OU’s Pawley Lean Institute partners with Forgotten Harvest to improve process of addressing food insecurity

The Pawley Lean Institute at Oakland University has partnered with Forgotten Harvest - a non-profit food rescue organization - in support of a Lean Community Service Project that seeks to improve the way agencies like the OU Golden Grizzlies Pantry obtains and distributes food to those in need.

"This project not only addresses an issue for Oakland University, but an issue across other college campuses, and other agencies that need assistance in distributing food," said Dennis Wade, director of the Pawley Lean Institute.

Established in 1990, Forgotten Harvest collects food that would otherwise go to waste and delivers it free of charge to organizations feeding the hungry in Metro Detroit.

"Our partnership with OU and the Pawley Lean Institute started a while ago, in the fall of 2023, when a group of OU students helped Forgotten Harvest establish a client choice market," said Christopher Ivey, chief marketing and communications officer for Forgotten Harvest. The students played a vital role in the design of the market, as well as solving logistical challenges.

"The students really were a great asset to use in starting this project," said Kelli Kaschimer, director of client services at Forgotten Harvest. "As a nonprofit, we are very limited in our bandwidth to take on additional projects. Something of this magnitude takes a lot of thought process behind it, a lot of processes to be put in place, and having the OU students on the team really helped us get that done in a much shorter time than we ever would have been able to by ourselves."

In the spring of 2024, OU and the Pawley Lean Institute collaborated with Forgotten Harvest on another project, which was intended to design a process for a smaller food agency, enabling them to collect food from the Forgotten Harvest facility despite their size constraints.

Once again, OU students utilized Lean tools and worked with Kaschimer to create standardized processes for both the food agency (front end) and Forgotten Harvest (back end), while enhancing operational efficiency.

"This process needed to be adaptable to each specific agency's needs while also being replicable efficiently," said OU student Angela Simoski, who worked on the project at Forgotten Harvest. "We began by mapping the current process and gathering feedback from Forgotten Harvest regarding the existing procedure. After analyzing this information, we identified gaps in the process and determined where to focus our efforts. Our proposal included the creation of new documentation, such as SOP forms and Excel tracking documents. Additionally, we mapped out a future state of the process, incorporating the proposed changes and other potential improvements.

"Overall, the project was engaging and presented a good challenge in balancing the needs of the food bank and its clients," Simoski added. "I am pleased that we were able to make a positive impact on our community."

Kaschimer said the projects were a great opportunity for OU students to gain real-world experience about the challenges some businesses and nonprofits face on a daily basis.

"It's not always the textbook examples that we learn in the classroom, and getting out in real life really makes a difference, I believe, for them to understand how things work," she said.

Inspired by the success of these projects, Forgotten Harvest and the Pawley Lean Institute agreed to use the Oakland University Golden Grizzlies Pantry as its first pilot agency for the new processes that were created.

Located in the lower level of the Oakland Center on the OU campus, the Golden Grizzlies Pantry assists those in need by providing food and community resources to positively impact their success at Oakland University.

"The demand is now steady year around and, because of need, there are times we struggle to keep our shelves full," said Jean Ann Miller, senior director of the Office for Student Involvement, which oversees the Golden Grizzlies Pantry. "This partnership has been a blessing in terms of helping us address food insecurity on campus. We're very appreciative of this opportunity."

According to Miller, staff from the OU Golden Grizzlies Pantry will travel to Forgotten Harvest twice a month to pick up the items, which will then be brought back to campus and made available to OU students, staff, and faculty in need.

"While we're grateful for every donation we get and the support we've received, this partnership will go a long way toward ensuring that our shelves remain full," she said. "It really is an inspiring partnership and a 'hands on' learning opportunity for our students."

To learn more about the OU Golden Grizzlies Pantry, visit www.oakland.edu/osi/pantry.

For more information about the Pawley Lean Institute, visit www.oakland.edu/lean.

To learn more about Forgotten Harvest, visit www.forgottenharvest.org.

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