COO fashions food drive as ultimate contest

LOTS of people collect and distribute food to the hungry for Thanksgiving and other holidays. It’s a kind and generous tradition in America.

Jim Rowen has made it into a contest and added a layer of personal generosity to the tradition.

Rowen is the chief operating officer of Renaissance Technologies, one of the most successful hedge-fund firms in the world. Its founder, Jim Simons, is repeatedly named one of the top earning hedge-fund managers.

For the past four years Rowen, who grew up on Long Island, has put up $250,000 to challenge high schools in the area to collect food.

With this year’s contest, a total of 1 million bucks has been distributed to schools by Rowen.

The competition goes like this: The school that collects the most food per capita — meaning, adjusted for the size of the student body — gets $100,000. The money has to be used for scholarships for kids from families that can’t afford the education costs.

Seven Catholic schools competed this year. The winner for 2019 hasn’t been decided yet since the contest ended this week. But the six schools that don’t win will get to share the remaining $150,000, with no school getting less than $20,000.

“It’s competition that drives a better product,” says Rowen (right), who applied that business philosophy to the contest, which starts when schools reopen in September. “We are just taking a traditional food drive and changing the structure of it.

“I try to harness the same type of energy that goes into football competitions and basketball games,” Rowen said in a phone interview. “I’m trying to channel that type of energy to help the schools benefit the community.”

The formal name for the contest is The Great Ignatian Challenge. This year’s competitors were the Loyola School, which is located on the Upper East Side; The Bronx’s Fordham Prep, where Rowen was once a student; and Fairfield Prep in Connecticut. Also, Regis High School on the Upper East Side; St. Peter’s Prep in Jersey City; St. Joseph’s Prep in Philadelphia; and

Xavier High School in Chelsea.

Each of the schools has a food pantry that accepts and stores the donations. In all, Rowen says that last year around 55 tons of food were collected. “This year I’m pushing for 60 to 65 tons,” he said.

Over the first three years the schools collected a total of 150 tons of food, or enough to feed around 74,000 people.

The Challenge is named after St. Ignatius of Loyola, a Spanish Basque Catholic priest and theologian. He cofounded the Society of Jesus, whose priests became known as Jesuits. Jesuit priests are associated with each of the schools in the Challenge. But Rowen says he’d like to expand to both Catholic and public schools.

Rowen, who has worked on Wall Street for more than 30 years, says his educational background is why the Challenge earmarks the winnings for students who need financial assistance. Rowen made a four-hour daily roundtrip from his home in Long Beach on the Island — “the last stop on the train,” he explains — to The Bronx because that’s where he received financial assistance.

Without that help, Rowen says, “I’d be working in my uncle’s hardware store.”

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

My last column, in which I expressed a moderate view on gun control, touched a raw nerve like no dentist ever did with the ammo-loving crowd.

And I think I’m starting to change my views on this issue — but not in a way that the gun-lovers will like.

As a reminder, in that column I took offense to a company selling a rifle with the sales pitch “Nothing Says ‘Merry Christmas’ Like An AR-7.”

Irreverent! Totally unacceptable.

I also said in that column it’s time to stop selling assault weapons that can kill a lot of people in a short period of time.

I didn’t, as many readers alleged, say that the AR-7 was one of those weapons. Two different issues. But I guess people were looking for a fight. I also made clear that I understand the allure of guns and how they fit in to family traditions.

That brought out some deep thinkers in the gun crowd, like this guy who wrote: “You forgot to include what size panties you wear in your AR-7 article so that both of your friends could get you a proper gift for Christmas.”

Wow, what wit! A double zinger! But how did he know about my undergarments? Have you been looking in my window?

Many of the e-mails came in the middle of the night, so it was probably the booze writing.

So, after all the notes I got I now believe I’m being too moderate on this issue. There were so many people who were too cavalier about gun ownership and maybe shouldn’t own them. (“Cavalier,” for the panty guy, means “showing a lack of proper concern,” since I’m sure he’ll have to look it up.) I didn’t mention this in my last column, but I’ve known President Trump for more than 30 years. And I know that he reads The Post and my column regularly. When Trump is re-elected, he will no longer need the support of the NRA or gun owners because 2020 will be his last election.

So maybe the president can then be convinced to change his views on guns in general and automatic rifles in particular. Trump is a reasonable man and the country may be one mass shooting away from revisiting the Second Amendment.

I’ll probably give him a call.