Hungry in Dayton

Inside the four walls of a drafty storage room, a team of students stands scattered in pensive thought. One holds a measuring tape extended against the corner of the wall as another looks on,  carrying a brown box loaded with cleaning supplies.

The four of them toss around ideas in a verbal game of ping-pong problem-solving, collectively discussing the current cluttered layout of the room, bouncing ideas off the white walls. These students are not just working to make things less messy and more efficient; they are trying to find solutions that will help local organizations feed the hungry in the Dayton region. 

They are learning and growing while serving their communities through courses taught by engineering management associate professor Sharon Claxton Bommer. 

“Everything we do is about how we can make [nonprofits] more efficient and service the community,” Bommer said. 

Juniors and seniors in Bommer’s Lean Management course spend the semester putting classroom engineering concepts into practice by partnering with local nonprofits. Bommer couples her community connections with years of first-hand industry work experience in process optimization to provide students with learning experiences that are embedded in the fabric of the Dayton community. By following the step-by-step, cyclical model — plan, do, check, act — they learn how to adapt and strive for continuous improvement while building professional skills and uplifting the common good outside the classroom. 

STEP 1: PLAN

How learning about local hunger helps prepare students to be part of the solution

Weeks before the students began brainstorming, they first had to get acquainted with the partners they would be working alongside for the semester as a part of the “plan” stage. Two nonprofits located a few minutes from campus served as the backdrop of a spring semester full of experiential learning. 

The sounds of footsteps echoed as students walked with notebooks in hand in early March, learning about the good that comes out of the buildings they now stood inside.

Both The Foodbank Inc. and Miami Valley Meals reduce food waste and address hunger in the Dayton community.  

The Foodbank Inc. partners with nonprofits across three counties. Just last year, it distributed more than 18 million pounds of food from the Dayton warehouse. Its motto, “everyone deserves a seat at the table,” is reinforced by 42% of its workforce having served time in the justice system. 

One of its nonprofit partners is Miami Valley Meals. Currently, their meal program distributes an average of 4,000 balanced, nutritious meals weekly to 50 partners per month. 

So, where do the student engineers fit in? 

The partnership between the nonprofits and UD began one day when Bommer was speaking with Kellie Schneider, former associate professor of engineering at UD and current chief knowledge officer of The Foodbank Inc. 

“I was saying that I wish I had a real-life problem for my students to work on, because I’m really about that hands-on learning,” Bommer said. “Next thing I know, I have an email to meet with her and the executive team at The Foodbank Inc.” 

Together, they devised a plan for the engineering students to complete real client work following the plan-do-check-act model, which is a core concept in lean management. Four student teams worked with the nonprofits, each addressing a problem  using the concepts they learned in class. 

“To some, when I talk about lean management and thinking, they think manufacturing,” Bommer said. “But these concepts are applicable [to nonprofits].” 

During their first site visit, students got a tour of the nonprofit spaces, learning about their missions, values and, most importantly, the people their programs help. One in six people in Montgomery County experiences food insecurity, a crisis reinforced by the tornadoes that ripped through the region in 2019 and the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I want them to see how they can use their engineering to give back to the community,” Bommer said.  

Next, the groups learned about the problems their teams would be tackling. The Foodbank Inc. teams are asked to streamline partner agency processes, as well as sorting and repacking. The latter refers to the process where volunteers check and categorize food products before weighing and readying pallets of food orders. Additionally, the Miami Valley Meals teams were to focus on maximizing loading dock space and basement storage organization, respectively. 

With the needed information about their partners and the tasks, their projects could begin. 

 step 2: do

How working together challenges students to solve real-world problems 

The groups sat together, drawing out preliminary plans on how they could seize opportunities to make the nonprofit operations faster and more efficient. Seizing the opportunity for improvement is part of the “do” stage in the process model. 

At the next site visit, the groups moved wooden skids around and cleared cluttered spaces before volunteers ran a typical shift with the student changes in place, testing to see if their new plans created any efficiency improvements. 

During this trial-and-error period, their knowledge is tested in real time as they implement concepts in real scenarios. Thankfully, they had an expert in the field to help answer their questions. 

Bommer spent more than 15 years in the automotive manufacturing industry, becoming an expert in lean management during her time at Toyota and General Motors. While in the industry, she helped identify and eliminate waste while streamlining processes in automotive manufacturing. But during her time in the field, she said she felt pulled toward teaching. 

“I always wanted to be an educator,” Bommer said.

“Even when I was in the industry, I tutored mathematics at my church. Once I got my Ph.D., it was a natural career path into teaching engineering.”

She was able to bring her professional experience and knowledge into the classroom, teaching not only the engineering theory but also the application, in a space that elevates her students’ learning with a project that challenges what they know. 

“[This project] gives them the confidence to apply the skills, because they have real-world experience before they go out into the real world,” Bommer said. “I always tell them that this is a safe environment to make mistakes, because I can guide and mentor them.” 

Mistakes do happen, but they’re encouraged in lean thinking. Even if one solution fails — perhaps organizing the deliveries isn’t quicker or packing shifts don’t appear more efficient — it steadily moves the needle toward a better one, keeping the cycle of plan, do, check, act endless.

Students in Bommer’s class are not afraid to ask questions, as they become just as invested in the challenge of their semester project.  

For the sorting and repacking team assigned to The Foodbank Inc., the “do” stage meant finding a solution for the spacing in the warehouse.

“One of the observations that we made was that there was a lot of aisle congestion as volunteers moved full or empty boxes in and out during the re-pack stage,” said Joanna Riss ’25, who worked on the project as a senior mechanical engineering major. 

So to counter, the team designed two new layouts for the warehouse floor, moving tables out of the way to broaden the aisles and allow more room around the food scales and an easier route for restocking. 

Then they assigned up to three volunteers per shift to run the new format, to test the impact that their changes had on the process so that the results of the small-scale study could direct their next steps.

 step 3: check

How identifying classroom concepts at the nonprofit sites strengthens future engineers 

With the plans and first tests completed, students have the opportunity to review the results as part of the “check” stage. 

“Using data we collected from our partners, we saw that the average number of banana boxes per volunteer per shift with the old layout was 14.57,” said Josh Hatcher, a junior studying computer engineering and industrial engineering technology. After their intervention, the new layout allowed them to fill 50% more banana boxes — sturdy enough to be perfect for repacking — full of food rescued from retailers and now ready for redistribution, eventually headed to neighbors hungry in Dayton. 

Similarly, the student team working on maximizing Miami Valley Meals’ loading dock space found that their intervention — organizing and creating a 3D-printed clamp for the previously unused conveyor belt — improved accessibility and cut down the meal-loading time in half, from 40 to 20 minutes. 

Bommer celebrates successes like these in each phase, as her students hit the milestones necessary for both the project and professional development. 

“I want them to come out of this being able to think critically and develop strong problem-solving skills, because that’s what employers are looking for,” Bommer said. 

When the students are on site at The Foodbank Inc. and Miami Valley Meals, Bommer is also present. During the class period, she switches back and forth between locations, checking in with her students and answering any questions that may arise during the visit. 

Preparing students for their careers after graduation is her priority, and what better way to do it than by helping the organizations that put food on people’s tables? 

“I learned to focus on root causes rather than surface-level issues, an approach I’ll carry into any future engineering role,” said senior mechanical engineering major Brandon Cruz.  

Bommer’s attention strengthens her students’ confidence during their visits with their nonprofit partners. 

“Learning these skills through hands-on application immersed us in realistic challenges and provided valuable opportunities to practice and reinforce techniques introduced in class,” Cruz said. 

step 4: act

How experiential learning creates innovative, ethical and compassionate community builders

With their solutions brought to life and tested before their eyes at The Foodbank Inc. and Miami Valley Meals, all that was left for students to do was present their findings to the partners. 

Bommer was specific about including this component of the partnership, explaining that it’s necessary for student progress. 

“I want them to be strong communicators,” she said. 

Not only should engineering students be able to use lean management to solve problems, but they should also be able to discuss their findings with their partners.  

It’s another way Bommer ensures her students are hitting their project milestones and are prepared for the professional field. 

On the last day of the semester, staff from both nonprofits came into the classroom. 

Now the partners had the chance to see the environment where the students learned concepts they implemented during the last 16 weeks. Each team had time to discuss their findings and answer questions about why and how they came to the conclusions they did. 

The “act” stage allows the partners to take what the students have done and apply it broadly to their practices, functioning as a baton-toss of information — one that Bommer’s students experience each semester.  

Drew Novinski, a senior industrial engineering technology major, worked on discrepancies in inventory at The Foodbank Inc. during a previous semester. He shared his success on LinkedIn: “This was an incredible experience to not only use the skills taught in class, but do it in a way that will create good for the entire community of Dayton.” 

Spring 2025 was the third semester  Bommer has educated students through community partnerships, and she loves to see them succeed.  

“One student told me that in her [job] interview, she presented the project they worked on during the semester, and the employer told her that they wanted her to do for them what she did in class,” Bommer said.

Bommer recounted this memory to the partners in the classroom after the last presentation concluded. The students had moved on to their next classes, but Bommer still had more to learn, asking the partners what they thought about the solutions they were given. 

“I love this collaboration,” Schneider said. “It not only offers students a chance to apply their technical skills in service to their community, but it also allows The Foodbank Inc. team to build confidence in their leadership abilities by participating as team members and subject matter experts.”

The partners agreed that this semester’s projects were successful. The solutions they saw on the floor enhanced the possibilities that were presented before them. Their volunteers worked faster in organized spaces, maximizing efficiency and delivering high-quality services to the Dayton community without additional expenses.

Bommer thanked them for their cooperation and the experience they gave to the group of future engineers, promising to stay in touch as a new semester of eager students registered for the experiential learning class would soon follow.

“Not only do they get to train and get hands-on, but they also get to give back to the community,” Bommer said. “And we are a University for the common good — it gives us an opportunity to assist the nonprofits, to take our skills and assist them so they can serve more people.”  

Bommer facilitates the growth of future leaders and innovators while uplifting the community where they live, creating an efficiency cycle of her own — one that constantly reimagines how her students learn and develop at the University of Dayton.   

This is Caterina McNamara’s second year as a graduate assistant at UD Magazine. She is working toward her master’s in public administration. 

Photographs by Sylvia Stahl ’18

A version of this article appears in print in the Autumn 2025 University of Dayton Magazine, Page 40. EXPLORE THE ISSUE — MORE ONLINE