Illinois MBA teams up with the Eastern Illinois Foodbank

The Illinois MBA is teaming up with the Eastern Illinois Foodbank to help alleviate hunter. This month-long service project is part of an initiative sponsored by The Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC) called TeamMBA which was created to celebrate, promote, and publicize the outstanding community and volunteer work that is performed by graduate management programs.

Here's some thoughts from first-year MBA, Kyle Harshbarger, about one of the activities during the month coordinated by the MBA Service Association.

The Illlinois MBA Service Association teamed up with the Eastern Illinois Foodbank this past Saturday to help hungry people in and around Champaign County. After a tour of the facilities, a dozen Illinois MBAs bagged, boxed and stacked six pallets of dry beans which will be shipped to food pantries and soup kitchens. After taking care of one ton of beans, they tackled mixed green can labeling and boxing. Two and three-quarter pallets later, the mixed vegetables were ready for distribution.

Students learned how the foodbank is essentially a not-for-profit distribution center for foods, but also learned about it's financial structure. The bagging and packaging processes gave thema first-hand experience in manufacturing processing, bottlenecks and experience curves. Thanks to the MBA students efforts, Comcast will be donated an estimated $2,500 to the foodbank. Because of their ability to purchase bulk food at discounts, this is equivalent to $25,000 in retail food.

MBAA Spring Picnic

This past weekend the MBA Association hosted a spring picnic at Hessel Park in Champaign. It was an opportunity for everyone to gather and socialize. Not only were the students present at this event, professors also came with their families. Our Associate Dean, Stig Lanesskog, also join in on the festivities helping us barbecue the meats.

People also brought their families and friends and join in on some friendly touch football games. We also took this opportunity to talk about community involvement as the MBA program is currently working to raise money for the Eastern Illinois Foodbank.

Events like this gives us the opportunity to see classmates we don't meet very often. This is especially true for the MBA2s because by the time we are in the second year of the program, we often only see the classmates who have the same degree concentration. It was really great to catch up with some old friends!