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.