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

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A mere two days before the class of 2013 began to arrive at W&L, I went with Jenny to make CKP’s first food pickup from Walmart.   After some initial confusion about which of the many back doors we were supposed to go to, we made our way to the egg bunker where we met the women who would be facilitating the food pick-ups.  As they took us to the back of the store, I was stunned by the sheer volume of food.  The women gave us a brief tour and then we started loading up the cars.  My first impression of these two women was how excited they were that this food was not going to be wasted.  Despite the fact that they had to do some extra work to give us the food, they were more than happy to do so and just as excited as we were to be rescuing this food that otherwise would have been wasted.  Walmart has high standards on what can be sold, so there is an abundance of perfectly good food that they cannot sell because of damaged packaging.  The number of eggs that they were throwing out was unbelievable.  After saving the eggs for only two days, they were able to send us away with over 500 eggs.  From now on, CKP will be picking up from Walmart three times a week, which will supply more than enough food to fill the fridges and many hungry mouths, if my experience is any indication of a normal Walmart run.                            - Austin Branstetter

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 8.25.09: The Campus Kitchen at William and Mary kicked off the 2009 school year with their very first gleaning trip. Jessica Kim and Timmy Siverd, two members of the CKCWM leadership team, coordinated the  trip with William and Mary’s annual Students Helping Out Williamsburg (SHOW) Day. SHOW provided the CKCWM with 10 new student volunteers who were eager to lend a helping hand. Despite the farmers’ regrets that “there wasn’t much left to be picked”, the students managed to glean a total of 550lbs of fresh produce from 3 local farms!  Helen Kidder, a local master gardener and long-time community partner of CKCWM, was instrumental in this gleaning trip. She volunteered her bright blue van for produce transportation, without which, none of this would have been possible. The students packed it full of large, juicy watermelons and heaping bags of tomatoes. By the end of the day, the kitchen obtained 300lbs of tomatoes from KelRae Farms and Allens Farm as well as 50lbs of potatoes and 200lbs of watermelons from Hidden Brook Farm. After all of the produce was collected and sorted, CKCWM had more food than they knew what to do with! They had never had to store so much fresh produce before, so they generously donated to the WM dining services and a local food pantry, and the rest went towards their weekly meal deliveries. All in all, they ended up with 50lbs of watermelon and 200lbs of tomatoes. The rest of the produce (100lbs tomatoes, 50lbs potatoes, and 150lbs watermelon) went to DC Central Kitchen for daily meal production of over 4,000 meals.

New student volunteer at KelRae Farm

 It looks like this gleaning trip will be the first of many for CKCWM. KelRae Farms was so excited to have the students out on the farm, making use of seconds (that would normally be left in the fields to turn into compost), that they invited them back for another round of gleaning this fall.

To read more about SHOW, go to: http://www.wm.edu/news/stories/2009/220-wm-students-help-out-williamsburg-123.php 

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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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No, this isn’t a joke: it’s CKP’s Nopalitos Innovation Award. And for the first time ever, we’re accepting nominations for this highly coveted honor!

WHAT IS IT? The Nopalitos Innovation Award is a quarterly recognition given to the CKP leader who shows innovation in programming, sustainability and/or student development. The award is named for a jar of Nopalitos (pickled cactus) donated to the Campus Kitchen at Saint Louis University during their first food drive in 2001. This unofficial “mascot” serves as a reminder of the distinct personality of each Campus Kitchen, and of CKP’s emphasis on creativity and innovation.

WHO’S ELIGIBLE? Any “innovative” CKP leaders—staff or student, individual or team—are eligible for the award.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE “INNOVATIVE?” You tell us! Previous award recipients have pioneered year-round Culinary Job Training programs, developed volunteer management systems, created blogs and even taken the food stamp challenge.

HOW DO I SUBMIT A NOMINATION? Email Maureen Roche with the name of your nominee and a brief description of what makes that person truly innovative. Nominations are due July 20.

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Lucky for us we have a resident retiree down the hall that works for the Ignatian Volunteer Corps.  Joe Jones, the Regional Director, embraced volunteerism after years of being a Lawyer and a Trade Association Executive.  In 1998 Joe retired, and found himself as a IVC volunteer in 2005.  He spent three years volunteering at DC Central Kitchen, working two  days a week: in the morning as a prep cook and in the afternoons teaching interpersonal and interview skills.

When IVC decided to split the DC area into two regions they asked Joe if he would join them as a Regional Director.  “I thought they were nuts,” Joe told me.  But he accepted the job and began his “encore career.”

If you ask Joe why he does it, he responds:

It’s life confirming.  It’s important to everyone that’s involved.  The materially poor, the marginalized, the volunteers and the agencies.  It’s challenging work because we just get by on a shoe string.  But it’s truly rewarding.

Joe’s job is to find fulfilling volunteer placements for retirees around DC—he’s even placed a Physics Doctorate at the Washington Jesuit Academy as a TA in a math class!  Retirees bring life experience and very specialized skills to new environments to help give back.  Maybe it’s time you engaged a retiree at your Campus Kitchen.

This stuff isn’t for everyone.  The commitment is significant.  But when it’s right, it makes your eyes water.  -Joe Jones

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