1) Brief description of the project

For our project, we chose to undertake a virtual food drive for the Greater Chicago Food Depository. The Greater Chicago Food Depository is a non-profit food bank serving Cook County and the City of Chicago. Moreover, food donations can be made and volunteers help to store and send out donated items. We chose to volunteer here because everyone in our group is passionate about helping end hunger, a major issue in today’s world, especially in our cities. Hunger impacts several Chicagoans, particularly in low-income areas of the city. This fundraiser had both virtual and in-person options for donation. Donations could be made online through a fundraising link directly from the organization. The in-person event was scheduled for 9 AM on March 12, 2026 at the food bank location. 

2) Brief description of the charity

The Greater Chicago Food Depository is a nonprofit organization founded in 1979 with a mission to end hunger by providing food to people in need. One in five households in the Chicago area experiences food insecurity, and the organization believes that food is a basic human right and that hunger is a solvable problem. The food depository works with a network of more than 800 local partner organizations to distribute food throughout the community. During the 2025 fiscal year, the organization provided 96 million meals to individuals and families across Chicago and surrounding areas.

3) Factual analysis of success Matrix

	Goal Achieved	Desired Goal
Amount Raised in Donation	$225	$800
Meal Distributed	675 Meals	2400 Meals
Donation Average Amount	$37.80	$10

 

4) Lessons learned about Managing Projects

We gained an enormous amount of knowledge regarding teamwork while working on this event. Having everyone on the same page and working together to achieve the same objective is crucial. This involves conducting frequent check-ins to make sure that everyone is in the same frame of mind and to discuss any concerns that may arise. Having an effective project manager is also crucial because this work is not simple, especially with a larger team. One of the finest strategies to remain on top of things is to stay organized and ahead of schedule. Reaching out to individuals and/or organizations to request information or permits was one of the difficulties we encountered. It’s crucial to keep in mind that external organizations have their own timetables, therefore it’s critical to identify a point of contact as soon as feasible. It is also important to find a final event date as soon as possible, since volunteering spots can become limited over a month in advance.

5) Project Advice

In order to avoid doing everything online, we would advise future groups to operate as a team and, if at all possible, create a team with comparable schedules so that in-person meetings are feasible and having in-person donation drives at the university will also help you achieve your team’s desired goal. For a project like this, having face-to-face meetings would have kept our group closer together and coordinated. To avoid catching someone off surprise, it is also essential to assign duties early on rather than at the last minute, also dividing the task among the team members would make every team-member’s work easy in the project.