Campus Kitchen at ECU is now accepting applications for volunteer Shift Leaders and Leadership Team members. Click here for an application form. E-mail completed applications to Elizabeth Corney, corneye@ecu.edu. The Campus Kitchen Project is a national program with affiliate schools throughout the country.
The mission of The Campus Kitchens Project is to use service as a tool to:
- Strengthen Bodies by using existing resources to meet hunger and nutritional needs in our community;
- Empower Minds by providing leadership and service learning opportunities to students, and educational benefits to adults, seniors, children, and families in need; and
- Build Communities by fostering a new generation of community-minded adults through resourceful and mutually beneficial partnerships among students, social service agencies, businesses and schools.
What We Do:
We know there are people in every community who need nourishing meals. And, we know that every college campus has unserved food in its dining halls and brilliant students in its classrooms. So we put them all together.
We empower thousands of students each year to recycle food from their cafeterias, turn these donations into nourishing meals, and deliver those meals to those who need it most. Then, we open up that on-campus kitchen space to teach culinary skills to unemployed men and women, who in turn teach the college students a thing or two about poverty, stereotypes, and what it takes to make it these days.
So far, we're at 33 schools around the country: big schools and small schools; rural and urban; colleges and high schools (well, one high school).
The best part is that students run the whole show. They plan the menus, get the food, run the cooking shifts, organize the drivers, and teach culinary skills to unemployed adults. Then, they keep track of all of the paperwork (so we know everything’s being done safely), organize fundraisers, develop curriculum, and recruit new students to get involved. They accomplish an incredible amount of work every day. And then, they take those skills into their jobs when they graduate from school.
