Although I rarely encourage folks to get paper cups when they are getting their caffeine fix, but this year's annual Roll Up The Rim season is a little different.
Cuppa Change, a charitable start-up imagined by a group of lovely uOttawa students, is rolling out their Roll Up For Change initiative! It's a simple way to give back to the local community.
Picture this: It's Roll Up The Rim season. You get a cup of coffee from one of three campus Tim Horton's before class. En route, you roll up the rim and for once this time it's not "please play again!" You won a free cup of coffee! Way to go!
Then you pass one of uOttawa's many amazing recycling stations. You rip off the winning rim and you obviously put the remaining paper cup in the proper receptacle, because hello it's 2017.
But wait! Above the recycling stations there is a new addition... a little red box where you can donate your winning rim to someone in need! Wow even better!
The donated winning rims will be collected and passed along through Cuppa Change to the Shepherds of Good Hope Mission, as well as other shelters and food banks where marginalized individuals in the community will be provided with the rim to redeem a free cup of coffee. That's a pretty amazing and tangible way to have a positive impact just by donating your little prize.
Cuppa Change envisions redistributing excess commodities across Canada, but this small gesture is so much more than just a free cup of coffee. Through getting in contact with shelters, for what is initially a cup of coffee, individuals in need can begin to build trust within a safe space in our community. By going into shelters to obtain the donated rims, these individuals come in contact with the resources that shelters supply. Your small gesture could have a huge impact.
In this unsettling moment in time, many of us are setting intentions to be better to the world, and to me this must include all living and non-living members of said world. Sustainability doesn't exist in a vacuum. The wellbeing of the natural world is truly inextricable from the wellbeing of all people.
So this Roll Up season, look for the donation boxes all around campus. And very best of luck, because a win for you could mean so much more for someone else.
