Campus Kitchen at East Carolina University

TurkeyPalooza 2011

November 18 was a busy day for CKECU. In the midst of our first double shift, we were also handling our annual TurkeyPalooza deliveries.  This year we went through one of our community partners to find families in need in Pitt County. We worked with Operation Sunshine to coordinate handing out all of the fixings for a traditional Thanksgiving meal. These fixings were provided by student groups/organizations. Each sponsoring group was responsible for covering ordering costs of a frozen turkey breast, as well as collecting nonperishable food items, such as canned corn, canned green beans, pumpkin bread mix, etc., to finish out the meal. Groups also had the option of coming to Operation Sunshine to play games with the girls before they were picked up. As families came to pick up their daughters from Operation Sunshine they also received a box full of Thanksgiving goodies and a frozen turkey. Not only did our volunteers enjoy handing out the meals, but some of the girls even wanted to get involved, which was so inspiring. Staff members at Operation Sunshine were so thankful and excited about their girls receiving these meals. They took pictures of every family, arms full of food and faces full of smiles. One of the young girls just thought we were taking pictures and tried to give back her turkey. Once our volunteer explained that the turkey and the other food items were for her and her family to cook for Thanksgiving a look of pure joy shown through. She ran to the car and told her mom, who was also very thankful. Overall twenty-two families received these TurkeyPalooza meals. It was great to be able to serve the families of the girls CKECU serves every other Friday. Many of them truly needed this Thanksgiving blessing.

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Double the Food, Double the Stess, But Double the Reward

On November 18th Campus Kitchen did our first ever “Double Shift”. A Double is referred to as making enough food to serve two different community partners in one day. On November 18th we delivered to The Little Willie Center and Operation Sunshine, both after school programs for at risk youth. We mad hotdogs wrapped in tortilla shells, spinach dip, sweet potatoes, and cake.  We  choose to make the hotdogs wrapped in tortilla shells, because the tortilla shells we had bought for another shift earlier in the year and were about to expire. So I had found a recipe to make hotdogs with tortilla shells. The hotdog we boiled in the steam kettle, then wrapped in the shells and baked for about 10 minutes (until a nice golden brown). The kids loved them, we had several students come back for seconds. The spinach and sweet potatoes were donated from ECU and all we had to do was reheat them. The cake we made was the coke cake, were you just add coke to the cake mix and bake. The kids really enjoyed the meal.

In the kitchen it got a little stressful because none of the shift leaders had done a double before. None of us of ever made 70 servings of food at one time. But we were able to make all the food (all 70 Servings) and on time. All the volunteers we had that day really helped out a lot.

I look forward to doing more doubles because we can serve two communities in need, in the same time it takes us to just serve one.

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Penny Wars, We Won the Battle to Fundraise

Campus Kitchen at ECU had its first fundraiser for the year from November 7 through November 11th. We were able to raise $354.84  in just one week and we did this all by collecting spare change from people!!! How Penny Wars worked was pennies added points to a residence hall’s total and everything else (quarter, dime, nickel, bills) subtracted points. So the students would put pennies in the residence hall they wanted to win and everything else in other people’s residence halls. Campus Kitchen had asked all the residence halls on campus to participate in Penny Wars and the residence hall that collected the most points would win a trophy and cookies. We had four different locations that people could come and give donations. Two locations were during the day and were located outside of two of campus’ most busiest buildings. During the evening hours we had two locations, one in both of the dinning halls on campus.

The students really got involved with collecting and giving money. Some of the RA’s on campus had collected money from their dorm and brought it to us to donate. Other students emptied their penny banks and wallets of  spare change and dollar bills to help raise money for Campus Kitchen.  Overall Penny Wars was a big success.

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no eggs? no milk? no problem

On Friday October 14^th Campus Kitchen cooked and delivered to Operation Sunshine. We made chicken nuggets, potatoes, peas and carrots, and chocolate cake. The chicken nuggets were made by first cutting the raw chicken breasts into little strips then dipping them into milk and pancake mix. They were baked at 350 degrees for around 30 minutes because of the amount of chicken that we served. The potatoes and peas and carrots were from the can then steamed till cooked and warm. The most experimental part of the whole recipe was the chocolate cake. All we had to add was a 12 oz can of cola to each box of chocolate cake mix. Then bake just like the directions say. Not only is this cake diet (if you use diet cola) but it is also a vegan recipe. If you want to make a vanilla cake, use a lemon-lime carbonated drink. The cake comes out moist and warm. The girls at Operation Sunshine loved it and the volunteers were happy with all the smiles.

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more bodies, more minds, more hands get involved

September was a very interesting month for CKECU.  After losing some LT members due to graduation and class loads, our main goal was to bring in more leaders, but we also didn’t want to ignore others interested in helping out. Interest meetings were held to educate attendees about the mission and need for Campus Kitchen, as well as ways to get involved. One of these ways is through various committees, which are a new establishment in ECU’s Campus Kitchen’s student leadership organizational model. The five committees are each chaired by a current leadership team member, and are designed to kill two birds with one stone. The formation of committees will hopefully lessen the workload of the LT through delegating responsibilities to volunteers, and will allow for more students to get involved outside of shifts. Participating committee members will be given volunteer hours for contributions toward specific projects.

The five current committees are modeled around the main needs for CKECU, which include the Events Committee, Marketing/PR Committee, Fundraising Committee, Programming Committee, and the Food Procurement Committee. Each one has its own set of goals for this inaugural semester, but they often overlap as they are all working toward the great goal of making the Campus Kitchen at ECU a successful operation.

Some of the exciting things committees are working on this semester include the annual Turkey Palooza, planning events for Hunger and Homeless Awareness Week, a community food drive called Trick-Or-Canning, a creation of a CKECU Cookbook, Penny Wars as a fundraiser, games and other educational activities for our community partners, and much more. We hope this academic year will be an outstanding one.

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Fun for a good cause

Campus Kitchen Leadership Team members have had fun for a good cause earlier this month at Relay for Life and Cirque Du Service. ECU’s Relay for Life was held on the night of Friday, April 8th at the football stadium. Leadership Team members met at the event to walk together for an hour. Other student organizations lined the walkway with booths selling treats or opportunities to play games, donating all the money they collected to cancer research. This means that the walk was broken up with fun diversions, like playing Twister and enjoying cotton candy!

More delicious cotton candy was eaten Thursday April 14th, at the Cirque Du Service, an event put on by the Volunteer and Service Learning Center to thank dedicated volunteers for the year’s hard work. All Leadership Team members had the opportunity to enjoy the carnival-style event which was held in beautiful weather. There were fair-style foods, games, and even a MoonBounce! 

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One Year Anniversary Celebrated

When someone has a birthday, people celebrate with cake. To let their campus know about the one year anniversary of their creation, East Carolina’s Campus Kitchen decided to do just that — hold a cake party, with everyone passing by invited! The Leadership Team and AmeriCorps VISTA Katie Winn set up in the grass outside the library, right in the middle of campus, giving free cake to a hundred eager students and staff. The team also passed out fliers to let those students know about CKECU’s impact, and how they could get involved in Campus Kitchen’s efforts to reduce food waste. “In its first year, the Campus Kitchen at ECU has served over 1,500 meals to families in need around Pitt county,” the fliers told students, who also couldn’t resist stopping by to see CKECU’s mascot Lilley, even after the cake was gone. True to our mission, none of the cake went to waste!

Campus Kitchen had quite a year to celebrate, having grown a lot since its founding.  Initially advised by an AmeriCorps VISTA, CKECU has since begun the transition to student leadership. Leadership team members now have specific roles, such as community partner affiliate and shift manager, which allow the program to operate with the student’s leading the way! In November, CKECU held its first annual Turkey Palooza event. This event brought 15 East Carolina student organizations together to provide full Thanksgiving meals to 24 families! In the spirit of thanksgiving, CKECU also showed all of those who work together to make CKECU a success how much they are appreciated with a dinner prepared by the leadership team.  To date, over 1300 pounds of food have been rescued and made into meals by more than 360 volunteers logging more than 880 hours of service. These meals have gone to help Campus Kitchen’s two original community partners, the Ronald McDonald House and the Little Willie Center, as well as its newest partner, the girls-only after-school program Operation Sunshine which was added in February. What a year to celebrate!

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