As the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan prepared for a major expansion in 2014, two Kettering University students played a key role in helping the organization identify opportunities to make their operations run more efficiently.

Inga Bethel and Lenrick Lopez are both originally from the Bahamas and graduated this summer from Kettering University with dual degrees in Industrial Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. They spent approximately six months working on their Professional Practice Thesis which was guided by the Director of Kettering University’s Center for Culminating Undergraduate Experiences. Their thesis project  centered on streamlining sorting processes, reducing paperwork and identifying technology solutions, along with staff and volunteers at the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan.

Bethel and Lopez used a wide range of Industrial Engineering principles during the project, including an evaluation of the initial setup they encountered, focusing on staffing, layout and product flow, sorting processes and the amount of paperwork required to keep track of inventory. Both students were allowed to immerse themselves in the daily procedures at the Food Bank and had a great amount of access to management, staff and volunteers to do their thesis.

“Everyone at the Food Bank was wonderful,” Bethel said. “They gave us so much information and made time for us whenever we had questions.”

They also made suggestions for solutions that the Food Bank staff and volunteers could implement, including strategies to reduce paperwork, using tools like Google Drive to help share information more easily, making use of mobile devices and barcode scanner apps to keep track of inventory and potentially using display monitors to track of shipping and receiving in real time.

“We were not only able to go in and observe their operations, we were able to do hands-on work and get insight from everyone on the staff,” Lenrick said.

The thesis work done by the students coincided with an exciting time at the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan. They purchased a 62,000 square foot warehouse adjacent to their existing operation and have been converting that facility into a solution-to-open Hunger Solution Center. The Hunger Solution Center will provide more space to house donations from local grocery chains and farmers while allowing more sorting space to repack produce and other products for distribution. The Hunger Solution Center is slated for completion this year. The new space will allow the Food Bank to double their capacity for operations, triple the space for packaging and will include a new production kitchen.

“The Food Bank is evolving,” said William E. Kerr, President of the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan. “The work Inga and Lenrick did will help take us to the next level by using technology and identifying areas where we can improve efficiency. It’s very exciting.”

Lenrick and Bethel were connected with the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan through Dr. Matthew Sanders, Professor of Industrial Engineering and Director of Kettering University’s Center for Culminating Undergraduate Experiences (CCUE).

“This is another example of the many ways that Kettering University students have a direct impact on the Flint Community,” Sanders said. “In recent years, students have worked on Senior Design as well as theses projects with a number of Flint area organizations, including St. Luke’s N.E.W. Life Center, Harvesting Earth urban farm, Landaal Packaging, Genesee County Probate Court, Hurley Medical Center, McLaren Hospital, Genesys Hospital and many others. It’s great to see Kettering students not only interested in partnering with key groups in the community, but making positive contributions to those organizations which help them continue to grow and accomplish great tasks and improvements in the Flint area.”