By Jordan Chan ‘27
Although HUCBE is a professional consulting organization providing real-world clients with valuable research and recommendations, our members also participate in community initiatives beyond our casework. One of our fundamental goals is to create a meaningful impact by giving back to the community — through initiatives such as Boston Public School scholarships, our Ventures competition, sustainability grants, pro-bono work, and a series of volunteering events in the Greater Boston area.
Volunteerism can boost productivity and member engagement within organizations, and CBE is no exception. CBE members get to know each other not just as colleagues, but also as friends by contributing to community service projects together. Furthermore, volunteering with people with a variety of experiences and opinions helps our members produce work that keeps the full range and diversity of people it may impact close to mind. This broad perspective is beneficial when we work with larger clients whose high-level operations may have consequences for individuals in ways that may not seem as salient in, for example, a statement of work. In this way, volunteering in our community is about more than just the organizations we benefit — it is about incorporating a deeper purpose into all of the work we do.
Here’s a recap of a few of the exciting volunteering events CBE members participated in during the Spring 2024 semester!
Harvard University Dining Services Heat-N-Eats Program
Seven CBE members did not have to travel far to make a difference this semester, going to Harvard’s very own Annenberg dining hall to package meals for food-insecure individuals in the surrounding Cambridge area through the Heat-N-Eats Program. These microwaveable meals — containing a balanced mix of proteins, rice or grains, and vegetables that did not get consumed during meal service — are donated to local residential hotels and shelters that lack the capacity to prepare healthy food for residents on site. The program rescues food that would have otherwise gone to waste, meaning it has environmental benefits as well as humanitarian ones.
Director of Sourcing Audrey Zhang ‘26, who participated in Heat-N-Eats with CBE this semester, mentioned how she would often see leftover food at the end of meal service and wonder where it all went. “I didn’t think they would just throw it all away,” she explained, “but being able to see behind the scenes…and help out with packaging made me really see how [the Harvard University Dining Services] is doing something tangible.” It also “opened [her] eyes to just how much food is left over.” Audrey recalled that she and her team of volunteers formed an assembly line, scooping items like leftover grains into bags and meal boxes, then packaging them with saran wrap. She is grateful that CBE community initiatives help her get off campus and engage with the community, expressing that community is “a very important value that we want to make sure all of our members, including future members, take to heart.”
Friday Night Supper Program
CBE members helped provide nutritious three-course meals to individuals in need in the Greater Boston area through the Friday Night Supper Program (FNSP). According to the FNSP website, they are “one of the longest running supper programs in Boston” and have served dinner to people experiencing homelessness or poverty every Friday evening since 1984. Speaking to why her experiences at FNSP were particularly meaningful, Analyst Jeeya Patel ‘27 emphasized how “being able to work in a soup kitchen has a very direct impact on people who are homeless or who just maybe can’t afford a meal that day.” She “learned a lot…and met a lot of different people” during the several hours that she spent in Arlington Street Church washing and drying dishes, assisting with wrap-up, and maintaining the cleanliness of the kitchen and eating areas. Other volunteers helped serve the food and check in on people coming in for a meal.
Jeeya also underscored the importance of community service events in CBE. “People looking at a CBE…will see that we work with multi-billion dollar clients,” she explained. “It’s really good to bring everyone…back to the real world.” Reflecting shared sentiments across the CBE community, she also stressed the importance of humility: “No one gets into Harvard just by their own merits. I think it takes a village to raise someone; it’s really important to give back to the community in whatever way you can.”
Harvard Habitat for Humanity
For the next featured volunteering event, Managing Director Joey Liu ‘26 and her fellow members put on their hard hats and tool belts. After a shuttle ride and safety brief from their supervisors with Harvard's chapter of Habitat for Humanity, they stepped onto an active construction site to combat housing insecurity by building a brand-new multi-family house, complete with individual kitchens, bedrooms, and bathrooms. This all-day event kept everyone busy; some members helped install the house’s insulation, while others assisted with cutting and nailing down planks of wood. Building safe and affordable homes like this one is how Habitat for Humanity, a global nonprofit organization, fulfills their vision of “a world where everyone has a decent place to live.”
Reflecting on her experiences, Joey appreciated how hands-on this community service event was. She and other CBE members directly contributed to a project that would give other kids “the opportunity to be protected, have a better childhood, and [gain] the ability to…make a better life for themselves.” As Harvard students, “we are always exposed to the [homeless] community,” Joey mentioned. Housing insecurity “is something I always wished I could help out with.” She added that, after participating, she gained a newfound respect for the work that employees of Habitat for Humanity and similar organizations commit to in the long term.
From the moment Joey joined CBE, she has been particularly proud of the organization’s continued commitment to volunteerism. She admitted that being a student at Harvard can be stressful and hectic, so she is grateful that, through CBE, she and other members can take a step back, reconnect with their fundamental values, and use “resources and human capital to really try and make a difference in the community — in whatever way, shape, or form that we can.”
CBE is committed to further bolstering community initiatives to maximize our positive impact on those around us as we move into another semester of hard work. If you would like to read more about what CBE is doing to give back, check out our giving report at hucbe.org/impact or by navigating to the Impact page of our website.