On Nov. 28th, Giving Tuesday at Michigan State Becomes #GiveGreenDay
By Christopher Sell, Director of Alumni & Entrepreneur Engagement, MSU Innovation Center
It only makes sense that student entrepreneurs interested in food and agriculture would thrive at Michigan State University.
As a Land Grant Institution with agricultural roots, it’s in our institution’s very DNA — MSU has been graduating food entrepreneurs since 1855. Recently, however, student momentum around food-based startups has increased in delightful ways.
In addition to the MSU Student Organic Farm, students from all corners of the University — including those studying in the Residential Initiative on the Study of the Environment (RISE) program — are utilizing a student commercial kitchen incubator, assisting students who wish to scale up their food-based startups. In this kitchen, students create and process value-added agricultural products like honey, jam, lip balm, and tea.
The University’s first perpetually-run student startup, Land Grant Goods, has also utilized the student commercial kitchen to scale their business and launch their products, which can be found online and in several local storefronts. With so much activity at the kitchen, space and supplies are becoming an issue. The chest freezer is broken, storage capacity is non-existent — supplies and equipment are badly needed.
Which is why MSU Entrepreneurship and Innovation is spotlighting the MSU Student Commercial Kitchen Incubator for the University’s #GiveGreenDay campaign, set to kick off on Tuesday, November 28th (aka “Giving Tuesday”).
On November 28th, this campaign celebrates an incredible year for entrepreneurship at Michigan State University, with nearly 500 students in the Entrepreneurship Minor (officially launched in 2016) and exponential growth and participation in entrepreneurship-related student organizations. More than 200 students have joined the MSU Hatch, our student startup incubator, and we’ve seen more faculty startups this year than ever before.
Our hard work, dedication, and investment are paying off.
From social media posts to MSU community engagement, our team will be helping to raise $4,000 for the MSU Student Commercial Kitchen, which needs equipment upgrades critical to student entrepreneurs ready to launch their first food startup, scale-up, or help an existing startup create and perfect its products.
We’re asking Spartan alumni, entrepreneurs, and friends of MSU to consider donating to the campaign. If you are social media savvy, we encourage you to share, like, retweet, and amplify the campaign. You will find the campaign at: https://go.msu.edu/C8z.
Together, we can take this opportunity to show our students how giving is part of building stronger communities. Moreover, we can hit our goal . . . and show everyone just how #SpartansWill.
