Loyola Academy student’s app connects community to donation sites, other resources

Alexander Manet-Bleu Strnad, a senior at Loyola Academy in Wilmette, noticed a significant gap in the online app market, so he took matters into his own hands and built one from the ground up — down to writing the code himself.

Corporal is Strnad’s newly available, free app, designed to connect people with nearby food pantries, shelters and donation bins.

“The name Corporal comes from the Corporal Works of Mercy, which is a Catholic theology concept, talking about how as people we should strive to serve others through clothing the naked, feeding the hungry and sheltering the homeless,” Strnad told The Record of the role his faith and education at Loyola Academy played in inspiring the app name.

Strnad said he became particularly interested in community service through Loyola Academy’s Ignatian Service Learning courses. As part of the class, he volunteered at Evanston Vineyard Food Pantry, quickly meeting his service requirement within one or two quarters. He continued going after meeting the requirement.

Created for users of all backgrounds, the app not only allows users to easily locate aid services, but it also fosters community participation by allowing users to submit aid locations and continue populating the map. Strnad, as the moderator, then approves the locations to ensure accuracy.

Strnad estimates that to date there are more than 200 recognized locations in the Corporal app.

“It just looks like Apple Maps at first,” Strnad said of the user experience. “You can see all these locations, and you can see pins on the map. So, there’s different colors of pins that represent each user-submitted location. They represent clothing, shelter or food. And some of them are multiple, so the colors change depending on those categories.”

Users can click the icons for each location to learn more information, which can include images, a web link, title or name of the site, address, and hours of availability.

At a cost of $500 a year to run, the project is entirely self funded. Strnad used his savings from working as a sailing instructor at Northwestern University for two summers to get the app off the ground and keep it running.

Strnad came up with the idea for Corporal while on a car ride across the North Shore. He spotted a clothing donation bin, but when he looked for it on Apple Maps, he saw that it wasn’t there, instead receiving a suggestion for a donation bin 15 to 20 miles away.

So, over winter break in 2025, Strnad, who is passionate about computer science, started to write the code and build Corporal from scratch.

He began coding when he was about 13 or 14 years old. Also at 14, he launched his first website with JavaScript, a type of scripting language.

After graduating from Loyola Academy this spring, Strnad intends to study computer science in college and participate in the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps. He said he hopes to serve in the military using his cybersecurity and cyber-technical skills.

Strnad also said he anticipates Corporal will be part of his future.

“Five hundred dollars is a drop in the bag if I could actually help someone or just change someone’s life minimally every year,” he shared. “… I could just be sleeping, resting, and people are getting help.”

For Strnad, it’s clear that Corporal’s success is not quantitative but rather rooted in his ability to positively impact others.

“I don’t care about downloads,” he said. “I just hope it’s accessible and people can use it if they need it to help donate or help others.”

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