Hurtado donates 1,000 pounds of food on Columbus Day

Hurtado Vice President Matt Zito, '17 with Hurtado members Ryan Lord, '18 and John Kuzmick, '18.

On Monday, October 10, 2016, Preppers weighed, packed, and transported over 1,000 pounds of food from the Prep to the Mander Recreation facility at 33rd and Diamond Streets.  Families will be able to select from this food on Thursday evening.  These food donations came in various forms to the pantry, including from the Prep Kairos program, which encourages our students and their families to donate canned goods at the start of their retreat experience.  In addition to the various generous donors who provided these food items, we would like to thank the students who did the heavy lifting (they are pictured above), Mr. Jerome; as well as Mr. Shawn White and alumnus Alex Hughes-Taylor, '05, the latter two both provided institutional and logistic support.

We plan to make another delivery soon of socks and soap (especially since many freshman generously donated socks at the start of their Freshman Retreat), if you are interested please reach out to club President Andrew Bracken, '17, club Vice President Matt Zito, '17, or moderator Leo Vaccaro, '05.   One further note: the offices of the Hurtado Food Pantry have moved from the Multipurpose Room to the former counselling offices on the Third Floor of Villiger Hall.

The Prep donates 1500 pounds of food and over 1000 pairs of sock to Philadelphians in need

Outside of "Our Brothers Place," a men's shelter on Hamilton street.  Preppers donated 200 socks here.

Over the past week, the Prep donated over 1,000 pairs of socks and more than 1,500 pounds of food to people in need across Philadelphia.

Last Thursday, March 17, the Prep presented a "Welcome Basket" to a family that during a "Home Dedication Ceremony" for Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia.  Included in this basket were some food items as well as some Prep gear!

On Friday, March 18, the Hurtado Food Pantry teamed up with the "Homelessness Sleep-out" and delivered over 1,000 pairs of socks to people in need.  "Our Brother's Place" - an emergency shelter on Hamilton street with 149 beds, received approximately 200 pairs.  St. Francis Inn, a Franciscan Soup Kitchen on Kensington Avenue, which feeds between 300 and 600 people daily, received approximately 400 pairs of socks.  And Face to Face Germantown, which serves 2,500 people annually, received approximately 400 socks.  Students also engaged the 'visible' homeless community along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, and handed out a number of pairs there.

On Monday, March 21st, St. Francis Inn collected 517 pounds of food from the Hurtado Pantry; and today we delivered 1008 pounds to the Mander Playground at 33rd and Diamond.

The Prep welcomed some new neighbors through Habitat for Humanity.

Preppers handing out socks.

Loading the van.

At St. Francis Inn.

On the Parkway.

Logan circle.

Students were treated to a Q&A on homelessness with Larry Russock, the Program Coordinator at St. John's Community Services.

Students help load a van with food for St. Francis Inn.

Posing in front of the Mander Playground, where 1,008 pounds of food were delivered today, March 23rd.

Setting out the food.

Mike Matkovic, '16, sorts food.

Special thanks must be given to the generous parents, students, faculty, staff, and administrators who supported the Hurtado Food Pantry with time, money, and in-kind donations.  We also wish to thank the various individuals who helped organize the pantry during its latest adventures - at the Prep this includes President Fr. John Swope, Principal Jason Zazyczny, Sam Deitch, Jonathan Jerome, Bill Conners, Bill 'Speedy' Morris, Bill Avington, Bryan Ghee, Bob Furth, Bob Reamer, and Debbie DiMarzio.  At Habitat for Humanity, special thanks are given to Shonda Brinson and Frank and Suellen Monaghan.   During the Sock Deliveries, we were greatly assisted by Larry Russock from St. John's Community Services, Hannah McGrath from the Franciscan Volunteer Ministry, Hilary Coulter from the Bethesda Project, Susan O'Hagan Marley (and son Dan '16) from Face to Face Germantown, and especially Alumni Service Corps Volunteer Brendan Kennedy.   During our recent food deliveries, Franciscan Volunteer Christopher Ellingwood, Sonia Nelson, and Prep graduate Alex Hughes-Taylor, '05, provided much help.  We once again relied on YouGiveGoods for many of our sock donations, and Michelle Seideneck helped us out again!  As can be seen in the pictures, many students provided the manpower necessary take these donations to fruition, and many more are not pictured - we would like to thank you all!

We Are Prep-aring The Feast: The YouGiveGoods Drive Items Are Being Sorted!

This week, Preppers volunteered to assemble the many donations from our incredibly successful YouGiveGoods drive.

Generous individuals from all over the country - including California, New Mexico, North Carolina, Florida, Maryland, New York, New Jersey and at least 208 Pennsylvanians - donated over $30,000 worth of food to the Prep's week-long online drive - an event that broke records and set the digital world on fire!

We will continue to send updates about the drive, and we plan to have a "Food Rally" after school on Friday, November 20th - starting at around 2:30 p.m.  At the time we will assemble the baskets and listen to some speakers from the community talk about hunger in Philadelphia and the Prep community's efforts to end it.

Alumni Mothers Donate Much Needed Soap to Men's Shelter

The Alumni Mothers' had quite the spread!

 Last Thursday, November 5th, the Alumni Mothers' met and donated 109.8 pounds of soap.  On Saturday, this soap was donated to Our Brother's Place, a men's shelter that is run by the Bethesda Project.  There are 149 beds in the shelter, but those in need can also use the showers there during the day.  Apparently supplies had run particularly low, and these bars will be cut into pieces in order to guarantee efficient use for many homeless men.

The Prep Donates Food, Supplies to St. Francis Inn

Preppers Aaron Sykes, Alim Kamara, Connor Kramer, and Dave Bowdler pose with Barbara Salapek from St. Francis Inn. 

 On Monday afternoon, the Prep donated 757 pounds of food, 7 bags of clothes, and 10 sleeping bags to St. Francis Inn.  The food, clothing, and sleeping bags had been collected piecemeal through various generous sources.  Thank you to those who contributed!

Pillow Fight: Prep Donates over 80 pillows to the Homeless Shelter

Delivering the pillows on October 1, 2015 to Our Brother's Place, From Left to Right: two recipients of the pillows, Brendan Heenan, '16, Pat Gillespie, '16, and Mr. Vaccaro. 

Yesterday, the Hurtado Food Pantry President Pat Gillespie, '16, Vice President Brendan Heenan, '16, and Moderator Mr. Leo Vaccaro, '05, delivered over 80 pillows to "Our Brother's Place," an emergency shelter run by the housing-first organization, the Bethesda Project.

Men staying at "Our Brother's Place," located at 907 Hamilton Street, came out to help unload the boxes of pillows and they transported them upstairs.  Although there are 149 men who sleep in "Our Brother's Place" on any given day, there are not permanent beds for all of the men, so the Prep was only asked to donate 80 pillows to be used on the 77 permanent beds that are kept on the shelter's second floor.  There are also 72 cots downstairs, which unfortunately lack the storage area to allow for pillows.

The boxes of pillows outside of "Our Brother's Place"

Due to the incredibly generous response from the Prep community, and through the use of the website YouGiveGoods.com, Hurtado' request for 80 pillows was met, not within a few days, but within a matter of hours!  In addition to the pillows, a great number of pillow cases were also delivered.

Hurtado delivers 3,000 pounds of food this month

Students from the sleep-out on Friday brave the weather and load a Prep van full of food.

March went out like a lion at the Prep.

Last Friday, March 20th, volunteers at the Prep's homeless sleep-out donated 1,115 pounds to North Philadelphia's Mander Recreational facility.  Today, Thursday March 26, the Hurtado team donated over 600 pounds to St. Francis Inn and My Brother's House, which is part of the Bethesda Project.  

Adding up the month's earlier donations (as well as over 30 pounds of candy that were collected for Mission and Ministry), the Hurtado food pantry removed approximately 3,000 pounds of food from its shelves this month.

On March 19th, Noelle Dames, the Community Educator for the Coalition Against Hunger, visited the Hurtado Food Pantry and was impressed by our community's efforts to fight hunger.

The Coalition Against Hunger is an incredible organization that keeps data on hundreds of pantries in their Food Pantry Network, and advocates for the hungry in our community.  They recently reported that "In Philadelphia alone, the number of people relying on food pantries has more than doubled over the past five years. More than one-third of them are children."

Dames told us that she is "so impressed with the ongoing generosity of the Prep community" and hopes that some students might be interested in participating in their Hunger Walk on April 11.

"Stroehmann Bakeries is sponsoring a High School Challenge - they will award two high schools with the highest number of run registrants a cash prize for their school. See details via the link: http://www.hungercoalition.org/hungerwalk/stroehmann-high-school-challenge"

Volunteers and participants are still needed for this event!  Contact Evan Mazmanian for more information.

On Thursday March 19th Preppers donated 337 pounds of healthy food  ... and 31 pounds of Easter Candy!

Preppers Evan Mazmanian, '15, and Pat Gillespie, '16, met with Noelle Dames from the Coalition Against Hunger

Preppers Paul Browne, Andrew Devany, and Jimmy Hegarty (all class from the class of 2017) brave the snow to deliver over 1,000 pounds of food in a packed Prep van.

Brendan Heenan, '16, Pete Ramirez, '17, and Pat Gillespie, '16, pack food for St. Francis Inn and My Brother's House. 

Pat Gillespie, '16 slides food down to St. Francis Inn Team Member Kevin Cilano.

Special thanks to those members of the Prep community who donated goods, and those who donated their time including Sophomores Paul Browne, Ronald Cavalier, Andrew Devany, Pat Dever, Jimmy Hegarty, John Kromchad, Chris Mayer, James McGinnis, Liam Pie, William Ryan, Jack Strohman, Pete Ramirez; Juniors Brendan Heenan, Pat Gillespie, and Senior Evan Mazmanian.  Also thank you to Mr. Rob Cermignano, '10, Sam Deitch, Jose Gonzalez, Sonia Nelson.