Wed_Apr_10_20:01:17_PDT_2019
Early this year, I found myself in a new city, transitioning between jobs and with quite a bit of extra time on my hands
After several dreary winter afternoons spent lounging on the sofa, watching sitcom re-re-re-runs, I decided that the time had come to look for a volunteer opportunity. After a few days of skimming through local newspapers and newsletters, I finally got lucky with Volunteer Match. Within minutes, I found the Campus Kitchen Project, a mere 20 minute walk from my home. Since the first week of February, I have been spending 2-3 hours a week volunteering there and it is the most rewarding thing I have done in a long time.
What is the Campus Kitchen project? Their mission is simple...
(a) Collect good, nutritious food that may otherwise be wasted. Our campus kitchen (CK) gets prepared food from the campus cafeterias and restaurants and uns old produce, bread etc. from stores like Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, to name some sources. At the end of every semester, students donate food that they would otherwise throw out before they go home for the summer/ winter break: before summer break, CK collected a thousand lbs of granola bars, fruit cups, canned soup, cereal and other student staples!
(b) CK has a full-size fully equipped professional kitchen donated by the university (this is the "campus" part of campus kitchens...they are mostly located in colleges and universities). In this kitchen, all the donated food is converted into delicious, nutritious and well-balanced meals that are neatly packaged in an appetizing way. There is only one employee (the coordinator), everyone else who works here is a volunteer.
(c) The prepared meals are delivered by volunteers to citizens in the surrounding neighborhoods who are in need. In this way, a ton of perfectly good and edible food is saved from being tossed in the garbage , and at the same time, we are fighting hunger in the community.
I confess that I am one of those people who claim to be "hungry" or "starving" every few hours, without ever knowing the true meaning of those words. Real hunger is painful and horrifying, it stamps out human dignity. When people think of hunger, they sometimes think that it is restricted to war-torn regions of Africa and sprawling slums in Asia. The fact is, hunger exists everywhere in the world, and to an extraordinary degree in the wealthiest country in the world. The lack of food is often officially described as food insecurity. If you ask me, the cold and clinical term "food insecurity" does not even begin to describe the gnawing pain and helplessness of the word "hunger".
So, Mondays in spring semester and Tuesdays in summer, I find myself in the middle of a cooking shift in CK. Meals- including breakfast, lunch and dinner- are made for 100-150 people at every shift. Meals are served in the traditional American style: protein (some form of meat), starch (pasta/rice/ bread/ potatoes), vegetable and dessert/ fruit. I usually take care of the vegetables, and occasionally, the starch portion of the meal. You have to walk into the pantry, check the coolers to see what food has been donated, and work with it. No matter what combination of foods you have on hand, you have to produce something delicious and nutritious, and in the required number of servings. It is quite challenging: a little bit like the TV show Top Chef :) And only a hundred times more meaningful- instead of serving meals to a panel of sneering judges, we are actually serving real people who will be nourished by it! Sometimes, at the beginning of a shift, we find that food is running low, and there are worried looks as the cooking team tries to think of ways to make the amount of food that we need for the day. Miraculously, ideas start spinni ng and we are always able to make enough food, and to be completely satisfied by the way it looks and tastes. I have made (alone or as part of a team): macaroni and cheese, PB
After several dreary winter afternoons spent lounging on the sofa, watching sitcom re-re-re-runs, I decided that the time had come to look for a volunteer opportunity. After a few days of skimming through local newspapers and newsletters, I finally got lucky with Volunteer Match. Within minutes, I found the Campus Kitchen Project, a mere 20 minute walk from my home. Since the first week of February, I have been spending 2-3 hours a week volunteering there and it is the most rewarding thing I have done in a long time.
What is the Campus Kitchen project? Their mission is simple...
(a) Collect good, nutritious food that may otherwise be wasted. Our campus kitchen (CK) gets prepared food from the campus cafeterias and restaurants and uns old produce, bread etc. from stores like Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, to name some sources. At the end of every semester, students donate food that they would otherwise throw out before they go home for the summer/ winter break: before summer break, CK collected a thousand lbs of granola bars, fruit cups, canned soup, cereal and other student staples!
(b) CK has a full-size fully equipped professional kitchen donated by the university (this is the "campus" part of campus kitchens...they are mostly located in colleges and universities). In this kitchen, all the donated food is converted into delicious, nutritious and well-balanced meals that are neatly packaged in an appetizing way. There is only one employee (the coordinator), everyone else who works here is a volunteer.
(c) The prepared meals are delivered by volunteers to citizens in the surrounding neighborhoods who are in need. In this way, a ton of perfectly good and edible food is saved from being tossed in the garbage , and at the same time, we are fighting hunger in the community.
I confess that I am one of those people who claim to be "hungry" or "starving" every few hours, without ever knowing the true meaning of those words. Real hunger is painful and horrifying, it stamps out human dignity. When people think of hunger, they sometimes think that it is restricted to war-torn regions of Africa and sprawling slums in Asia. The fact is, hunger exists everywhere in the world, and to an extraordinary degree in the wealthiest country in the world. The lack of food is often officially described as food insecurity. If you ask me, the cold and clinical term "food insecurity" does not even begin to describe the gnawing pain and helplessness of the word "hunger".
So, Mondays in spring semester and Tuesdays in summer, I find myself in the middle of a cooking shift in CK. Meals- including breakfast, lunch and dinner- are made for 100-150 people at every shift. Meals are served in the traditional American style: protein (some form of meat), starch (pasta/rice/ bread/ potatoes), vegetable and dessert/ fruit. I usually take care of the vegetables, and occasionally, the starch portion of the meal. You have to walk into the pantry, check the coolers to see what food has been donated, and work with it. No matter what combination of foods you have on hand, you have to produce something delicious and nutritious, and in the required number of servings. It is quite challenging: a little bit like the TV show Top Chef :) And only a hundred times more meaningful- instead of serving meals to a panel of sneering judges, we are actually serving real people who will be nourished by it! Sometimes, at the beginning of a shift, we find that food is running low, and there are worried looks as the cooking team tries to think of ways to make the amount of food that we need for the day. Miraculously, ideas start spinni ng and we are always able to make enough food, and to be completely satisfied by the way it looks and tastes. I have made (alone or as part of a team): macaroni and cheese, PB
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