Service in the community is business as usual for many offices and departments at Notre Dame. That’s how it is for the Finance Division. Lending a hand is a reflection of the University’s Catholic character and institutional mission.
“Serving others, that’s what Jesus did,” comments Mark Zeese, a business processes program manager in accounting operations. “What’s key is that it can be in the smallest ways. It doesn’t always have to be big home runs, right? But in small ways, look how you can make someone else’s life better.”
Recently, the division’s Community Service Committee organized several service opportunities and staff stepped up.
In September, the division’s 92 employees were split into three teams that competed in a fundraising challenge for the Fighting Irish Fighting Hunger Food Drive. The challenge generated more than $1,600 to contribute to the University’s total collection of nearly $28,000.
This month, seven employees volunteered with Cultivate Culinary to pack 394 meals for children from food-insecure homes. These kids can take backpacks of healthy meals home from school on the weekends.
Also this month, the division has partnered with Catholic Charities and Real Services to provide holiday gifts for 40 children and 40 elderly individuals in the area.
And division employees also volunteer at the Center for the Homeless and The Food Bank of Northern Indiana several times a year.
These service opportunities bring together Finance Division employees to do what University founder Rev. Edward Sorin, C.S.C., envisioned Notre Dame would do: Be a force for good in the world.