While Martin Luther King, Jr Day is often thought of as a day off from work or school, many have taken to donating their extra time to service projects. The MLK Day of Service is a part of President Obama’s call for a national focus on service. United We Serve promotes working to better our communities. It was with this spirit that high school competitors took to the kitchen.

Just a few of the entries

Service doesn’t have to feel like a chore, and Friday’s chili cook-off is a perfect example of making volunteerism fun. Chef Spike Mendelsohn, one of the judges of the cook-off, told the high school students, “It’s something really special that you guys are doing right now. It may seem sometimes that it’s time consuming and it’s very hard, but the time you put in now, you’re only really going to get rewarded as your life goes on”.

The five teams came from as far away as New England. St. Andrew’s Episcopal High School, Gonzaga College High School, and Hospitality High School all represented the DC area, while Atlantic City High School traveled from New Jersey and Archbishop Williams High School flew in from Boston. Each team was required to make both a chili and a dessert. After 2 hours of preparing and cooking, both were presented to a panel of judges, including: Mendelsohn; Marriott, Inc. CEO Arne Sorenson; DC Central Kitchen Founder and President Robert Egger; and DC Central Kitchen CEO Mike Curtin.

The judges discuss the winners

The meals were judged based on presentation, taste, creativity, and skill. The award for best chili was awarded to St. Andrew’s for their chicken ‘Montana Snow Chili,’ while Atlantic City won the best dessert category with their sopapillas with orange caramel and coriander cream. The best overall meal was created by Archbishop Williams High School, whose chuck wagon chili and ‘Grandma’s Cornbread Cake’ paired perfectly together. For pictures of the different dishes, check out our slideshow.

The Campus Kitchens Project works with 31 schools across the country to use resources readily available in their communities, such as kitchen facilities or extra food supplies, to create meals for feed those in need. For more information, please follow the Campus Kitchens Project on Twitter, Facebook, or visit the website.

Preparing dessert

Share on Facebook

Over two months later, through calculated community organizing bolstered by The Campus Kitchens Project’s MLK Day grant, the Campus Kitchen continues to help its community pick up broken pieces.

The team helps connect potential donors and volunteers to opportunities to rebuild families and lives in Bradley County through the Community Action Network (CAN). CAN offers a place for local agencies to connect and collaborate to better serve and strengthen the community.

When the tornadoes hit, the CAN site turned into more than a place for local agencies; its volunteer board became and continues to serve as the information clearinghouse for how individuals and groups can lend a helping hand.

One recent tweet on the CAN site reads: “Gas cards are still needed! Sports drinks for work crews would be great as well! Let us know if you can #CLEhelp!” Volunteer opportunities are broken into team and individuals, with sign up forms right on the site.

The MLK Day of Service 2011 grant, administered by The Campus Kitchens Project through the Corporation for National and Community Service went toward individual service projects led by CAN members like the Boys & Girls Club and Habitat for Humanity.

The organized service projects helped CAN band together when Bradley County needed it most. Visit the CAN Facebook page or site to learn more about how to get involved, or start a Community Action Network of your own.

Share on Facebook

The Campus Kitchen at Gettysburg College always strives to provide healthy meals to its partners, but this time they took health one step further. Actually, they took it thousands of steps.

Thanks to grant money for Martin Luther King semester of service programming, the Campus Kitchen hosted The 10,000 Step Challenge in partnership with The Circles Initiative, a community partner that the Campus Kitchen serves weekly dinners to.

The challenge: increase your average number of steps per day by 500, which equals about one quarter mile. The slow increase in steps, which could increase walking by an average of 2 miles a day, is meant to show that making small, realistic changes over time can produce long-term results.

The Circles Initiative armed group leaders and allies with pedometers and a log for exercise notes. Walkers set off strolling, meeting weekly to discuss challenges and results. During those meeting times, Campus Kitchen volunteers served healthy meals. Another community partner, Gettysburg Hospital, also sent a Diabetes Educator to provide the nutrition component to the program.

When all 35 walkers finally stopped their pedometers in mid-May, everyone successfully increased their steps per day. The winner increased her steps by 2.25 miles a day.

More than number of steps, the Campus Kitchen program changed the behavior of participants. Some reported they found themselves walking around their houses more at night or on their treadmills at work and called the program addicting – in a good way.

Share on Facebook

Josh Bousel/Flickr

The Campus Kitchen at Lee University – and now an entire Community Action Network in Bradley County – are launching a hunger force today in Cleveland to ignite dozens of organizations in the area, granting seed money and promoting days of service in an effort to curb both poverty and hunger.

Cleveland City Mayor Tom Rowland and Bradley County Mayor Gary Davis will join forces to tent social services in the area for the benefit of low-income populations. The network will connect 40-60 social service agencies in a database, allowing individuals and organizations central access to help those in need.

Room set up for the Coalition Action Network Launch

The launch will gather nearly 200 people from social service agencies, Lee University, and the local government. D.C. Central Kitchen and The Campus Kitchens Project founder Robert Egger will also be in attendance.

Even before the launch, Egger found inspiration from the students at Lee University working with the Campus Kitchen and the on-campus food bank there. Students recovered 800 pounds of food to supply the food bank in one day. Egger speaks on what he’s found about on-campus hunger as students stream by to pick up food. Some of it looks fresher than what is in the supermarket.

Share on Facebook

Our network of sub-grantees has grown over the years to include partners beyond our Campus Kitchens with organizations such as HandsOn and United Way.

View a larger map of MLK Day 2009-2011 here.

In 2011, The Campus Kitchens Project sponsored the largest network of volunteers yet (we’ve hit 2000 and we are still counting) through 20 organizations who completed a wide range of service projects. From making dog bones to painting and mulching, communities went to work to celebrate the day, and still had time to pose for a few pictures.

In 2010, we also collected some of our favorite shots from the day of service in the slide show below.

Also in 2010, We visited DC Central Kitchen to find out what volunteers feel a day of service on MLK Day means.

Share on Facebook

The Lexington, Va. campus celebrated the MLK Day of Service by sharing service opportunities with students and opening up the Campus Kitchen to members of The Campus Kitchens Project national staff. As a new member of the Campus Kitchens team this was my first experience in a Campus Kitchen. I was quite impressed by the leadership of the students and their understanding of service through CKWL as an influential part of their education.

CKWL gave us a tour of their kitchen and garden and allowed us to join them on a delivery shift. Their garden, almost a third of an acre, lay almost bare from the winter weather, but remnants from last years harvest show promise for the warmer months.

We went next to meet the chickens, that through a partnership with a local restaurant, help the garden thrive. There are not enough eggs for the CKWL to source for their meals, but that is not a problem since Walmart donates dozens of cartons of eggs to be sorted daily that have cracked or damaged eggs. The kitchen then brings these newly sorted eggs to the local food pantry and uses some in the kitchen.

Although student volunteers don’t get a chance to crack their own eggs, they do make basil chicken and salsa using frozen tomatoes and basil they processed over the summer.

Later, we tagged along on a delivery shift and saw some of the partnerships that CKWL has created. The food pantry receives donations from food the Campus Kitchen provides and in return recommends individuals to receive meals. We made delivery to a man staying at a hotel with support from the food pantry.

To cap off Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s day of service, the Campus Kitchen held an open house to raise awareness about the service opportunities available to students on and off campus. Organizations including the Campus Kitchen at Washington and Lee, Habitat for Humanity and Project Horizon congregated allowing interested students to find out more about these service opportunities. 

MLK has inspired many to live a life of service and by dedicating MLK Day to a day of service we can honor his legacy. CKWL’s event raised awareness about the opportunities offered throughout the year.

What have you done to raise awareness about volunteer opportunities on campus? In what other ways have you worked with partner organizations?

Share on Facebook

This Martin Luther King Jr. Day, The Campus Kitchens Project promoted the spirit of service through the power of film.

As an official partner of MLK Day Community Cinema screenings, CKP hosted a documentary and discussion at parent organization DC Central Kitchen.

Volunteers from Jack and Jill, a group dedicated to creating engaged citizens in their youth, and Kaiser Permanente, arrived at the kitchen in the morning to slice tomatoes, grate carrots, drain spaghetti, and construct sandwiches for delivery of 5000 meals that day.

As their service came to a close, volunteers filled the lunchroom to view the film: Garbage Dreams, which follows youth that work in trash (with a particular knack for recycling) on the outskirts of Cairo. The underlying theme of eliminating waste connected the film back to their day of service.

Director/Founder of Stone Soup Films, Liz Norton, was the featured speaker at the event, talking about the importance of documentary in provoking change and highlighting the successes of community action. Stone Soup Films is a non-profit production company that provides free funding for promotional films to worthy Washington, D.C. organizations.

Share on Facebook

D.C. Central Kitchen Chefs guide students for MLK Day

Earlier today, as 20 grantees of The Campus Kitchens Project kicked off Martin Luther King, Jr. Day service projects thanks to a grant from The Corporation for National and Community Service, one grantee local to Washington, D.C. delivered hot meals to the community as a result of service completed on Dr. King’s actual birthday, January 15.

St. Andrews Episcopal High School in Potomac, Md., harnessed the volunteer power of 25 students – 8th through 12th grades – in a friendly cooking competition that engaged all generations in service to honor Dr. King.

Before the competition began, teams baked cookies to include with a meal delivery to their partner site, Bethesda Cares. Bethesda Cares is a community response organization that addresses the problems of the homeless.

Chefs who regularly man the Bethesda Marriott kitchen and two chefs on the D.C. Central Kitchen team – Jamillah Linkins and Troy Washington – paired up with teams of students from each grade for the cookoff. Students furiously chopped and stirred pots of homemade chili.

When the chili simmered long enough, the student cooks proudly served their results to a panel of judges, including founder of D.C. Central Kitchen and The Campus Kitchens Project Robert Egger.

Speakers for the event stressed the importance of student leaders who serve. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Everyone can be great, because everyone can serve.” View more pictures from the event below.

Share on Facebook

Washington, D.C.

Programs are tailored to best serve their communities, however three examples demonstrate the guiding belief driven by Dr. King’s teaching to give back and build strong communities.

• Tennessee: Spearheaded by the city and county mayors and involving local leaders, the Campus Kitchen at Lee University will convene a series of working forums that address area poverty issues supporting a collaboration among existing care agencies.  In the coming months, student volunteers, community leaders and care agencies will host four area outreach events to raise awareness of available assistance and provide meals for residents in need. Each event will serve as a launching pad for future service to community residents in Cleveland and Bradley County.

• Alabama: Students at Auburn University will host a Dr. King edition of “Are You Smarter than a 5^th Grader?” pitting local children against adults with questions that focus on Dr. King and civil rights moments.  The event will include a food fair teaching participants about nutrition and better ways to recycle unused food. Auburn will be launching a Campus Kitchen this spring and will offer students and community members ongoing service opportunities.

• Texas: The Campus Kitchens Project at Baylor University will prepare and serve 1,300 bagged lunches for participants at gardening sites across the city.  In addition to dedicating a Baylor community garden, more than 800 volunteers will create “garden art” sculptures in 15 school gardens using recycled goods.  Gardens present an opportunity to relieve and end local hunger through local, community produce.

For more information on MLK Day of Service and events near you, visit www.campuskitchens.org.

Share on Facebook

These projects stretch from Alabama to New Jersey, out to Utah and Washington. Each organization will produce its own distinctive service opportunities, but all have found creative ways to leave a lasting mark on their respective communities.

In Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., Inland Empire United Way will engage up to 250 volunteers in a day of service as part of The Campus Kitchens Project’s grantees. Take a look at the innovative way they broke up their day of service to spread the effort across communities.

• Volunteers will paint a mural depicting local leaders from the community of Redlands, culminating in a community walk leading to a “Lincon Memorial” replica where a local leader will read MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

• Pomona  Weed and Seed will engage community volunteers to paint, plant and do a community cleanup. They will also host a community meet and greet for local residents

• A group of volunteers will lead seniors in games and social activities and food at EngAge, a local organization.

• Volunteers will pack food and supplies for needy children at Feed the Children.

• Inland Empire United Way will launch the semester of service (many projects will be carrying out service activities throughout the semester) with Music Changing Lives in Redlands. Volunteers there will help complete a mural of the history of Redlands.

Located in or around Rancho Cucamonga? You can still sign up to volunteer here.

What do you have planned for MLK Day? Are you planning to spend the day volunteering?

Share on Facebook