In one week’s time, through hours of labor and a little creativity, a North Carolina church group transformed a communal garden into a true community gathering spot.

The Campus Kitchen at Wake Forest University participated in 2010’s MLK Day of Service by committing to a year-long project to build a community garden at a partner agency site: El Buen Pastor. While the garden began yielding fresh produce this Spring, it hadn’t quite yielded the community gathering activities CKWFU had hoped for. That’s where Grace Haven Baptist Fellowship came in. Their mission: build a pavilion-like structure, run a day camp, and volunteer at the Campus Kitchen – all in one week.

“One of the things we really wanted to do was facilitate the garden as more of a community space,” says Shelley Graves, Campus Kitchen coordinator. “We wanted to encourage El Buen Pastor’s members to cook dinner, grill out, do weeding or watering, harvest together, and lay the harvest in the shade to divide up.”

While the group of 31 middle and high school students worked alongside the men from El Buen Pastor to build an earthquake/hurricane-proof pavilion approximately 35 by 45 feet, holding 50 people, the middle and high school students also led a day camp each morning for some of the community’s younger children. The day camp focused on sustainability, with an emphasis on what partnering with the earth actually means. The group took campers through everything from recycling, to how to weed in the garden, to introducing children to a birds of prey rescuer.

“With the wildlife rescuer, you would have thought there was a celebrity in the room,” says Graves. “All eyes were fixed on her.”

In the afternoons, the group rotated to work for the Campus Kitchen. While only those 18 plus were allowed to work in the kitchen during the meal preparation shift, the rest of the group worked in the Campus Kitchen garden and participated in daily Fresh Market produce pickups.

“Fresh Market gave them a really good visual image of food waste and what is considered trash and yet still edible,” says Graves. “I think that it was a really good, teachable moment.”

Thanks to cooperation and university support (the church group received a free dinner, reduced pricing on group housing, and entertainment), the group completed work on the structure early and had extra materials, so they decided to build a fence around the MLK garden to help keep out pests. And while El Buen Pastor gained something extra, the service group gained more than they planned for too.

“The group talked about food and what gets thrown away,” says Graves. “They learned things like how do you curb what you put on your plate and eat in a responsible way.” Graves added that the language barrier – especially that with the younger kids at El Buen Pastor – was a good challenge for the group to overcome.

On the final day of the service week, the two groups switched roles, this time with El Buen Pastor serving Grace Baptist. The church group worked a half day, then went to Hanging Rock State Park, with a home-cooked lunch of thanks from the community.

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The finished pavillion may look like this. Or not. But you get the idea.

At the end of this week, the El Buen Pasteur community garden, sponsored by the Campus Kitchen at Wake Forest University, will have a new, shaded pavilion – and a group of 31 new friends.

A church youth group, located two hours from the Winston-Salem, NC campus, arrived at the El Buen Pasteur community grounds Monday for a welcoming dinner with a long to-do list. Among other things, the middle and high school students planned to:  run a day camp, work all Campus Kitchen cooking and delivery shifts, and complete a large, wood pavilion to stand near the garden.

“It’s a very clear need and it’s something that they can definitely do,” said Shelley Graves, Campus Kitchen coordinator. Graves organized the trip through her parents, who are both pastors at the church.

According to Graves, the church will bring along some experienced contractors, in addition to the youth group, which has done a good deal of disaster relief and construction-based service trips. Unfortunately, most of those trips have become pretty expensive.

“This will allow them to do service affordably,” says Graves. “We’re housing them on the Wake campus and we got a really good deal.” Aramark will provide a free dinner to the group on Wednesday.

Once completed, the pavilion will allow El Buen Pasteur, a Latino community services organization and CKWFU community partner, to organize additional programming, like nutrition education seminars. The shaded structure may also encourage local kids to do more weeding and tending.

“When they go out and harvest they could literally bring the harvest in and set it on the picnic table and divide it amongst the families,” says Graves.

In the mornings, the church youth group will run a day camp for the younger children at El Buen Pasteur, teaching stewardship of the earth in addition to specifics like recycling and wildlife rescue. For the afternoon, many students will work in the crop garden enriching the soil and planting crops, in addition to the work on the pavilion.

If the structure isn’t finished at the end of the week, Graves says the church has weekend follow up visits lined up to pour the last of the concrete.

Graves also says the church will get something back:  many children from working class families will get the chance to spend time on a college campus and imagine what it might be like to attend an institution like Wake Forest University.

“I’m hoping this works out and we can make it a model for next year and slowly build it,” says Graves.

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The Princeton Review recognized that more and more high school seniors choose their colleges based on how environmentally conscious they are. Of those surveyed, 24 percent of students said that a college’s commitment to the environment would “very much” impact their college decision. This gave the university ratings company reason to devise a method for evaluating a schools greenness, using campus commitment to sustainability, the degree of environmental academics, and efforts to reduce a school’s carbon footprint in the future.

Campus Kitchens are the poster child for campus sustainability, environmental service learning, and reducing waste on campus, so it’s no surprise that eleven of 26 kitchens were deemed among the 268 Greenest Colleges in America.

CK Coordinators show of their new, more efficient (green!) kitchen at Gettysburg, during their Earth Day event

So what makes campuses “green”? Aside from having a Campus Kitchen?  Some of the things The Princeton Review sited are: availability of locally grown food, green buildings on campus, formal committees on sustainability, environmental degrees, biodegradable containers, and alternative modes of transport on campus.

Below is a list of the eleven current Campus Kitchens to make the cut. Three more likely Campus Kitchens in Fall 2010 also made the list: Elon College, Louisiana State University, and Tulane University.

College of William and Mary

Gettysburg College

Johns Hopkins University

Marquette University

St. Lawrence University

Union College

University of Florida

University of Massachusetts Boston

University of Vermont

University of Virginia

Wake Forest University

It’s not easy being green.

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Coordinator Shelley Graves, and her Campus Kitchen leadership team, revved up their food week with a chili cook-off competition between student groups on the quad at lunchtime Tuesday.

That evening, CKWFU invited the student body for a documentary screening at a new café on campus: Shorty’s. The café recently became one of the only alternatives to cafeteria style foods, and it’s already engaged in serving local foods. Café owners used the opportunity to highlight some of their local fare: grass-fed beef from Grayson Natural Foods, chips and homemade salsa, and Krispy Kreme donuts bread pudding, with donuts picked up from the local factory (Krispy Kreme was founded in Winston-Salem, N.C., home of Wake Forest.)  Shorty’s also poured Winston-Salem Foothills brews for attendees of age.

The documentary, Fresh, celebrates farmers, thinkers, and business owners across the nation who are reinventing the food system. Participants munched and sipped while watching on Shorty’s big screen.

Wednesday, the Campus Kitchen at Wake Forest urged its student body to “go green” for St. Patrick’s Day. Thursday would bring perhaps the most anticipated part of food week: D.C. Central Kitchen founder Robert Egger will speak on the business of healthy food for all in an open forum with the Wake Forest community. Robert Egger is also founder of The Campus Kitchens Project and regularly travels to Campus Kitchen locations (now 26) to connect with student hunger activists.

Egger will speak at 7 p.m. in Wake Forest’s Pew Auditorium, but he’ll continue to meet and greet students until the food week is finished. Graves said students are already signed up to eat lunch and dinner with him, and he’ll  guest lecture to a class Friday morning.

Symbolic of a week concentrated on food awareness and hunger relief, the Campus Kitchen will launch its Campus Garden to finish off the week’s bountiful activities.

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The Campus Kitchen at Washington and Lee University, in addition to just serving its 50,000th meal, also discovered an amazing grant opportunity to bolster your Campus Kitchen’s going green campaign.

The One by One campaign, run by 4imprint, grants $500 worth of promotional products each business day to help causes spread the word, thank donors, recruit volunteers, and add to programs.

Anyone who is part of a 501c(3) charity is eligible apply.  Just fill out the simple form here. Jenny Sproul, coordinator for the Campus Kitchen at Washington and Lee received the $500 in-kind grant, and says that while it’s not going to cover all the containers, it’s a good start.

Read more about the kind of containers Jenny is buying at The Kitchen Table (email jtouton@campuskitchens.org for an invite.)

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During the three days spent at East Carolina University, coordinator Kim Caudle and her leadership team executed a kickoff event, and test-run cook and delivery shifts. Through it all, they let us follow them with our camera. Here’s a quick glimpse into the kitchen tour Kim led and the cooking/delivery shifts to follow.

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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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These pictures come from a youth program, a high school, a service center, a campus kitchen, and more. Many just laid down their first layer of paint, packed their first meals, and baked their first batch of cookies. Stay tuned for more!

Wondering where these projects took place?

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