College of Business Administration

GROUP MEMBERS:

Sandra Ochoa
Tara Franzi
Akin Moss
Lauren Gonsalves

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

When we were assigned this project, talk of a war with Iraq was starting, and we felt that we wanted to do something that would benefit those families who have family members risking their lives for our country. As American Citizens, we are guaranteed the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and we felt that our duty was to help those who are preserving those rights. While looking for a way to help, we came across the Navy Marine Corps Relief Society. The NMCRS is a private non-profit charitable organization, whose vision is to “…ensure that all available resources are used to assist personnel of the Naval Services- active, retired, and their eligible family members-to achieve financial self-sufficiency and find solutions to emergency needs.” Their “Guiding Principles”, which described their commitment to satisfaction and how they value their clients, staff, and volunteerism, caught our attention, as did the services they offer.

They offer a service called “Food Lockers” which help feed clients when providing financial assistance is not appropriate. These “lockers” are stocked with a limited amount of essential items, which are packed to provide nutritionally balanced meals for families who have run out of money within a few days of payday. We felt that this was an area where we could provide assistance, so our plan was to find Grocery stores who were willing to donate a certain amount of items, and hopefully form a bond between them and the NMCRS for future donations.

At this point we faced resistance when the grocery stores we contacted were unwilling to help. We also found out that this plan would not work due to the fact that the NMCRS is not able to solicit funds or partner with any private or public company to solicit funds or donations. They are strictly able to accept voluntary and spontaneous contributions. This turn of events led us to our new plan. We decided to ask local grocery stores for permission to stand out in front of their stores and solicit food donations, which would then be taken to the NMCRS.

We contacted the director of the NMCRS, Mike Hire, and discovered that they have a specific list of items that they use to put together their “Food Lockers”. He emailed us the list, and we put together a flier we would pass out to grocery store customers, asking them to add one or more of the items to their grocery lists, and then donate them to us on their way out of the store. In addition, we put together a proposal letter, describing the purpose and plan of our project, which would be given to the Managers of each store in order to get permission to do this. Unfortunately, we were unable to get permission from more than 6 stores, all telling us that they cannot allow us to ask their customers to purchase anything.

In the end, we decided to put together donation boxes, and set one in each of our places of work. Because we had faced so many roadblocks when we attempted to gather actual food donations, we decided to turn to financial donations, which would be put together and donated to the NMCRS. After a few weeks, we had gathered almost $150 dollars in donations, which were put together and taken to Mike Hire at the NMCRS office at Camp Pendleton. When we met with Mike, and presented him with the check, he told us that the money we donated would go to one of many other services they provide military families, ranging from helping with funeral expenses to medical bills, and household expenses.

Though we did face many challenges, we know that what we did was socially and ethically important because we were able to help others in need. Our project was consistent with the Social Contract Theory, which consists of rules, which govern how people are to treat one another, and we felt that it was our moral duty to help those in need. Our actions also follow Kant’s principle of the Categorical Imperative because we feel that charitable work is something that everybody should participate in if they have the ability to, especially because we as a society have the moral authority to help those less fortunate then us. In addition, our project was consistent with the Ethic of Care and Justice because the families that we are helping are sacrificing a family member for the greater good of the American People, the least we could do is care for these families and forfeit a little of ourselves in order to compensate them for their sacrifice.

Our project ultimately was a success, though we did face many obstacles. We did not gather as many donations as we would have liked, but be were able to reach a small number of people in our community who were able and willing to give a little up in order to help provide assistance to those in need and this in itself was a success.

COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS

COSTS:

Total hours spent: (spent on project by all members) <200>
Total Lost Hourly Working Premium: ($11.56 x 200) $2,312.00
Total Lost Hourly Student Premium: ($0.43* x 200) $86.00
XL Bag of Asst Candy: $8.46

Total Costs: $2,406.46

*Hourly student working premium was computed dividing the avg. annual student's tuition, equaling $3,750.00 by total hours in a year, totaling 8,736.

BENEFITS:

Money collected via fundraiser: $150.00
Internal reflection and growth**($4,000.00x4): $16,000.00
Once in a lifetime opportunity: Priceless

Total Benefits (Min. Estimated Value): $16,150.00

**Internal reflection and growth is based on the annual tuition paid to acquire an education (external growth and learning). There has been a minimal addition to this calculation in that we feel internal learning is more valuable than external.