TEAM-BASED COLLABORATIVE PROPOSAL 1

Textbook Deals for Kid’s Meal

Team 5

University of Texas at Dallas, Jindal School of Management

Ms. Karen Baynham

BCOM 3311

Team Members:

Ali Farzadpour

Trevor Goodwin

Shaun Massey

Jennifer Monte

David Robinson

Sanida Saliovski

Abstract

This paper provides detail information with respect to a proposal to win the Dallas Chamber of Commerce competition called “Business Give Back.” The purpose of the competition is to promote social responsibility and community engagement among Dallas-area businesses. Dean Foods, in cooperation with employees who are undergraduate students at University of Texas at Dallas, have developed a charitable campaign designed to address Child Hunger in the Dallas area. Due to the current economic climate and the level of unemployment within the local area Child Hunger is a growing issue. Our program, TEXTBOOK DEALS FOR KID’S MEALS, is designed to create a source of funds from the bartering of university textbooks between university students. These funds are to be provided to the Kid’s Café program, which is sponsored by the Feeding America nonprofit organization.

Introduction

Dean Foods, working in cooperation with the Dallas Chamber of Commerce, is pleased to announce its 2012 selection for “ENHANCING THE COMMUNITIES WE SERVE” program. The program is called “TEXTBOOK DEALS FOR KID’S MEALS” and is presented to you by the dedicated Dean Foods employees who are candidates for undergraduate degrees at the University of Texas at Dallas, Jindal School of Management. Dean Foods’ employees are committed to this effort to provide community programs that will provide financial support, food and resources to nonprofit organizations as part of the “ENHANCING THE COMMUNITIES WE SERVE” program.

ENHANCING THE COMMUNITIES WE SERVE[1]

“We strive to make a difference in our communities, and we provide financial support, food and other resources to a variety of nonprofit organizations. Through the Dean Foods Foundation, we align our giving with our core business by supporting organization that aim to prevent childhood hunger and its effects, that teach at-risk children and youth the importance of maintaining a nutritious diet, and that promote responsible agriculture.”

This program accomplishes three primaryobjectives:

1)Provide meaningful financial assistance as well as food for the Dallas area Kid’s Café program offered by the Feeding America nonprofit organization.

2)Provide university students a superior method to buy and sell used textbooks. Students can buy textbooks at reduced rates and receive higher rates for the textbooks they sell. Fees from the buying and selling of used books will be donated to the Kid’s Café Program.

3)Increase student involvement in community activities. Supporting a worthy cause and solving a basic student need creates a WIN / WIN for both the student and the community.

As active members of the community, it is with great pleasure that we offer this proposal for consideration to the Dallas Chamber of Commerce. Our Dean Foods employee-students aim is to win the competition so that our message and our efforts will generate the maximum benefit to the community at large. With Chamber endorsement, our proposal could be extended to other University’s within the area, significantly increasing the overall benefit to the community.

Our primary beneficiary is the Kids Café program which provides meals and snacks to low-income children through a variety of local community locations where children congregate during the after-school hours, e.g., Boys and Girls Clubs, churches or public schools. In addition to providing meals to kids, Kids Café program also offers a safe place for a child to get involved in educational, recreational, and social activities. All Kids Café programs also offer nutrition education throughout the school year.

Background

Poverty is the leading cause of hunger in America. It is estimated that more than 50 million people, including 16.2 million children, live under the poverty line and are at risk of hunger.[2] Food insecurities exist in every county in America, and most of the struggling Americans are hard-working adults, children and seniors, who simply cannot make ends meet. The major factor in food insecurities is unemployment, and with the recent economic crisis the unemployment rate has reached a staggering number. In 2010, 17.2 million households, 14.5 percent of households were food insecure, the highest number ever recorded in the United States.[3]

According to Unites States Department of Agriculture, 20 percent of children in United States are hungry.[4] The lack of nutritious food can be harmful to a child’s mental and physical development. Good nutrition, especially during the first three years of a child’s life, is crucial in establishing a foundation for a healthy life. Hunger in childhood has been linked to increased hospitalization, developmental problems, headaches, inability to concentrate and poor academic performance. A hungry child will not perform well in school, and is less likely to graduate from high school and go on to college, which could have a negative impact on their economic future. As a result, a child is much less likely to grow up and be able to earn enough to feed his own family.

In the past three years, Texas has seen a growing problem in food insecurities. An average of 18.8% of Texas households lacked enough of food to meet their needs.This is the second highest percentage of any state, with only Mississippi being worse at 19.4%. A county-by-county analysis shows that Dallas County has about 450,000 people who have irregular access to food, while Collin County has about 100,000 and Denton County about 90,000. A study by Feeding America showed that one in four Texas children face food insecurities, placing Texas at number eleven in percentage of food-insecure children in United States.

Feeding America is the largest national non-profit organization in hunger-relief charity. Their mission is to serve America’s hungry through a nationwide network of food banks, food organizations, and to educate general public about hunger in America. The organization supports more than 200 local food banks, and more than 90,000 food programs, by providing nutritious and fresh foods for struggling families across America. Two of their most successful children’s programs are Back Pack Program and Kids Café. These two programs focus on providing free meals and snacks to low-income children through a variety of community locations and food banks. There are about 1,500 Kids Café sites such as schools and after-school organizations that serve more than 122,000 children each year.[5] On a local level, with support from food manufacturers, distributor and growers, North Texas Food Bank provides more than 36 million pounds of nutritious food to 13 counties yearly. They rely on their Food Assistance Partners, a network of more than 340 local food pantries, after-school programs, senior mealprograms, shelters, and other facilities, to deliver and provide food to local communities in North Texas. North Texas Food Bank works closely with Member Agencies to provide food for hungry children and their families through Children’s programs such as Back Pack program and Kids Café.

The national average with regard to the cost oftextbooks and supplies is about eleven hundred dollars per year. Due to inflation, college textbook’s costs have nearly tripled between 1986 and 2004, rising on an average of 6% a year.[6] The high cost of new books comes from publishers that are trying to recoup losses due to the expanding trade in used books. However, no struggling college student wants to pay hundreds of dollars in textbooks that they may use only once. There are several cost-saving alternatives that students consider when buying textbooks. One option may be using school library resources, borrowing books and materials, as needed. Most colleges and local bookstores have programs in place where students can buy their books used, and then sell the used books back to the bookstore. The problem with this program is that bookstores only pay students a small fraction of the returned books purchased value, typically less than 10 %. Another popular program used by many local bookstores and colleges is renting program. This program allows students to rent textbooks for a whole semester, for half the price of the original cost. Although renting textbooks is an increasingly popular option, many students use internet resources such as Amazion.com and CraigsList.com, to acquire needed textbooks and to sell their old books. Another option, one that this proposal sees the greatest value in, is aonline textbook bartering program; where students buy and sell used textbooks yielding higher economies of scale for both the student buyer and seller.

By promoting meaningful student involvement, schools can make a significant impact on their local communities. Meaningful student involvement not only brings personal satisfaction and fulfillment, but also helps those who are in need. This proposal focuses on student involvement in North Texas area, specifically University of Texas at Dallas (UTD). There are 18,864 students enrolled currently at UTD that could make a difference in a child’s life. By using the Textbook Deals for Kid’s Mealsprogram, students are automatically supporting the Kid’s Café program. And with dozens of major universities, within the local Dallas area, this program can be implemented across area universities and provide even greater support for the thousands of kids in need.

Purpose

In the battle to make sure that the children of the United States are fed, our goal is to partner up with Feeding America to help expand the Kids Café program We are predicting to help the program feed 50,000 new children each year, especially as long as the current economic situation exists. The ultimate goal is to eliminate childhood hunger with programs like this. Kids Café is currently a program that runs with the school year and is available in different community sites, typically in any site that offersafter-school care. This program offers free meals and snacks to low-income children. It also provides nutrition education so children can make betterfood choicesas they mature.[7]

As university students,we know the importance of an education. However, most of us did not realize the importance of community involvement and the big part it plays at this university. It is such an important part that there is actually an Office of Student Volunteerism. The Office of Student Volunteerism was established in 1999. They sponsor annual events like ‘Alternative Spring Break’ where students volunteer to complete community projects during Spring Break. Since attending college is not cheap, especially with the rise in tuition and textbooks, we have created the TextbookDealsforKidsMeals.com website. This website provides University of Texas at Dallas students the ability to sell and/or buy textbooks between students. Transactions processed on this website include a small but affordable fee that will be donated to the Kid’s Café.

On average, studentsspend$ 200 on textbooks a semester[8]. Traditionally,students sell textbooks back to the bookstore and receive a fraction of what they original paid, typically less than 10%. With TextbookDealsforKidsMeals.comstudents can place their used textbooks online and barter with other students for a fair selling price, typically 50% of the originally price paid.

To raise awareness, we will be launching an advertising campaign in several different stages. Stage one is a poster, banner, and flyer program that starts the week before final exams. Stage two, which starts the week before the start of a new semester, includes additional media advertisement as well as giving away free pens and pencils. During stage three, which begins the first week of the semester, a table will be set up in the Student Union Center, where flyers, pens, and pencilswill be given away along with live demonstrationsof the website.

The choice to use a website requires a relative small investmentbut delivers quick but longer term returns. The team has talked about the different programs to give money to Feeding America for the Kids Café but we felt this approach was the best way to donate to the Kid’s Café charity. We talked about doing bake sales, races, parades, carnivals, and even discussed staging an overnight event. However, since we are all university students and work full-time jobs, launching a website gave us the greatest amount of flexibility with least amount of effort. Most of the work can be done in our free time, with minimal outside the support and with the added support of Dean Foods’ management the time we need along with available resources would be made available after hours, if needed. Once the website is up and running,we believe the monthly system maintenance would require a minimal amount of effort as well.

Issue(s)

We have identified several issues that need to be addressed including: time and resources, advertising & awareness campaign, on-going program support, and building for the future. Although we feltconfident that this approach would require the least amount of timeand resources compared to other campaigns we could have selected, the upfront effortstill cannot be overlooked. Time and resources to design, code, and launchthe website will take careful planning and will require a focused effort. An advertising and awareness campaign will also take careful planning and some initial funding in order to achieve the maximum impact. We will need funding toprintadvertising material including, fliers, posters, and banners. Additional funding will be needed for stage two advertising needs, which also include trinket items like pens and pencils. Stage three expenses will be repeated every semester driving even more advertising and printing costs. Proceeds from winning this competition would provide a good portion of what we need to support this activity. For the on-going program support,we will need to provide monthly system maintenance, troubleshooting and occasionally software updates. Technical support can be provided by the students up to a certain point but we may need to introduce an outsourced technical support partner further down the road. As far as building for the future, this should be done in phases. As we reach certain student participation levels, for example50 percent student participation, using the TextbookDealsforKidsMeals.com website, we can then propose the expansion and use of the website for students at other universities, e.g., Collin County Community College. This might require some additional negotiations with Collin County Community College but that kind of expansion possibility would definitely require more resources and funding. Then again, it also means more donation and community benefit which is exactly the Win / Win we are looking to achieve.

Proposal

Our objective at TextbooksDealsforKidsMeal.com is to assist needy kids with essential necessities such as food and education. To achieve, we need to generate consistent flow of cash for these objectives. We are proposing that in order to raise the required cash flow, a website that helps college and university students find textbooks at fair prices is an excellent way to achieve this goal. We ask students to pay a small transaction fee to receive a considerable saving and recoup value, on buying and selling textbook, respectively. The cash flow generated will be directed towards our Kid’s Café charity.

This model provides solution for two different issues at the same time. It will bring two different communities together to help each other. Students who buy textbooks will spend less on textbooks, Students who sell will get a better return from the textbook they sell while the transaction fee paid between buyer and seller will generate a cash flow for the Kid’s Café charity.

Plan of Action

TextbookDealsforKidsMeals.com is an online textbook store (See Figure 1). The function of the web site is to facilitate buying and sellingof textbooks between students. Students with a textbook to sell would register and enter thetextbooks they wish to sell. Students that need to acquire textbooks would lookup textbooks that match their need and once found they would use the sellers contact information to arrange the purchase.

Usually bookstores buyback the used textbooks at a fraction of the cost, typically less than 10%. Bookstores then markup the used textbooks they sell at rates500 to 800 percent above the cost that they initial bought the textbook back for. Students that are interested to receive a higher return then the bookstore pays can use the website to find a potential buyer and offer their books at a reasonable price. At the same time, students that need the same textbook can search and find the textbook they need on the website and instead ofpayingthe marked up bookstore price, students would typically pay around 50 percent of the new book price. This would result in considerable savings for the buyer and higher returns for the seller.

Offering this website eliminates the middleman, the bookstore. In addition, we are creating a richer environmentforthe textbook buyer and seller to enjoy a hassle-free and more economically viable solution then traditional bookstore model (see, Figure 1). For providing these services will require each party to pay a 5% transaction fee, based on the value of textbook(s) bought or sold. This revenue would be directed toward Kids Café charity.