A New Group of AmeriCorps Leaders Step up to Feed

Hanging a chef’s hat for a year-long term as AmeriCorps VISTAs at Campus Kitchens is about more than just service for four new leaders. It’s about providing something to students that will change their lives.

“I really wanted to have an impact, and not just on the community,” said Katherine Winn of the Campus Kitchen at East Carolina University. “It’s that whole, I can do one thing to make a difference. Or, I can work with students, and change people’s lives for a lifetime.”

While the four new AmeriCorps VISTAs have similar reasons why they joined the program, they all bring different skills to their posts, and carry different visions for where they’d like to see their programs at the end of their year of service.

Amy Bachman will lead the Campus Kitchen at Johns Hopkins University, but she’s no stranger to the tireless work that goes into Campus Kitchen shifts. She first volunteered with the Campus Kitchen at Wake Forest University as a Sophomore, after attending a Spring Break trip to New Orleans, led by the then Campus Kitchen AmeriCorps VISTA at Wake Forest, Jen Baron.

“We talked a lot of Campus Kitchens, but also DC Central Kitchen and Robert Egger,” said Amy Bachman. “She told me about internships at DCCK, so I got really interested and applied. I loved the experience so much and enjoyed working with everyone involved with DCCK, that when I got back to Wake … I asked if I could be on the leadership team.”

From there, Bachman rose to become cooking shift director, which would provide her the necessary skills for becoming the AmeriCorps VISTA with Johns Hopkins smaller and newer Campus Kitchen program.

For some, the path to becoming a Campus Kitchen AmeriCorps VISTA was not so straight. Winn switched her major to Communications toward the latter part of her college career, and by default found herself in a service learning class. One assignment had her shadowing a woman who was a service learning graduate, and Winn asked how she got into the field.

The woman responded: “Well, I was an AmeriCorps Vista.”

“I was like, ‘A what?’” said Winn.

For Kyle Hinch who will lead the Campus Kitchen at Lee University and Daisy Weill, who heads the Campus Kitchen at William and Mary, university service trips propelled them into their year of service.

Hinch always had a passion for service, but his service trip to Honduras with Leonard Center Director William Lamb, who he calls his mentor, taught him service was about a lot more than he expected.

“The moment it really clicked for me was in Honduras. They had several hundreds of people at the dump making homes out of cardboard boxes to beat the sun. Through a local church, we passed out quesadillas and cold water. As soon as you started, people’s trust levels just went to a new level.”

Hinch hopes to use his extensive service background to build trust among the Cleveland, Tenn. community and students at Lee University.

“The potential there is to kind of knock it out of the park,” said Hinch of his Campus Kitchen’s presence on campus and in the community. “There’s potential to go person by person, handshake by handshake, smile by smile and just get people connected to the team.”

Weill hopes to apply her work with a health outreach organization and research/writing experience to help expand community programming at the Campus Kitchen at William and Mary, but she also has an extensive background with food, working as a barista and waitress.

“I also love cooking,” said Weill. “When I want to procrastinate, I tend to look at cooking blogs with lots of pictures.” Winn has similar cooking experience to bring to East Carolina University.

“I’ve been cooking since I was a little girl,” said Winn. “But it’s very different being in a big-sized kitchen. The steam kettle is the size of a person. You could seriously get inside of it, and it cooks stuff instantly.”

Winn hopes that her year of service will empower East Carolina University students to take over the leadership of the program, which began in February 2010. She already has the leadership team working to set up their own meetings, and also would like the students to add a community partner since there is more food to be recovered on campus.

Bachman said she wants to stabilize shifts and increase programming at Johns Hopkins University. By the end of her year, she said she hopes they are getting more fresh food donated and establishing relationships with local farms and markets, among other things.

At William and Mary, Weill sees the most potential in their Fridays at Five program, which allows volunteers to stay and work with kids at their community partner site.

“I would love to see us expand into providing more resources and information to adults in the community,” said Weill.

Hinch has a more holistic view for where he hopes his Campus Kitchen will go.

“It’s the age of fast food and video games and movies and TV,” said Hinch. “I hope what CKLEE can do for us is provide that sense of family and balance that just brings everything together. If you cook together, you can hang out together.”