Teen feeds the hungry, helps businesses

Connor Reilly, a ninth-grade student at Bethlehem Central High School and parishioner at St. Thomas the Apostle Church had an idea. He wanted to help the needy and support local businesses affected by the coronavirus. About two weeks ago, Reilly and his mother, Erin, asked for donations through a post on Facebook.

The next morning, Reilly said, donations had poured in.

The money was initially used to provide meals to the Interfaith Partnership for the Homeless (IPH) in Albany for three days. Now, Reilly is continuing to buy large catered meals from local businesses to donate, so long as the money keeps coming in.

“It has been rewarding,” Reilly said. “It’s nice to help people and then I really have quite a bit of free time now-a-days, so putting it toward a good cause really made me feel happy.”

So far meals donated to IPH have all come from local businesses, including: Dine Normanside, Bellini’s, Twisted Vine, O’Slattery’s and Romo’s. “We’re trying to put in a sizable tip for the businesses as well, to try to keep them in business.” Reilly said.

The Reillys have also donated lunches from Bliss and Bake for You to The Ronald McDonald House and about 51 burritos with sides from Pancho’s of Delmar to South End Children’s Cafe.

“It’s become a lot bigger than we thought,” Erin said. “We thought initially that our only donations were going to come from his grandparents.”

Now, on top of donating to the Interfaith Partnership for the Homeless, the Ronald McDonald House, and the South End Children Cafe, the two are deciding which restaurants will provide two meals per day for the next six weeks to five elderly parishioners.

“I really don’t know what to expect; it’s really been crazy. We’ve done way more funding than we initially intended to, so I don’t know how long this is going to go,” Connor Reilly said. “I just want to thank everybody because without donations I really wouldn’t be anywhere. I wouldn’t be able to help people.”

If you want to donate, you can do so on Venmo @IPHdonations. (The account lists Erin Reilly, Connor’s mother as the administrator). If you don’t have a Venmo account, you can get in touch with Erin via email at [email protected]. Funds allocated through PayPal or email will provide meals to additional organizations in need, unlike Venmo which provides meals directly to the IPH. If you are able to make donations to IPH, they are looking for non-perishable snacks and food items as well. To contact someone at IPH call (518) 434-8021.