The Campus Kitchen
Project
The Campus Kitchen mission:
Strengthen Bodies by using existing
resources to meet hunger and nutritional needs in our community; and
Empower Minds by providing leadership and
service learning opportunities to students, and educational benefits to adults,
seniors, children, and families in needs; and
Build Communities by fostering a new
generation of community-minded adults through resourceful and mutually
beneficial partnerships among students, social service agencies, business and
schools.
Historical:
The UNK chapter of Campus Kitchen started
on August 31, 2006. UNK follows a student-run model and is the
only Campus Kitchen located in Nebraska. So far there are 33 schools
around the country which participate in the program. The UNK chapter provides
one meal a week to approximately 85 clients. The majority of clients are
elderly shut-ins but we do serve several families with children. To date the
Kearney Chapter of Campus Kitchen has served more than 6,500 meals.
Information on potential clients is provided
to Campus Kitchen by various community organizations such as the Jubilee
Center, RAFT, The S.A.F.E. Center, Good Samaritan Society, and local churches. Campus Kitchen does at times have to turn
away clients due to a lack of resources such as food supplies, volunteers, or
kitchen space.
The Food:
The majority of meals are made with
leftover food from Kearney Public Schools. Each week, a Campus Kitchen
representative visits the schools to collect food. The food ranges the full
gamut of your typical school lunch program (tacos, pizza, grilled cheese,
hamburgers, grilled chicken, soup, etc.). These food items are combined
with items located in the Campus Kitchen pantry to provide for a nutritionally
balanced menu. The Campus Kitchen pantry is stocked from the donations of
campus groups who annually hold food drives for the organization. The campus
community has been generous enough that when needed a bag of grocery items is
provided to clients every few weeks with their meal delivery.
Campus Kitchen also helps stock a campus
Food Pantry known as The Big Blue Cupboard. The Big Blue Cupboard
The Volunteers:
This is truly a student run operation. One
evening each week is known as the “Cooking Shift”, which prepares and packages
the meals. The following day is known as the “Delivery Shift” when
students hand-deliver the meals to clients. Campus Kitchen is always
seeking volunteers who want to utilize and further develop their leadership,
organization and communication skills leadership positions and shift
assignments. Please contact Jon Watts if you would like to volunteer.
Advisor: Jon Watts
Phone: (308) 865-8448
Email: wattsjc@unk.edu