With nearly 7000 pounds of food recovered, inching closer to 2000 meals served, the Campus Kitchen recently celebrated its one year birthday.

“We are such a food orientated organization, so we decided to celebrate the big day by doing what we do best … eating!”  says Chandni Mahtani, Campus Kitchen leadership team member.

Student Leaders Celebrate their One Year Anniversary

The Campus Kitchen hosted an outdoor, dairy-free cook off to raise funds from teams wishing to test their culinary prowess. The Campus Kitchen team also used the day to mark the one year milestone since opening, and recognize hard work well done.

Student organizers got some distinguished guests to attend; the cook off was judged by Johns Hopkins University President Ron Daniels, Chef Michael Gueiss, and Director of Dining Programs David Furhman.

The Judges Enjoy Matzoh Ball Soup

While the judges received the first helpings, everyone at the event filled up on veggie burgers and munched on Aramark donated food while catching up on just how far the Campus Kitchen came in one year.

What did the cook off winners send to the judges table? They served their distinguished guests matzoh ball soup and an avocado and chocolate cake to take home the prize.

The winning avacado chocolate cake

Says Mahtani, “The two dishes were incredibly tasty and got two thumbs up from all three judges. The cooks of these dishes, Aliyah Sanders and Margaret Xu won $25 gift certificates.”

All the proceeds from people registering foods and coming to the cook-off went to JHU Haiti Aid, with a total of $130 which will go straight to Haitian reconstruction efforts.

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Looking for more information about sponsorships and how to go about asking for them? See what DC Central Kitchen’s Special Events Manager, Ann Nix, has to say.

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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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Awards to promote social justice

The Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People

The mission of Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People (SDOP) is to empower poor, oppressed and disadvantaged people who are seeking to change the structures that perpetuate poverty, oppression and injustice.  SDOP is taking applications year round for partnerships where a project is owned and controlled by the group of people who will benefit directly from it. Projects should address long-term correction of conditions that keep people bound by poverty and oppression

Awards Connect Gardening and Hunger Issues
National Gardening Association: Healthy Sprouts Awards
The mission of the National Gardening Association (NGA) is to promote home, school, and community gardening as a means to renew and sustain the essential connections between people, plants, and the environment. The NGA Healthy Sprouts Awards support school garden programs throughout the country that use the garden to teach youth about nutrition and the issue of hunger in the United States. Winning programs will receive $200 or $500 gift certificates from Gardener’s Supply Company, seed packets, and literature from NGA. Applicants must plan to garden in 2010 with at least 15 children between the ages of 3 and 18 years. The application deadline is October 17, 2009. Application guidelines and forms are available on the NGA website.

Awards to make a difference

Pay It Forward Foundation

The Pay It Forward Foundation was established to educate and inspire students to realize that they can change the world, and provide them with opportunities to do so. Students, teachers, and community partners are encouraged to formulate their own ideas of how they can pay it forward.  Pay It Forward mini-grants of up to $500 are designing to fund one-time only service-oriented projected identified by youth as activities they would like to perform to benefit their school, neighborhood, or greater community.  Projects must contain a “pay it forward” focus – that is, they must be based on the concept of one person doing a favor for others, who in term do favors for others, with the results growing exponentially – to be considered in the grant-making process. Applications are due for consideration September 15^th for October 1^st funding, and also February 15 for March 1^st funding.

Awards for Youth-Led Service-Learning Projects addressing Childhood Obesity

UnitedHealth HEROES grant sponsored by Youth Service America and UnitedHealth

Educators, service-learning coordinators, students in the health professions, public health professionals, and community partners are eligible to apply for the UnitedHealth HEROES service-learning project grants. Grant recipients will receive up to $1,000 in support for service-learning projects that focus on childhood obesity, engage youth ages 5-25 in the planning and implementation process, and take place during Semester of Service 2010 (MLK Day, January 18, to Global Youth Service Day, April 23-25).

States eligible for this year’s UnitedHealth HEROES program include:

Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin.

Awards to support nonprofits doing good in their community

Tom’s of Maine

Tom’s of Maine wants to support nonprofit organizations working to do good in their community.  They are taking submissions until August 30th, and five nonprofits will be selected to receive $20,000 for their projects. Applications should support community involvement projects from nonprofit organizations.

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For all the recognition we’ve been getting ranging from our award winning volunteers to coverage by NPR, our students continue to impress their communities.  Just a few weeks ago, another university that is working towards opening a Campus Kitchen was recognized by a local community group. 

The Seven Society, a organization based in Charlottesville gave a grant of $11,000.77 to the Campus Kitchen that will be starting at UVA.  Read about it here.

UVA has been working hard to start a Campus Kitchen for over two years now.  The work that has been done by students, led by Ayisha Memon, Caroline Nettles, Krystal Boitnott and John Bankson has been impressive.  Their hard work is finally paying off, 11,000 different ways.

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Last week in Bloomington things were par for the course, which for CKP students is always amazing.  A great event was planned for a group of about 50 students, teachers and friends to hear about CKP and the kind of difference it could make on the community in Bloomington.  The event was held in a beautiful room, The Tudor Room, the food was excellent and the discussion was great.

I’m sure many of you know what a hunger banquet is, but for those who have never been to one, they are designed to create a representation of hunger across the world.  Some people get a full meal and others do not.  One of the coolest parts of this banquet was the open mindedness of the students at the banquet.  The middle class who only received a large plate of vegetables for the table along with rice, opted to share their vegetables with the lower class, who had only received rice.  I thought it was great to see a truly perfect representation of what CKP does going on at the banquet.

The banquet then broke into a discussion of what hunger truly is.  Why we do we call food insecurity?  Does it make us feel better knowing people are food insecure instead of hungry?  Why don’t we call it shelter insecure instead of homeless?  I challenged the students to google the word “hunger.”  And I issue the same to you.  Now click over to images.  It’s not a pretty sight, but it’s very real.  Hopefully we provoked some thoughts about hunger and how we deal with it at the banquet and hopefully it leads to a meaningful impact on those who participated.

I just wanted to give a big shout out to wrap up this post.  The Exec Board that has been diligently working on getting the project started at IU has done a great job:  Kelly Childs, Michael Peck, Anthony Bowen, Stephen Mendenhall, and Christopher Tan.  They’ve worked really hard and are close to getting a Campus Kitchen started.  I can’t wait to see it happen this summer!

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Or, as CKUVM coordinator Sarah Heim simply said: “A meal isn’t just about a meal, it’s more than that.”

University of Vermont’s recent Food Summit, driven by Campus Kitchen co-founder Kate Turcotte, was an expansive sort of occasion. It was the work of classes and clubs and co-ops and community gardens; from local projects like Intervale Farm to national movements like the Real Food Challenge.

For CKUVM, it was a chance to attract new interest in CKUVM from students who see food issues from a different lens. “We might hook you in with food,” said Sarah, “and from there we can make the hunger connection.”

The hook was definitely food at the Battle of the Campus Chefs, where CKUVM’s team got beat by Student for True Animal Rights, who baked an almond cake with chocolate ganache frosting. (They made the chocolate themselves!) Working with other campus groups also meant they had a great turnout–about 200 people, which meant about $500 for CKUVM.

The next battle for CKUVM will be bringing those young farmers and chefs into the Campus Kitchen fold. “It’s a question of how you direct your energy,” said Sarah, referring to student involvement, “but we want to show that interest in food can also mean giving back to your community.”

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Last Friday, the Campus Kitchen at Gettysburg College proved that they really “Take the Cake.” During a lunch hour fundraiser, CKGC raised over $330 and crowned the CKP Cake Champions!

The event included a cake bake-off competition, cake raffles, cake for sale by the slice, and cake walks (like musical chairs, except you win cakes). 15 Cake Bake-off entries included a prize winning strawberry shaped chocolate cake with ganache and strawberry frosting, Berrylicious trifle, and chocolate raspberry cake with cinnamon, cayenne pepper and chili powder. A panel of judges, which included the Gary Brautigam, director of Dining Services, Janet Morgan Riggs, President of the College, Shelley Funt, executive chef of the Gettysburg Hotel, and Seasons Bakery’s pastry chef, Amanda, rated each cake from 1-5 on taste, texture, originality, and presentation. It was hard work tasting all of those cakes, but someone had to take one for the team and do it.

Personally having the opportunity to eat roughly my weight in cake, I would consider the event to be a definite success!

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Guest blogger Lena at the donations table

Last week, Campus Kitchens at Johns Hopkins used an annual stand-up comedy show for good instead of evil…

Well, that was what the show’s director said when he introduced two of our members to tell the audience who we were and that we wanted their money. The show is part of a class that the director, a Hopkins grad who stars on the Food Network, has been holding during our winter break for the past five years. Students who take it get two credits for learning about comedic styles and techniques and then performing their own five-minute stand-up routine at the show.

Two of our members had the brilliant idea of seeing if we could use the show, which draws about 500 viewers every year, as a fundraiser. The kind-hearted director agreed, and so we set up a booth with some ghetto fabulous donation boxes (made from yogurt cartons, shoe boxes, and LOTS of duct tape)… and we raised just under $200 by the end of the night.

We began just by introducing ourselves and our cause, then passed the donation boxes around and held them at the booth behind the venue for people to get another chance to donate as they were leaving. Lots of people were very interested in Campus Kitchens and some people even signed up to volunteer. In addition, several of the student comedians plugged us during their routines. It was a really great experience, and it was a nice reminder that even at our odd little nerd school, plenty of people have good hearts.

We’re going to try again with more events and perhaps we’ll even have a legitimate, duct tape-free fundraising event by the end of the semester. Reach for the stars, right?

The end.

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