News
Campus Kitchens Earn Top Sustainability Recognition
What makes a university ‘cool’? According to Sierra magazine’s analysis of higher education institutions last August, implementing a Campus Kitchen helps.
The University of Vermont earned Sierra’s distinction as the fourth out of their “10 Coolest Schools” list (this year it ranks 17 of 100) for its commitment to the environment. Sierra magazine editors came up with a rating system based on efficiency, academics, administration and purchasing, and energy to determine the score.
Within the rating system, the University of Vermont scored well, but it was the bonus points the magazine awarded that won the college the fourth highest ranking. Among reasons why UVM received bonus points for its sustainable projects: its Clean Energy Fund, the university’s Sustainable Food Working Group, and The Campus Kitchens Project.
A growing number of schools that house Campus Kitchens are gaining recognition and adding awards to their university display cases, due in part the student-led hunger relief effort on campus.
This month, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality awarded state environmental distinction (Exemplary Environmental Enterprise or E3) to its first university in the state: the University of Virginia. While the E3 includes many city public works and resource-focused Virginia businesses, few entities as large as the University of Virginia are included on the list.
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School's Out for Summer, But Lunch is Still Being Served
School is out for summer, but lunch is still being served thanks to efforts by the Campus Kitchen at Northwestern University (CKNU) to feed.
CKNU will provide 20,000 free lunches to Illinois children during their summer break from school through funding provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Sodexo.
The lunches, which use local produce and are prepared by student volunteers at Northwestern University's Campus Kitchen, fill the void left by free school lunch and breakfast programs. According to a recent Associated Press article, the Food Research and Action Center reports that states and cities cut summer feeding programs in 2009 as need increased.
CKNU’s Feeding our Future meal program began July 6 and runs through August 30. This marks The Campus Kitchens Project’s fifth year providing free summer lunches to area students through the Feeding Our Future program.
Read more: School's Out for Summer, But Lunch is Still Being Served
CKUMB Learns the Art of Fresh Salsa
Those who walked into Boston's East Zone Early Learning Center classroom Monday, May 24 might have encountered a site a little out of the ordinary: 130 elementary students sitting eagerly in front of plates of roma tomatoes.
The tomatoes, donated by Food for Free to the Campus Kitchen at University of Massachusetts Boston, served as the base ingredient to the afternoon's salsa making lesson. Campus Kitchen coordinator Chelsea Goulart and Campus Kitchen volunteers organized the event to celebrate the recent tilling of the Campus Kitchen salsa garden on ELC-East's grounds, and show students the benefits they could soon be reaping from fresh produce.
"We wanted to show them what they would be doing once things grow," said Goulart. "And that good food can be healthy for you."