With summer’s alluring sunshine, work motivation often slumps. Not so for the Campus Kitchen at Northwestern University. This summer, a team of dedicated volunteers will produce an extra 5,000 meals a month through Sodexo’s Feeding Our Future to help replace the meals usually served in schools.

Beginning in June, a group of interns and core volunteers will meet daily (save Saturday) to produce a total 22,000 meals by the summer’s end. Each day, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. people man the kitchen, putting together sandwiches, fruit, and sides with whole grain to serve to 13 partner agencies.

Volunteers work tirelessly at the Campus Kitchen in an effort to keep serving lunch over the summer and fill the void left for children on free or reduced school lunches. They serve these meals in addition to regular meals at their partner agencies.  Organizations like The Salvation Army and Stand Up for Kids, which conducts street outreach with summer meals, benefit from the summer meal surge.

The Campus Kitchens at University of Massachusetts Boston and Augsburg College will also whip up summer feeding programs this summer. In Boston, the Campus Kitchen will serve 2400 meals to Project ALERTA and Camp Shriver, two summer camps held on campus. As part of its Summer Food Service Program, the Campus Kitchen at Augsburg College will serve eight community partners lunch, and in some cases an additional breakfast or snack.

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John Kapetan, pictured far-left, shares a Campus Kitchen meal with his neighbors

Three miles outside of Chicago, Wilmette, Illinois is the picture of affluence. Median household income sits somewhere north of $120,000. But as longtime resident of the Chicago-area, John Kapetan, knows first-hand, the need for well-balanced meals in his community still exists.

“There are a lot of immigrants and seniors in my building,” said Kapetan.

Kapetan inhabits one of the only subsidized apartment building in Wilmette, which he waited six years to get into. A former Northwestern University computer specialist who lives with multiple sclerosis — a debilitating autoimmune disease — Kapetan now receives a meal from the Campus Kitchen at Northwestern University every week through his building, Shore Line Place. He also recognizes the need for balanced meals to meet the needs of overlooked populations in his community.

“I was too much of a liability to myself and others,” said Kapetan of why he left his job repairing computers at Northwestern. “When it [multiple sclerosis] first came on, during meetings with managers I’d practically be falling asleep. My balance was bad.”

Kapetan took that as his cue to leave his profession, go on disability, and move back in with his Mother while waiting to get into Shore Line Place. He refocused his career toward something less taxing and went back to school to receive a Master’s Degree in counseling. While the licensing exam is in a few months, he said he may never be able to work full-time again. The meals provided to all those who opt in at his apartment building give Kapetan piece of mind where work cannot.

Finish Reading the Story at www.campuskitchens.org

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Wondering what’s stuffed inside Turkeypalooza? Gobble this down.

• The Campus Kitchen at Washington and Lee caught this child’s reaction to a delicious turkey dinner on video.
• At the Campus Kitchen at University of Florida has been canned- and they’re pretty happy about it.
• The coordinator at University of Massachusetts Boston gives us a 360 degree tour of her office full of donations after one day of Turkeypalooza Day 1.
• At St. Louis University, volunteers brined their turkeys (which looks like this) for the second year in a row!
• In its first year holding Turkeypalooza, the Campus Kitchen at University of Virginia fed 200 with this awesome poster and help from the community.
• The Daily Northwestern covered the Campus Kitchen at Northwestern University’s massive Turkeypalooza effort.
• The local TV News showed up to the Campus Kitchen at Wake Forest University’s Turkeypalooza cooking event.
• Read more about all the Thanksgiving feeding efforts on our #Turkeypalooza twitter feed. Also check our CK Local Events Calendar for information on a Turkeypalooza near you.

Stay-tuned as more Campus Kitchens carve into distinctive Turkey Day events.

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Sometimes graphics speak louder than words.

Ever looked around your adopted community and wondered how much families spend on dining out vs. grocery shopping? Campus Kitchens look at factors like these weekly as they decide who to serve, what’s on the menu, and how to infuse a meal drop off with nutrition.

Recently, Flowingdata.com, a web site that translates social questions into easy to digest answers, released a statistical visualization poster titled “What America spends on Food and Drink.” The graphic breaks down spending for large cities for dining out (restaurants and carryout) and groceries, while making the text bubbles larger or smaller based on population size.

The numbers give Campus Kitchens some healthy insight into how their communities are eating, whether they enjoy their food in raw or prepared form, and where some of the greatest fresh food access issues are.

While numbers indicate Austin as spending the most per year on food, Atlanta spends the highest percentage while dining out, and Detroit – in connection with recent economic hardships – is spending the least.

The University of Detroit Mercy also happens to be a possible site for a Campus Kitchen opening, which would help alleviate some of that need. Other Campus Kitchen cities profiled by this graphic include (in declining order from how much they spend): Washington, D.C., Boston, New Orleans (future site), St. Louis, New York, Chicago, and Baltimore.

Based on recent U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics (April 2010), however, this graphic presents another concerning issue for hunger relief advocates like Campus Kitchens. The April assessment shows that for a 12-month period, food for an average family of four on a thrifty spending plan could cost upwards of 7,000 dollars. The graphic shows only about half of the major cities actually spend this amount, and many, like New York, Chicago, Baltimore, and Detroit, fall below that mark. Is this a good indicator of how much hunger relief is needed in each of these cities? Is there a way to level things out?

Just some food for thought.

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Or so writes Jeff Yaeger of the Daily Green and author of the recent blog post: “50 healthy foods for under $1 a pound.”  Somehow, Yaeger provides answers – 50 of them – to the questions Campus Kitchen shift leaders ask themselves every day as they consider cheap, nutritional supplements to meals.

Below are  some of Yaeger’s more pertinent suggestions, with additional ideas for how best to use these raw ingredients in Campus Kitchen meals.

For under $1 a pound (on sale), supplement meals with:

• Apples (buy in bulk) – process and use this canning article to store applesauce.
• Bananas – Think Elvis, and use these in peanut butter and banana sandwiches as a meal addition or kids snack for  added protein and potassium.
• Carrots – buy whole and use this video to cut down into carrot sticks for nutrition programming.
• Chickpeas/Garbanzo beans – make your own hummus to serve with those fresh carrot sticks.
• Cornmeal/polenta – an interesting starch to whip up and make fluffy with added milk. Here’s an easy polenta recipe you can use with donated cans of tomato sauce.
• Eggs – if you’re like Jenny Sproul at CKWL, who recently received a donation of 400 pounds of eggs from Walmart, you won’t need to buy them.  But if you do, they make a great egg salad sandwich or ingredient for a quiche.
• Lentils – A great way to add protein to a large, congregate style meal – in soups, salads, or sandwich spreads.
• Oatmeal – a longtime staple of Campus Kitchens, students have thrown the old-fashioned oats in anything from fruit cobbler to an ice cream sundae bar, like the one CKNU helped serve during a recent slow cooker program.
• Pork – use inexpensive cuts, like pork shoulder, to cook up curries and soups, or simply slip them into a slow cooker.
• Squash – try baking acorn squash with a little brown sugar
• Watermelon – a great way to provide a little built-in hydration to community partners during hot summers.
• Yams/sweet potatoes – a dignified “super food”, this is a delicious and versatile starch to add to any type of meal, year-round.

Hungry yet? Get cookin’!

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That’s what happened during the three-part slow cooker series and partnership of the Campus Kitchen at Northwestern University and Nurture , a local nutrition education organization.

We’ll share stories soon in our next web news feature at campuskitchens.org. Until then, here are some pictures to warm up your stomachs for the main course.

Even the little ones learned to stir

Students worked teaching children basic nutrition lessons

Children mixed art with food

The Group - Nurture, NU Students, and families

The surplus of Campus Kitchen volunteers helped children get more out of the day

A student instructs the class

* Photos courtesy of Nurture

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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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I visited one of my former homes last week: the Campus Kitchen at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. In addition to a great trip to The Spice House, I also had the privilege of meeting John F. at the Monday night cooking shift.

John isn’t just any volunteer: last fall he saw the article about CKNU in the Chicago Tribune and, having been unemployed since May, he inquired about volunteering. He’s been a steady presence at both the Monday and Wednesday night cooking shifts since the start of the year, and he’s so well-versed in kitchen operations that shift leaders look to him to guide new volunteers through the kitchen.

As for me, I was impressed with John’s generous spirit and upbeat attitude… and I marveled at the “small world” factor we find at CKP-turns out, John is high school friends with the father of one of the Campus Kitchen at Marquette‘s founding volunteers. Who knew?!

It was a conversation with another dear friend of mine that got me thinking about the other side of the coin here: yes, the Campus Kitchen has gained an incredible, dedicated volunteer and increased its web of community support.

But what about John? It’s clear that he’s fed by his work with the Campus Kitchen, and I don’t mean to diminish the value of that. However, because of his age and the economic downturn, the reality is that he may never work in his chosen profession again.

That’s what I was thinking when I came across this article from Philanthropy News Digest. There’s no arguing that young people are starting their working lives with more debt, and that’s a daunting challenge.

Through my work at CKP, I’ve encountered plenty of students and graduates who are having difficulty finding work-it’s frustrating and disappointing to see the great leaders from our network face these obstacles. But how do you compare the struggles of a young person who (most likely) has the time to ride out the recession, to those of someone nearing retirement age?

Is it even possible to quantify who’s being hit hardest?

Maybe it is, but I’m not sure it’s worthwhile. I think such comparisons only create more boundaries at a time when we need to develop an attitude, and a lifestyle, that we’re all in this together.

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Plans for Global Youth Service Day 2009 are in full swing:

You are a single mother with 3 children, a 3 year-old, 9 year-old and 13 year-old. Your gross annual pay at your minimum wage job is $10,700. You use public transportation. Your 3 year-old is in child care, some of which is subsidized, and your other children go to public school. You live in a small 2 bedroom apartment.

You have to budget for rent, electricity, cable, clothing, cell phone bill, school supplies, food, entertainment, and miscellaneous expenses.

What do you do?

Then your 13 year old daughter breaks her arm and needs medical attention. What now?

On Global Youth Service Day 2009, high school students will be discussing these questions and more at CKNU’s First Annual High School Leadership Conference. Joanna Racho, CKNU coordinator, hopes that through considering these questions, students will broaden their understanding of what poverty is and who is affected by it.

“I think it’s important for students to understand that hunger and living in poverty isn’t something that just happens far away in the city or in 3rd world countries. They should know that it occurs to some of their classmates in school or some of their neighbors in their own community,” said Joanna.

Six to eight local high schools will have the opportunity to send five of their students, who will be selected through an application process. Not only does Joanna plan to have them think and talk, but she’ll also guide them toward ways they can take action.

Specifically, she’s looking to recruit members for the Summer High School Leadership Team, which helps run CKNU’s Feeding our Futures program. When school is not in session, students enrolled in the National School Lunch Program are left without that source of food. CKNU’s program ensures that they have nutritious meals–they distributed nearly 20,000 last summer.

High school volunteers play an essential part in running CKNU’s summer operations, and Joanna is excited about the role they can play in stopping hunger.

“High school students have great resources at their disposal and can mobilize much more quickly than previous generations, so they are able to come together and make a greater impact to improve the lives of those living in poverty and need some assistance,” she said.

Combining knowledge and service, reflection and action is essential if GYSD is to become not just a day of service, but an event that inspires a new way of thinking and new modes of action.

Said Joanna: “I’m hoping that the students will understand that food insecurity and poverty occurs close to home and that they have the power to do something about it. I want them to know that not everyone is as fortunate as they are growing up in the suburbs of Chicago. There are many people – families, children, and seniors that struggle everyday to make ends meet.”

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Then she related a story from a recent visit to GCFD. As she was leaving with a “ginormous order” of canned goods, bread, and more, “a woman from another agency, who was clearly on her way out, helped me push the cart to the car and helped me load everything. I of course thanked her and she said, “Oh, you’re welcome honey. Every time I come here I’m helping people out. Just the thing to do around here.”

GCFD love doesn’t sound so weird to me.

CKNU is part of the network of 600 nonprofits that benefit from GCFD’s assistance. According to their website, last year, the Food Depository distributed more than 46 million pounds of nonperishable food and fresh produce, dairy products and meat, the equivalent of more than 95,000 meals every day.

The GCFD also has a Chicago Community Kitchens Program, much like the one at DC Central Kitchen, CKP’s parent organization. (Speaking of the Culinary Job Training program at DCCK, they just launched their very own blog, which we’re plugging because it makes for some inspirational reading.)

But like much about CKP it’s not about the numbers or the programs or even the food, it’s about the people.

Joanna says: “They are extremely helpful and seem to enjoy what they are doing. Seriously, I mean everyone is having a great day there. Every time I call, the agency representatives are happy to take our food orders, they’re cheerful and if you have questions about the food, like is it frozen or what the expiration date – they’ll actually go look for it to find out for you. The people there remember who you are – it’s like Cheers.”

A place where everyone knows your name? And they’re always glad you came?

If that’s not worthy of this blog, I don’t know what is.

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