St. Joseph’s University, New York, lives by five pillars: integrity, intellectual rigor, spiritual depth, social responsibility and service. These pillars guide students to success in their chosen careers and prepare them to make positive impacts on their local and global communities.
With the holidays quickly approaching, the Office of Campus Ministry collaborated with the Campus Activities Board (CAB), Law and Justice Society, Accounting and Business Society, BSN Nursing Club, Theta Phi Alpha and the Biology Club on the Long Island campus to embrace the service and social responsibility pillars by holding a food drive for Patchogue-Medford Youth and Community Services (PMYCS).
“PMYCS supports local families through community outreach, education, recreation and other support services,” said Jonathan Galo, director of Campus Ministry. “Our partnership with PMYCS began a few years ago, and we are happy to continue to support them in their mission of providing essential service to the youth and families in our community. As we get closer to the holidays, it is more important than ever to help support those in need.”
For many years, numerous offices and clubs on campus have collected for PMYCS, which have always been successful, but this year the support was overwhelming, allowing the drive to collect 150 pounds of food donations.
“With this particular food drive, we have received an overwhelming amount of support from members of our community, more so than we have previously seen. There was a big push for this food drive during CAB’s Halloween Trick or Treat, where we received a lot of donations from families visiting for that event,” said Galo.
Similar to the University’s mission, the Sisters of St. Joseph, who founded the University in 1916, are focused on caring for the dear neighbor and bringing justice through love.
“The main goal for this food drive was to continue to reinforce the importance of our university’s mission and five pillars, particularly those of social responsibility and service, with our students. The Sisters of St. Joseph focus much of their own mission on caring for the dear neighbor, so through this event I want to make sure that our students are embodying that same vision and showing love and compassion to those who need it the most. This is a tough time of year for a lot of families, so any way that we can help them out, I want to make sure that we as a university are able to,” said Galo.
The Office of Campus Ministry holds multiple drives throughout the academic year, especially during the holidays, with the winter hat, gloves and scarf drive, and the annual Christmas gift drive coming up. For more information on these drives, email licampusministry@sjny.edu.
