The present paper describes a university-industry collaboration that started as a pilot experience at the Complutense and Pontificia Comillas (ICADE) universities in Madrid during the academic year 2003/4 and continued as a larger communication project for Madrid Food Bank during years 2004/5, 2005/6, 2006/7 and 2007/8, with new plans for next term 2008/9. During the first year, advanced level communication students at both Faculties showed a mayor interest in gaining work experience designing a real communication campaign and carrying it out, instead of the common practice of agency-client simulations and fictitious plans. At that time, Madrid Food Bank was making a large supermarket food collection in order to obtain supplies and fight waste of alimentary products, activity that had caught the attention of the two coordinating university lecturers and their students. NGO communication plans being part of the study plans of both universities, it seemed more gratifying to find a non lucrative partner for the collaboration. The initiative of expanding the food collection to universities and making it a real working experience for the students got an enthusiastic response from the Madrid Food Bank, integrated in the European Federation of Food Banks, that works against hunger and food waste in Europe and distributes nearly 300.000 tons of products to more than 4 million persons in 17 countries.

During Christmas season 2003 and 2004, students under supervision of their tutors designed an advertising and public relations campaign giving support to the university food collections. Due to the positive results of the first year’s work, during the second year, the campaign was expanded from faculty level to the entire universities. After the first campaigns, the faculties and Madrid Food Bank decided to continue the collaboration, this time building media relations and creating communication materials for the organization. In 2005, the collaborating parties started a communication department, entirely formed by students and responsible for the advertising and public relations plans of Madrid Food Bank’s 10th Anniversary. The celebration, including corporate identity and promotional materials design and reception at the Royal Palace worked out well and thus, a more permanent collaboration at yearly basis was established between Madrid Food Bank and the faculties. In 2006 and 2007, an extensive food collection and communication campaign took place at a dozen of Madrid universities and at forty schools, financed by ABC newspaper. The campaign was directed by Pilar Saura with the assistance of Liisa Hänninen, reaching more than 400 students and 25 lecturers as volunteers and carried out at nearly all the faculties of communication in Madrid. The campaign included a large number of information and promotional materials, third party agreements and finished with a conference resuming the results of more than 9 months of intensive work, both in terms of food collection and sensitization of publics.

During academic year 2007/8, ICADE students made their yearly food collection campaign and counselled the UCM students forming the communication team at the Madrid Food Bank. The above described communication management experience meets with the requirements of the Bologna Declaration and pretends to implement a more flexible and integrated study system, that enables the students to gain work experience in a real work environment.