The Faces of Hunger: Kitty’s story

Everyone has a story—and by sharing stories about food insecurity in Waterloo region, we hope to raise awareness and educate our community that hunger can happen to anyone, anywhere, at any time. This is Kitty’s story.

Kitty volunteering at The Food Bank.

Kitty Ibele was a student at the University of Waterloo when, due to an unfortunate family situation, she found herself with nowhere to live.

“I didn’t have anywhere to go,” Kitty remembers. “But the last thing I wanted to do was stop getting educated.”

Determined to graduate, she worked three part-time jobs to pay for her post-secondary education. All the money she made went to her tuition, leaving little left over for rent or food. To get by, she ate food that people left behind in the campus cafeteria and she spent some nights sleeping on the couches at the university’s Student Life Centre.

Kitty had no idea that there was a food bank on campus that she could access until one of the custodians at the university told her about it. The university’s food bank, a part of the Community Food Assistance Network, receives fresh, frozen, and non-perishable food support from The Food Bank of Waterloo Region.

“I immediately started going,” Kitty explains. “And it was awesome because they also gave tampons. Those kinds of needs that I was desperate for were filled by this resource. I used it [university’s food bank] daily throughout my university education.”

Kitty graduated from the University of Waterloo with a bachelor of arts in Speech Communication and now works in corporate business development at D2L. She volunteers at The Food Bank, as well as other organizations, and always makes a point to drop a few cans of food into the donation bins at grocery stores.

“I volunteer where I can and give back in the way that was given to me,” Kitty says. “If it wasn’t for The Food Bank, I wouldn’t have been able to graduate. It literally was my lifesaver.”