Ole Miss Students and Athletics Department Team Up for Oxford Lovepacks

At the University of Mississippi, four students collaborated with Ole Miss Athletics on raising money for Oxford Lovepacks, a local charity that provide supplemental food for needy schoolchildren on weekends and holidays.

From the left: Walker Loflin, Lee Jolly, Lucas Harth, and Justin Payne

The four students are Walker Loflin, Lucas Harth, Justin Payne and Lee Jolly. They are all enrolled as candidates for Masters in Business Administration at the University of Mississippi. For a class project, they created Rebel Lovepacks to collaborate their learned business skills to help raise money for Oxford Lovepacks.

Rebel Lovepacks is an online auction which is found at www.rebellovepacks.com. On this website, Ole Miss fans may bid on Ole Miss athletic experiences and memorabilia up until April 18.

Up for bidding are a basketball signed by Andy Kennedy, a baseball signed by Mike Bianco, a private tour of the indoor football facilities, a private tour of the Pavilion at Ole Miss, an Ole Miss baseball birthday package and a four-ticket package for Ole Miss Baseball’s Diamond Club. Two items have been sold already: a private lunch with Ole Miss Athletics director Ross Bjork and a football signed by Hugh Freeze.

All profits from the auctioning will go to Oxford Lovepacks which will help it continue to fulfill its mission of ensuring no schoolchild goes hungry outside of the schools.

Walker Loflin said, “When this project started we really didn’t know where we wanted to go with it. But as you can see in our description we all have a love for Ole Miss Athletics and really wanted to do something associated with the athletic department. So we designed our business around Ole Miss with themed experiences as well as memorabilia. We were lucky enough to get a meeting with AD Ross Bjork to discuss the possibility of this.”

Lucas Harth explained that during initial planning, they wanted to select an organization based on two values: it must help children and it must support the Oxford community.

Oxford Lovepacks recently packed 175 bags thanks to Ole Miss Big Event on April 2.

“There were several different options; however, after meeting with the Ole Miss Athletic Director Ross Bjork, the choice was clear, Oxford Lovepacks,” Harth said. “Ross believes that Oxford Lovepacks has made a real difference in the Oxford community, and stated that the Ole Miss Athletic Department fully supports them. The values of Oxford Lovepacks, along with the Athletic Department’s passion for this organization, fostered the success of our three-way partnership.”

The four students had an initial goal of raising $1,000 which they surpassed in the first week of the website going live on March 21.

“We were thrilled about that so we upped our goal to $2,000,” Loflin said. “The more money we raise, the more food underprivileged children have to eat when previously they may not have been able to. It’s a shame that in today’s society that there are still children in the United States going hungry. That’s one reason we want this program to be an annual partnership between the Ole Miss MBA Program and the Ole Miss Athletic Department to continue to help those in need.”

Oxford Lovepacks has a new menu to promote healthy eating.

Justin Payne believes that their combined effort will help Oxford Lovepacks long after their project is over.

Payne said, “We were not really told a particular dollar amount challenge for this process. However, you will not find a more competitive group of guys than we are, and we have certainly challenged ourselves to make this venture so successful that the MBA program will continue Rebel Lovepacks next year after we have gone. It is my hope that this will become an annual event which brings students from our program together with the athletic department that we love so much to help continue to grow the capabilities and reach of the Oxford Lovepacks organization.”

To keep up with Rebel Lovepacks, like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter. Visit www.rebellovepacks.com to bid on one-of-a-kind items for the greater good of Oxford community.

Callie Daniels Bryant is the senior managing editor at HottyToddy.com. She can be reached at callie.daniels@hottytoddy.com.

Follow HottyToddy.com on Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat @hottytoddynews. Like its Facebook page: If You Love Oxford and Ole Miss…