Student group wins Let’s Can Hunger social media challenge

A NAIT student organization has won a national competition designed to raise awareness of important issues related to hunger using social media tools.

Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) NAIT placed first in the Campbell’s Let’s Can Hunger Social Media Challenge with their Hand Over Hunger video, which has been viewed over 3,000 times on YouTube. The contest was administered by Advancing Canadian Entrepreneurship (ACE), a national charitable organization that teaches young Canadians to create brighter futures for themselves and their communities.

“Our team took the Let’s Can Hunger Social Media challenge as a way to promote our program and inspire others to get involved and start thinking about hunger issues in our communities,” said Sandra Spencer, president of the NAIT SIFE team. “We are thrilled to see how many people we have reached and that our video has been selected based on the impact and emotion evoked in our viewers.”

ACE asked student across Canada to create a short video to raise awareness of hunger issues, and encourage Canadians to take action. Teams were urged to promote their videos to increase their view count.  The Top 3 videos based on view count were evaluated by a panel of judges to determine the winner of the challenge. The judges looked at a number of factors, including how successful the videos were at informing viewers of relevant hunger issues, how creative the teams were in delivering their message and how the videos connected back to the community.

“Through their Hand Over Hunger video and program, SIFE NAIT is shining a light on the hunger challenges faced by many Albertans and taking positive action to make a difference,” said ACE president Amy Harder. “We couldn’t be more proud of their efforts to alleviate hunger in their community through the Campbell’s Let’s Can Hunger Challenge. With leaders such as these, we know the future of this country is in good hands.”

The SIFE NAIT team won a pallet of Campbell’s Nourish which will be donated to the Edmonton Food Bank as well as three nights’ accommodations in Calgary for the 2012 ACE National Exposition in May.
SIFE NAIT is a student run organization that lets students put their education to use through projects that serve SIFE, NAIT and the community. These projects help students develop teamwork, entrepreneurial, financial and business skills.

About NAIT
NAIT is one of Canada’s leading polytechnics, with almost 80,000 registrations worldwide in key areas including science, technology and the environment, business, health care and trades. Known for real-world education and student success, NAIT also engages with business and industry in applied research and innovation and provides corporate training around the world. NAIT enrolled its first students - 29 communication electrician apprentices - in 1962 and this year celebrates its 50th anniversary.

For more information, please contact:

Sandra Spencer
SIFE NAIT, President
P 780.722.6663

Nicole Almond
ACE, Vice-president
P 416.702.2251 E nicole@acecanada.ca

Frank Landry
NAIT Media Relations
P 780.471.8450 C 780.916.8307 E flandry@nait.ca