By JACKSON WANG
Executive Editor
Dozens of students were making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on Thursday in the main lounge. Many of these students were hungry and looking forward to lunch, but not a single peanut butter and jelly sandwich was going to be eaten by students.
That’s because the sandwiches were being made to help fight hunger in Albany. Students were able to make over 3,000 sandwiches on Thursday, which went to many local shelters, including the Capital City Rescue Mission.
“This event brings everybody together to do one goal, which is raise awareness for hunger and bring them what they (don’t) have,” said student association president Justin Whittaker, who helped organized this year’s event.
The event, entitled PB and Jams, was started four years ago by then sophomore Myles Clendenin. About 150 sandwiches were made at that event, which took place in the Sanctuary. In the following year, 1,012 sandwiches were made in the main lounge. And last year, students were able to make 2,147 sandwiches, more than doubling the previous year’s mark.
“[Clendenin] just wanted to raise awareness for the hunger, bring sandwiches to local charities, and throughout the years, it has been getting bigger and bigger,” said Whittaker.
Clendenin, who is now a graduate student at Saint Rose, was helping make sandwiches at this year’s event. He said seeing all the students come help make sandwiches was already a huge accomplishment.
“I just love it,” said Clendenin. “I just love helping anyway I can,” said Clendenin.
Many students helping at Thursday’s event were just like Clendenin, including freshman Addison Todd, who’s on the student association committee and helped organized the event.
“I really like doing community service and fighting hunger is a good way to do it,” said Todd. “It’s going to mean … a lot of people will have full stomachs tonight.”
Another student volunteering at PB and Jams for the first time was freshman Alyssa Hart. She said she didn’t expect Saint Rose to be so close with helping the community, but events like PB and Jams and Reach Out Saint Rose Day has really showed her what The College tries to do for Albany.
“It’s really surprising to see how many people actually come in and stop to make five or ten sandwiches,” said Hart, who’s also part of student association. “They don’t know how much it means, it’s really nice.”
But Thursday’s event wouldn’t have been possible without the help of many local businesses. Whittaker said many grocery stories like Price Chopper, Hannaford, and Shoprite donated gift cards to the Student Association to help with the purchases of bread, peanut butter, and jelly.
“It’s great,” said Whittaker. “It really shows the college community that we have.”
And while this event was success for the Student Association, they are already preparing to start their next community service event. Whittaker said they’ll soon open up registration for Saint Baldrick’s Day to raise money to help fight childhood cancer.
Also, the Student Association will begin to collect nonperishable food from Nov. 4 to Nov. 8 for their Stuff The Van event.
