Campus Kitchens Helps Illinois Communities

The group's offices are crammed into the basement of Northwestern University's Sargent Hall and the back of Allison Hall's kitchen. They depend on leftover food from Northwestern's meal service and a few donations from food banks and local businesses. Each work shift usually has fewer than 15 volunteers.

Despite all of that, assistant coordinator Nikki Goldwater said the group managed to deliver more than 50,000 meals in 2006.

NU's branch of Campus Kitchens is part of the larger national organization of the same name, with programs at such schools as Saint Louis and Wake Forest universities. The group has operated at NU since 2002.

The group works several different shifts per week, said assistant coordinator and Weinberg senior Jen Daniels. During the cooking shift, volunteers prepare and box food in the Allison kitchen that is delivered to the homebound elderly, the Salvation Army and many other groups the next day, she said.

The food means a lot to the clients, Goldwater said.

"Our senior clients are especially happy just to have someone come to their house," the SESP senior said. "Some people will talk to us as long as we let them, until we have to go to the next delivery."

Weinberg junior Archana Ravikumar, who has worked with the group since her freshman year, is captain of the Wednesday night cooking shift at Allison. She said while volunteers come mostly from the NU student body, the group also gets help from community high school students and neighborhood residents.

"I've worked in soup kitchens and a lot of places like that," she said. "This is something a little bit different."

Ravikumar said she has somewhere between six and eight volunteers on each shift. This is enough for the operation to run smoothly most of the time, she said, but sometimes things get hectic.

"We work reading week and finals week, and those times get crazy," she said. "We get (fewer) volunteers doing those weeks."

Ravikumar said she is part of a leadership team of about 10 that is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the group. They fundraise, advertise for volunteers and oversee each shift, she said.

A group from the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps volunteered for the first time during Wednesday's cooking shift. Weinberg sophomore Andrea Kaltenbach said the Naval ROTC was looking for an organization with which to volunteer, and she thought Campus Kitchens would be a good way for her group to get more involved on campus.

"The experience so far has been outstanding," she said. "It's efficient, and that's something that you don't see with a lot of student groups."

Kaltenbach said the mission of Campus Kitchens is something that connects with students as well.

"I like the whole idea of Campus Kitchens in general," she said. "It's a simple idea, but it's well-run."

Daniels said the group doesn't have to do a lot of fundraising. A few grants pay for overhead costs, but all the group needs otherwise is volunteers and food, she said.

"That's the beauty of the program," Daniels said. "It doesn't take a lot to run."