In its first semester as an official member of The Campus Kitchens Project, the Campus Kitchen at East Carolina University ended up with much more on its plate than meal and delivery shifts

The Campus Kitchen, which opened in February 2010, ignited innovation in its first semester of service, adding food drive swaps, delivery shift invites, and tutoring with a community partner to the Campus Kitchens Project repertoire.

While the kitchen kicked things off with a campus-wide food drive to supplement the start of meal shifts, the second time around, the leadership team knew they needed to come up with more from the drive to maximize meals.

CKECU partnered with their campus dining services, Aramark, to host the food drive, promoting drop off sites in campus retail food locations. The drive accumulated around 100 pounds of food, ranging from canned veggies, to fruit, cake and brownie mixes.

Many of the single can servings donated couldn’t be used for large, congregate style meals that the kitchen serves, but with some quick thinking Campus Kitchen leaders arranged a swap with their community partner, the Ronald McDonald House of Eastern North Carolina. The Campus Kitchen could then trade in single servings for cans that would help make a complete meal.

CKECU also seamlessly integrated an advisory board into its general operations in the first few months. The advisory board consists of members from each of their partners, food activists, and the service learning center on campus.

To keep the board engaged in continuing issues of the Campus Kitchen as it grows, the leadership team invites  members to come on delivery shifts for community partners. Staff at the Ronald McDonald House gladly took them up on that offer and visited another community partner, The Little Willie Center, earlier this month.

While “Beyond Meals” Initiatives are still on the horizon for this newbie Campus  Kitchen, ideas about nutrition programming are already in the making. Students who go on Delivery Shifts to the Little Willie Center are also jumping in to participate in additional tutoring help with the children there, when there is time.

Word on the street is: they just love it.

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