Each year, our national arm, The Campus Kitchens Project, hosts a network-wide crowdsourcing fundraiser called Raise the Dough. Schools have exactly one week to raise as much money as they can. The schools on top of the leaderboard at the end of the week earn additional cash prizes ranging from $250-$1,000. Our student volunteers reached out to hundreds of their peers, faculty members and community supporters with impressive results. Together, they raised over $50,000 from nearly 900 individuals to support their innovative student-powered hunger relief efforts.
The Campus Kitchen at Gettysburg College took home first place raising a record-breaking $10,315 to support their Healthy Options program, an initiative that provides increased ability to purchase healthy, fresh foods to families experiencing food insecurity, yet are not eligible for federal food assistance programs. The Campus Kitchens at Washington DC and University of Maryland Eastern Shore came in second and third respectively. For the third year in the row, the Campus Kitchen at Gonzaga College High School had the most donors, leveraging the support of 264 individuals to raise over $8,000.
Not only were prize dollars on the line, but we were also excited to offer $15,000 in matching funds available from Craig Newmark Philanthropies! Grassroots donations $100 and under were matched up to a total of $15,000. Including the generous match opportunity from Craig Newmark Philanthropies, Raise the Dough brought in over $67,000.
A giant “thank you” goes out to all 877 donors and to all who shared our challenge with their own networks. Your support makes all the difference in aiding our efforts to alleviate hunger and food waste, which since 2001 has empowered student volunteers to recover more than 7 million pounds of food and serve over 3.3 million meals.