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Campus Kitchen travels to D.C. for millionth meal

Oct. 27, 2009

By Jenna Thompson
Reporter

Two members of Campus Kitchen traveled to Washington D.C. the previous week to help serve the one-millionth meal since the national Campus Kitchen Project was founded in 2001. The workers served Lo mein noodles to a Spanish shelter in the city, and returned to Waco with ideas and inspiration for the Baylor chapter.

"The whole weekend was very informative," said Service Learning Liaison Amanda Allen, one of the representatives who traveled to D.C. "It was good to connect with other schools."

Allen and Oklahoma City junior Anna Imose, a Campus Kitchen student coordinator, arrived in D.C. Thursday in time to help serve the celebratory meal. The next day was filled with more than six breakout sessions, both before and after lunch.

"The best part was all the different things that the other schools are doing," Imose said. "A lot of schools are into sustainability (and) reusable containers. Instead of using plastic and Styrofoam (they invest) in lunchboxes."

Session topics included food awareness on campus, leadership training, applying for grants and forming relationships with local restaurants and businesses. The two Baylor representatives are excited to return and implement the new things they have learned.

"I would like to see some sort of job training element in the future," Allen said.

There is a movement toward serving more quality, healthy food as well. Vegetables are more expensive than chips and soda, so there is a natural lack of vegetables in low-income diets. Some schools are working with farmers' markets to implement a program in which they accept food stamps to combat this problem, Imose said.

Allen was particularly impacted by the story of the founding of Campus Kitchen. Robert Egger, a businessman and owner of several hotels and restaurants, attended a church in D.C. that had a soup kitchen and food delivery program. One day he accompanied members of his church on a food delivery.

"He said he noticed a couple of things," Allen said. "He noticed that [volunteers] knew the names of the people, and that it wasn't a stereotypical picture of poverty."

Eggers was struck by the fact a volunteers kept saying "see you tomorrow" to those receiving food, and didn't like idea that this need would continue to exist. Working with the businesses he owned, Eggers founded and served as president of the D.C. Central Kitchen.

"The program came out of a growth of D.C. Central Kitchen, taking the concept of a community kitchen and make sure no resources go to waste," said Ariel Gold, affiliate program manager. "Now we are up at 20 schools."

Sen. Jim McGovern, who deals with hunger policies, was also involved in the conference. He was able to secure government funding for a Campus Kitchen in Massachusetts.

"He encouraged us to invite our congressmen to come and do a pickup or delivery shift with us, even for an hour," Allen said.

The trip served not only as inspiration for the Baylor chapter of Campus Kitchen Project, but as encouragement as well.

"They were able to give us not only empathy, but [advice]," Imose said. "Creating programs is difficult, but definitely possible."

Chapters of Campus Kitchen Project in cities across the nation fixed and served the milestone meal on Thursday. In September alone, 5,519 lbs. of food have been recovered in 20 cities and served to those in need.

In the past few weeks, the chapter of Campus Kitchen at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va. have developed a giving agreement with Walmart that has already resulted in the donation of 3,040 lbs. of grocery products, according to the Campus Kitchen Web site.

Chapters at universities around the nation customize their programs to serve the needs of their local communities. The Baylor chapter serves their meals at Restoration Haven, a community center in Waco.

"Our goal is to help them become a non-profit organization, not just a new student group," Gold said. "We work with new campus kitchen chapters getting started. The local schools are the innovators, but we bring everyone together."

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