How business students learn to make ethical decisions by studying a soup kitchen in one of America’s toughest neighborhoods

For the past decade I have volunteered at St. Francis Inn, a soup kitchen in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia.

Kensington, for those not from Philly, has long had a reputation for potent but affordable street drugs. Interstate 95 and the Market-Frankford elevated commuter train line provide easy access to the neighborhood for buyers and sellers, and abandoned buildings offer havens for drug use and other illicit activity.

St. Francis Inn Ministries, which was founded by two Franciscan friars in 1979, serves sit-down breakfast and dinner for thousands of people each year, many of whom suffer from poverty, homelessness and substance use disorder. It also runs Marie’s Closet, a charity that provides free used clothing and housewares.

These ministries are operated by a core team of nine full-time members, hundreds of volunteers from local high schools and colleges, and an ad hoc team of folks from many walks of life.

In the years I’ve been volunteering at St. Francis, significant changes have occurred in Kensington, including gentrification, soaring housing prices and increased police activity. Such changes can make it harder for people who suffer from poverty and homelessness to remain in the neighborhood.

Around 2018, the number of guests visiting St. Francis Inn was already dwindling noticeably. I heard volunteers speculate on whether St. Francis Inn should relocate further north in Philadelphia where there are more people in need. Others wondered whether St. Francis Inn should create a mobile unit that traveled to people in need wherever they may be.

As I listened, I realized that this was a business decision. As a professor of management at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, I decided to present this decision to the students in my Management Honors Capstone Seminar. In January 2026 I published a business case study titled “Dealing with Change in Kensington, Philadelphia: The Case of Saint Francis Inn.”

An interesting business case

The capstone seminar I teach is the second of two strategic management courses that honors business students take in their senior year. Using the Harvard case study method, students identify the critical issues embedded in a variety of cases and find the information needed to evaluate those issues using seminal theories in strategic management.

Students then propose a solution – a hypothesis they believe best addresses the situation. They test whether that solution works by building a plan of action – called a “proof” – that provides logic and evidence that their solution would work.

Part of what I believe makes this case study interesting is that it involves some of the most vulnerable people in Philadelphia. I felt it was important to give students the opportunity to consider important issues of social justice when applying their business decision-making skills.

Morally sound recommendations

Among other material, the course covers two different perspectives that students can use to make informed decisions and propose solutions for St. Francis Inn.

The first is the resource-based view. Using this framework, students identify the unique resources and capabilities that a firm – in this case, St. Francis Inn – has built over the years. Then they determine how to use those resources and capabilities best to carry out the firm’s mission.

St. Francis Inn’s mission is to live among and serve the poor, following the example of St. Francis of Assisi. The organization has built decades-long relationships with food companies – which share leftover meat, vegetables and other products with the inn – as well as with members of the community in Kensington. In addition, they have developed a network of hundreds of well-trained and motivated volunteer workers throughout Philadelphia and, indeed, the entire country.

The second framework that students are expected to use is “formal moral theory,” which provides a set of different theories for determining moral rules. It enables us to make ethical decisions that are structured, rational and logical.

For example, using “utilitarianism,” students quantify all of the costs and benefits of a decision and choose the option that provides the largest net benefit – or utility – to society. “Rights theory” requires students to make decisions that respect the intrinsic dignity of all persons. Students can use these theories to make morally sound recommendations on how St. Francis Inn can best serve the stakeholders in its community.

Perhaps the most obvious people affected by St. Francis Inn are the people living in the neighborhood who struggle with homelessness and substance use disorder and receive food and other assistance there. Other groups of concern include longtime neighbors who have homes nearby but still live in poverty, new residents moving into the neighborhood, local property developers who generally want to see fewer homeless people in the neighborhood, and city officials who are responsible for various government functions. These include police and emergency medical services, city council members and social services organizations.

Students must answer a two-dimensional question: Given what St. Francis Inn does best, how can it best address the needs of its most important stakeholders?

Since they are business majors, many quickly gravitate to logical business decisions that St. Francis Inn can make, such as continuing its operation where it is, relocating, or creating a mobile service. Without fail, there are students each semester who argue that regardless of what’s “best” for St. Francis Inn, the interests of the various people of concern in the neighborhood must be respected. To be honest, I enjoy watching them grapple with this problem with sincerity and care.

Here, students must balance an organization’s core competencies with the moral impact of its decisions, while prioritizing the rights and needs of diverse, nontraditional groups who have a stake in this decision. That’s a valuable skill for any future – or, for that matter, current – business executive.

This article originally appeared on The Conversation. You can read it here.