New Rochelle, NY (May, 2011) Eighteen Iona College students used their remaining meal card monies, totaling twenty-two hundred dollars, to order prepared food from the college’s on-campus caterer, Chartwells. This food was all donated to HOPE Community Services as part of a new service outreach, Operation GAEL (Give Away Extra Loot).
Freshman, Alexa Serrecchia, conceived the idea of Operation GAEL when she realized that she had remaining funds on her meal plan that would have been wasted. Alexa contacted the college’s Center for Campus Ministries, director, Dr. Carl Procario-Foley and, with the assistance of Br. Kevin Devlin, a board member of HOPE, they identified an agency and began reaching out to students. “I really applaud Alexa’s initiative on this project, we are already planning ways to make this even more expansive next year,” said Dr. Procario-Foley. Summarizing this project, Alexa said “I just thought it would be a nice way to give back to those less fortunate in our community, and I wanted to encourage other students to participate as well. I am very pleased with the success of Operation GAEL this year, and it can only grow from here.”
HOPE Community Services (50 Washington St., New Rochelle, NY) sponsors a soup kitchen, food pantry, and eviction counseling program.
Founded in 1940 by the Congregation of Edmund Rice Christian Brothers, Iona College is a private, coeducational institution of learning in the tradition of American Catholic higher education. Iona – currently listed in the top tier of US News and World Report’s annual “America’s Best Colleges 2011; The Princeton Review’s Best Northeastern Colleges 2011 edition and Business Week’s Top 25 Undergraduate Business Schools in the Northeast – offers undergraduate degrees in liberal arts, science, and business administration, as well as Master of Arts, Master of Science and master of business administration degrees and numerous post-graduate certificate programs.