The Lexington, Va. campus celebrated the MLK Day of Service by sharing service opportunities with students and opening up the Campus Kitchen to members of The Campus Kitchens Project national staff. As a new member of the Campus Kitchens team this was my first experience in a Campus Kitchen. I was quite impressed by the leadership of the students and their understanding of service through CKWL as an influential part of their education.

CKWL gave us a tour of their kitchen and garden and allowed us to join them on a delivery shift. Their garden, almost a third of an acre, lay almost bare from the winter weather, but remnants from last years harvest show promise for the warmer months.

We went next to meet the chickens, that through a partnership with a local restaurant, help the garden thrive. There are not enough eggs for the CKWL to source for their meals, but that is not a problem since Walmart donates dozens of cartons of eggs to be sorted daily that have cracked or damaged eggs. The kitchen then brings these newly sorted eggs to the local food pantry and uses some in the kitchen.

Although student volunteers don’t get a chance to crack their own eggs, they do make basil chicken and salsa using frozen tomatoes and basil they processed over the summer.

Later, we tagged along on a delivery shift and saw some of the partnerships that CKWL has created. The food pantry receives donations from food the Campus Kitchen provides and in return recommends individuals to receive meals. We made delivery to a man staying at a hotel with support from the food pantry.

To cap off Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s day of service, the Campus Kitchen held an open house to raise awareness about the service opportunities available to students on and off campus. Organizations including the Campus Kitchen at Washington and Lee, Habitat for Humanity and Project Horizon congregated allowing interested students to find out more about these service opportunities. 

MLK has inspired many to live a life of service and by dedicating MLK Day to a day of service we can honor his legacy. CKWL’s event raised awareness about the opportunities offered throughout the year.

What have you done to raise awareness about volunteer opportunities on campus? In what other ways have you worked with partner organizations?

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This Martin Luther King Jr. Day, The Campus Kitchens Project promoted the spirit of service through the power of film.

As an official partner of MLK Day Community Cinema screenings, CKP hosted a documentary and discussion at parent organization DC Central Kitchen.

Volunteers from Jack and Jill, a group dedicated to creating engaged citizens in their youth, and Kaiser Permanente, arrived at the kitchen in the morning to slice tomatoes, grate carrots, drain spaghetti, and construct sandwiches for delivery of 5000 meals that day.

As their service came to a close, volunteers filled the lunchroom to view the film: Garbage Dreams, which follows youth that work in trash (with a particular knack for recycling) on the outskirts of Cairo. The underlying theme of eliminating waste connected the film back to their day of service.

Director/Founder of Stone Soup Films, Liz Norton, was the featured speaker at the event, talking about the importance of documentary in provoking change and highlighting the successes of community action. Stone Soup Films is a non-profit production company that provides free funding for promotional films to worthy Washington, D.C. organizations.

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D.C. Central Kitchen Chefs guide students for MLK Day

Earlier today, as 20 grantees of The Campus Kitchens Project kicked off Martin Luther King, Jr. Day service projects thanks to a grant from The Corporation for National and Community Service, one grantee local to Washington, D.C. delivered hot meals to the community as a result of service completed on Dr. King’s actual birthday, January 15.

St. Andrews Episcopal High School in Potomac, Md., harnessed the volunteer power of 25 students – 8th through 12th grades – in a friendly cooking competition that engaged all generations in service to honor Dr. King.

Before the competition began, teams baked cookies to include with a meal delivery to their partner site, Bethesda Cares. Bethesda Cares is a community response organization that addresses the problems of the homeless.

Chefs who regularly man the Bethesda Marriott kitchen and two chefs on the D.C. Central Kitchen team – Jamillah Linkins and Troy Washington – paired up with teams of students from each grade for the cookoff. Students furiously chopped and stirred pots of homemade chili.

When the chili simmered long enough, the student cooks proudly served their results to a panel of judges, including founder of D.C. Central Kitchen and The Campus Kitchens Project Robert Egger.

Speakers for the event stressed the importance of student leaders who serve. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Everyone can be great, because everyone can serve.” View more pictures from the event below.

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These projects stretch from Alabama to New Jersey, out to Utah and Washington. Each organization will produce its own distinctive service opportunities, but all have found creative ways to leave a lasting mark on their respective communities.

In Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., Inland Empire United Way will engage up to 250 volunteers in a day of service as part of The Campus Kitchens Project’s grantees. Take a look at the innovative way they broke up their day of service to spread the effort across communities.

• Volunteers will paint a mural depicting local leaders from the community of Redlands, culminating in a community walk leading to a “Lincon Memorial” replica where a local leader will read MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

• Pomona  Weed and Seed will engage community volunteers to paint, plant and do a community cleanup. They will also host a community meet and greet for local residents

• A group of volunteers will lead seniors in games and social activities and food at EngAge, a local organization.

• Volunteers will pack food and supplies for needy children at Feed the Children.

• Inland Empire United Way will launch the semester of service (many projects will be carrying out service activities throughout the semester) with Music Changing Lives in Redlands. Volunteers there will help complete a mural of the history of Redlands.

Located in or around Rancho Cucamonga? You can still sign up to volunteer here.

What do you have planned for MLK Day? Are you planning to spend the day volunteering?

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Campus Kitchens participate in some aspect of service-learning every day – and most of them either are housed on a public school campus or somehow work with a public school through a community partnership.

As State Farm and Youth Serve America announced today, these Campus Kitchens are also eligible for a $1,000 grant to complete a semester of service for or with a public school.

The State Farm Good Neighbor Service Learning grants will allot money to programs in the United States and some provinces of Canada that engage youth in service-learning, an effective teaching and learning strategy that promotes student learning, academic achievement, workplace readiness, and healthy communities.

Projects for this grant should follow Youth Serve America’s semester of service guidelines, beginning on MLK Day (January 17, 2011) and culminating on Global Youth Service Day (April 15-17, 2011) – a format familiar to many of The Campus Kitchens Project’s past MLK Day sub-grantees.

To apply, visit the YSA website, take the eligibility quiz, and create a login and password to start the application process.  The application deadline is October 15, 2010.

YSA will host two application webinars, September 7 and October 7, for applicants to learn more about developing a successful project. To register, please sign up by filling out the form here.

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With the first signs of Spring, students from the Campus Kitchen at Lee University in Cleveland, Tenn. celebrated by teaming up with Anthropology and Sociology majors, as well as the Lee University soccer team to host a community block party for residents they rarely get to connect with while living on campus.

Using funds from their MLK Semester of Service Grant, the kitchen put to action their Mega Meals program, inviting families living near Green Drive to a day filled with games, soccer, bubble-blowing, face-painting, and nutritious food.

The Sociology and Anthropology students visited homes and interviewed parents and families prior to the block party to determine what activities to put on for the community. After their home visits, many of the students were inspired to continue helping the Green Drive community beyond their school requirements.

Other students helped local children explore their creative abilities through chalking the sidewalk and face painting. The young and old alike jumped into the soccer tournament hosted by Lee’s team, and the Campus Kitchen anchored the day’s activity with a hearty meal of lasagna – 64 servings in total.

The Campus Kitchen at Lee University plans to continue its Mega Meals program, serving the community at Green Drive using the diverse skills of students.

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The first Virtually Delicious lesson with local youth from The Center/El Centro, an after school program for children in first through eighth grades, took place at the end of February. The program brought together 11 middle-school students and eight student volunteers from Gettysburg College.  Most of the Gettysburg College volunteers were health science majors and used the opportunity to explain nutrition in detail with the middle school students.

The children began their day of combined nutrition and computer education by learning how to best navigate the Internet.  Among the things they learned:  searches need to be as specific as possible in order to yield the results you are looking for.  They took the lesson one step further and embarked on an online scavenger hunt, looking for things like the amount of calories in a slice of cheese pizza and the serving size for one serving of pasta.

After they completed all tasks, the middle school students navigated the MyPyramid for Kids website.  Each student received a blank MyPyramid to color according to the images they found on Google images.  Next, they utilized the “MyPyramid Plan” feature on the website to determine the amounts of each food group they needed.  Each student input his/her age, sex, height, and weight.  Based on the data, the program calculated a personalized pyramid.  The students filled in the pyramids with the recommendations specific to them.

After this activity the kids played the “MyPyramid Blast Off” game.  The game consists of adding food as fuel to a rocket ship until it has enough fuel from each food group.  Once this is achieved, the rocket blasts off to indicate successful completion!

The Virtually Delicious Program is part of continuing community partnership with The Center/El Centro and the Campus Kitchen at Gettysburg College, as well as a piece of CKGC’s MLK Semester of Service. Below, Megan describes a service day completed in lead-up to the Virtually Delicious kick-off.

Students from The Center/El Centro and Gettysburg College assembled on Friday, February 19 to complete a Day of Service at Everblossom Farm. They dug right in, working to maintain the crops in the greenhouse and preparing the ground for additional growing.  It was awesome to see just how many plants were growing in the greenhouse in the winter.  The kids were able to identify and taste several vegetables, including: spinach, peas, spring mix greens, and kale.  Everyone was very surprised at how warm it was in the greenhouse.  Even though it was in the 30s outside, with about a foot of snow on the ground, it was at least 80 degrees inside the greenhouse and everyone kept taking off more clothing as they did more work.

After a successful service project it was time to go home.  The kids were amazed by the cows and we spent the end of our time at the farm watching them and trying to get them to come near us.

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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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Curious about how they gathered volunteers this past MLK Day?

Here’s a quick look at what goes on, with inspiration (we hope) for volunteers at your Campus Kitchen.

In this video:
Cindy Slavantis, state office manager at The Corporation for Community and National Service, and daughter Julia

Carol and Gagan, also of The Corporation for Community and National Service

Kristian Gray of The Collegiate Leadership Program High School

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