This semester, A’s Color Run and a Meal for Everyone sold Bucknell crewneck sweatshirts and organized a color run to raise money to provide necessities to those in the local community who couldn’t afford them otherwise. The 1.2 mile Color Run was held on November 13th at 10:30am, with 138 participants from both the Bucknell and Lewisburg community.
A's Color Run and a Meal for Everyone is a part of the Management 101 course. Management 101 is an experimental learning course exclusive to Bucknell University. Each semester students form companies that sell a product to the Bucknell student body in order to fund a service project to benefit the surrounding community.
The company operated with the overarching goal to have a long-lasting impact on the people that they served. The company specifically worked with the Union Snyder Community Action Agency as well as those families who attend Dinner by the River, located at the First Presbyterian Church in Lewisburg. Dinner by the River holds free dinners for Lewisburg residents every Thursday night at 6pm.
A Company With A Mission
"The mission of A’s Color Run and a Meal for Everyone is to partner with Union-Snyder Community Action Agency as well as Dinner by the River to provide support for local families and individuals who struggle with food insecurity.
By providing food baskets for twenty families, volunteering at weekly dinners, and ultimately stocking the pantry for future dinners, the Company will alleviate this social problem.
Union-Snyder is a community agency that serves to support and advise families in the Union and Snyder counties who seek assistance. Their mantra includes the words “hope, strengthen, achieve”, which are values that the Company strives to emulate.
Union-Snyder CAA directed A’s Color Run and a Meal for Everyone to the First Presbyterian Church, as their soup kitchen, Dinner by the River, desperately needs volunteers and food items to run weekly dinners."
Meaningful Connections with the Community
The 23 students in A’s Color Run and a Meal for Everyone went to at least one of the 3 Dinner by the River events. By participating in the soup kitchen program at Dinner by the River, company members felt emotional connections with the people of the Lewisburg community.
Instead of just giving to the community, members of A's Color Run and a Meal for Everyone, interacted with the people that their project was benefiting---making it all the more powerful. The service project was less about an assignment for a class, but a mutual goal for betterment of the community.
In addition to the 3 organized dinners at the soup kitchen, the company organized 20 quality food baskets to give to the families in the community. The baskets contained potatoes, carrots, broccoli, apples, oranges, fresh baked cookies, mac and cheese, hamburger helper, tuna cans and soup.
The company also donated food to Dinner by the River for their upcoming dinner events.If you want to learn more about what Management 101 companies have done in the past, check out Spring 2016's D's Bison Wear for Foster Care and their work with CONCERN.