This Saturday will mark Fairfield University’s 14th Annual Hunger Cleanup workdate. Students, faculty, alumni, and community members will gather behind Alumni Hall at 9 a.m. to donate time and money to help non-profit organizations throughout the greater Fairfield area.
Soup and Bread Night, which was held on Tues., March 19th, kicked off the drive to Hunger Cleanup. Lynn Voccola, a director of the Bridgeport Rescue Mission, shared a few stories with the students in attendance. The following is a story that displays how the money from Hunger Cleanup benefits people in this community.
His young eyes are wide and inquiring like those of a child. His mouth puckers innocently as he drinks up his tomato soup. He is gentle, polite, and gracious. He hardly looks the part of a former drug dealer.
Having his first drink when he was only about six or seven, and his first drag of marijuana when he was 13, Jon Cassone eventually transformed his addiction to drugs and alcohol into a profession. With both his parents dying before he was 22 years old and being unable to maintain the family business, Cassone didn’t have many places to turn other than the local gangs, selling drugs and guns on the streets.
The more he sold, the more his addiction grew. When his marriage of nine years resulted in a separation and he found himself roaming the streets, he realized that he had hit rock bottom and decided to check himself into a detox program in November.
“I had surrendered,” he said. “I asked God to send me anywhere.”
Where he was finally sent was the Bridgeport Rescue Mission, a Christian non-profit organization founded in 1993 to serve the needs of the local dejected, and one of the sites at which Fairfield University students will be volunteering for Hunger Clean Up this Saturday.
“We work with the least, the last, and the lost – those that have slipped through the cracks of the social system for whatever reason,” said Lynn Voccola. Some have no insurance, little education. Some may have originally belonged to a rich family or lifestyle. Others are addicted to drugs and alcohol. “The one thing they all have in common is that they are broken,” Voccola said.
The Mission has various programs, such as a feeding program providing three meals a day all year long to anyone that walks in. Another program is the mobile soup kitchen, which physically brings meals into the neighborhoods of Bridgeport five days a week. To every adult served, the kitchen serves three children, said Voccola. With these programs, the Mission has served about 100,000 meals in the year 2001.
Also a part of the Mission is the Shelters and New Life programs. While the men’s shelter provides emergency over-night accommodations, meals and cleaning facilities, the New Live program is a yearlong “regeneration and recovery program,” according to the Mission’s statement. This program includes a 12-step program to aid in overcoming addiction, depression, money management, and “just the life skills that they never got,” said Voccola. In addition, the program and the Mission are deeply rooted in faith, devotion services, and a focus on God.
For the last four months, Cassone has been in the program, and it has been the longest time he has been sober in eight years. It is also the first time he has been involved in a Christian program and read the Bible. Now, rather than giving out drugs, he says he gives out whatever he can to help those around him- “even the homeless from outside. No matter how dirty they are or whatever, I still reach out and help them,” he said.
In this spirit, students from Hunger Cleanup have been raising money and will branch out into different sites in the Bridgeport area on Saturday. Of the money raised, half will be divided up and given to the different organizations that the students actually work at for educational means, “to get a computer maybe or get programs to educate the people,” said junior Chris Dill, a student co-chair of the Cleanup. “Instead of trying to be handouts, it’s trying to help these people get back on their feet and try to solve the problem. To give them [the organizations] the means to help these people get back out of their holes they’re in so they can do it own.”
The other half of the money raised will be sent to the National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness, which runs conferences, program, and publications. “They’re trying to spread the word and have it [Hunger Cleaup] more nation-wide and get more schools involved to hit a broader range of people,” said Dill. Along with Fairfield, nearly 200 other campuses participate in Hunger Cleanup. Fairfield has won the Gold Medal Award for the most participants and most money raised the past five consecutive years.
In addition to the money raised, students will be sent to different sites to do actual labor on the sites, such as painting, repairs, and yard-work.
Fairfield has been involved with Hunger Cleanup for the last 14 years and [enter prize here]. With last year’s fund raising reaching $8,500, the Hunger Cleanup board hopes to reach a goal of $10,500 this year and have 500 volunteers participate in the event.
While Hunger Cleanup is only one day a year, Voccola and Dill said that this one day does actually affect the programs and people of Bridgeport, as well as the students involved.
“Even if it’s only for one day, you’re making a statement,” said Voccola. It’s great for us. It gives them [the residents of the Mission] a chance to see volunteers… The guys here get to talk to regular normal people. It teaches them that volunteering is important and that people outside really do care what happens to them … They see in you hope for themselves.”
“Does that one four hour sitting change their lives considerably?” asked Dill. “Probably not, but it helps them along their way. We give them that money the next day, they’re not going to be a millionaire or be in a nice new home, but it will help get them on their track.”
Along with the money, Dill said that the labor helps the organizations. “Painting a room might not be that big of a deal for you, but for someone who has been looking at that room for however long, it is.”
While Hunger Cleanup helps the local residents, it yields a unique experience for students to build “awareness of social problems, life problems,” said Voccola. “Until you get up front with poverty or illness, its hard to comprehend them … It’s hard to imagine that as many miles as a crow flies there are people sleeping in cardboard boxes every night. We’re the 2nd richest county in the country and we have one of the poorest cities sitting right next to us.”
Involving yourself in Hunger Cleanup and opening your eyes to not only the injustices of society, but the people affected by these circumstances will be “an eye opening experience,” said Voccola. “Put your whole heart into it and give it your best shot and you’ll be amazed how much you get out of it and how you feel at the end of the day,” she said.
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