Tag: Operation Food Search



OperationFood

Orientation for Olin’s Specialized Masters Programs (SMP) students started this month, and a highlight was their Volunteer Day on Friday, August 12 at Operation Food Search. The local nonprofit feeds over 200,000 people in our region monthly and about a third of the recipients are children.

Over 120 students from the Master of Accounting, Master of Science in Customer Analytics, Master of Science in Finance, and Master of Science in Supply Chain Management programs volunteered. They cleaned containers, bagged meals, organized pallets and storage spaces, cleaned vehicles and more, which helped the Operation Food Search staff get ahead for the back-to-school fall season.

This was the largest volunteer group the organization had ever hosted, and the students remained flexible and hard-working to make the big turnout so productive. For more on Operation Food search, go to: http://www.operationfoodsearch.org/.

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Andrew Glantz, BSBA’17, launched the FoodShare app Oct. 1 and it’s already a finalist in a contest for startups with a $10,000 top prize. The company that wins the majority of a People’s Choice vote, wins the Mobileys Award. You can vote for Andrew’s app that allows users to donate a meal for every meal purchased at a participating restaurant by clicking here. Voting ends Nov. 13.

Click on image above to watch Andrew’s Elevator Pitch.

10.27.2015--Andrew Glantz, founder of FoodShare, at the Peacock Diner. James Byard/WUSTL Photos

Andrew Glantz, founder of FoodShare, at the Peacock Diner. James Byard/WUSTL Photos

Glantz leverages two big trends with his FoodShare app according to a story from the WashU Newsroom:

Trend No. 1: Charitable consumerism. Popularized by shoe company Toms and eyeglass manufacturer Warby Parker, the buy-one, give-one business model is booming. Consumers love helping others by buying stuff they want anyway.

Trend No. 2: Food photography. These days, our social media feeds are stuffed with photos of our friends’ truffle fries and kale smoothies.

“You’re already paying for your meal; why not fight hunger too?” said Glantz, who is studying entrepreneurship at Olin Business School. “It’s a win for everyone — the community, the users and the restaurants.”

Foodshare appFoodShare launched Oct. 1 and already has donated over 800 meals to Operation Food Search​, which distributes food to St. Louis’ hungry and provides a range of nutrition programs.

The model is simple: Diners use the app to shoot a photo of their meal at any of 55 plus participating restaurants. FoodShare then makes a donation to cover a meal’s refrigeration, transportation and labor costs. Currently, FoodShare is paying Operation Food Search directly with money raised from its successful Kickstarter campaign. Ultimately, member restaurants will pay FoodShare a monthly fee to cover the meal costs.

“Signing on with FoodShare transforms a restaurant into a social enterprise,” Glantz said. “You show that you are a socially engaged member of the community. And you increase your social media presence. There are a lot of branding and promotional benefits.”

Operation Food Search operations chief Craig Goldford says FoodShare promises to be a boost. The nonprofit receives the bulk of its food from food drives and donations from restaurants and grocery stores. Still, it needs money to distribute meals to some 150,000 hungry St. Louisans every month.

“At Operation Food Search, we are constantly striving to find new ways to raise funds and build awareness,” Goldford said. “FoodShare does both.

“In this field, you need to be creative, and Andrew is certainly that. He’s also a great listener. He really took the time to understand what our needs are.”

FoodShare has come a long way since its inception. Glantz, along with partners Jacob Mohrmann, a senior in Olin Business School, and Dartmouth College student Aidan Folbe, originally launched FoodShare as restaurant recommendation app that rewarded users with a check in the mail. However, the initial model failed to reach their growth targets.

In this first model, the team pledged to donate a portion of its proceeds to help fight hunger in the region. However, the partners soon realized that fully incorporating the social mission into the business model would be more effective.

“Giving back to our community is something that mattered greatly to us,” Glantz said. “We always planned to give a portion of our proceeds to serve the hungry. Now, it would be central to our mission.”

Glantz, a foodie and a philanthropist, realized pivoting to a the buy-one, give-one model would simultaneously make FoodShare more engaging and impactful.

Glantz plans to stay in St. Louis after graduation and hopes to expand FoodShare to other markets. He credits his education at Washington University for teaching him to think big.

“We put aside our egos and accepted what we had wasn’t working,” Glantz said. “One thing I’ve learned in my classes here is not to evaluate sunk costs. All of the money and time we invested in the past wasn’t coming back. We could only think about where we could go from here.

“My businesses classes have given me the real-world lessons that I apply everyday. My ArtSci classes are important too,” Glantz said. “Being an entrepreneur requires creativity as well as business skills, and you never know what will be helpful.

“Right now I’m in a political science course and a children studies course. Do I know how those are going to impact me for FoodShare? No. But they will have added and unknown influences to my thinking and perspective.” ​

Newsroom story by Diane Toroian Keaggy


Nearly 1 in 4 people living in the City of St. Louis lives in poverty and faces hunger.  As summer approaches and school lets out, approximately 173,000 children at risk for hunger in the bi-state region will lose their access to free & reduced breakfast and lunch.  These hungry children could fill Busch Stadium four times!

pbj 2015Together, we can help fill children’s bellies this summer so they won’t go hungry.  Washington University is partnering with Operation Food Search to coordinate the 5th annual PB&Joy University-Wide Food Drive, which runs April 2-14.

Once again, we will be encouraging some “healthy” competition between Olin students and Olin staff/faculty to determine who will win bragging rights and our Olin PB&Joy traveling trophy!!

There are two easy ways for EVERYONE to participate:

                                                                         

Food drive1.  Donate food at a drop-off location near you:  Simon Hall, Knight Hall 310 or Knight Center Student Center.  Kid-friendly foods are preferred and all food is welcome.  No glass items, please!

2.  Make an online donation to Operation Food Search.  Visit http://fooddrive.wustl.edu to make a secure, tax-deductible donation to Operation Food Search.  Payment is by credit card, and every $5 donation allows Operation Food Search to provide 45 meals!

Please visit http://fooddrive.wustl.edu to learn more about childhood hunger in St. Louis and opportunities to get involved beyond PB&Joy. 

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Thank you for your generosity during the special PB&Joy food drive to help our neighbors in Ferguson and surrounding areas.  We donated 373 pounds of food collected in the four Olin bins!  Here are some other details about the University-wide campaign:

·        Our colleagues at Operation Food Search mentioned numerous times that Washington University was the first of their community partners to step up and offer to help following the incidents in Ferguson.  They are deeply grateful for our contributions and our desire to assist.

·        32 bins were placed across all University campuses

·        3830 pounds of food were donated

Operation Food Search was delighted with the prevalence of canned chicken & tuna, which is sorely needed.  This food has already gone out to the 8 partner agencies in/near Ferguson, and to St. Louis Crisis Nursery / Florissant which is going door to door in Camden Green.

·        $1270 was donated to Operation Food Search. A portion of this was used to cover freight to deliver 360,000 diapers to Ferguson and neighboring communities.

·        Operation Food Search calculates that our drive allowed 1,789 people to eat for a day.

We look forward to once again participating in the annual PB&Joy food drive in April 2015 and the friendly competition between Students and Faculty/Staff to win the title of biggest donor.

Warm regards,
Your PB&Joy Ambassadors




We are happy to share the 2014 results for the PB&Joy campaign….

Student Donations= 837 lbs of food and $165
Graduate Students= 807 lbs of food, $165 cash
Undergraduate Students= 30 lbs of food

Faculty/Staff= 212 lbs of food, $428 cash

Together we donated over 1000 pounds of food items alone.  Congratulations Olin students for your victory once again!  A special thanks to the Olin Partners Association and Olin Cares for rallying the Grad students to donate.  The trophy is yours for another year but we hope you feel great about the good work you did for PB&Joy and Operation Food Search!

Dean Gupta is treating us to a Ted Drewes ice cream social on Tuesday, April 29 from 4:00-5:30pm in the Frick Forum.  Please join us!

Your PB&Joy Ambassadors,
Claire, Rachelle and Laura
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