Thought for Food
While many of us are busy contemplating turkey, latkes, pies, and all the comestible trappings of the holiday season, some Sarah Lawrence students are concentrating on a more basic question: How to get food to people who don’t have enough to eat.
Students participating in Midnight Run, a twice-yearly event sponsored by Hillel, delivered bagged lunches, toiletries, and clothing to about 175 homeless people in New York City on November 15.
Midnight Run is as much about building connections between the housed and the homeless as it is about food, says Rebecca Gillman Crimmins ’08, who organizes the event. “It’s important to take the time to talk to people,” she says. “We need to make connections with people who are different from us.”
Hillel's efforts to combat hunger and homelessness stem from the Jewish mandate to combat economic injustice, explains Crimmins.
And though the nighttime deliveries can be emotionally taxing, the outing is a valuable experience, she says. Going on the runs—she’s been on five—has helped her confront the complexities of homelessness and informed her coursework in political science and history.
Hillel members also trick-or-treated on behalf of the hungry on Halloween—but they filled their bags with canned goods, not candy. They distributed explanatory flyers in Bronxville in advance, and although some neighbors were puzzled by the non-costumed college students at their doors, the group collected 40 large grocery bags of food and gave them to a food pantry in the Bronx.
Other student groups work to donate food as well: Empty Bellies collects food that would otherwise be discarded and gives it to a food pantry in the Bronx. The group recently held a Tupperware drive, collecting clean plastic containers from students in order to transport the unwanted food.
In addition, the Theatre Outreach program, in which graduate students work with young people in Yonkers, is collecting food, clothing, and toys on campus to help make the holidays a little brighter—and tastier—for families in need.
The Bronx church that distributes the collected items is located near a public school that Theatre Outreach has worked with for 10 years. Program participants see the impact of community giving every week when they walk past the church, says Allen Lang, who coordinates the program. “A line of people of all ages literally snakes around the block” waiting for food and clothing, he says.
This sight inspired the students to start the clothing, food, and toy drive, which is now in its fourth year. The needs of the community are immense, says Lang, and the drive is another way for the group to contribute, beyond sharing their theatre skills in the classroom. The drive runs from December 3 to 12.
