December 21, 2007
The St. John’s University Bread and Life’s Sponsor-A-Family
program provided more than 2,100 families and more than 5,000
children with food, clothing and toys this holiday season.
Photo
Gallery
The Sponsor-A-Family distribution of items occurred on December
18 and 19 of this week with more than 500 volunteers helping the
cause which included:
- Participation by more than 17 Catholic Schools
- More than 900 toys donated
- More than $2,000 donated by the St. John’s Office of
Information Technology (along with other STJ departments)
- An increase in family outreach from 700 families in the infancy
stages of the program to more than 2,000 in an 11-year span
“We are thrilled with the participation of so many volunteers
and supporters of this annual Sponsor-A-Family holiday initiative,”
said Anthony Butler, MSW, Executive Director of St. John’s Bread
& Life. “Our motto for the organization is Feeding Body, Mind
and Spirit and through this initiative we embrace our mission by
servicing the poor of New York City at Christmas time.”
The Bread & Life Program (established in 1982) also serves
daily meals at its Soup Kitchen facility in Brooklyn and provides
social services to those in need all across the New York
Metropolitan Area. The organization served more than 120,000 meals
to the hungry, 140,000 through its food pantry and another 90,000
plus meals through their Mobile Soup Kitchen this past year.
St. John’s University acquired control of the Bread & Life
Program from the Diocese of Brooklyn on September 14, 2006. The
University acknowledges this unique service initiative as a model
for its Vincentian tradition and beliefs, and its faculty and
students have taken advantage of the opportunity to advance their
knowledge of the root cause of poverty that is prevalent in today’s
society. St. John’s University believes that its Bread & Life
Program is unlike any other university-based community service and
research program in the country and continues to provide resources
for additional services and clinical support.
The Bread & Life Program will debut its new facility, a
22,000 square foot space (nearly doubling the current facility at
75 Lewis Avenue in Brooklyn) that will feature a new kitchen, a
restaurant style dining area and much needed additional space for
social service activities, in April of 2008 to be located at 795
Lexington Avenue in Brooklyn.
For more information on the Bread & Life Program call (718)
574-0058. Interested media representatives can contact Dominic
Scianna, Assistant Vice President for Media Relations by calling
(718) 990-6185 or e-mail inquiries to sciannad@stjohns.edu.