While many Iona students felt the wrath of Hurricane Sandy in the form of power loss and residential evacuations, a major concern that arose amid the storm was the availability of dining options for those who remained on campus.

With an immense number of local businesses that usually accept the college meal plan out of power, access to food resources was scarce.

No one was hit harder by the storm, however, than these businesses themselves.

With some food service locations experiencing power outages lasting up to one full week, many shop owners sustained losses not only in the amount of customers that they had to turn away, but in the food that had to be thrown out and the difficulties they faced in product delivery.

Even Blackboard Pizza Shop, which did not lose any power during the storm, said that business was still affected negatively: they were unable to receive certain food orders for items that typically appear on their menu.

“Business definitely did suffer as a result of the storm,” said Chris Macaluso, a Blackboard employee. “Even though we never lost power, we had to close our kitchen for a couple of days because all of the ingredients we use are fresh and our distributers, who are located on Long Island or in the city, were unable to make their scheduled deliveries due to the effects of the storm.”

Macaluso also explained that one of the major drawbacks in business was that their phone lines were down during the storm, which meant that they could not receive orders for delivery.

“The next biggest thing was that by the time the lines were finally restored, and we were able to get delivery orders in, our drivers were experiencing difficulty [in] finding gas,” he said.

Mike Napolitano, a co-owner of the Avenue Deli, was frustrated by the fact that he was not able to open for the entirety of the week, explaining that he had never had to deal with a storm of this capacity prior to Sandy.

“I had never used a generator before, so needless to say, I was a bit unprepared for what we dealt with during the storm,” he said. “We were very lucky in that we lost hardly any food since we are co-owners with Posto 22, because I was able to send half of all of our food there where they still had power, to be used before it spoiled, and another quarter of our products to my friends at Shannon Beverage.”

“The Ave,” as it is referred to by many Iona students, is an extremely popular destination for using off-campus dollars to buy food on the meal plan, and many were highly anticipating it’s re-opening. Napolitano is happily back to being open for business again, and wished to reassure his customers that in the future, he and his crew plan to be more prepared for inclement weather, and hopefully be able to stay open and continue with regular service.