What we didn’t expect: watching student-led Campus Kitchens take the lead in partnering with farmers markets to bring fresher food to those who can’t afford it.

More Campus Kitchens are committed to working with farmers markets than ever. This new farmers market drive came just in time for United States Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to proclaim August 7 – 13, 2011 National Farmers Market Week.

Over the past 11 years, since the USDA first announced a week celebrating the direct farmer to consumer passage of food, the number of farmers markets has grown 150 percent.

The Farmers Market Coalition Website reports: “As these numbers increase, farmers markets are bolstering local economies, improving community health, and bringing diverse groups of people together in a shared social space.”

Campus Kitchens recognize this value and make farmers markets a regular part of their summer programming.

The Campus Kitchen team at Augsburg College recently kicked off its third year of hosting its own farmers markets, both on-campus and off. Students invite a local population of Hmong farmers to sell at the markets in addition to manning a campus-run booth; dually bolstering the local economy and nutrition.

Adams County Fresh Farm Markets

At Gettysburg College, the Campus Kitchen recently strengthened its relationship with the Adams County Fresh Farm Markets through its innovative Fair Share Project, which used CSA donations to help fund a farmers market voucher program for individuals who did not quite qualify for food stamps, but could not afford fresh food.

One of the newest Campus Kitchens at Kent State University recently began a partnership with Haymaker Farmers Markets, a local food powerhouse that immediately began donating unsold food like sweet corn, peppers, tomatoes, and fresh herbs for inclusion in cooked-from-scratch meals, served to Kent Social Services.

Other Campus Kitchens are also just starting or hard at work cultivating relationships with farmers markets including: University of Wisconsin Eau Claire, University of Virginia, and Gonzaga College High School.

Does your Campus Kitchen work with farmers markets? Share your story in the comments section below.

A big thank you from The Campus Kitchens Project for all those farmers market people who take the time to partner with our Campus Kitchens!

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Succession planting gets plants in and out of the ground in as short an amount of time as possible (length determined by the plant and various growing factors, of course) so that the process can be repeated again in the same space. For example, radish take 25-30 days to ripen to maturity. If your season is more than 100 days long, you could have at least 3 crops of radish! (though they don’t love the heat of the summer so you will probably want to space them out in such a way so that they are not competing with high temperatures). Like with Shepherd Ogden’s interval tip, planting rows in succession is another great way to space out your harvest.

Ashley McCarthy, the Campus Kitchen Coordinator at UW Eau Claire, recently shared the plans for succession planting at their partner, The Phoenix Garden Project. Though they were able to do a little bit of it last year during their inaugural season, their second season will be distinguished by ample planning for successive plantings which will result in well timed harvests. Their #1 priority is to have a constant supply of salad greens so that their partner at The Community Table will be able to provide healthy, organic, locally sourced salads with the daily meals that they serve their clients. With succession planting, they will have greens ripening gradually throughout the season, instead of all at once. They also plan to do a few successions of brassicas like broccoli and cauliflower. This type of interval planting also ensures that those harvesting in the summer months won’t be overwhelmed. This is crucial for garden’s tended to by college students who may be away when school is not in session (something that Morten at W&L is careful to plan for as well). All this careful succession planning that Ashley and the Phoenix Garden team does ensures that the many partners that help with and receive produce from the garden are able to benefit all season long. Happy growing to you all! (Pictured Here: youth from the YMCA in the Phoenix Garden, Summer 2010).

For succession planting ideas check out this great resource from Johnny’s Selected Seeds.

Fridays in the Garden is a blog series by The Campus Kitchen Project’s Community Development Coordinator and is designed to provide timely ideas and tips to anyone embarking to garden (at a Campus Kitchen or anywhere). Feel free to contact her with questions at asteiner@campuskitchens.org or leave your thoughts below. Also, follow her on twitter for great gardening thoughts and tidbits: @redheadgardener

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Below are some pieces of advice I’ve gleaned from program managers and longtime Campus Kitchen coordinators, but please feel free to add your thoughts or include your own advice in the comments section.

millerhj/Flickr

Advice on delivering in the snow:

• Remember to put the safety of the volunteers first.
• Plan ahead. Make sure a member of your leadership team is in charge of checking weather during the winter months and deliver early if you need to.
• When in doubt, follow university weather policy.
• Keep frozen goods in stock for the winter months.
• Stock up on PB&J supplies.
• When possible, send volunteers on foot with the correct winter gear (make your own call on whether the temperature permits this.)
• When it snows, remember your partner agencies probably have a greater need for your meals. Check out what D.C. Central Kitchen did to compensate last year.

Some advice from Ashley McCarthy from University of Wisconsin Eau Claire last winter: In about 45 minutes we were able to throw together PB&J, chips, baked apples that we already had in the freezer, and some frozen veggies. We successfully delivered the meals before the snow really started to pile up. This turned out to be the best decision we could have possibly made, as we got more than a foot of snow and were in a blizzard warning that night and next day. The university was closed on Wednesday and we got to enjoy our snow day knowing that our clients were still able to eat!

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The Campus Kitchen at Gonzaga University walloped their turkey count from last year, accumulating nearly 150 turkeys to feed Spokane, Washington residents.

In the peak of a regional snowstorm, the Campus Kitchen at Minnesota State University, Mankato, successfully delivered hand-made greeting cards with grocery bags full of all the Thanksgiving fixings.

At the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire, the Campus Kitchen connected with five non-traditional student families to prepare entire Thanksgiving meals with all of the trimmings for busy single parents to heat and serve.

For their first-ever Turkeypalooza, the Campus Kitchen at University of Massachusetts Boston pulled off a successful “Take your Turkey to Work Day”.

The Campus Kitchen at Washington and Lee fed clients of all ages and backgrounds in honor of Turkey Day, including the Rockbridge Area Occupational Center, an organization that works with outside agencies to provide center-based employment for people with disabilities.

View more pictures below:

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At the Phoenix Garden, a bike ride from the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire (UWEC), volunteers from the Campus Kitchen at UWEC finally reaped the benefits of months of planning and hard work.

This Saturday, June 26, CKUWEC volunteers worked alongside members of The Community Table, and other gardeners, to harvest summer crisp lettuce – 100 heads total – and chives.  The first harvest of the season is only the beginning. Coordinator Ashley McCarthy says the Campus Kitchen is helping to grow just about everything in the quarter of an acre plot, including: kale, broccoli, cauliflower, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, corn, beans, squash, melons, cucumbers, carrots, radishes, onions, garlic, and herbs.

“The idea is a work share model, where in exchange for assistance you get some free produce,” says McCarthy.

The Community Table, an organization that serves hot meals to the community while educating attendees on local hunger issues, works with CKUWEC partnering organizations like Globe University, a local business school, and Positive Avenues – which brings skill-building programs to underprivileged adults. The goal of Phoenix Garden is not only to provide fresh produce; leaders hope to educate the community on essentials like farming techniques and what makes food organic.

McCarthy and volunteers will chop up the chives and summer crisp lettuce harvested on Saturday to add extra crunch to beef tacos they plan to serve to two partner agencies. One agency, Northwest Journey, is an alternative school providing mental health services to children.

“It’s going to be interesting with the garden to incorporate the veggies into meals for the kids so that they’ll actually eat them,” says McCarthy.

One way McCarthy already plans to peak their interest: get some of the agencies involved in harvesting the crops as they ripen.

“As things get more toward harvest season, they’ll get interested,” says McCarthy.

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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 year, over 900 volunteers are expected to produce over 12,000 meals. Some will use MLK Day, January 18, to kick off their projects. Others will spend the days to follow launching into their semesters of service. Regardless of the timeline, we can’t wait to hear the stories of success: how a child used a computer for the first time to explore the world of nutrition, how ex-offenders discovered a passion while preparing a community meal alongside professional chefs, or how a campus kitchen implemented its first meal service shift.

What do the MLK Day grantees have to live up to? Read below for a summary of what happened last year, during CKP’s first MLK Day.

701 CKP volunteers logged over 3000 hours of service in their communities as part of the largest turnout ever for an MLK Day of Service.

We’re especially excited about the projects at our brand-new campus Kitchens at Baylor University, , University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Florida. They prepared food for community garden volunteers in Texas, deep cleaned a community table in Wisconsin, helped job seekers prepare resumes in Baltimore and served their very first CK meals in Florida.

At the University of Vermont, students renovated the dining hall at the local Food Shelf. They repainted the paneling and drew murals on three of the large panels, featuring pictures inspired by the book “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.”

Inspired by Obama’s impending inauguration, new volunteers made MLK day at St. Louis University’s Campus Kitchen one to remember.

What better way to honor the 80^th birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. and celebrate the inauguration of our very first African-American president than to answer their call to service? What better way to define our national character than to recycle waste? What better way to satisfy our spirits than to feed the hungry?

Where were you on MLK Day 2009?

Let us know what you’re planning for MLK Day 2010!

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The family of 20 campus kitchens that make up The Campus Kitchens Project saw a lot of highs and lows, cabbage and carrots, PB&J’s and pastas, tomatoes and turkeys in 2009. The year of an ill economy, swine flue epidemic, and a healthcare overhaul also marked a period of successes for CKP.

We think 2009 was a pretty good year for The Campus Kitchens Project – and it’s all thanks to the dedicated staff, students, volunteers, and community partners who helped make hunger relief a real and growing force in each community. Together, the campus kitchens reached the million meals milestone, hung up our chef’s hats in five new kitchens, and ushered in greener and more local food movements. It’s hard to believe we accomplished so much in 2009. But what’s harder to believe? All of it was done in addition to the usual meals cooked and delivered by students each day.

The top five moments of 2009:

1. Millions Milestones: We did it. We’re millionaires. Something about the end of the decade and exponential increase of kitchens serving meals helped us reach two “millions” milestones. In May, CKP’s pounds of food recovered spilled just over the million mark. Then, in October, something more impressive: kitchens came together in Washington, D.C. (during the CKP National Leadership Conference!) to serve the millionth meal. View footage of the event here.

2. CKP became a MLK Day of Service Grantee: Campuses are great at preparing meals day in and day out, but sometimes need an extra infusion of cash and support to kick services into high gear. Enter the Corporation for National and Community Service and their MLK Day of Service grants.

The award allowed CKP to give thousands of dollars to campus kitchens and other organizations around the country. In the first year of the MLK Day grant, CKP’s group of sub-grantees gathered over 1000 volunteers to carry on the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., bridging barriers, empowering individuals, and strengthening communities. Students at the Campus Kitchen at Jacksonville University held two community barbeques in an effort to build trust between the isolated student population and their neighbors. Looking forward to MLK Day 2010, CKP will aid organizations in gathering hundreds more volunteers to work against hunger relief and provide other basic human needs.

3. Five New Campus Kitchens Open: The Campus Kitchen’s Project has seen years of growth, but none were perhaps as robust as increasing the existing kitchen fleet by one third. CKP opened five new kitchens: University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire, University of Florida, Baylor University, Johns Hopkins University and Lee University in January 2009. In less than a year, each kitchen has already carved out its own niche as a valuable asset in the community, jump-starting gleaning programs, planning for culinary job training classes, becoming sole providers for community soup kitchens, and developing a strong base of student leadership. We can’t wait to see what these kitchens have in store for next year!

4. Walmart Becomes a National Partner, Fuels Expansion: In addition to the Sodexo Foundation, the initial funder and supporter of The Campus Kitchens project, the Walmart Foundation has committed $300,000 to helping CKP open up six new kitchens in the next two years. Local Walmarts have supported many kitchens through food banks in the past, but this national grant amplifies the company’s commitment to hunger relief. The first kitchen Walmart will help open: The University of Massachusetts, Boston at the end of January 2010.

5.  High School Volunteerism Program – In 2009, CKP dipped further into the fountain of youth with the creation of a program allowing high school students to work with their local university campus kitchens to deliver meals. Meanwhile, the students could log volunteer hours often needed to graduate. Two high schools in the Washington, D.C. area, one in New Orleans, and another in Boston have either shown interest or committed to the program.

Thanks again for a wonderful year. Can’t wait to see what the next one will bring!

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Read Ashley’s account of CKUWEC’s first blizzard warning delilvery below.

For CKUWEC, this will be our first year dealing with the worst of the winter weather as we started last February so we will certainly be playing things by ear.  We’ve already learned that flexibility and creative problem-solving are going to be key to maintaining regular operations during those lovely winter days.  As the coordinator, it is important to me that our clients can rely on us for meal delivery even when the weather is far from ideal.  However, the safety of my volunteers is the most important thing so there are times when I will cancel shifts because I don’t believe my volunteers (or myself) should be driving or walking in the snow and sub-zero temperatures.

The storm we had to deal with this week is a good example of just how fantastically crazy the weather can be up here in Wisconsin.  Normally, we have a cooking shift on Tuesday evenings and then deliver food Wednesday.  This past Tuesday afternoon, myself and a co-worker ventured out to get a little supplemental food for the shift that evening.  I was concerned about the weather being an issue for delivery the next morning, but the roads were already slick and treacherous and I quickly decided I didn’t want my volunteers to try to come to campus that evening to cook.  Fortunately, we’d had a donation of bread and chips earlier in the week and were already at the store so we grabbed peanut butter and jelly and headed to the kitchen.  A quick phone call to our main partner agency allowed us to arrange a small delivery for that same afternoon to get them through a couple days until the weather cleared.

Creative Commons

In about 45 minutes we were able to throw together PB&J, chips, baked apples that we already had in the freezer, and some frozen veggies. We successfully delivered the meals before the snow really started to pile up.  This turned out to be the best decision we could have possibly made, as we got more than a foot of snow and were in a blizzard warning that night and next day.  The university was closed on Wednesday and we got to enjoy our snow day knowing that our clients were still able to eat!

This solved our problem in the short term, but not long term.  See, we typically deliver an entire weeks worth of meals at a time, and the sandwiches would only get them through a couple days so we still had to find a way to get them more meals later in the week.  Luckily, our amazing volunteers were willing to come cook Thursday evening despite having finals the next week.  In the end, we were able to prepare and deliver all the meals we would normally provide, it was just a little more stressful and hectic than a normal week!  Undoubtedly, this will not be the only time we deal with this issue in the coming months and we learned that both being adaptable and having already prepared and packaged meals in the freezer to pull out quickly will be very important to maintaining operations.

Have other suggestions for how campus kitchens can prepare for a storm? Leave them below.

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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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