Local nonprofit The REACH Project and Texas A&M Foundation partner to provide food to current and former workers

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) - A local nonprofit called The REACH Project teamed up with the Texas A&M Foundation to give out food Monday evening to some of those who need it most.

The groups hosted a drive-thru event to give out meat packs from Rosenthal’s Meat Center to the families of 200 so-called invisible Aggies. They’re among the essential workers on the Texas A&M campus who do things like maintenance, food services, and custodial work.

“These packs are going to invisible Aggies that have been affected by COVID,” The REACH Project Founder Max Gerall said. “These invisible Aggies have either been laid off since the initial COVID outbreak, with the holiday break coming, or just been drastically impacted due to a family member or reduction of work hours.”

Each box contained about eight pounds of meat, and families could choose between either premium red meat or pork cuts.

“Those essential employees that make life on the Texas A&M campus possible, especially during COVID, is who we’re trying to help today,” Gerall said. “They have been risking their lives for our normalcy, and this is just a way to kind of highlight their importance to the university campus, but also recognizing that often times unfortunately they go unseen.”

Gerall says there are roughly 3,000 invisible Aggies in total, and they take care of about 200 buildings, 5,200 acres, and feed roughly 70,000 students on a daily basis.

“I think giving back and taking care of those who take care of us is what we’re supposed to do,” Gerall said. “For us to be able to come together and create partnerships throughout the A&M system in order to give back, I think that’s just what Aggies stand for.”

Gerall says the partnership with the Texas A&M Foundation was instrumental to the drive-thru events success, since the foundation paid for all the meat boxes that were handed out to each family. They also contributed many volunteers that dedicated hours of planning to execute Monday’s event.

The REACH Project is a local nonprofit that looks to weave together the Texas A&M community, serving students while also giving back to invisible Aggies simultaneously. It stands for Respect-Empowerment-Aspiration-Community-Hope.

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