in town and at the Hillel Center on Third St.\nThe idea for this effort was simply a memory from junior Andrea Lechter's high school, where students went door-to-door on Halloween and collected food for the hungry. Lechter, co-chair of Mitzvah Corps, thought it would be a good idea to try and start something similar in Bloomington.\nLechter said they did Halloween for the Hungry last year, but it wasn't as successful as she hoped. She said she thought that it was easy to publicize the event, but it is hard to get a big turn-out. \n"Advertising is easy, but it is hard to ask people to take time out of their busy schedules," Lechter said. \nShe said they did not have a goal as far as food collection, but next year she hopes to spread Halloween for the Hungry all over campus and town. Lechter said she will be a senior and would like to make a bigger impact her last year.\n"I would love to do that," she said.\nWorkers at Hoosier Hills Food Bank would also like to continue the project. Assistant Director Dan Taylor said students are a big part of the town and when they leave for summer there is definitely a drought as far as help goes. Mitzvah Corps visits the food bank once a month to help out packaging food.\nSenior Staci Bloom, also co-chair of Mitzvah Corps, said donating her time and effort into Halloween for the Hungry has been rewarding. She said Mitzvah Corps can make Halloween a time of giving to people in need. She just wants to be able to give back to the community.\n"Halloween is for giving candy to children, but I also think it's a time for giving food to people who are hungry," Bloom said.