Local 12: UC students create nonprofit to feed families
Effort buoys local restaurants, families hit hard by pandemic's economic impact
The efforts of two University of Cincinnati students and a recent UC grad to help needy families while helping local businesses impacted by the coronavirus pandemic have not gone unnoticed.
Local 12's Alexa Helwig reported on the UC trio's nonprofit in "UC students create Locally Fed to feed families, support small businesses during pandemic for the station's ongoing series, "Childhood Poverty: Cincinnati's Crisis."
Founded by UC students Madi Rinaldi, Emily Buck and recent UC grad Madalyn Norman, Locally Fed purchases meals at full price and partners with other local organizations to get them to needy families. The trio delivered 90 meals Tuesday, Aug. 11, and has delivered more than 800 meals since the nonprofit was founded in April.
"In a time of uncertainty for families and businesses, their formula [for] helping both has been a win-win," Helwig reported.
Rinaldi, a rising senior studying economics and marketing at the Carl H. Lindner College of Business, and Norman, who recently earned her bachelor's degree in journalism, were both Women in Sales students, taught by Professor-Educator Jane Sojka, undergraduate program director of marketing & professional selling at Lindner.
"The fact that these women started a nonprofit while still in school makes this accomplishment all the more impressive," Sojka said. "These women leaders spent their summer 'vacation' organizing and coordinating volunteers to feed the hungry in Cincinnati. They saw a need, and instead of talking about, they took action and did something to make things better for people needing food. They are our future women leaders and I am so proud of them."
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