Valentina Cossio chops onions for a meal at The Warming House / Photo courtesy of Alicia Maxwell
BY ELIZABETH EGAN, FEATURES ASSIGNMENT EDITOR
From trips to Philly to bringing freshmen to campus early, Break the Bubble works to take students off campus.
Valentina Cossio, a senior accounting major from Florida, fondly recalled the trip she took to the St. Francis Inn in Philadelphia.
“The trip to St. Francis Inn was definitely a highlight of my freshman year,” Cossio said.
Learning the stories about the guests she served played a significant role in making the experience so memorable.
“There was this one woman who came in and she was telling me about this awful apartment she was living in with her four young children,” Cossio said. “The place had rats and broken appliances that the building couldn’t afford to fix but there was just no other rent that she could afford. Seeing her graditude toward the services we were able to provide her and her family was incredibly fulfilling.”
Break the Bubble is a program through the Franciscan Center for Social Concern that aims to get St. Bonaventure University students outside of the immediate Bonaventure community.
In the past, Break the Bubble has participated in a wide range of service projects including trips to Nazareth Farm in Salem, Massachusetts, Valley of Angels in Guatemala and Saints Place in Rochester, New York.
Cossio, along with eight other students and two freshmen, went on the trip in the spring of 2020. It was the last service trip before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Trips started up again this fall with a small group of students going over the fall break and plans for another group to go during the spring break.
Cossio said she would not hesitate to go again during her senior spring break.
During her trip, Cossio got into a daily routine. She would go to The Inn in the morning to start helping with breakfast. They would serve donuts, homemade breakfast sandwiches, coffee and juice.
“They really make sure to give people options,” Cossio said. “It is important for people to get to feel like they have at least some say in what they are eating every day.”
Guests would come in and Cossio served them on an assembly line. Then people could eat inside or take their food out to a courtyard.
After breakfast, Cossio and the other volunteers helped clean up and do organizational work in the kitchen.
They were also assigned tasks such as putting together personal care bags for guests and working at what Cossio described to be a “thrift store where everything is free.”
Cossio especially enjoyed helping people pick out clothes and coats that were important for the cold winters in Philadelphia.
After the break, the volunteers started getting ready for lunch. The inn could have as many as 200 people come in for a meal at lunchtime. To compare, a busy day for St. Bonaventure University’s soup kitchen, The Warming House, might be closer to 70 guests.
After they were finished working for the day, the group engaged in mission talks with the friars who helped run the soup kitchen. According to Cossio, in these talks they learned about the humanity behind a soup kitchen. This is something she took back to Bonaventure with her as she works as a coordinator at The Warming House.
Cossio highly recommends the experience to anyone looking for a different way to spend their spring break.
“Going to the St. Francis Inn was such a unique experience and one I was very grateful for,” Cossio said. “To anyone considering going this spring, I say just do it.”
Donations made on #GivingTuesdayatBonas helps to support students like Cossio to branch out and break the Bona Bubble, while also doing some good for the communities they serve.
eganea20@bonaventure.edu
