“It’s like we’re too old to trick-or-treat, but too young to die.” That 70’s Show

Every year in October, Halloween stores open up, supermarkets stock candy like no other, and pumpkin carvings become the most popular items on Pinterest. But for people like high school students, Halloween seems to lose a little of its luster as time passes. Trick-or-treating can be a little awkward, Halloween parties are scarce, and (unfortunately) homework is not.

However, while the whole country is running around stuffing candy into plastic pumpkin buckets, a select few in Dubuque are doing something completely different.

“Trick-or-Treat for Food is a food drive that benefits Resurrection’s food pantry,” said Carly Heying, ‘17. “It’s a great way to help the less fortunate and get the parish’s Confirmation candidates involved in community service.”

Resurrection has been doing Trick-or-Treat for Food for the past eight years, and it has been a successful run.

“Every year our collection count has gone up,” said Church of the Resurrection’s Youth Minister Laurie Ready. “Last year, we collected about 6,000 separate items. This year we collected around the same amount.”

The Confirmation students and youth group members spread out over several neighborhoods, with a large concentration in Asbury. The groups meet at their designated areas at around 5 p.m., and Trick-or-Treating starts at 5:30 p.m.. After they’ve made the rounds and collected all the bags of food, the groups take the items back to Resurrection’s rectory.

Saint Stephen’s Food Pantry is located at Resurrection Parish, which is where the donated items go. After all the teams return from collecting, members take part in an organizing spree, which consists of sorting by food, checking expiration dates, and repeating the process to make sure everything is 100-percent ready to go.

“It was fun. My night basically consisted of walking door-to-door and guilting people into donating non-perishable food items,” Carly said.

Occupying one’s time on Halloween should no longer be a problem, and for such a worthy cause, why not volunteer at next year’s Trick-or-Treat for Food? (That is, if you won’t have graduated yet.)