Back to School! Regardless of how you feel about classes, we’re stoked about the force of fearless hunger fighters returning to the Campus Kitchens, jazzing up outfits with hairnets and aprons, and digging into food recovery, meal creation, and innovative programming.

With the start of Fall Semester, The Campus Kitchens Project proudly presents this year’s Annual Conference: Moving a Generation: Social, Environmental, Economic Empowerment held at Saint Louis University in St. Louis, MO from October 28 to 30. The conference will celebrate the 10-year anniversary of The Campus Kitchens Project and student-led hunger relief.

Now’s the time to purchase conference admission and secure your spot to attend the only event each year that serves as a network-wide gathering point for innovative and thought-provoking Campus Kitchen students, in addition to social justice and non-profit leaders instrumental to fighting poverty in their communities.

Visit the event page now to purchase admission and be sure to fill out the questions regarding which topic tracks you’d like to explore at the conference.

The Events and Opportunities page on The Campus Kitchens Project main website will be continually updated with information as we near the conference kickoff. On that page you’ll find Where to Stay, a Presentation Sign-up Form, and an Outline of Conference Activities.

Don’t wait to make reservations and purchase your tickets as spots could fill up.

Then, meet us in St. Louis.

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Leaders from the service sector, including CEO of DC Central Kitchen Mike Curtin and staff from The Campus Kitchens Project, will come together to share solutions, best practices and lessons for achieving greater impact at the 2011 National Conference on Volunteering and Service (NCVS) in New Orleans, June 6-8.

The conference, convened by Points of Light Institute and the Corporation for National and Community Service, is the world’s largest gathering of volunteer and service leaders from the nonprofit, corporate and government sectors. This year’s event will provide nearly 4,000 Champions of Service with an opportunity to learn, connect and be inspired through a range of plenary sessions, workshops, special events, service projects and more.

“Service is fundamental to meeting the pressing issues of our time,” said Michelle Nunn, CEO of Points of Light Institute. “The National Conference on Volunteering and Service seeks to equip those at the heart of community progress with the tools to mobilize people, design and manage effective programs and cultivate a renewed ethic of service that recognizes that everyone can, and must, be part of the solution.”

This year’s conference also showcases the city of New Orleans as a laboratory for social innovation in areas reaching far beyond disaster recovery. Since 2005, millions of volunteers have helped address the city’s educational challenges, economic development issues and government leadership. NCVS will provide an opportunity to pay tribute to the impact of volunteerism on the revitalization of the city, demonstrating the critical role of service in improving communities and our nation at large.

This remarkable city and the entire Gulf coast offer an extraordinary example of the power of citizens to make a difference through service, said Mark Gearan, chair, Corporation for National and Community Service Board of Directors. Gathering in New Orleans underscores the power of people to emerge from disaster and challenge by joining together in action. At a time of great social need, service is a critical, cost-effective investment that taps our greatest resource the energy and ideas of our citizens to get things done.

NCVS attendees will hear from renowned presenters during multiple workshop blocks. More than 150 workshops, 11 immersion learning sessions and seven forums will be offered in focus areas ranging from disaster response to youth leadership. Expert presenters from the nonprofit, corporate and government sectors will engage participants in hands-on sessions to explore topics relevant to volunteerism and service.

“New Orleans uniquely understands the value of volunteer service to create change and build community,” said New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, chairman of the NCVS Host Committee. “We hope the attendees at the National Conference on Volunteering and Service are inspired and energized by our city and the innovative ideas and learning opportunities they will experience.”

Conference highlights include:
§         Signature Service Project, Monday, June 6, 8 a.m.
NCVS will serve as the final stop on University of Phoenix’s six-month Road to the Gulf program. The signature park restoration projects will be held at Sam Bonart Park in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. Volunteers will install new playground equipment, repair basketball courts, install sideline benches, build soccer fields, install lighting and beautify the park.
§         Public Participation in the Wake of Disaster, Monday, June 6, 1 p.m.
Join us for a discussion framed by retired Admiral Thad Allen on the importance of public participation in the wake of disaster. Admiral Allen will discuss his experience as U.S. Coast Guard Commander during Hurricane Katrina and the 201 Gulf oil spill. He and Joshua DuBois, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and Karen Baker, California secretary of service and volunteering, will discuss the value of acting now to build resilient communities across the country.
§         National Service General Session, Tuesday, June 7, 10:30 a.m.
Service is central to innovative approaches for solving community and national problems. Melody Barnes, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, and Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour will share ideas and highlights of the ground-breaking work being done to address pressing issues by partnering with government, leveraging service and incorporating volunteering to achieve impact throughout the nation.
§         Citizen Solutions for Economic Opportunity, Tuesday, June 7, 2 p.m.
Fostering and advancing economic opportunities in under-resourced communities is a constant challenge. Some communities have found success drawing on existing resources and the power of volunteers. At this session, sponsored by Chase, Diahann Billings-Burford, chief service officer for New York City, David Eisner, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center and MSNBC contributor and The Grio.com chief correspondent Jeff Johnson will discuss practices of asset-based community development and case studies of successful community programs will be highlighted.
§         Leaders Make the Future: Leadership Skills for an Uncertain World, Tuesday, June 7, 3 p.m.
An interactive conversation, sponsored by UPS and eBay, with a cross-section of leaders about the skills needed to be successful in a world characterized by volatility, complexity and ambiguity. Panelists including Dr. Hal Colston, executive director of the Vermont Commission on National and Community Service, Wendy Kopp, founder and CEO of Teach for America, and Max Stier, president and CEO of Partnership for Public Service will discuss their predictions for the future, the leadership frameworks they work within and how those frameworks lead to lasting impact in communities.
§         Innovate to Educate: Community Solutions for Education Success, Tuesday, June 7, 4 p.m.
This signature conference event, sponsored by Target, will highlight innovative citizen-driven solutions that are helping address the challenges facing America’s education system. It will showcase inspiring examples of community-based engagement that have resulted in tangible results for schools and students nationwide. Attendees will hear from featured speaker Soledad O’Brien, award-winning journalist and anchor for CNN’s special investigations unit, as well as community leaders who are collectively leading the charge for innovative education solutions.

The NCVS opening plenary session on Monday, June 6, will feature civil rights activist Ruby Bridges, a conversation between political consultants James Carville and Mary Matalin, moderated by ABC News correspondent Deborah Roberts, about the impact of service on their hometown of New Orleans, and special performances by Branford Marsalis and Roots of Music, a music program for New Orleans middle schoolers.

The closing session on Wednesday, June 8, features the presentation of a Presidential Volunteer Service award to actor and activist Rosario Dawson, performances by Grammy Award-winner Chris Thomas King and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Percy Sledge and the announcement of the 2012 NCVS host city, all hosted by comedian John Oliver from “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.”

For more information on NCVS, please visit www.VolunteeringandService.org

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 While panels covered topics like fighting childhood obesity and health disparities, speakers continually returned to the subject of SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and outreach to Latinos about the program.

With only 56 percent of SNAP-eligible Latinos participating in the program, the U.S. Department of Agriculture along with food banks and other non-profits are looking to boost participation. The message among all of the panelists: there is hope.

Liz Gomez from Almaeda County Food Bank shared with the group three myths surrounding SNAP, which new radio PSA’s in California try to combat.

Myths:

1. You have to be on welfare to get food stamps
2. If I’m not eligible, either are my children
3. You’ll be embarrassed using food stamps at the register

Knowing what’s being said about food stamps helped California put together advertisements airing on Spanish-language radio stations to further inform Latinos in the state (California is the second worst state when it comes to utilizing the SNAP program) about the nutrition assistance available to them.

The audience offered other ideas for increasing SNAP enrollment, including: community-based outreach (rather than sending everyone to crowded county offices), partnering with the local department of aging to reach seniors, and conducting SNAP outreach right at the register of the grocery store.

Campus Kitchens like Gettysburg College and its partnership with Lincoln Intermediate Migrant Education Program help make healthy foods available to Latino communities regardless of SNAP enrollment.

As the network continues to expand its service to Latino communities across the nation, look into SNAP outreach materials, and consider making that resource available to your community partners.

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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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Hundreds descended on Waco, TX – with a few pit stops for boots, tacos, and the Dr. Pepper museum. Among them: the entire national staff of The Campus Kitchens Project and DC Central Kitchen/The Campus Kitchens Project founder Robert Egger. The morning before we kicked off a week of speeches, breakout sessions, workshops, and networking Baylor University organizers whisked us to Homestead Cafe for a hearty breakfast of locally-sourced, organic ingredients.

We soon met up with the rest of our Campus Kitchen crew, including the excited team from The Campus Kitchen at UMass Boston below. Baylor University President Kenneth Starr and Undersecretary of Agriculture Kevin Concannon started the three-day exploration of poverty, it’s root causes, and immediate solutions with opening speeches.

And so began packed-full days of lectures, roundtables, panel discussions, and keynotes. Innovation abounded within the classrooms, but in the halls and between buildings, students found the opportunity to connect with other Campus Kitchens and like-minded peers. Some also finally met the man who conceived The Campus Kitchens Project (and who also delivered the keynote that evening) Robert Egger.

The convergence of student groups, professors, and community members was not just a chance for established professionals to lecture the youth. Many Campus Kitchen students put together their own presentations, ranging from community gardens to on-campus food banks and creating a comprehensive campus sustainable food system.

Community sessions also covered diverse subject matter, from faith-based organizations like The Open Table, to a  Baylor University students project turned non-profit: The Kianga Project, who also supplied the conference with beaded bracelets reading “Justice.”

When not hard at work brain-storming and networking in The Bill Daniel Student Center, participants enjoyed the warm Texas climate, visited the Baylor Bears, and participated in conference “extracurriculars”, including a service trip and documentary screening: Lunch Line.

Participants returned the second day to another powerful speaker: Shannon Sedgwick Davis, who spoke of her travels to fight the effects of poverty.

Also on the second day, CKP delivered its annual awards for Excellence in Programming (University of  Florida below), Excellence in Operations, Visionary Volunteer, and Volunteer of the Year.

Lunch brought a panel discussion featuring DC Central Kitchen/First Helping’s own Vincent Jackson as organizations like Texas Hunger Initiative and Habitat for Humanity discussed their views of poverty.

After all the talk about hunger, we experienced it. Baylor University hosted a Hunger Banquet featuring different food from cultures around the world. The catch: each country eats differently, shares differently, and gets a different amount of food. Some countries, like Africa below, portioned rations of chicken, sweet potatoes and water while sitting squished within a taped line.In the closing remarks, kitchens and participants agreed they all came away with an action they could complete when returning to their communities. And most were still Hungry for More.

Want to see more? view our complete slideshow below.

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Local news coverage of Hungry for Justice: Social, Economic, Environmental

The Campus Kitchens Project national office team arrived home Sunday, October 10 from three whirlwind days at Hungry for Justice: Social, Economic, Environmental in Waco, TX bearing new vintage boots, belt buckles – and a better understanding what gets the national network of Campus Kitchens fired up, cooking, and serving their communities.

The packed-full days of sustainable gear (think awesome Kianga Project bracelets and recycled binders), networking, and the cross-pollination of knowledge left all participants with a few more sustainable seeds of ideas. As many told us in the closing remarks; they can’t wait to go back to their Campus Kitchens or hometowns, plant them, and see what grows.

More than ever before, conference participants helped with covering the conference through various e-tools, and crowd-sourced perspectives on The Poverty Summit we would have never caught ourselves.

The Campus Kitchens Project blog will soon host a media page from the conference with pictures, videos, links, and other resources for participants to continue connections, and watch their ideas flourish.

Keep things flowing until then by reading through more than 65 tweets generated during the conference in conversation #HungryforJustice. Then get a taste of some of the great crowd-sourced coverage by viewing the pictures and video below.

Kyle Hinch, AmeriCorps VISTA at the Campus Kitchen at Lee University, brought his tireless excitement for expansion of programs with his Campus Kitchen to the conference and presented about Lee University’s on-campus food bank.

CKBU helped those Hungry for Justice by delivering nearly 300 boxed lunches leftover from two days of sessions to The Salvation Army

Juliette Rorie from the Campus Kitchen at UMass Boston tells us why the human trafficking session enlightened her about what’s being done – not just in big cities, but way down in Texas.

A look inside a Breakout Session at Hungry for Justice

Mo from the Campus Kitchen at Augsburg College came to present on her on-campus cooking classes, and left with new ideas to implement at her Campus Kitchen.

View of the panel discussion at Hungry for Justice

Stay-tuned for more coverage – or catch more on our USTREAM Channel

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The Hungry for Justice: Social, Economic, Environmental UStream channel will kick off  Friday, October 8 at 10:05 a.m. with Judge Kenneth Starr, President of Baylor University’s opening remarks to open the Poverty Summit. From there we will provide you select coverage of different conference events: various breakout sessions, keynote speeches including Robert Egger of DC Central Kitchen, and student testimonial following powerful sessions like human trafficking.

Take it a step further and participate! Your tweets will be broadcast on the Ustream channel and also show up on the Baylor University Poverty Summit web site if you use the hashtag #HungryforJustice. Or – participate in the live chat below!

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At Hungry for Justice, the HOT Urban Gardening Coalition (UGC) based out of Waco, Texas will share ideas and tools for Campus Kitchens and other Poverty Summit participants to expand their current sustainable, urban gardening fascination – and put ideas to action.

UGC’s presentation during 75-minute Saturday breakout sessions will focus on ways to develop community gardens, as well as how to involve children and the arts in creating an inviting space to be enjoyed by the entire community.

The session could prove a useful booster for current Campus Kitchen community gardeners at locations like Gonzaga University, University of Massachusetts Boston, and Washington and Lee University. But UGC will also provide the necessary information to inspire those who’ve been looking to build their own community gardens.

UGC’s programming spans a range of educational activities, economic initiatives, and community events. Among other things, the organization has helped to: establish a food stamp campaign in Waco, hold community garden training workshops, provide an urban gardening scholarship, and hold a celebration in recognition of students in garden clubs.

Meet Bethel Erickson and Grace Ladd of the HOT Urban Gardening Coalition at 1:30 p.m. during Hungry for Justice’s Saturday summit – and leave with your thumb looking a little greener than when you arrived.

Looking for a full listing of sessions?

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Kianga:: A burst of light after the storm (Swahili)

Each participant at the Hungry for Justice Poverty Summit, a collaboration between Baylor University and The Campus Kitchens Project annual leadership conference, will receive a hand-beaded, African bracelet as a ticket to a diverse range of conference sessions.

These bracelets are more than a work of art. They represent three students working to combat poverty through economic empowerment. The bracelets also embody the spirit of the Poverty Summit.

The original seed for what would become the Kianga Project was planted by Ben Caroll, who spent time in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya in 2007. His time interning with City Harvest Ministries there addressing the HIV/AIDS crisis would inspire him to bridge the social, economic, and spiritual gaps between his Baylor University community and the people of Nairobi.

In Fall 2009, Sarah Satterlee and Wade Mackey also worked with City Harvest Ministeries, and through their conversations with Caroll, The Kianga Project was born.

The Kianga Project is a socially proactive business that works to improve the quality of life for men and women living with HIV/AIDS by empowering them through creative design training and creating markets for their goods, which include jewelry and accessories made through traditional African techniques. Every person is paid a fair wage, and the profit from the sales go right back into the project. The Poverty Summit purchased bracelets directly from this group.

The group’s participation in the conference doesn’t stop at the bracelets. Carroll and Mackey will present about The Kianga Project during a breakout session on Saturday, October 9.

The Kianga Project session is just one of the provocative community sessions happening at Hungry for Justice. Dozens of other social services leaders will join them.

To view the schedule for breakout sessions at Hungry for Justice: Social, Economic, Environmental, click here.

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