The Campus Kitchen at UGA

Everything starts with our Food Collection shifts! Without our amazing donors who donate an abundance of fresh produce, meat, bread, and other food items, and our amazing shift leaders that pick these items up, we would not be able to run a lot of the operations that we do This picture was taken at our Food Collection shift at the Botanical Garden

INTERN WEDNESDAYS!! Meet our 2nd Food Operations Intern, Cecelia Chisholm! She works alongside the other Food Operations Intern, as well as the Campus Kitchen Program Coordinator to oversee direct service which includes working closely with shift leaders through every step of the food recovery process. She also works on administrative tasks and the organization of Campus Kitchen events. She is currently working to organize all of the past and present Campus Kitchen documents and paperwork online so that current and future members of the organization can have easier access to important internal information. In her free time, she loves to do yoga and cook with her roommates. She is also an avid reader and is currently reading The Bhagavad Gita and A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. This sounds like a great way to relax!

INTERN WEDNESDAYS!! Meet our Food Operations Intern, Margaret Schrayer! She works with the rest of the Leadership Team to make sure our operations run smoothly, throughout each week and throughout the semester. This includes maintaining inventory and client information, making sure food and supplies are in the right place at the right time, and helping to oversee 12weekly culinary and delivery shifts. She is currently working on a Campus Kitchen meal planning database and recipe book to help us keep a record of our most useful and popular recipes. In her free time, she enjoys playing music with friends, trying new recipes,and swimming outdoors, very exciting!!

Come help us process collard greens next Tuesday, Feb 16 harvested by Concrete Jungle from the UGA Horticultural Research Farm! Learn to wash and bundle greens, and help get veggies out into our community. Register here: https://givepul.se/iion69

INTERN WEDNESDAYS!! Meet our Food Harvesting and Distribution Intern, Adolfo Martinez! He is working this semester as a joint intern between Campus Kitchen and Concrete Jungle. He is currently doing a lot of behind-the-scenes work, such as produce pickup and volunteer management, but is hoping to start planning for upcoming spring and summer harvests! He hopes for an easily accessible and exciting Fruit Tree ID guide for volunteers by our first Fruit Tree ID walk! In his free time, he loves to cook Venezuelan food, so yummy!!

The Office of Sustainability wants to hear from you! Here is the link to the survey: https://ugeorgia.ca1.qualtrics.com//form/SV_cwHhs7XP5CranpH

BIG THANKS to First Presbyterian Church of Athens for welcoming our VAP Shift Leaders to their kitchen this semester! We’re so grateful for them allowing us to continue fighting food insecurity through these hard times. Happy Hunger Fighting!

INTERN WEDNESDAYS!! Meet our CK President Kelton McConnell! He will be assisting our program coordinator, AmeriCorps VISTA, fellow interns, and shift leaders to ensure our operations run smoothly and continue to improve. This can include spearheading initiatives, grant writing, representing CK at events, and filling in for shifts. He is currently working on converting a reclaimed shipping container into acommunity-shared, partially solar-powered, climate-controlled fresh pro...duce storage unit to reduce food waste in the community and increase access to nutritious foods for food-insecure populations at UGA and in Athens-Clarke County (check our story weekly for updates on this!). In his spare time, Kelton loves hiking, reading, listening to music, and spending time with friends (pre-pandemic). He loves a good adventure, and many of my favorite days have been outdoors with good company, soaking up the sun and being merry.How fun!! See more

Love food and hate waste??? Join the CK team this Spring as a Campus Kitchen Shift Leader! Applications are open now until November 10th at midnight. Learn more about positions by visiting our website at https://www.ckuga.org/ or apply here: https://ugeorgia.ca1.qualtrics.com//form/SV_cGwii2KbI8IEUW9

When life gives you 2000 lbs of sweet potatoes from the UGA Horticulture Farm, you get out your UGA Office of Sustainability bike-powered compost sifter, built by UGArden to knock of the extra dirt! These sweet potatoes are heading out to Athens Community Council on Aging on Monday.

Kick off your Fall by signing up for Campus Kitchen’s annual Turkeyplooza Can Drive! Help us feed Athens families this holiday season while also involving your organization in the Athens community. Link to sign up your org: https://forms.gle/iFqiDVmAZgUhzexN9

We are in the bountiful season! With summer crops like eggplant and green beans still coming in from UGArden, plus some beautiful greens starting to roll in, and fruit like Feijoa (or pineapple guava) coming in from Athens Concrete Jungle, our clients and community orgs will be getting a beautiful rainbow of fresh food preserved food this week! We are feeling grateful for our partnerships.

Our friends at UGA Office of Sustainability wrote this article about the connections between covid-19 and food insecurity. A great read, with a list of ways to get involved at the end of the article. https://sustainability.uga.edu//food-insecurity-poverty-a/

The work of Campus Kitchen wouldn’t be possible without our amazing friends at UGArden ! Dedicated people like Johanna Biang help make a difference in our community every day.

Through our partnership with @The Campus Kitchen at UGA and Athens Concrete Jungle we can do our little part addressing food scarcity here in Athens. Swing by DIVAS for a hot bowl of soup & fresh bag of produce from local farmers.

Meet our Campus Kitchen essentials! Today we’re highlighting Miriam Wilch, our AmeriCorps VISTA. Special thanks for the graphics created by students in UNIV 1201S: Learning for Success at the University, a service-learning course led by Cecilia Herles, assistant director of the Women's Studies @ UGA

The Campus Kitchen family had a great time this past weekend picking bunches of blueberries to give to our clients with our new partners at Concrete Jungle Athens! Go join their page at Athens Concrete Jungle to learn more about their amazing volunteer opportunities.

Hey Hunger Fighters! Our Fall 2020 Shift Leader applications are open until June 30th and we’re excited to have you all back in operations helping the community! Follow this link to apply: https://ugeorgia.ca1.qualtrics.com//form/SV_1zetHmRXAttz8G1

Thanks to nearly 350 donors from the UGA and Athens area communities, Campus Kitchen at UGA has met its Georgia Funder goal of $37,500 of support! Because of these gifts, Campus Kitchen will purchase a large-capacity freezer that will allow it to serve 30% more people in need. This support will also enable the program to continue serving meals without the aid of student volunteers into September 2020. Thank you, donors!

Campus Kitchen is nearing its goal to purchase a large-capacity freezer that will allow it to serve 30% more people in need. Reaching the goal will also enable the program to provide meals without the aid of student volunteers into September. Any support now will have an impact and all help is appreciated!

This week is National Hospital Week, a time to highlight the amazing and selfless work of hospital employees whose life-saving efforts have taken on an even larger significance in recent months. Join us in sending email notes of appreciation and thanks to the local healthcare workers in our community by visiting the links below. Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center: https://givepul.se/50l2dp... St. Mary's Health Care System: https://givepul.se/cudbih

Over the past few weeks, Campus Kitchen has witnessed an amazing response by our UGA community and beyond to the COVID-19 crisis. We have been blessed by our volunteers who donate their time to our cause helping every week to feed over 200 people and deliver meals to 55 families, mostly grandparents raising grandchildren. If you feel inspired by our story, we would kindly ask you to follow the link below to give a gift to our Athens senior community. Any gift, large or small, will have an impact.