A senior at Saint Joseph High School in Metuchen, Josh Oliveira epitomizes the benevolent nature of the entire school-community.
The lifelong Edison resident is enrolled in numerous honors and advanced placement courses, captains the school’s robotics team, is a senior patrol leader with his boy scout troop, serves as vice president of Saint Joseph’s Model United Nations and Youth & Government programs, and played two years of varsity soccer.
Despite being involved in myriad extracurricular activities, Oliveira has found time to perform countless hours of community service, mostly benefiting Hands of Hope for the Community, a nonprofit in his hometown committed to providing an efficient and centralized system for distributing food to alleviate hunger in Middlesex County.
Following in the footsteps of his three older siblings, Oliveira regularly volunteers at Hands of Hope, where his recent Eagle Scout Project created an organized system of storage for the food pantry through the building of shelves in two storage units.
This month, Oliveira and the entire Saint Joseph school-community are partnering with The Marisa Tufaro Foundation on a food drive and fundraiser to benefit Hands of Hope.
Through its Campus Ministry, Saint Joseph will be collecting nonperishable food items for an entire week, while simultaneously conducting a fundraising raffle for Hands of Hope in which six winners will receive free entry, courtesy of The Marisa Tufaro Foundation, to the second annual Tee Off Against Hunger at TopGolf in Edison on April 16.
All proceeds from the Tee Off Against Hunger, which raised $35,000 last year, will once again benefit Hands of Hope.
Tickets to the Tee Off Against Hunger include two hours of golf, a hot lunch buffet, bottomless fountain soda, iced tea and water, eligibility to compete in the Top Contender Tournament, and other perks.
“Saint Joe’s has done a lot, not only for Hands of Hope, but for other food pantries and charities, as well,” said Middlesex County Commissioner Charles E. Tomaro, who serves on Hands of Hope’s board of directors.
Tomaro said Oliveira is “an amazing young man” who epitomizes Saint Joseph High School’s giving nature.
“From registering and checking in clients to setting up, whatever we need Josh to do, he’s there,” Tomaro said of Oliveira’s work at Hands of Hope. “The biggest part of what Josh has helped the Hands of Hope with was his Eagle Scout project. It was a big deal. He organized the storage units to make it easier for us when we go to get the food (for distribution).”
Tracey Coudriet, who directs Saint Joseph’s Campus Ministry, said addressing food insecurity has been a significant part of the ministry’s vast mission.
“We do a lot of community service projects with areas that do suffer from food insecurity everywhere from Trenton to Appalachia,” Coudriet said. “We’ve made sandwiches for local soup kitchens and shelters or food pantries. When our kids go to Trenton for a weeklong summer service experience one of the places they work is TASK (Trenton Area Soup Kitchen), so they get to see firsthand the people in their own backyard who don’t have enough food to eat. We’ve also done some service projects with Star Fish (a Plainfield-based food pantry), where some of our kids have gone over and helped them on their distribution days.”
Coudriet said Oliveira’s involvement with Hands of Hope has led other Saint Joseph students to volunteer at the Edison-based food pantry.
“We have a group of kids that go and do service together and one of the places they go is Hands of Hope,” Coudriet said. “There is a connection between us and them. Josh has been working there at least through all four years of high school. Our kids are required to complete service hours every year and I remember the first time Josh submitted his hours for the first semester and he had almost 100 service hours.”
Coudriet said Saint Joseph’s previous volunteerism benefiting Hands of Hope and partnerships with The Marisa Tufaro Foundation, including packing weekend snack bags for pediatric patients and their families at a local children’s hospital, made this most recent collaboration a “perfect fit.”
Founded in 1992, Hands of Hope operates out of St. James Church on Woodbridge Avenue in Edison with an all-volunteer staff to silence the pain hunger brings. Hands of Hope is focused on sustaining good nutrition, health, and human dignity by providing a means for individuals in need to meet their full potential.
The coronavirus pandemic adversely impacted Hands of Hope’s ability to fundraise in recent years. The Tee Off Against Hunger fundraiser succeeds an annual Race to Outrun Hunger, which generated more than $75,000 in donations for Hands of Hope during the five years it was held (2014-18) at Roosevelt Park in Edison.
The Marisa Tufaro Foundation annually supports Hands of Hope. Its namesake’s first community service project as a student at James Monroe Elementary School in Edison was to help collect nonperishable food items for donation to Hands of Hope.
State Senator Patrick Diegnan, who serves on The Marisa Tufaro Foundation’s board of trustees, praised the Saint Joseph school community for its continued efforts to help others in need. Saint Joseph has been among The Marisa Tufaro Foundation’s biggest supporters.
“This really validates what everyone already knows about the tremendous reputation Saint Joe’s has and what the faculty and staff encourage their boys to do,” Diegnan said.
“Saint Joe’s is exemplary in rallying around causes and helping others.”