Campus Kitchens keep Summer Lunchboxes Full

This summer, as lunch ladies put their final servings of school-subsidized meals on cafeteria trays, Campus Kitchens are stepping in to keep the cafeteria lines moving.

With a recent report by the Food Resource and Action Center indicating summer feeding programs for children saw a drop in 2009, Campus Kitchens from Boston to Chicago are stepping in to provide nutritious snacks and lunches to youth day camps and local agencies.

The Campus Kitchen at Northwestern University will fill one very large gap in nutrition this summer with the promise of 20,000 lunches, distributed over five agencies, to Illinois children. As part of a nationwide effort established by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Sodexo's Feeding our Future, this marathon effort to produce as many as 500 meals a day runs from June 6 through August 30.

Meal shifts, which often include an assembly line of peanut butter and jelly sandwich-making, are run by the Campus Kitchen coordinator and three summer interns. According to intern Dana Davidsen, however, the creation, organization, and delivery of so many meals would not be possible if not for the additional volunteer support of the Feeding our Future program from the community.

“Feeding our Future is my favorite part of the whole Campus Kitchen process because we get so many new volunteers in,” said Davidsen. “Bringing in these volunteers for weekly shifts gets people familiar with different agencies around their community.”

At the Campus Kitchen at University of Massachusetts Boston (CKUMB), summer volunteers will become very familiar with two on-campus summer camps: Camp Shriver and Project Alerta. CKUMB will provide nutritious snacks to underprivileged children enrolled at these camps, with the added bonus of interactive nutrition education.

CKUMB coordinator Chelsea Goulart will encourage children, mostly ages 8 to 12, to participate in aerobic games that also teach about healthy eating. Already, Goulart has taught kids a Simon Says fruits and vegetables game and engaged the camps in a whole grain vs. refined grain taste test.

“The majority of these kids get school meals while school’s in session,” says Goulart. “The registration fee for one camp is $7, and often that fee is waived, so there is definitely a need.”

In Lexington, Va., the Campus Kitchen at Washington and Lee also looks to provide nutritious snacks to youth this summer in its Seed to Feed program, teaching 45 elementary aged students lessons like good vs. bad sugars.