Dec 19, 2025
They never fail to deliver.
For the 44th consecutive year, students from St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute delivered a truckload of nonperishable food items and paper products Friday to the Warming House, St. Bonaventure University’s soup kitchen on North Union Street in Olean.
This year was the 55th anniversary of the St. Joe’s Food Basket. The Warming House, which started receiving donations from St. Joe’s in 1982, is the primary beneficiary of the Buffalo high school’s annual food drive.
This annual Christmastime donation is the largest donation of nonperishables given annually to the Warming House, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year.
“This is my Christmas day,” said Alice Miller Nation, director of SBU’s University Ministries. “Tonight, I hope you go to bed exhausted, but go to bed knowing you did good in the world.”
More than two dozen students and four staff members from St. Joe's unloaded boxes and bins containing 9,750 items. Afterward, they were treated to lunch at the Warming House.
Dr. Jeff Gingerich, St. Bonaventure’s president, and his wife, Betsy, a regular volunteer at the Warming House; Dean Whitcomb, director of Undergraduate Admissions; and Dr. Dave Hilmey, provost and vice president for Academic Affairs and a 1997 St. Joe’s graduate, greeted the students on their arrival.
“As an alum, I have a lot of pride and gratitude that you continue to do what we’ve been doing for years at Joe’s,” Hilmey told the students. “The impact you make isn’t just on the region but on individuals and how you lift them up.”
In 1970, St. Joe’s religion teacher Chuck Ende and a group of St. Joe’s students began collecting food donations for those in need. That first year, the collections fit in the trunk of Ende’s car. St. Joe’s history teacher Mike Stewart has been the faculty director of the student-run program for the last six years.
The Warming House is believed to be the oldest student-run soup kitchen in the nation.
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About the University: The nation’s first Franciscan university, St. Bonaventure University is a community committed to transforming the lives of our students inside and outside the classroom, inspiring in them a lifelong commitment to service and citizenship. Out of 167 regional universities in the North, St. Bonaventure was ranked #6 for value and #14 for innovation by U.S. News and World Report (2024).