Grains for Good: Choosing Between Two Business Models

Elizabeth A. McCrea; Gladys Torres-Baumgarten

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GRAINS FOR GOOD: Choosing Between Two Business Models

Elizabeth A. McCrea

Seton Hall University, USA

Gladys Torres-Baumgarten

Ramapo College of New Jersey, USA

Volume 14: 2017 pp. 331-344: ABSTRACT

The Community FoodBank of NJ (CFBNJ) was a $100 million charitable organization that distributed over 44 million pounds of food each year through its partner organizations like food pantries, soup kitchens and the like. Its mission was to "fight hunger and poverty in New Jersey [USA] by assisting those in need and seeking long term solutions." In a time of governmental cutbacks and shrinking private donations, the nonprofit sought new sources of revenue. One idea was to leverage perishable bakery donations and an in-house commercial kitchen, by creating and marketing an up-scale bagel crisp. After product development and market testing, the resulting business plan won a "Break the Gala Addiction" cash prize from the Prudential Foundation to further the social entrepreneurship effort. Now the organization needs to decide if it should use its scarce resources to scale the business internally—to maximize job creation, leverage existing facilities and capture all the revenue, or outsource production and distribution for a percentage of sales so that it can focus on other efforts more tightly aligned to its mission. Students are encouraged to use ethical frameworks to think through the nonprofit's dilemma.