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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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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This year, over 900 volunteers are expected to produce over 12,000 meals. Some will use MLK Day, January 18, to kick off their projects. Others will spend the days to follow launching into their semesters of service. Regardless of the timeline, we can’t wait to hear the stories of success: how a child used a computer for the first time to explore the world of nutrition, how ex-offenders discovered a passion while preparing a community meal alongside professional chefs, or how a campus kitchen implemented its first meal service shift.

What do the MLK Day grantees have to live up to? Read below for a summary of what happened last year, during CKP’s first MLK Day.

701 CKP volunteers logged over 3000 hours of service in their communities as part of the largest turnout ever for an MLK Day of Service.

We’re especially excited about the projects at our brand-new campus Kitchens at Baylor University, , University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Florida. They prepared food for community garden volunteers in Texas, deep cleaned a community table in Wisconsin, helped job seekers prepare resumes in Baltimore and served their very first CK meals in Florida.

At the University of Vermont, students renovated the dining hall at the local Food Shelf. They repainted the paneling and drew murals on three of the large panels, featuring pictures inspired by the book “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.”

Inspired by Obama’s impending inauguration, new volunteers made MLK day at St. Louis University’s Campus Kitchen one to remember.

What better way to honor the 80^th birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. and celebrate the inauguration of our very first African-American president than to answer their call to service? What better way to define our national character than to recycle waste? What better way to satisfy our spirits than to feed the hungry?

Where were you on MLK Day 2009?

Let us know what you’re planning for MLK Day 2010!

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

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CKUVM students paint on MLK Day 2009

“All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence,” said Martin Luther King, Jr.

In order to continue his legacy of labor that uplifts humanity, CKP will join with the Corporation for National and Community Service again this year to celebrate MLK Day 2010 as a day of service.

CKP has grants for up to $2,000 available for our affiliates and beyond. If you’ve got a project that addresses hunger issues in your community, involves underserved populations in volunteerism, and gets folks involved in sustained service, we want to fund you!

MLK Day 2009 saw volunteers at the University of Vermont’s Campus Kitchen renovating the dining hall at their local food shelf and students at Baylor University open the doors of their Campus Kitchen.   The Campus Kitchen at Gettysburg College kept the MLK Day spirit going all semester long.

Read the Request for Proposals , fill out the application, and email us (info@campuskitchens.org) if you have any questions! But don’t wait: applications are due July 10, 2009.

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