Hamber’s School Spirit Drives Record Fundraising For Food Banks

Photo Credit: Linh Nguye

From spicy ramen to shaving heads, Hamber was determined to win the 2025 CANley Cup, a city-wide competition that challenges all Vancouver public schools to raise the most money for the Greater Vancouver Food Bank.

This year, Eric Hamber’s Student Council (StuCo) organized four large school fundraiser events, as well as one additional incentive to prompt students to donate. These events include a Spicy Ramen Noodle Challenge, a Hot Chocolate sale, a Winter Marketplace where clubs can fundraise, and a Holiday Gram sale that anyone can purchase for themselves or for friends. Additionally, as further motivation, Tony Chow (12), StuCo’s Co-President, pledged to shave his head if Hamber managed to raise $10,000 before Churchill Secondary.

For the CANley Cup, winners across the district are calculated by the amount of money donated per student. This means that schools with larger student populations, such as Eric Hamber and Churchill, will have to raise significantly more money to compete with smaller schools. Last year, Point Grey Secondary took home the cup, with an average of over 39 cans donated per student. 

For Vancouver District Student Council’s Junior Representative Stephanie Lee (10), who helped plan many of the events as part of StuCo, the CANley Cup is a fun way to show off school spirit and bring the community together, while also contributing to a rewarding cause.

“It's so fun to be able to plan these events and really get involved in boosting school spirit in a way that helps the community,” Lee shared. She added that marketing has been a larger focus this year, “to get the school community more involved and to make sure that more people are able to get into the fun, competitive spirit of it.”

Hamber’s first fundraising event was the Spicy Ramen Noodle Challenge, which took place on Nov. 19. The challenge attracted 34 contestants, among them five teachers, who raced to finish a bowl of Buldak 2x Spicy Hot ramen without any milk in the least amount of time. Each participant paid $3, which covered the cost of the noodles, and students were encouraged to donate any amount of money to view the event.

Winston Lee (12) won the student category, while Mr. R. Lam (Business Education) won the teacher category with the overall best time. Lee was given a $15 gift card of his choice.

“I signed up for the Spicy Noodle Challenge mainly just to donate,” said Mr. Lam, who never expected to win. “I started eating, and I didn't realize how fast it was. And then when I was done, I turned, and most of the teachers around me weren't even halfway done. That's when I realized I was going really, really quickly.”

Mr. Lam shared that while he was competing, he was mainly thinking about how sloppily he was eating the noodles in front of the crowd, and did not feel particularly elegant. “I thought I looked like a total mess, so [winning] wasn't something I was really proud of until more students were talking about how amazing that was. And then I felt pretty good about it.”

Many of the spectators and organizers also had a great time viewing the event.

“This was my favourite event, because a lot of people seem to enjoy it,” shared StuCo Secretary Yuree Na (11). “There were a lot of people, and we made a lot of money off of it. It’s just a good way to bring the school community together.”

StuCo’s second event was a hot chocolate sale on Nov. 28. Many StuCo members volunteered their time to sell hot chocolate with marshmallow and whipped cream add-ons at The Griff, the school store.

“It was really nice to tie raising money for the CANley Cup with the holiday spirit,” Na, who volunteered at the event, shared. “We had holiday music playing, and the people who were at the front greeted everyone nicely, so it was overall really positive.”

The third fundraising event, the Winter Marketplace, took place on Dec. 2. At the market, clubs sold a great range of food and physical items, from clothes to hot dogs to tteokbokki. StuCo took 60 per cent of the profit for the CANley Cup, while 40 per cent went back to each of the clubs.

Vania Qiu (11) sold tiramisu at the marketplace to raise money for the Experiment Club. “I liked how Student Council got all the clubs to sell together, so there was a variety of different stuff,” she said. “We raised just under $30, but I think our total sales were about $70.” She added that the club is planning on using the money they earned to fund more science-related activities.

StuCo’s final fundraising event was a holiday gram sale. The grams were packages of sweets and stuffed animals that students could purchase for their friends at Hamber. They were sold from Dec. 4 to Dec. 9 at lunch, with costs sitting at $3, $7, and $9. The cost options included varying offerings of candies, stickers, and songs that StuCo members would sing as they gave out the gram. Specifically, for the $9 option, the holiday gram also included a small toy plushie.

StuCo member Riv Cheng (11) shared, “I think [the holiday grams] really boost the general feeling of festive cheer that we need at the end of the year. Participation and school spirit are what make academics and school fun. Otherwise, we're just here to learn.”

The biggest challenge for Cheng was ensuring that the event was properly advertised. “Preparation is critical when you're doing these events,” Cheng shared. “Instagram posts and posters can be really key to making sure that everyone in the school knows what we're doing.”

StuCo decided to add a singing component to the holiday grams, which was not done last year and has typically only been a part of the Valentine’s Day grams. The efforts seemingly paid off, with sales seeing a dramatic increase from the year before.

“We're going to go around, and we're going to play music and student council members are going to sing the songs,” Cheng shared. “It was very amusing to watch the student council members realize they have to sing the songs. This event is absolutely fun, and I wouldn't take back anything.”

To further motivate their students to donate, Hamber and Churchill struck a deal: whichever school reached $10,000 in donations first would have the pleasure of seeing one of their presidents shave their head.

“We thought of the idea because the school would care about their own president doing the punishment more than another school doing a punishment,” Chow told The Nest. “Our first idea was water dunking, but then the [Churchill president] thought that was too lame.”

Chow added that he accepted the terms of getting buzzed because he believed that Hamber would never come near raising $10,000. “Our goal is usually about $4,000. The maximum I remember raising was like $6,000,” he said. “I thought it was a 90 per cent to 10 per cent odds not going to happen.”

Much to his surprise, on Dec. 10, Eric Hamber officially won the race, raising over $11,000 for the Greater Vancouver Food Bank through fun events, holiday spirit, and StuCo’s dedication.

Chow added that it felt good to defeat Churchill, even though he had to get the buzz. “Before COVID times, StuCo would always compete with Churchill. There was a school rivalry going on, and we kind of lost in recent years, but I tried to bring it back and [...] we have definitely blown out the goal.”