Lauren Kita, a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, is finding a way to help her hometown community, while incorporating her industrial engineering coursework. Kita, an industrial engineering and Spanish major, is a native of Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin. Having worked at the local Piggly Wiggly in neighboring Sister Bay, Wisconsin since the age of 14, she was quick to offer help with creating a shopping service to assist the community during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The project came about when the Sister Bay fire chief reached out to the store manager to start a program through the grocery store to deliver groceries to the residents in the assisted living community,” said Kita.
Kita was working at the store during UW-Platteville’s extended spring break, so she was able to help develop the program. She made generic shopping lists – organized by aisle – which allow people to peruse the list in the same order they typically would the store. They circle items they need and can write notes with specific instructions. Kita then coordinates a group of volunteers who do the shopping.
“I planned the program for assisted living residents all in two days and then spent two days executing it,” said Kita. “After that, I said, ‘we’ve got this, let’s take it to the whole community.’”
The service quickly caught on, and Kita said they are now receiving between 30 to 40 orders a day. To help everything run smoothly while managing the growing number of orders and coordinating volunteers, Kita said she has been able to draw on skills she learned in her industrial engineering coursework at UW-Platteville.
“Industrial engineering is all about efficiency, so I’ve tried to plan it to be as efficient and effective as possible,” said Kita. “I’ve been using a lot of the skills I’ve learned in management, resource allocation and processes.”
Kita said helping others through this process has helped her during this time as well. As a tour guide on campus, a mentor in the Women in EMS Mentor Center, and a recently-inducted member to the Alpha Pi Mu industrial engineering honor society, Kita is used to staying busy and having a lot of social interaction.
“I love talking to people all the time, so working in the service industry and helping with this has been good for me,” said Kita. “If I couldn’t be social right now, it would be tough, and I’m enjoying getting to know new people.”