SUNY Oswego’s Students Helping Oz Peers (SHOP) is holding Cram the Van, a donation event meant to promote the organization and resupply the goods they offer free to students.

SHOP was founded in 2016 and has served over one thousand people since. They provide “non-perishable food, toiletries, sexual health products and professional and winter clothing for those in need,” according to Helena Buttons, the SHOP Coordinator.

“Our mission is just to support students, faculty and staff who may be food-insecure or struggling to get those basic items so that they can focus on other things instead of worrying about meals or toothbrushes,” Buttons said.

Cram the Van is SHOP’s most recent event and is a “campus wide competition to see which building can donate the most food, toiletries or anything SHOP accepts,” according to Buttons. A donation box has been placed in every residence hall on campus and in some administrative buildings in which anyone can put items they wish to contribute. 

“We are trying to bulk up our stock,” Buttons said. “We have had a lot of people coming in, which is awesome, but that means we need to have a lot coming in.”

The name ‘Cram the Van’ comes from the process SHOP workers will use to collect the goods, which is two rented Oswego vans, according to Buttons. On Nov. 12, the last day of the event, Buttons and others will drive to every building that has a bin and “measure out what they are donating” before trying to pack it all into the two vehicles. 

The building that donates the most goods for Cram the Van will receive a celebratory banner. Buttons said they are hoping to make the event and the prize a tradition.

“We are hoping to make this a yearly event so that whoever wins will have a wall of little banners if they continue to win,” Buttons said. “And, it gets SHOP representation in every residence hall.”

In previous years, SHOP partnered with University Police for ‘Pack the Patrol Car,’ a similar event that put donation bins in only residence halls on campus. Coming back from COVID-19, Buttons said they wanted to “broaden” the event to include faculty and staff on campus and not just students. 

“We’ve received faculty that have said ‘I want to be involved,’” Buttons said. “So we wanted to include them this year, because why not?”

Buttons also said that they usually do not have trouble getting students to participate in donation events and having SHOP partner with Residence Life and Housing and a few of the hall directors on campus should promote Cram the Van even more.

“We do tend to see a lot of student involvement,” Buttons said. “I know that Johnson [Hall] has been preparing for this event for weeks, same with Onondaga [Hall].”

SHOP also holds other events such as Fresh Food Friday, which allows students the opportunity to pick up fresh produce once a week instead of canned or boxed foods. They also partner with organizations around campus and the community including Auxiliary Services, Greek Life and Oswego Today, a free news publication for Oswego county.

Buttons said that after SHOP functions went completely virtual for over a year, their “strategy” moving forward is to plan more in-person events that are around campus. 

“We are trying not to do too much necessarily in SHOP because it is a little bit of a small space,” Buttons said. “With our Stop and Swap event that took place a few weeks ago, moving professional attire out of the basement of the library actually got it in front of students more effectively so they were able to utilize it more effectively.”

Currently, SHOP has Thanksgiving baskets available for preorder until Nov. 19  and students can request one via an online form listed on their Instagram. There are four baskets available to choose from, including traditional Thanksgiving food, non-traditional, which has foods like mac and cheese and Ramen noodles and is “just enough food” for the couple of days, a vegan basket and a gluten free option. 

Moving forward with in-person meetings and ways for students and faculty to get involved with SHOP, Buttons said her focus is just to make sure everyone is aware of the resources they provide.

“One of our main goals is just to make sure everyone knows about SHOP,” Buttons said. “Because we are basically coming back from three classes not being on campus, our focus this year is outreach and really making sure people know we are a resource that is available to them.”

Next semester, according to Buttons, SHOP has “a lot of things cooking,” including an event that partners with the Office of the President and a reusable bag making session. They are also still taking applications for both their internship and part-time paid position for the spring, both of which can be found on Handshake. 

Image via SHOP instagram