Some of the CKP National staff had the opportunity to travel down to Cleveland, TN to witness first hand the magic of a Campus Kitchen in action.

No better way to start a visit than with a cooking shift! Shift volunteers helped make green beans and brownies, both meant to compliment the hearty meal prepared in partnership with Sodexo’s kitchen staff. It was great to watch volunteers work together and watch the leaders empower their team to efficiently produce these yummy supplements.

The next day started early with trips to grocery stores across Cleveland that partner with the University to provide food for the on-campus Food Bank. (Click here to find out what Robert Egger learned when he visited the Lee Food Bank). In the course of our short morning adventure, we picked up over 800 lbs. of food. The food bank provides food to Lee students in need during the week and collects anywhere from 500 to 2000 lbs. of food each day!

After discussing some of the business of running a Campus Kitchen safely and successfully, we set out with students to deliver the meal that had been prepared the night before. It was busy in the Lee Dining Hall Kitchen during dinner, but the staff was happy to help the Campus Kitchen leaders prepare the meal and ensure that everything was properly temped and stored.

We then ventured to J-Mack Circle to meet up with volunteers from Lee’s Backyard Ministry, who provide tutoring and mentoring services to the youth in the neighborhood. The weather took a turn for the worse, but not a single volunteer was deterred from accomplishing their goal. From the corner of the tent (which I was holding up in the face of gusting wind and rain!), I was able to watch a community come together  in gratitude around hot food and good company.

Once we dried off, we had an opportunity to bond and brainstorm with CK Lee’s leadership team, a group filled with great ideas for the continued thriving and expansion of their Campus Kitchen. This connecting culminated in welcoming both Robert and Maureen to Tennessee. Suffice it to say, these two took Lee by storm. Robert had the opportunity to inspire students in a number of different forums, one of which was the Alternative Chapel. There he spoke about our generation’s commitment to service and how important this will be for our collective future.

We rounded out the week with the Mayors’ Coalition Launch of the Bradley County Community Action Network. As was mentioned in an earlier post, this gathering of organizations will collaborate to confront hunger in Bradley County and ensure that as many people as possible have access to a brighter, more sustainable future. All in all, our adventures at CK Lee provided a clearer picture of why the work of a Campus Kitchen is so vital to both the community and the university.

Thanks to everyone at CK Lee for all that they did to ensure that our trip was worthwhile, and thank you to anyone who works in any Campus Kitchen; the contribution you make is truly magical!

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August 2010, the first six members of the Child Hunger Corps will roll up their sleeves to work in Feeding America-affiliated food banks while aiding community-based efforts to help end child hunger.

The two year position offers a stipend for living expenses and full benefits with medical and dental, while providing the opportunity to work hand-in-hand with the nation’s largest network of food banks and stay in contact with other Corps volunteers.

Feeding America will look for Corps members who can develop a food bank’s capacity and capability for programs targeting childhood hunger while increasing access to nutritious foods at the time children need it most: in the summer, after school, weekends, school holidays, and at home.

Since the program is brand new, they’re only offering it in a few cities:

Little Rock, Arkansas
Ft. Meyers, Florida
Houston, Texas
Grove City, Ohio
Portland. Oregon
Salem, Virginia

Interested in becoming a Child Hunger Corps member? The application only requires a one page resume and two pages of short-answer questions. The deadline to apply is February 26.

View the application requirements and apply here.

Read the official press release here.

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For the full article: http://www.abpnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4422&Itemid=53

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Group sees large donations, but no room: It’s not only the fledgling Campus Kitchens that are looking for space, but food banks and food pantries too. Some have gotten help from unlikely sources, and others create partnerships that allow them to store the overload. But while need grows, are donations being wasted because of lack of space?

 More food donated, less waste: With these forces combined, Florida may be in the running for food recovery capital of the U.S: the Florida state legislature expanded the Emerson Good Samaritan Act last year, and Campus Kitchens are up and running at Jackson University and the University of Florida. This editorial joins the call for more food donations and more redistribution:

Now, with Lee County facing a staggering rise in demand at feeding agencies, it’s time for providers and restaurants to take full advantage of the state’s food-donation program.

Why the poor pay more: This piece considers the lived experience of poverty, and focuses on the little things that make up the cycle: check-cashing costs, laundromat waits, corner store prices, and gaps in the system where working moms tend to fall.

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Specifically, Christine was talking containers: a switch from styrofoam clamshells to paper bags, but how now to single serve dishes, like salads? And she wondered about deliveries: how could we do a bike delivery shift?

Across the country, at the Campus Kitchen at Augsburg College, coordinator Brian Noy answered. Although he couldn’t solve the great container debate, he did have an answer: bike trailers! He even included a link to the very best hitch for delivering meals on bike wheels. 

This email exchange reached even farther west, to Emily Paulson at the Campus Kitchen at Gonzaga University. She had an answer: Tupperware! At CKGU, they’re trying out reusables for individual deliveries, and working out the kinks.

Reducing waste! Exchange of ideas! Mutual aid!  I like how we do things here at CKP.  

(P.S. A somewhat similar debate is floating around DC. Since 50% of the pollution in tributaries of the Anacostia River is plastic bags, a bill currently before City Council would charge a fee for plastic bags, but some worry about undue burden of a fee on low-income people and social service agencies that use plastic bags.)

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Food bank grows its own: A food bank in Arizona is working on growing its own produce, with the help of a “Midwest farm boy” and a couple of wine barrels. 

Getting on the dole:  More and more students, the New York Times reports, are signing up for food stamps. At CKP we talk about students leading and serving, but what happens when your peers are the ones in need?

Sodexo Calls for Reduction in Food Waste for Earth Day: Several Sodexo schools participated in an initiative that had students weigh their leftovers in order to raise awareness about the enormity of our food waste. Next step: new Campus Kitchens?

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 What does it mean when one of the world’s richest nations starts squatting?

College of Dupage farm feeds needy, provides education: A student farm at the College of DuPage grows organic food for the People’s Resource Center, a local social service agency, faces funding cuts.

Food pantries face growing demand: Yet another story about the growing need for emergency food aid throughout U.S., this one from Chapel Hill. Here, I like the focus on how community support has sustained operations.

Cargo bikes rule the world: The Campus Kitchen at Augsburg College inaugurated the bike delivery shift. Who’ll be the next to deliver meals via alternative transport?

FoodWise Manifesto: I dig what they’re doing.

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Then check out part 2 of the interview. While I agree with his major points, there is a disconnect between the core problems he presents–income disparity, too few living wage jobs–and solutions he proposes–streamlined federal nurition assistance programs, allowing more nutritious food as part of nutrition benefits. Modifying, even radically altering, existing government programs that fight hunger doesn’t address those core issues.

I’m keeping an eye on progress toward the solutions he mentioned–the expansion of WIC cover produce in some states, the Farmer’s Market EBT program here in DC, among others–but I’m also about imagining solutions that address the real problems.

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This, to me, is just a sign of the times.

Tray Chic: Mother Jones reports on the campus dining revolution, including the Real Food Challenge and our new friends at Slow Food on Campus. Josh Viertel of Slow Food USA describes the movement this way:

It’s just this incredible outpouring of energy to do the right thing.

We blogged about the community garden at CKAC yesterday.  Plus here’s even more details about programs at schools like Vassar and Lawrence University here: Now all these schools need are some Campus Kitchens…

Fight against hunger bears fruit: Not unlike the apple-pickers at the Campus Kitchen at Gettysburg College, who gleaned 1,000 pounds of the fruit last fall, the LA Daily Times reports on  volunteers at the “Big Pick,” who picked four tons of oranges for the SOVA Community Food & Resource Program.

The City that Ended Hunger: From mentality that says food is a right to People’s Restaurants that offer locally grown meals for cheap , Frances Moore Lappé brings us fascinating example after fascinating example of how the fourth-largest city in Brazil, Belo Horizonte, has fought hunger.

Department of Split Hairs: We got a shout out from Wasted Food!

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“If one of our richest counties has people signing up for food stamps who have never signed up before, that indicates the depth of this problem with the lack of food.”

Fighting Poverty in the Stimulus: In this useful summary, the Center for American Progress breaks the $787 billion dollar stimulus package down into anti-poverty terms:  tax relief, aid to low-income Americans, and help to the unemployed. The Jew and The Carrot and the New York Times also weigh in about how to use the stimulus money to improve school lunches.

A Video Welcome: Check out CKWLU’s Jenny Sproul, CKP’s first YouTube celebrity, as she moves CKP into Web 2.0 territory.

Bon Appétit weighs in on waste, consumption: This article gives us at CKP some serious food for thought for the weekend. Seattle University now uses ValueWaste system to minimize their kitchen waste. What would happen to CKP if there was no food waste? Any ideas?

A Cooking Show: When you’re done with all that deep thought, turn your brain off. Play. (Thanks to this week’s guest blogger Tim at CKSLU for the link.)

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