Volunteering is undergoing its greatest spike in six years, up 1.6 million new Americans over last year, according to the Corporation for National & Community Service’s report released today, June 15.

The annual Volunteering in America report found that more than 63.4 million Americans volunteered for more than 8.1 billion hours of volunteer service, saving the United States an estimated $169 billion.

The report comes at a fitting time for Campus Kitchens, as this past year, The Campus Kitchen Projects volunteer force grew more than ever with the addition of six new kitchens at the start of the Spring 2010 semester. The report assessed Americans aged 16 and older.

Some other notable findings in the Volunteering in America Report:

• Minneapolis-St. Paul, where the Campus Kitchen at Augsburg College is located, ranked number one among large cities in rate of citizens volunteering.
• Women again volunteered at a higher rate than men.
• Working mothers have the highest volunteer rate among women.
• Factors that lower volunteer rates: multi-unit housing, poverty rates, longer commuting times.

And for those looking to volunteer beyond the Campus Kitchen, or looking for a Campus Kitchen in the area, don’t forget the Corporation launched a web site, Serve.gov, last summer, linking volunteers to opportunities in their zip codes.

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The Campus Kitchen at Augsburg College hosts its own farmers market in the summer from the yield it produces in its community garden, plus two or three vegetable growers, part of the prominent Hmong community  in the Twin Cities area, where Augsburg is located. Augsburg is also a CSA drop off site.

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In 2009, 3.16 million college students performed more than 300 million hours of service.

From those numbers, six colleges and universities have been named as Presidential Awardees in the 2009 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, the highest federal recognition a college or university can receive for commitment to volunteering, service-learning, and civic engagement.

One Campus Kitchen site, Lee University in Cleveland, TN, was named among the six Presidential Awardees. Lee students completed more than 60,000 hours of volunteer service last year in projects aimed at poverty relief, food collection and distribution, and helping students with autism and other developmental disabilities. More than 80 percent of Lee’s students are involved in volunteering and service-learning.

“CKP is a huge support of our [Lee University's] benevolence arm. Thanks for all your work toward establishing CKLee,” said William B. Lamb, Director of Field Experiences for the Leonard Center at Lee University.

Two additional Honor Roll lists included colleges and universities that also house or are developing a Campus Kitchen as part of their community service portfolio.

The Honor Roll with Distinction includes:
Augsburg College
Saint Louis University
Union College
College of William and Mary
University of Wisconsin Eau Claire
Tulane University*
College of the Holy Cross*
Elon University*

The Honor Roll includes:
University of Florida
University of Massachusetts Boston
Washington University in St. Louis
East Carolina University
Wake Forest University
University of Vermont
University of Virginia
Gonzaga University
Marquette University
University of Detroit Mercy*

*Universities that are currently working with CKP to develop Campus Kitchens.

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This will be an exciting time for many Campus Kitchens who already have or are starting campus/community gardens. Come Spring, the Campus Kitchen at Wake Forest University will be using their MLK Day grant money to start up three community gardens in their area. Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA have received a donated greenhouse and students will begin tilling the garden in Spring.

Several other Campus Kitchens including Washington and Lee, Augsburg, Gettysburg, and Vermont will continue established community gardens – and could offer a few pointers for Campus Kitchens interested in starting one too.

We challenge you green thumbs out there to try to make your garden (and kitchen) more sustainable by composting your kitchen scraps and using that golden mixture to make your garden grow! Not only will this help to reduce the volume of trash produced in your kitchen, but it will also save you the cost of buying fertilizer while adding much-needed nutrients to the soil on your campus.

Check out this great website for specific details on how to get a compost pile started.

And, a word from the EPA (This link provides info on composting programs in your area and laws surrounding composting in your city.)

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The Campus Kitchens Project came to my campus during my first year of college.  I knew very little about the program, but it sounded interesting – so I got involved.

I found myself in the middle of a fledgling organization, learning all about organizational development, promoting a new program, fostering connections between community organizations, and utilizing the skills of community members and students.
While working with CKP, I also served in different capacities and on different shifts.  During those shifts, I heard the stories of our community.  I heard from children of different cultures who had dreams, hopes and excitement about the future.   I heard from homeless and precariously housed individuals. And I learned about the many injustices and sufferings they boldly face each day.
During my time with Campus Kitchens, I became friends with many of the fellow shift leaders.  I learned about how to more effectively lead groups and make people feel involved in a process.  We engaged in educational activities, leading “Hunger 101” where we simulated the processes/experiences of those experiencing hunger and navigating the social service system. I became more informed about the systems around me and the hardships experienced by those trying to navigate such realities.

Simply, these are a few of the many life-altering experiences I had during college with the Campus Kitchens Project. I can’t think of one particular moment, but the Campus Kitchen’s emphasis on eating with people instead of simply serving them helped me to consider how I could do likewise in my own efforts.  I also learned a great deal about the importance of including a variety of talents within a group.

After college I worked as a Volunteer Coordinator for an organization that provides services with the Latino Community of the Twin Cities.  I utilized many of the relationship building, organizing and planning skills I obtained in my time with the Campus Kitchens Project.  Currently, I am a seminary student preparing to be a pastor.

I am so grateful for the opportunities I had to learn about leadership, empowering others, the importance of community and the value of “seeing” and working to “hear” all those who reside in our neighborhoods- students, immigrants, the homeless, the wealthy, the elderly, children … everyone.

Interested in finding out more about receiving $5000 for a Sodexo scholarship, and $5000 for your own Campus Kitchen? Read more here.

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 The conference got underway Friday morning and, might I say, was a huge success. The whole weekend was catered by the amazing Fresh Start catering program through DC Central Kitchen. At the conference, students got to hear from many guest speakers and gained valuble tips and insights from them, as well as from fellow attendees. Topics at the conference included: fundraising, local food, nutrition, grant writing, community relationships, social media, leadership, and nonprofit professionalism. The conference came to a close on Saturday evening at a delicious local restaurant, Busboys and Poets. DCCK/CKP founder, Robert Egger, gave the closing speech and left the students and staff with a renewed sense of purpose.

The CKP staff would like to thank everyone who attended the conference as well as our awesome speakers and the generous donors and sponsors who made it all possible! Another successful conference as we enter into ‘Our New Millennium’…

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Specifically, Christine was talking containers: a switch from styrofoam clamshells to paper bags, but how now to single serve dishes, like salads? And she wondered about deliveries: how could we do a bike delivery shift?

Across the country, at the Campus Kitchen at Augsburg College, coordinator Brian Noy answered. Although he couldn’t solve the great container debate, he did have an answer: bike trailers! He even included a link to the very best hitch for delivering meals on bike wheels. 

This email exchange reached even farther west, to Emily Paulson at the Campus Kitchen at Gonzaga University. She had an answer: Tupperware! At CKGU, they’re trying out reusables for individual deliveries, and working out the kinks.

Reducing waste! Exchange of ideas! Mutual aid!  I like how we do things here at CKP.  

(P.S. A somewhat similar debate is floating around DC. Since 50% of the pollution in tributaries of the Anacostia River is plastic bags, a bill currently before City Council would charge a fee for plastic bags, but some worry about undue burden of a fee on low-income people and social service agencies that use plastic bags.)

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Even for those of us who care about the environment, composting may seem like a big step: it smells, it produces weird sludge, it takes time and muscles to stir. Hopefully this next post, part of our our series on efforts Campus Kitchens are making to be more sustainable, will make it all seem a bit more do-able.

1. There are universities all over the United States and Canada that are starting their own composting programs; some, like Augsburg College, Washington and Lee University, and the University of Vermont, also have Campus Kitchens.  Lafayette College even made it part of a interdisciplinary program that engaged multiple departments, plus interns and volunteers.

2. Whether or not your college or university has a campus-wide program, Campus Kitchens can compost! Creative students at McGill University in Toronto developed their own volunteer program called Gorilla Composting, where they collect and redistribute waste from Dining Services. AT CKWLU, they do the composting themselves, then give their finished compost to the campus program that will find it a home in the ground. If you can, like CKWLU, make finished compost, you can donate it to a community garden or perhaps your local farmer’s markets collect compost?

3. For indoor composting, Vermiculture, or composting with worms, is always an option. Jenny Sproul, coordinator at CKWLU, said they investigated the option, but they didn’t have a suitable location. If you’re feeling ambitious, you can even make your own vermicomposter.

4. Cooperative extension programs can help get you started or give you advice about your composting program. Check out the composting resources provided by the extension at Cornell University and check out this link to find one near you.

5. On Kangaroo Island in South Australia there’s a bird called the brush turkey that builds her own compost piles to keep her nest warm. According to the Weird and Unusual Composting section on Cornell’s extension site:

The heat produced by the microbial decay maintains the eggs at about 33C (92 degrees F), 15 degrees C warmer than the ambient air temperature. Initially the adult birds tend the composting nest, occasionally mixing and either adding or removing vegetation as needed to regulate the temperature, which they sense through their bills. After this initial adjustment, the nests require little attention, and larger ones can stay warm for several weeks without tending.

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Brian wasn’t the only one: the president of Augsburg College also looked at the space and saw possibility, so two summers ago, a community garden took shape: 40 individual plots tended by students, faculty, staff and members of the community. They envisioned it as “a place where neighbors and the campus community could work together,” said Brian. (That’s not the only president interested in community gardens: Obama is  starting a vegetable garden on the White House lawn.)

More recently, coordination of the garden has come under the umbrella of CKAC.  In fact, although the ground is still frozen, they just started accepting applications for plots this week. For Brian, this is both exciting and intimidating: although he’s been working on youth gardening and with food service for years, this will be the first time he’s tried to grow his own food.

A young gardener and his radish at CKAC's community garden

That’s in addition to coordinating the project, where his biggest challenge will be “instill a sense of ownership in the community of gardeners,” he said. It’s important that the gardeners not only produce food, but make the space look presentable.

Yet the rewards will hopefully be plentiful. He describes the full garbage bags of broccoli greens and kale they collected toward the end of the season last year, which they sauteed with some bacon to make “really good greens.”

More than just good food, the community garden,  like The Campus Kitchens Project, is about “connecting communities through food and using food as a tool for social justice,” said Brian. And although he said it can sometimes be a challenge to succinctly describe, he sees the relationship between the local food movement and The Campus Kitchens Project as “a pretty natural fit.” From the farmers who produce to the people in neighborhoods who primarily have access to highly processed food, “there are people struggling on both ends.”

The role of CKAC, as Brian sees it, is “providing avenues for people to engage in food.” They’re doing it not just through their community garden, but also through becoming a drop off point for local CSAs. Of the 25 shares that get dropped off every week, they’re usually able to get 3-5 donated or at reduced cost. Brian sees the CSA project as not only a way to support farmers, but also to help tell their story.

Like many universities across the country, Augsburg College is also working on starting a farmer’s market, which would be tied to CKP: an opportunity for those farmers to tell their own stories to the folks who will eat what they’ve grown.

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