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Hunger Lunch

Venture name:

Hunger Lunch

Chapters:

UNC, RMC

Date and time:

Of Planning & Preparation: Food is ordered on Friday, event set-up and food delivery at 9:45 am on Wednesdays
Of Sale(s): Wednesdays, 10:00 am – 2:00 pm

Description:

(UNC)Hunger Lunch is a Venture with a really cool story in that it actually preceded Nourish. The background behind it is that a student about 12 years started Hunger Lunch to raise money for international hunger relief. When Nourish started up, Hunger Lunch was absorbed into it and run as a sub-committee, because it was so large, and its profits now go to Nourish’s project committee.

Hunger Lunch is a 3-in-1 Venture because it benefits Nourish, TROSA, and the students who buy it! It benefits Nourish because the projects committee receives the profits. It benefits a substance-abuse rehabilitation program in Durham called TROSA because they are the company we buy the rice, beans, and cornbread from. TROSA is a really well-established, multi-faceted company that any nearby chapter should look into partnering with! Finally, it benefits all the people who buy it because it is a delicious, filling lunch for only $4! It’s a great way to bring people together to support multiple causes, all over lunch.”

Marketing:

(UNC) “A lot of marketing is done through social media. There is a UNC Hunger Lunch page which we publicize and we encourage everyone who buys lunch to like it. This is one of the ways we let our customers know if there are any changes in location. We also have a Remind 101 text service that people can sign up for in order to get one text each Wednesday morning with details about Hunger Lunch for the day.

In addition to social media, we market through the Campus Y, the social justice building on campus which the organization Nourish is a part of, by getting spots in their newsletters and spreading the word to other organizations in the Y. This year, by applying and emailing to the person in charge, we also got the first Hunger Lunch of the year in the Week of Welcome planner that all of the first year students get. We also got Hunger Lunch added to the Homecoming Week schedule. On multiple occasions we have worked with groups taking classes in the Business school who have to complete projects for marketing classes. Additionally, we invite other student organizations to come publicize their organizations and events at our Hunger Lunch tables sometimes in order to share our space and draw in new customers.”

Revenue and Expenses:

(UNC) “This semester, Fall of 2015, Hunger Lunch had a revenue of $9956.78.

Expenses included buying the food along with plates, spoons, and hot sauce. Marketing expenses were minimal since a lot of it happens over social media and we already have such a large customer base.”

Profits and Other Benefits of Venture

(UNC) “The profit was a bit more than half of the revenue, somewhere between $5,000 and $6,000”

Challenges:

(UNC) “One of the main challenges is just making sure we have enough volunteers to sell the food each week. We need two people at the table each Wednesday between 10 and 2. Sometimes when people get busy it’s difficult to have enough volunteers.

Also, it was probably not wise to depend solely on TROSA for our catering purposes. They recently informed us that they will not be able to continue catering to us next semester, so we are now somewhat scrambling to find another caterer. It would have been better to have a back-up caterer.”

Would you recommend to other chapters?

(UNC) “I would recommend that other chapters investigate finding a similar partnership. Hunger Lunch at UNC is very dependent on the fact that we are able to get cheap food cooked and delivered to us by TROSA. I would only recommend this Venture to chapters that can allocate 1-2 people to running the logistics of ordering the food and such, and then have enough people to staff the table with at least 2 people during the period where the food is sold. A cheap, mutually-beneficial, food-based venture can be very successful if you have enough members and can find the right partner. Additionally, it will require some time, funds, and storage space in order to obtain the right materials [plates, spoons, pans to hold the food, posters, etc.]. It might take a while to get a Venture like this off of the ground (maybe a few weeks of planning and a semester to gain customers), but it can be very easily run after the details are worked out.”

Contact info:

Nourish UNC

Simon Spire [NINO Staff]: simon@nourish.org

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