Texas A&M Foundation Partners With REACH To Feed Local Families
REACH is a local nonprofit that provides family meals for food service, custodial, maintenance workers and groundskeepers who work at Texas A&M.
The Texas A&M Foundation used the money normally spent on its annual staff holiday gathering – this year canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic – to purchase the meals from the university’s Rosenthal Meat Center. Each of the 200 care packages feeds four to six people.
“We were very proud to partner with The REACH Project this holiday season to provide care packages to some of the hardest-working but often overlooked members of our campus community,” said Tyson Voelkel ’96, president and CEO of the Texas A&M Foundation.
REACH volunteers and Foundation staff members handed out the care packages on Monday in a drive-thru distribution event to families that were pre-selected by REACH.
“Having our team members involved in the distribution was a fulfilling experience, and we hope this small gesture goes a long way in thanking these individuals and letting them know we recognize their contributions to our Aggie students, staff and faculty,” Voelkel said.
REACH was founded by Max Gerall, a former Texas A&M student who graduated in 2018 with a bachelor’s degree in communication. He said the organization has served 33,900 meals to Texas A&M contract service workers since the start of the pandemic.
Gerall said he is grateful to the Texas A&M Foundation staff for its participation in this latest endeavor. “This would not have been possible without the leadership and generosity of the Texas A&M Foundation and its leadership team,” he said. “We want to thank them for their display of respect, excellence, loyalty, leadership, integrity and selfless service. This display of Aggie Core values helped the REACH Project ensure that every member of the Aggie community has the opportunity to experience respect, empowerment, aspiration, community and hope.”
Learn more about REACH and how to help by visiting agsreach.org or Facebook.
Media contact: Lesley Henton, lshenton@tamu.edu
