Intern Spotlight: Mary Kate Kennedy

Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin takes pride in giving students a hands-on experience during their time interning at the food bank. Over Mary Kate Kennedy’s year as a supply chain intern for Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin, she helped receive 700,000 pounds of food on the loading dock and order picked* 150,000 pounds of food to go out to our network food pantries.

“Playing a part in getting out the food that people will be eating and having in their lives was the most rewarding part of the internship,” Mary Kate says.

Since Mary Kate was the first supply chain intern for the Milwaukee campus, she was given the opportunity to decide what the position would look like. In addition to order picking* and working on the dock, Mary Kate researched a new ticketing system to help with ordering problems and went through cycle counts to help prepare for a food safety audit. Mary Kate also received her Forklift Operator Certification during her time at Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin.

Mary Kate highly recommends other students apply to this internship, especially those who are open to challenges and want to see how the supply chain starts.

“One of the first things that was said to me when I started here is that no two days are going to look the same,” she shares. “Don’t cry over spilled milk. There are going to be days where a whole truck is spilled on the dock and you have to just let out the sigh and get right into it.”

Another lesson Mary Kate took away from her experience at Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin was to give help in order to receive help. For example, she was able to help a teammate pick orders*, and they were able to help her in return.

Mary Kate is graduating from Marquette University this month and hopes to find a company as committed to the mission as the employees of Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin in her next career move.

“I would love to still stay in the nonprofit industry,” Mary Kate says. “I really like all the values that come with working in this industry and I really appreciate all the energy and effort that the team put into their first operations intern at Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin.”

Congrats Mary Kate! Thank you for all your hard work getting food out to Wisconsinites in need.

*ORDER PICKING- WHAT’S THAT?

Many food banks operate with a “Push Model” that gives pantries the available food without the opportunity to select the items they want. Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin knows that communities have individual needs. That’s why we operate with a “Choice Model” that allows pantries to select the foods they know their neighbors will enjoy. The operations team picks these orders so they are ready for the network food pantries to distribute.

Interested in interning at Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin? Email info@FeedingAmericaWI.org