W.S. holiday food drives in full swing

By Tom Gallagher and Mike Straw
BengalNews Reporters

Thanksgiving is typically a time for families to gather and eat a festive meal while enjoying each other’s company.

For those that are less fortunate, however, holiday meals aren’t always that easy to come by.  On the West Side, with an abundance of immigrants and families in need, this is commonplace.

Catholic Charities and many other local organizations are lending their hands, determined to assure that nobody goes hungry this holiday season.

“We provide constant service to people who need it,” said Catholic Charities Communications and Public Relations Coordinator Stephanie Hamm.

Sure enough, Catholic Charities provides Thanksgiving meals for people in need. Hamm noted that as should be expected, more people come during the holiday season.

“(The meals) can be delivered or the families or persons can pick them up,” Hamm said.

Despite not having a pantry located immediately on the West Side, Hamm noted that Catholic Charities has seen a large increase in clientele from the West Side,  refugees and immigrants in particular.

D'Youvile's Anthony Spina sorts food donations

D’Youville College’s CampusMinistries has also lent its hand to the community by sponsoring a variety of food drives and accepting food donations.

“We collect food and it all goes to West Side Ministries,” said Rev. Jan Mahle, Associate Campus Minister. “We have collected and donated, in the past, 50 Thanksgiving boxes.”

In addition to sponsoring its own food drives, Campus Ministries has teamed up with several local organizations that are also committed to assisting those in need.

One of these organizations is Friends of Night People, a non-profit soup kitchen located 394 Hudson St. Mahle and Campus Ministries volunteer at the soup kitchen regularly.

“(Friends of Night People) serves an evening meal every night,” Mahle said. “On average, they serve 200 meals. Most of the persons who come to the soup kitchen are homeless, but there is a growing percentage of those persons who are immigrants or refugees.”

Campus Ministries has also created a working relationship with Holy Angels Roman Catholic Church, adjacent to D’Youville.

D'Youville Campus Ministry's Rev. Jan Mahle talks on a message that she was told years ago:

“The church has a food pantry and whenever we have a collection our food goes there,” Mahle said. “Recently, we collected 28 boxes of food. They can be used for the Thanksgiving drive, and what isn’t appropriate for Thanksgiving we give to the Holy Angels food pantry.”

Mahle noted that everything Campus Ministries collects is sorted by whether or not it’s perishable. For the holiday season, they’ve put an emphasis on turkeys, canned goods and other common holiday foods, though any and all donations are accepted.

“The things you take for granted, someone else is praying for,” Mahle said. Edited by Chelsea Goodridge