St. Viator students collect food for local pantries

If you give them a bag, they will fill it.

In November, officials with St. Viator’s Campus Ministry Department issued paper grocery bags to students, with notes describing the food items needed. They were asked to bring them back in less than a week, in time for the Thanksgiving Mass celebration.

“The response was overwhelming,” said Campus Ministry Director Betsy Fons. “It was huge.”

Students brought in nearly 2,000 pounds of food, to help stock food pantry shelves that were struggling to meet the demand from families strapped during the weakened economy.

Nearly 1,400 pounds of food were delivered to St. Nicholas Episcopal Church in Elk Grove Village and its food pantry, and more than 600 pounds were sent to the food pantry at St. Edna Catholic Church in Arlington Heights.

“We encourage students to bring in food every month,” Fons added, “every time we have an all-school Mass.

“But we’ve been hearing that food pantries are in such need, with more people losing their jobs. We knew we had to step up our efforts.”

The student response came after a record-breaking collection in September during the school’s freshmen retreat. Over two days, the freshmen, and their junior and senior retreat leaders, went door-to-door in the surrounding neighborhood and collected 4,400 pounds of food.

Those items were delivered to Catholic Charities’ food pantry in Des Plaines and to St. Joseph Home for the Elderly, whose Little Sisters of the Poor depend on donations.

“The St. Viator community really came through, as they always do, when they hear of people in need,” Fons added. “I am extremely proud of our students and that compassion they show for others on a regular basis.”