October Statistics

In October CKWL…

-served 1,656 meals

-passed along 2,947 lbs of food to local food pantries

-enlisted 514 volunteer hours

-recovered 6,196 lbs of food that would otherwise have gone to waste

A Million Meals

In it’s first three years, the Campus Kitchen at Washington and Lee has served 42,000 meals.  The Campus Kitchens Project is composed of 20 schools across the nation and just this past week we celebrated our 1 millionth meal.  Check out the story here: http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/news/dc/102209_campus_kitchen

September Statistics

Meals served:1,487

Food Recovered:  5,519 lbs

Volunteer Hours:  476

In September we partnered with the Rockbridge Area Free Clinic to provide healthy meals for their Diabetes Education Classes.  CKWL looks forward to being a part of teaching the Free Clinic clients how to eat nutritious meals and live a healthy lifestyle.

Hate to see food go to waste?

So do we!  And that’s why we love that Walmart is donating food to our Campus Kitchen.  The relationship with Walmart was established through Feeding America, a national Food Bank, and since we started a couple weeks ago we’ve received 3,040 lbs of dairy, baked goods and dry grocery products.  It’s incredible to think that prior to this partnership, all of that would have been thrown away.  Sophomore Austin Branstetter accompanied me on the first pick-up, and this was his response:

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, CKWL 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 you are available at 10:15 on Tuesdays, Thursdays, or Saturdays and would like to help sort through the donated product from Walmart to help CKWL  make good use of the food email sproulj@wlu.edu.

How does our garden grow?

Very well!  Just this week we’ve picked 20 lbs of tomatoes, 7 lbs of peppers, 13.5 lbs of squash and 8.5 lbs of basil.  Special thanks to our garden coordinators and consistent  volunteers:  Bill , Chris , James , Heather, Seth , Brian, Maya , Morten , and Isis.

True Hero Results

The Campus Kitchen Project received a $1,000 grant from truehero.org for our work in Rockbridge County.  Thank you all for your votes!  If you’d like to know more about True Hero, or to vote for CKP once again, you can visit truehero.org!

Pizza Pizza!

The new to Lexington restaurant Pizza Reddi promises customers fresh pizzas and I can verify that they hold true to that.  Campus Kitchen is the recipient of pizzas that have been held in the warmer beyond the “fresh” limit.  Thank you to everyone at Pizza Reddi for donating to CKP!

When Life Gives You Lemons…

You make lemonade.  When Janet’s Garden in Greenville donates Chicken Feet, CKP took on making chicken stock.  With a little research, I learned that Chicken Feet make great stock because there is very little fat, but the same nutrients in the bones as the rest of the carcass.  Throw in some celery, carrot, onion, spices and let it simmer for four hours and you’ve got yourself a great stock.  Thank you Janet for the feet and the opportunity for a new experience!

July Statistics

Here’s what we’ve done in July!

Meals served:  2,107

Volunteer Hours: 475

Food Recovered:  717.5 lbs

Last Week in Lexington, VA

Although I am very much excited about being reunited with my friends and family back home, I can’t help but think about the people I will be leaving here in Lexington. I would like to think that in some way I have positively affected this community. But most importantly, I’d like to take a moment to talk about how this community has affected me.

Working for the Campus Kitchen at Washington and Lee University has been very fulfilling. For me this job has been challenging, exciting, and sometimes intimidating. But I have grown so much from these experiences. The thought of having to talk to clients and be engaging with people I’ve never met–in a town I’ve never heard of–was a little uncomfortable for me. Not to mention, a lot of our clients have some sort of disability. This is to say, I was definitely kicked out of my comfort zone. And, I can honestly say for this I am grateful.

Everyone here is so nice and I will miss the southern hospitality that Lexington, VA represents. The spirit of community will stay with me when I leave and I hope that I can bring back this idea of cooperation and collaboration back home.

The Campus Kitchens Project is a wonderful organization and I know the Kitchen will continue to thrive under the impeccable leadership of the coordinator Ms. Jennifer Sproul.

Farewell!

With Love,

Isis A. Rose