CREDIT: JESSICA THOMPSON
London Green Taxi is helping to give back to society by asking their users to donate a non-perishable food item in exchange for $1 off their ride.

London Green Taxi will be collecting non-perishable food items in collaboration with the London Food Bank until Dec. 18 in exchange for a deal on cab fare.

“You bring a non-perishable food item into the vehicle, you get a dollar off your fare,” said Green Taxi general manager Huruy Woldemicael.

“After the customer has given the driver the food, they have a storage compartment in the trunk and at the end of their shift they bring it to the office and come Dec. 18, the food bank will come and pick up all the food that we’ve collected.”

The London Food Bank will then “distribute [the food items] to Londoners; typically people come to the location there,” on 926 Leathorne Street.

“What they do is they create packages and they base it on the number of family members you have.”

Woldemicael explained that the London Food Bank is generally successful in their initiatives to collect non-perishable food items.

“During the Christmas holidays a lot of companies are involved doing something to raise awareness or collect food, so it’s a bit different than during the regular year. Here, because they have so much, they try to give everybody a bit of everything because many groceries donate and farmers as well so there’s just so much to go around,” he said.

Recently however, food donations have been insufficient.

“This past thanksgiving the amount of food [that] the food bank had received was below their expectations and so they were in need, and that’s what caught our attention and that’s why we wanted to help out,” Woldemicael said.

To promote their campaign, Green Taxi created a video starring a puppet who provides details about the food drive amidst festive snowfall.

“We were really trying to capture interest…we got [the video] done professionally, and the users that use our services are around 18 to 35 and [so] that’s kind of our target, that age group, and even people above that age group find it humorous.”

“When you’re trying to get people to donate to the food bank sometimes it’s not fun; some people always see it as a serious thing, and we were trying to get our clients to participate in it. So that’s the reason why it’s humorous… we wanted to go in that direction for that reason,” Woldemicael said.

On the subject of students participating in charitable efforts such as Green Taxi’s food drive, Woldemicael said, “I myself was a Fanshawe student and also a Western student not too long ago and the image that is portrayed to students has always been troublesome, or just a bunch of bar-goers [who] don’t really contribute to society. There’s that attitude. The students are partying and that’s it. I don’t think that’s right. I think there are a lot of serious and mature students… I think this is an opportunity for [students], to participate because I think it’s everyone’s responsibility.”