Volunteers with the Campus Kitchen at St. Louis University sometimes return with heaps of produce from Trader Joe’s food recovery trips. Recently the team brought back hundreds of bananas.

Many of the bananas turned to mush before students could incorporate them into meals. Then something clicked with Candace Guiffre, a Master’s candidate in nutrition and physical performance and now the Campus Kitchen nutrition educator. She could help the Campus Kitchen combat food waste while incorporating valuable nutrients in the snacks kids eat.

“It was two things really that came together,” said Guiffre. “I was incorporating healthy things into meals for children, but then I was noticing we were throwing a lot of food away.”

Guiffre took a page from Jessica Seinfeld’s Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to get your Kids Eating Good Food cookbook and began incorporating pureed vegetables and fruits into foods the Campus Kitchen team puts together every day. She pureed berries, carrots, avacados and sweet potatoes and started testing recipes with a community partner, Midwest Catholic Charities.

“One of my favorites that I’ve used for the kids more than once is brownies with spinach purée,” said Guiffre. “I also incorporate cauliflower puree for breading meats and fish.”

Read More on the National CKP Site

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As Campus Kitchen students prepare to visit St. Louis in October for a conference held at CKP’s flagship kitchen, Saint Louis University, a much younger Campus Kitchen at Washington University in St. Louis is spurring new awareness of the hunger problems in the metropolitan region with an original take on the hunger banquet.

Campus Kitchens and other hunger-awareness organizations hold Oxfam America hunger banquets to help others grasp the issues surrounding global hunger and poverty while raising funds for their poverty-fighting work. Participants are randomly assigned to countries of different economic statuses. In addition to eating different cuisines, some countries get very little food to share – or no food at all. A discussion follows as to why tables ate different foods and how serious the global hunger problem actually is. The Campus Kitchen at Atlantic City recently hosted its own world hunger banquet with a large showing of support from the community.

Sarah Deitz, president of the leadership team at the Campus Kitchen at Washington University in St. Louis, says her team decided to transform the hunger banquet model into something her campus and community could really connect with. Instead of focusing on countries, they seated attendees in different neighborhoods of St. Louis.

The banquet meals served paralleled the socio-economic statuses of the neighborhoods. In East St. Louis neighborhoods, where there are lower income levels, participants received a simple pasta meal. Middle class neighborhoods dined on added vegetables and salad. Neighborhoods with higher income levels, like the Clayton-Tamm area of St. Louis, received a full cut of protein and access to other side items.

Deitz said that all who attended were receptive to the statistics the Campus Kitchen team presented, and open to starting new discussions of how to help remedy the food insecurity in lower income neighborhoods.

The Campus Kitchen at Washington University in St. Louis currently serves three community partners and, according to Deitz, hopes to expand its programming in the coming year. Over the summer, she says they will amp up nutrition education, and in the fall they plan to take gleaning trips with volunteers. Other future plans include some kind of cooking training, particularly for children.

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In August, new leaders and freshly minted Campus Kitchen organizers will join the CKP national office team in Washington, D.C. for an interactive, three-day Boot Camp event.

Then, in October, every Campus Kitchen will send representatives to join other non-profits and food activists at the 2011 annual conference of The Campus Kitchens Project: Moving a Generation: Social, Environmental, Economic Empowerment.

Start by reserving two sets of dates on your calendar.

Boot Camp, August 1 – 3, 2011.

Conference, October 28 – 30, 2011.

As we work to solidify the details of these events we will do our best to post them on the Conference website and Boot Camp page.

We also continually have this information available under the Events and Opportunities section on our website.

Next, every Campus Kitchen leader and partner should consider submitting our Request for Proposal to present at the conference. Share your tips on starting and cultivating a campus garden, give attendees the inside scoop on your nutrition education secrets, or show other Campus Kitchens how your campus events created a strong volunteer base for you.

The deadline for our first round of presenters is May 20, 2011, so if you have an idea, please fill out and submit the form to conference@campuskitchens.org.

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Many Campus Kitchens already put together activities to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Some are already thinking ahead to the next Turekypalooza.

For those looking to add some spice weekly to meal preparations this winter, we’ve gathered some dates for planning ahead to your next awareness-building event.

Event: Heart and Soul (Valentine’s Day)

Dates: February, the week of Valentine’s Day

Origin: The Campus Kitchens Project network (This used to be a network-wide event)

Description: Campus Kitchens provide Valentine’s-themed meals to their clients, but they don’t fill those meals with the expected sweets and chocolate. Instead Campus Kitchens like St. Louis University provide heart healthy soul food options as a way to promote healthier eating in their community. They take nutrition education one step further, providing personalized Valentine’s greeting cards and healthy soul food recipes to their clients in an effort to feed and spread the love.

Event: Earth Day

Dates: April 22

Origin: The Earth Day Network

Description: Each year, Earth Day marks the anniversary of what many consider the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. Celebrate your latest Campus Kitchen milestone (whether its 1000 meals served or 10,000) by throwing an outdoor, food-inspired event in an area of campus with lots of foot traffic. Last year, the Campus Kitchen at Gettysburg College hosted a 10 Ton Relay event to coincide with Earth Day, and challenged students to meal service-themed activities to celebrate 10 tons of food recovered.

Event: National Campus Sustainability Day

Dates: October 20

Origin: Campus Sustainability Planning Network

Description: Tap into green group homes, environmental majors, and those interested in furthering sustainability on your campus by hosting a campus-wide fair, documentary screening or awareness day, sponsored by your Campus Kitchen. The sustainability planning network could help with ideas on how to use this day to your advantage, but check out what the University of Georgia or University of North Carolina did last year for more ideas.

Event: National Homelessness and Hunger Awareness Week

Dates: November 14 – 20

Origin: Co-sponsored by: National Coalition for the Homeless and
National Student Campaign Against Hunger & Homelessness. (View the Manual.)

Description: Each year, one week before Thanksgiving, a number of schools, communities and cities take part in a nationwide effort to bring greater awareness to the problems of hunger and homelessness. The Campus Kitchen is a perfect vehicle to bring awareness since you deal with both! Whether its placing signs informational signs on the quad like the Campus Kitchen at University of Florida, or holding a week of food awareness events similar to the Campus Kitchen at Wake Forest University’s “Wake Up to Food Week”, use the time to show your college that Campus Kitchens combat more than just hunger.

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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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Thanks to the work of 28 Campus Kitchens and a swelling volunteer force this November, hungry individuals and families will gobble up Thanksgiving meals with all the trimmings this Turkey Day.

Turkeypalooza is the network-wide effort of The Campus Kitchens Project to ensure all mouths are fed during the month that many Americans share bountiful meals. This year, Campus Kitchens new and old will ready their carving knives, running canned food drives, take your turkey to work day, special meal preparation, turkey basket making, and community feasts for a days of deliciousness, and too much tryptophan.

The Campus Kitchen at St. Louis University will help kick off Turkeypalooza with events beginning November 12 with a “Take your Turkey to Work Day”. The day allows student groups, faculty and staff from different departments the chance to provide the most important part of the Turkey Day meal. Volunteers are also collecting canned goods, which will supply as many as 600 hungry people with meals in the St. Louis area.

Some Campus Kitchens are offering clients more than the meal. In addition to prepping turkey with all the trimming to be served on Thanksgiving, the Campus Kitchen at Minnesota State University, Mankato will distribute grocery bags, they’ll host a unique fundraiser to serve the community two-fold. Volunteers can donate funds and decorate a special Thanksgiving card.

Other kitchens, like the Campus Kitchen at University of Nebraska Kearney, will celebrate the holiday by serving double portions of mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, fresh rolls, stuffing and turkey to their community partners. Using the meal as an awareness building tool, the Campus Kitchen will make special decorations to include in the meal with hunger and food insecurity facts.

Several other Campus Kitchens will hold community dinner-style Turkeypalooza events, from a city-wide meal in Cleveland Tenn. to five different meal services in November at Augsburg College.

For more information on Turkeypalooza events or how to get involved, please view and click through the calendar below.

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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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The Mission Continues’ Eric Greitens was nominated as one of three finalists for the St. Louis Cardinals (each major league team has three finalists) in the “People All-Stars Among Us” competition for his continuing work to unite veterans and their fellow citizens in shared service.

Most recently, The Mission Continues participated with The Campus Kitchens Project as one of its MLK Day grantees, organizing a food drive, cooking, and delivering meals to the city alongside the Campus Kitchen at St. Louis University.

To vote for Eric, log on to www.PeopleAllStars.com now through June 20. If chosen, Eric will be invited to represent St. Louis at the 2010 All-Star Week in Anaheim, Calif. Eric will also be able to attend the opening ceremony of the All-Star Game on July 13.

In addition to being honored at the All-Star Game, one finalist (out of 30) will be featured in People magazine during the week of the All-Star Game.

Show your support by voting for Eric at www.PeopleAllStars.com . There is no limit to how many times you can vote.

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An Installation by Gordon Matta-Clark

One of the earliest supporters of pay-what-you-can restaurants will make his mark in the food world again, decades after his lifetime, via the Campus Kitchen at St. Louis University at an event June 5.

The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis came to coordinator Jenny Bird with a unique idea for a fundraiser/community event: the museum would gather Gordon Matta-Clark enthusiasts, an artist known for his abandoned building cuts and deconstruction, open up its exhibitions, gratis, and invite local food purveyors for demonstrations and cooking activities.

So what the cost of event? A suggested $5 donation – or flour, oil, or vinegar, if attendees have it on hand.

The event, which runs 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., is titled “Art/Food” and presented in conjuction with the closing of Gordon Matta-Clark’s exhibit: Urban Alchemy and the opening of the Comtemporary’s Great Rivers Biennial.

Matta-Clark opened a restaurant, simply termed “Food” in 1971, entirely managed and staffed by artists. It quickly became a gathering spot for local artists with an open kitchen mentality.

In the spirit of Matta-Cark, the museum will serve the public with cooking activities (think beer brewing and s’more making) and food samples through local chefs, including: Aaron Teitelbaum, Herbie’s Vintage ’72, Josh Galliano, Monarch Restaurant; Anthony Devoti, Five Bistro; and John Judy, L’Ecole Culinaire.

The event  is sponsored by Fitz’s Root Beer, the Mountain Valley Water Company of St. Louis, and Slow Food St. Louis.

Hungry for more? Attend the event, feast your eyes, and help feed.

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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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