On Friday, January 22, Graduate School of Social Service students at Fordham Westchester took part in a Midnight Run. The students made 100 bag lunches on the Westchester campus and collected coats, hats, gloves and scarfs during holiday drives to distribute to the homeless in New York City.
The Midnight Run is a volunteer organization dedicated to finding common ground between the housed and the homeless. In over 1,000 relief missions per year, Midnight Run volunteers from churches, synagogues, schools and other civic groups distribute food, clothing, blankets and personal care items to the homeless poor on the streets of New York City. The late-night relief efforts create a forum for trust, sharing, understanding and affection. That human exchange, rather than the exchange of goods, is the essence of the Midnight Run mission.
Midnight Run is not a solution to homelessness. Their goal is to forge a bond between housed and homeless people by establishing a foundation of sharing and caring from which solutions may evolve. Through Midnight Run, volunteers come to see the homeless as real people, not a commodity. And homeless men and women learn that many mainstream adults and teenagers have commitments and concerns that go beyond their own lives and families.