We did a food experiment in the Lab the Saturday before Thanksgiving. We didn’t know for sure how it would turn out but were willing to give it a try. It did not involve any manipulation or experimentation with food ingredients. Nearly every food item involved was and remained in its packaging. The exception was with potatoes. We did open ten-pound bags of potatoes and divide them into two groups of five pounds.

Could 30 High School Students Assemble 80 Food Boxes in Two Hours?

The experiment was to see if 30 high school students participating in the ICC Upward Bound (UB) program could assemble and pack eighty Thanksgiving food boxes in a two-hour period. The UB students were visiting for one of their “Saturday Sessions.” Now that the pandemic is pretty much behind us, the requests for Lab visits from all kinds of school and other groups is exploding. Many groups ask if there is an individual project each of their members can make during their visit. We love to provide a maker experience for our visitors and the nature of the projects are always a function of how many are in the group and how long we have them.

In the case of the November Saturday Session for Upward Bound, there would be 30 or more and we’d only have them for two hours, not really enough time to facilitate individual projects.

Inspired by Large Benevolent Food Packaging Operations

Lab manager Tim Haynes came up with the idea of setting up an assembly line, dividing the UB students into small groups and assembling food boxes for Thanksgiving. Tim has a growing interest in the methods used by large non-profit organizations in assembling food packages for distribution across the United States and around the globe. “We thought it would be a great way to do something on a small scale to benefit the community and give these students a sense of community service,” said Haynes.

We didn’t know for sure how the students would accept a low-tech activity for the day, some familiar with the Lab might be a high-tech digital experience. To our surprise and delight, the students had a blast as we rotated them among the various assembly stations.

The event gave them some first-hand experience creating a consistent product for distribution, something many, many companies must know about. In a short, two-hour period, we experienced production stoppages and line balance challenges.  A quality control station made sure that each completed box contained the proper contents and was packaged in an attractive way. 

Our Program Developer, Laura Schaid developed the list of mostly non-perishable food products so the recipients would have better flexibility in consuming them at a time that works best. “We included staples, like potatoes, canned fruits and vegetables as well as dried beans and rice,” said Schaid.

The packages also included a laser etched, Happy Holidays, insulated coffee cup and box label with the logos of the sponsors, which included ICC, Upward Bound, Fab Lab ICC, Fab Food Lab, and the ICC Foundation. 

Also included was a booklet about the Fab Food Lab program, a summary of the how-to food videos produced by Fab Lab ICC and the recipes that accompany the videos.

Our thanks to Vic Gorman of the First United Methodist Church in Independence who stepped up to pick up and distribute the boxes on the Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

Lessons about Repetitive Work and Customer Fulfillment

The group actually finished the assembly in less than two hours so there was time in the debrief session to talk to them about the nature of repetitive work. (BTW, most do not want to do repetitive work for their career.) We pointed out that this activity was an example of a customer fulfillment process that many, many businesses go through to deliver their products consistently to their customers. I also introduced the students to the idea that they could be the business owners that have to figure out how to consistently deliver a quality product.

About Upward Bound

The Upward Bound Program provides qualified participants with the tools, skills, access to resources, and motivators needed to complete high school and to enter and succeed in college. A six-week summer component is also created and offered to provide students with an actual academic, realistic collegiate, social, intellectual, and cultural experience geared towards preparing students for college life. For more information about Upward Bound at ICC, contact Annika Bratton, Director of Upward Bound, abratton@indycc.edu, 620-332-5452.

The program serves six target schools from area communities in SE Kansas: Independence, Cherryvale, Neodesha, Sedan, and Parsons.

We always say that entrepreneurs have to learn to live with the ambiguity of not knowing how things will turn out. We were reminded of that as we prepared the assembly tables, not knowing exactly how the activity would turn out. It was not even five minutes in that Laura, Tim and I were saying we’d have to do this again.

Tours of Fab Lab ICC are available to groups of any age and any location at no charge. Sometimes, we organize a maker activity for groups. The number of visitors in a group and the amount of time of the visit determines what kind of activity we can make available. There is usually a small charge for maker activities to cover the cost of materials. Use this link to complete our group visit request form and we’ll contact you to make the arrangements: www.fablabicc.org/Request-Group-Visit

Jim Correll can be reached at (620) 252-5349 or by email at jcorrell@indycc.edu. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of Fab Lab ICC or Independence Community College. Archive columns and podcasts at www.fablabicc.org.