DCCK and CKP — Meeting the Future

The Campus Kitchens Project is pleased to announce the opening of 5 new Campus Kitchens on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. These kitchens include:

• Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD),
• University of Wisconsin Eau Claire (Eau Claire, WI),
• Baylor University (Waco, TX),
• Lee University (Cleveland, TN)
• University of Florida (Gainesville, FL). 

Twenty years ago the idea of using existing resources to serve a community's needs was revolutionary and became the genesis for DC Central Kitchen. As the Kitchen grew, this new way of looking at food, people, space etc. sparked debate in the nonprofit community and continues to create new ideas of service. In 2001, DCCK branched out and took its message national, in the form of The Campus Kitchens Project.

The idea is simple - students are looking to make change; already operational kitchen facilities are being under-utilized; and service experience can create the leaders of our future. The Campus Kitchens Project takes the ideas, developed at DCCK, of food recovery, meal distribution, job training and nutrition education and helps students establish small, nonprofit organizations on their college or university campus. The answer lies in students being the driving force behind all phases of operations from preparing and delivering nutritious meals to their communities to the development of funds needed to maintain and grow the program. With students at the helm the potential of our future is endless.

CKP supports local economies by partnering with local farmers or community gardens creating healthier options food for everyone. Campus Kitchens bring together volunteers of all ages, empowering them to share the wisdom of their past, with the passion of our future. The students bring their communities together, bringing agencies that can best use food to connect the young and the old through beneficial partnerships.

With these 5 new openings, Campus Kitchens are now operating in 20 schools across the country. Using MLK Day of Service as a launching off point, these schools are not only committing to a day or semester of service, but are offering their communities a real solution to very real problems.

The future CKP is to be an incubator of new ideas. Future kitchens could act as an intergenerational hub, connecting active seniors as mentors to students at after school programs, or working with students on shared service projects. The Campus Kitchens model opens opportunities for students to create social enterprise projects. Kitchens may go green and serve as models for sustainability in environmental impact. The idea is simple, but the possibilities it creates are still revolutionary.