Food for The Warming House

For the 27th straight year, students from St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute pulled their weight — 44,562 pounds, to be precise — for St. Bonaventure University’s soup kitchen in Olean.

Volunteers, about half of them members of the St. Bonaventure men’s swimming team, spent almost two hours Saturday morning unloading more than 22 tons of non-perishable food items and paper products at The Warming House on West State Street.

In all, almost 30,000 food items and paper products were collected for The Warming House.

The three-truck delivery was postponed from Friday, when weather closed almost all schools in Western New York and made driving dangerous. The switch prevented the boys from the Buffalo high school from making the Saturday trip to unload the trucks, so members of the St. Bonaventure community rallied to help.

“It’s the least we could do,” said Sean McNamee, men’s swimming coach. “Help was needed, and we were happy to provide it.”

The donation provides about 90 percent of the non-perishable stock for the year at The Warming House, said director Trevor Thompson.

Called the St. Joseph’s Food Basket, the donation effort is student-driven, running for three weeks right after Thanksgiving. Other Buffalo-area food pantries are aided by the drive, but The Warming House is the prime beneficiary.

Thompson and Bob Donius, vice president for University Ministries, presented Food Basket organizers with a 150th Anniversary Medallion at a school assembly Thursday in recognition of St. Joseph’s 27-year commitment to supporting The Warming House, the nation’s oldest student-run soup kitchen.

“The sacrifice and dedication of St. Joseph’s students in this food drive allow for the daily opportunity of St. Bonaventure University students, faculty and staff and Olean-area community members to continue providing much needed dignity, hospitality and nourishment to the area’s needy,” Thompson said.

In the photo, provided by St. Bonaventure University, Dan Donner (left) from Technology Services hands a box to Jim Miller of the Biology Department at the head of the food brigade unloading more than 22 tons of non-perishables into The Warming House soup kitchen in Olean Saturday morning.